The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-18
A SNAKE CHARMER.
She Lives a Hermit's Life - Her
Only Companions Writing
Reptiles.

A singular character, by name Mar
tina Ann Tilson and who was known
as the SNAKE woman died near here
recently. She lived in q little cabin
at the foot of Twelve O'Clock Knob,
and led a hermit's life, having no one
to share her abode except snakes. BY
the few who were ever allowed to see
the interior of her cabin is is said to
have literally swarmed with her
strange companions, with which she
ate and slept, and which were to be
seen lying in her bosom and coiled
about her neck, body and limbs when
ever she was caught sight of.
Her extraordinary prediction for
THESE unpleasant creatures is sup
posed 10 have arisen from a morbid
feeling that she was like them, hated
of men. for, naturally deformed, she
received in addition an injury TO the
spine while an infant, and, though
perfectly sound in mind, was of SO
sensitive a nature Is to render her
miserable and uneasy in the presence
of any but her parents, as she i'm
| agined herself an object of loathing
and hatred to them. This she
seemed to feel while still a lit
tie child, for her peculiar friendship
began then. She was observed to
steal away every day with a pan of
milk, and on being followed was found
to be caressing a dozen or so hideous
r~attlesnakes, while they drank from a
vessel which she held in her lap. Hor-
rified, her parents tried to reason with
her, then to punish, and finally to
confine her in an endeavor to break her
of her fondness for the reptiles, but
she pinned so for her pets that they
feared she would die if kept from
them. She evinced even stronger dis
taste for human society as she grew
older, and since the death of her pa
rents has withdrawn entirely from any
association with her kind, living
wholly on the product of a small gar
den cultivated by herself and of half
a dozen chickens which the snakes
seemed to know were not legitimate
prey, and left unmolested.
She was a little fair woman ofabout
foruy-five, with sandy hair, abundant
and long, which she wore in a num-
Der of tight plaits, which, combined
with her deformity and the odd, mis-
cellaneous style of dressing, the result
of her refusal to hold any commune
cation with a fellow being, served to
make her a most remarkable looking
object. She was looked upon as
a witch by the negroes about,
who declared her to be possessed
of the evil eye, and hated and
feared her accordingly, though her
life was a most harmless, quiet one.
GLa Ial Eo1- I4.I oyna Aouyo xrhArN
discovered and her dead body was
of snakes, which had to be killed be-
fore it could be removed, for the rep
tiles turned viciously on all approach
found coiled a huge rattlesnade dead.
The inquest proved that the
woman's was a natural death and it is
probable that the snake died of grief
for it's mistress. She left no heirs and
a few nights after her burial the
house was burned down, is is sup
posed by some of her neighbors, as
the greatest horror was felt for the
place, which was still infested with
snakes.-Sdlem VA Letter in PbSId-
delphi0 Times.
Best Dressed Woman in Europe.
Sara Bernhardt is regarded as the
best dressed oma in Europe, not
even excepting her royal highness the
Princess Of Wales; and yet when she
quarreled with Felix that modiste was
ungallant enough to max g public the
fact that she had no more figure th an
his walking stick. 1t is to the Tigress
Queen that fashion is indebted for The
graceful tea gown, the full Moliere
waist, the soft lace, cloudlik Fedora,
which has been a godsend to thin
women, and the artistjcally wrinkled
mousquetaire glove. Bernhardt
never owned a pair of eorsets, and has
never permitted a steel or a whale
bone to stiffen her dress.-ECchG31ge.