The Flagstaff sun-democrat. [volume] (Flagstaff, Ariz.) 1896-1897, 1897-06-17
A CIRCUS SNAKE STORY.
Thrilling Combat Reported During
the Ringing show In
Grand Forks.

sSnAo, W. ~ Suuo AV'-h
terrific combat l,Wk place this after
noon, In the mknagsrie tent Of the
Ringing Bro,h4rs' worlds greatest
shows. the like Il which will perhaps
never be seen again 10 the United States
al any rate. Arc, nj Bengal Tiger. sup
p'se'ily second only IL fighting abil-
tiles To the lion, came 81 near meeting
death Ia the crushing coiIs Of u mon
s'er serpent that he will be . pretty
sick Bengal fur s'ms weeks tn come,
II. indeed. he ever entirely RECEIVERS.
As Soon rs the side shows have fin
'slird their afternoon opening. the
performers % tn dinner. At this
hour. usually little after two
"'clmk. the audience is seated IN the
ing circus tent aud the performance is
going on. Mile Mxn-tli. who handles
some Of The largest srrp-nls ever sr-,,
IN this country. appears in tho eide
show and just NJ she WAS about tn
leave for dinner, It occurred to her to
Civ" big boa constructor . litils ex-
ercise IN the grass. ~ c,urse IN charge
1T . competent attendant. She took
The snake out II it's Mx and placed Il
upon the ground. outside the side show
tent and adjoining thu side wall II the
mensgrris. The man was left To
watch bis snakeship aud the enchsnter
went To the dining tent. But 'he s,-
tendant thought IL wasn't nscesssry Ia
herd the snake TIM closely. for it didn't
seem inclined tn move an inch. s.,
he went To the front 1T tho tent to
chat with some ~ the men. H.
turned around after q minute but his
snake had disappeared. Not caring
to have his lapse from duty discovered
the mau started to find him. But ,h.
snake was gone aud not sign II him
could he see anywhere. Within nhai,
two minutes froln the tim. b. disap
prarrd there came from the m-nag-ri-
a frightful. rar-spli,iing yell thai
brought every sleepy animal and man
in III. place Ia his feet in nm Instant.
The shrek came from the tigers cagr
where n tremendous snarling aud
humping was going on. The n-n
rushed up to see what was the mater
and they found the big lhi1y-f"t
snake. He had crawled under ,hr
side wall. entered the cage IT Ihs IL
gers. pouncpd upon me 1T them thai
was asleep aud in an instsnt hat his
deadly folds ,hric. around the yellow
striped body. II was the application
If q mur'lerous pressure that caused
The fearful shrek. Iron feeding forks,
prods, pnl1s, clubs. anything and
everything that came to hand were
used to beat the serpent OF. The IL
gers throat was 10 coil and 81 were
his forelegs. He was p"werlrss. des-
p,,e his tremendous strength and was
slowly but surely strangling to death.
The oscillsling head of the monster
swayed h and fro, i've feet out of his
reach aud bis vicious coils grew tight
rr and tighter. At this jnncture the
snake chxrmsr came 10 on run, hav-
ing been called by the sbifiless attendant
before she had reached the dining tent.
She saw the situation at . glance and
uttering sharp command 10 some un-
intelligibls language. reached through
the bars and caught the boa BY the
neck In second or two his coils
relaxed p-rcrptibly. He had the tiger
unconscious n,w aud almost sqn-es-d
into. Reluctantly he unwound his
writhing body from that Of his victim
and few seconds later was pulled Out
through The feeding CRATES, as limp IS
y wet rag aud returned u his cage.
Had not n r-scurr appeared In the
person IT u snake charmrr, jn't when
she did, a tlousand-,lollar tiger would
have been charged to profit and I"es.
The circus men say they never expect
To SEQ such u thrilling fight again.
Electric Bitters.