The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-06

| pdfdtlVe security. Ine men WnO hIlON most about the subject agree that,
 while in tropical countries snakes are
 sometimes aggressive, in this climate
 no snake will attack a human being un-
 less hurt or violently angered. It's nat
 ural impulse is to escape peacefully,
 and the snake handler who has gen. | tie touch and knows how to handle
 snake without hurting it is in no dan | ger, save in case of some unexpected
 accident. In almost every instance l where a snake charmer has been bitten | by one of his poison snakes the catas- l trophe has been due to a shock, slip or | other accident which has caused him, 1 involuntamly, to hurt the snake seri- 1 ously. ..
 There is a tradition, dating doubtless
 from Biblical times, that women are
 fonder of snakes than men are and can
 handle them more readily, but the
 snake dealers laugh at the notion. The
 reason there are more women snake
 charmers than men is, they say that
 the crowd gets more nervous thrills at ! the sight of a woman wrapped round | with snakes than at the sight of man | agers whose business it is to furnish
 the public with thrills prefer employing
 women snake charmers. On the other
 hand, most of the snake charmers who
 handle poisonous snakes are men.
 Sometimes a woman will have q ma
 mia for snakes. AA number of women
 in New York have private collections of snakes and are absorbingly interest ed in them, and the wives of many of the snake dealers are even more fear less in handling reptiles than the men of the establishment are. Mrs, R. Schilling, whose husband is one of the | best-knoWn snake men of the city, has a genuine liking for the creatures that her husband regards only from a com- mercial point of view, and seriously la ments the fact that, just as she gets
 acquainted with a new lot of snakes, some one comes along and buys them. The ship captains know her tastes, and when they bring In a consignment of snakes hand over the finest to her with a laughing There's a new friend for you"
 One big water-snake is Mrs. Schil- line's especial favorite; and in spite of excellent offers, she absolutely refuses to part with it. She can pick it out from a hundred of it's kind without a moments hesitation; and while a snakes intelligence and affection are doubtful quantities, this one certainly knows it's mistress touch and is tanner with her than with any one else. She has a fashion of carrying it tucked in- side her coat when she goes out to do her marketing, and at first it rather shook the nerves of the butcher to have a wicked black head thrust out at him and a forked tongue quiverlng under his nose.
 Now he does not mind him at all says Mrs. schilling, cheerfully; but the chances are that that butcher is an in timidated man and that he would nev- CT have the moral courage to furnish the Schilling household with tough steak
 The popularity of snakes in private collections and as pets has increased remarkably within the last two or three years; and improved and elaborate boxes with glass sides are now made, in all sizes to provide homes for such pets. The harmless snakes are, i'll most cases, chosen for this use, partic- ularly the bright-colored and prettily marked small snakes, but it Is, the dealers say, a very common thing for a snake fancier's taste to go beyond his first harmless collection and aspire 10 the poison snakes. There seems to be a peculiar fascination even in the dan ger connected with handling these va rietes, and the snake habit, when con- tracted at all, is wonderfully persistent
 The man who buys one snake and learns to handle it never stops with that one, and in some cases the mania becomes absorbing.
 Every one has heard of instances in which individuals usually of a low and seni-savage type have literally sur rounded themselves with reptiles and lived alone among scores of the repul- 5ve creatures; and from time to time new cases of this sort come to the mo- tice of the public. The phenomenon does not necessarily mean that the per son has any peculiar power that ena- bles him to charm the snakes, but
  attraction for him and that, being ab- unafraid of them and avoiding any injury to them, he can live among them with impunity.
 Only few years ago there was for time in New York a man known to snake men the world over. He calls himself Professor, but what he profess es no one seems able to tell and the snake dealers and experts accept him merely as Worldgirdling and intelli- gent tramp who knows more about their business than they do themselves. one hears of him in India Then he turns up in Africa or floats l into Singapore or wanders about South | America, but always he lives among snakes, is surrounded by them and is 1 as fearless of them as if they were mb- l bits. He studied the snakes of this re- | zion while he stayed here and caught I copperheads up along the | Palisades in one summer. Then he moved on southward and no one knows | in just what part of the globe he and l his snakes are wandering now
 COpperheads are the only kind of poi son snake very common in this neigh though an occasional rattler is 'ound along the Palisades, A workman near the quarries captured one, not