Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-02-02

L
mercy. The chief drew back slowly.
SO as not to disturb the other snakes.
and in another minute had the big
monster out into the air.
One of the assistants seized the loop
of its body, and the two bore it, trying
feebly to struggle, to the tub and
plunged it in. As soon as it struck
the warm water the serpent stopped
wriggling and sank in quiet enjoy
ment to the bottom. The chief and
the assistant did not let go of him.
They swashed him gently to and fro.
as laundress rinses out a dress. They
kept him there perhaps ten minutes.
| When they lifted him out the other at
tendants ran up with some towels and
gently rubbed the big creature off from
head to tail. When he was complete
ly dried off the chief gently insinuated
him into the cage again, and. letting
go suddenly, jerked his hand out of
the cage and shut the door.
1--WE go through this operation every
ten days" he said. If we didn't the
anaconda's skin would &c: dry, crack
open, and in short time he would
| die. 1t is a matter of absolute neces-
sity, and not of choice, you may be
sure. It's no fun to be Juggling the
big brutes around. Did you notice
how caught him by the back of the
neck? That is the secret of the whole
business. When you get hold of a
snake there he is practically powerless.
In the first place. he doesn't know
what to do unless he can get his head
around so that he can see what is GO
ing on behind him. In the next place.
the pressure on the spinal cord and its
delicate nerves deadens the sensibility
and partly stupefies the snake. You
know that a man who is hanged feels
no pain after the drop falls even if his
neck is not broken, because of the
pressure of the rope on the nerves of
the neck. If 1 should grab him six
inches back of where do. there would
be the liveliest thrashing and pounding
around that cage you ever heard OF.
and six men like me couldn't hold the
crazy creature"
Suppose one of your snakes should
get away, what would you do?''
ut wouldn't worry us any. That's
happened lots of times. As long as
the snake doesn't crawl out into the
cold and endanger his precious life we
don't care snap. We just throw a
blopGot <,x,or b;c hooJ onJ ,,,L:io Lo :,
confused and struggling with it, a
couple of us rush in and get him by
the neck and put him into his cage in
a jiffy. I remember" continued the
hoarse-voiced man, ian experience
had with a black-snake many years
ago. l was sailing about with one
companion among the sloughs and
lagoons of the Upper Mississippi-a
region that used to swarm with the
reptiles. We were rowing along one
day close to the bluff shores of little
island where the water had followed
out holes in the mud-just the place
for black-snakes to crawl and sun
themselves. We came all at once to
one hole very much bigger than the
others, where there was great mass
of the rcptiles-it looked as though
there was thousand of them-all tied
up in a knot together. OF course, it
would never do to miss such royal
chance for fun as that, so each
of us took an oar and stuck into
the black mass ut the same
time. There was such wriggling
and twisting of shining black bodies
as You never saw in your life. and
snakes went wriggling off in every di-
rection. We damned them with the
oars whenever we could see them. and
were having great sport, when all of
sudden l heard my companion give
scream of terror and plunge over
board. Before could understand the
cause of it a big black-snake had
wound itself around me. l tore at it
with my fingers. but its muscles were
like iron. In spite of all my struggles
it squeezed harder and harder The
miserable thing was actually squeezing
the life out of me. My breath came
short my ears sang. and every thing
swan before me. gave up and fell
down. That saved my life. The snake
had wound itself about the oar as well
as about me. and when l fell the oar
crushed him just back Of the head. My
companion tished himself out of the
water when he saw the snake was
dead. So much for q biack-snake. |
How much show do you think man
would have against one of these fell !
lows here, who is twenty times as
strong rs a black-snake?"
DO snakes in captivity ever show
any attachment for their kecpers?"
''Well. I've read that they do. and |
some people have told me 80. but I
never saw the slightest evidence Of it.
have known snakes that have been |
under the daily care Of one charmer.
as they call them. for ten years. to be
just as dangerous ut the end of that
time rs they were at the beginning.
c. 81