The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1888-02-10

| One OF the biggest OF the snakes was
| lying alone in tho CENTER with its long
tail twisted about in curious fashion.
The chiefs right hand moved slowly
until 1t was right over the head of the
creature. Then IL made sudden de-
scent and clutchcd the snake firmly
about the slender neck, jus behind
where its ears would be IL il had ears.
The anaconda gave squirm of indig-
nant surprise and reared up its tail as
though it was going to fight about it.
Before 1t had time to make any trouble
the chiefs left hand grabbed it about
| three feet from the tail. Giving u
deXtcrous twist he threw the loop be-
tween his hands over one arm, and
then he had his snakeship ut his
mercy. The chief drew back slowly.
40 rs not to disturb the other snakes,
and in another minute had the big
monster out into the mir.
One of the assistants seized the loop
OF its body, and the two bore it, trying
fecbly to struggle, to the tub and
| plunged il in. AS soon rs il struck
the warm water the serpent stopped
wriggling and sank in quiet enjoy
mcnt to the bottom. The chief and
the assistant did not let 60 OF him.
They swnshed him gently to and fro.
as laundresS rinses out dress. They
kept him there perhaps ten minutes.
When they lifted him out the other at
PENDANTS ran up with some towels and
gently rubbed the big creature on from
head to tail. When he was complete
ly dried off the chief gently insinuatcd
him into the cage again, and. letting
go suddenly. jcrkcd 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 get dry. crack
open, and in short time he would
die. 1t is a matter Of absolute ncces-
sity, and not Of choice, you may be
sure. It's no fun to be Juggling the
big brutcs 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
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 SEQ what is go
ing on behind him. In the next place.
the pressure on the spinal cord and its
delicate nerves dcadcns the sensibility
and partly stupefics the snake. You
know that man who is hanged feels
no pain after the drop falls even il his
neck is not broken, because OF the
pressure OF tho rope on the nerves Of
the neck. If | should grab him six
inches back of where | do, there would
be the livclest 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?"
1T wouldn't worry us any. That's
happened lots of times. AS long rs
the snake doesn't crawl out into the
cold and endanger his precious life we
don't care snap. We just throw n
blanket over his head, and. while no is
confused and struggling with it. IL
couple of us rush in and get him by
the neck and put him into his cage in
n jif'y. | remember" continued the
hoarsc-vOiccd man. ian experience
had with II black-snake many years
ago. | was sailing about with one
companion among the sloughs and
lagoons Of the Upper Mssissippi-a
region that used TO swarm with the
reptiles, We were rowing along ono
day close to the bluff shores Of n little
island where the water had followed
out holes in the mud--just the place
for black-snakcs To crawl and sun
themselves. We came all at once to
one hole very much bigger than tho
others, where there was a great mass
Of the reptiles-it looked rs though
there was n thousand of them-all tied
up in knot together. OF course. it
would never do TO miss such a royal
chance for fun rs that. so each
of us took IN oar and stuck into
the black mass Mt the same
time. There was such wriggling
and twisting of shining black bodies
rs 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 heard my companion give u
scream of terror and plunge over
board. Before could understand the
cause of il big black-snakc had