The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-06
NEW YORK'S SNAKE TRADE.
REPTILES IN GROWLNG DEMAND TOR SCIENCE AND AS PETS.

Fascination About snake Collecting
 Little Danger to be Feared-Science
 Studying Important Problems With
 snaIses-How They Like Their Food
 and How They Get If.
 cd of securing a supply of snakes in
 New York was persistent and enthusi-
 astic devotion to the cup that cheers
 and also inebriates, but the march Of
 science, Zoos and dime museums have
 changed all that. Demand has created supply and the snake business of the
 city has assumed rather imposing pro-
 portions.
 Naturally enough, New York is the
 snake market of America. Foreign
 buyers secure their American snakes
 through dealers here and American
 buyers depend upon the New York
 market, although occasionally the larger Zoos will buy valuable snakes
 directly through foreign agents. The New York men who have gone into the snake trade to any great extent have their own authorized agents throughout this country and in the tropical lands where snakes are to be found in the greatest numbers and varieties. A young woman who is teaching school in a lonely district of southern Texas sup plies one New York dealer with all his Texan and Mexican snakes-rattlers, 5c Oopa CiOO- ally, the dealers receive letters from in- dividuals throughout the country offer ing rare snakes or private collections of snakes. Another source of supply is an the merchant ships running between New York and East Indian or other Tropical ports. The captains pick up consignments of snakes from the na- tives and bring them over, as they bring monkeys and other tropical crea- lures, on the chance of disposing of them here. Arrived in port, they send word to the snake dealers, who go to the ships look the snakes over and buy whatever they may happen to want.
 A ship from Singapore, docked only @ week or two ago, brought large con- signment of pythons, which were sold Immediately at a fair profit, and recent 1y one snake dealer bought from a trader at one time eighty large pythons, which reduced the small back room of the shop to a very fair imitation of Dore illustration of the Inferno. The inside of that little room, by candle light, was calculated to shake the nerves of the ordinary mortal, with his Inherited distrust of the serpent; but the men of the shop walked cheerfully about, stepping over the huge slimy coils and pushing the snakes aside, with no more ceremony than if they had been so much rope.
 After the first instinctive repulsion is conquered, It is astonishing how swiftly snake handlers become accustomed to the business, and how readily familiar ity breeds contempt. A certain degree of care is always necessary in handling a poisonous snake, but that care is ex- efeisea merely in avoiding any chance Of hurting or angering the reptile; and when correct and careful methods of handling become second nature to the snake dealer he is apparently as reck- less in his treatment of the snakes as he would be if he were managing gull neapigs. As for the non-poisonouS snakes, they receive not an atom of respect The dealer runs his hand into a big box full of pythons and boa con- strictors, wakens one and pulls it. out holds it up by the middle to show its length, drops it on the floor as if 1t were 1 a log of wood and pulls out anther specimen. If the visitor is a novice, he looks unhappy and keeps an eye on the /, door, but apparently, it never enters the dealers mind that any rational be- ing could dislike the unrestricted socie- ty of fifteen-foot python or object to holding an armfu1 of amiable and in- gratiating lSingsnakes
 The kingsnake is the angel boy of the ! snake tribe, He carries good nature and Christian forbearance to the point | of absurdity He can't be made to bite | His temper cannot be ruffled If his | cheeks were not inextricably mixed up | with his forehead and nose, he would | turn the other cheek to any sort of blow. He's an affectionate creature, i too is the king snake, and the snake charmers find him a real joy and com- fort. In fact, as a Sun reporter gleaned from volumlnous young wo- man who was buying a boa constrictor and a few small snakes in a down-tow snake shop no family can really rock along comfortably and happily with out a king snake.
 "They don't make as good a show as the pythons or boas," said the young woman, as, with her blonde head on one side, she critically eyed wrig- gling reptile, "but they're easy to live with and you can let them run around over you without thinking of them at all'
 According to the same authority Brazilian boas are much worn in our best snake-charming circles. They are more conspicously marked than the py- thons and quite as harmless Neither snake is poisonous, and if well fed neither will exercise its power of con- striction. Snake charmers take excel lent care of their snakes, which some times represent a considerable invest ment An ordinary boa constructor may be bought for twenty dollars, but a python of the same size is worth { double that amount, and the larger py- thons run in value up to two hundred dollars. The twenty-fourfoot python