Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-05-03
FED BY TRICKERY.
Thrilling Experience Of Snake.
Keeper with His Charges.
In a Tight Place with the Doas-
Makes an Ugly Tree snake
Eat by Exciting Her
Anger.

employed at the reptile house in Bronx
geological park in satisfying the &C.
centric Hppetites of the snakes, as re-
counted by Keeper Charles Snyder,
who has charge of the north cases in
the reptile house. These cages con-
tain most of the big snakes, and the
poisonous species. Snyder has only
been in the geological park since Au-
gust, but he has acquired plenty of ex-
perience.
A few days ago he emerged from the
cobra's cage, where he had been nom
elalantly seated upon the edge OF the
bathing tank, feeding the formidable
inmates with fishes, which he pre-
scented to them upon pair of forceps.
He was asked how he felt during the
performance.
ooh, these fellows are easy" he re-
piled. "They wouldn't bite. It's the
diamond rattlers and the cotton
mouths that keep a bead on you all the
time, and wait for a chance to do
business. When l go into the cage
with those fellows to clean up, or to
repair the damage when ten-pound
snake has tried to roost on one Of the
Chief Foresters pet rubber plants, !
cover the beasts over with soap boxes.
eve have some pretty lively times
in the cages once in awhile. Day be-
fore yesterday l had orders to go
into the boas' cage to rub some vase
line OH The Ghosts nose. The Ghost
is our white boa constructor. She had
been trying to bore her way out of
the ventilator, and had skinned the
front of her face. I threw a blanket
ever her mate, and caught her by the
heck. She put up pretty stiff fight,
but was getting along all right when
felt something on my shoulder. l
was kneeling down at the time, and
when l looked around l saw that the
male, the tan-colored boa, had lit out
and was going to crawl over me. He's
g. regular fend when he gets mad, and l
didn't dare move. stuck in that posi-
ton for about ten minutes, holding The
Ghost by the neck, while the big fellow
crawled over my shoulder and over
into a corner, where he coiled up. He
topped couple of times, and it was
hardly pleasant thing to think of what
he might do. 1 was pretty stiff when
got up, and that's the only thing you
can do in such case.
"We've been having lots Of fun lately
in feeding our yellow tree snake. She's
about the most stubborn beast in The
collection. She came in last October
from Trinidad, and refused to take any
food, so we stuffed her-that is, we
forced some fish down her throat. Then
we tried some other tactics. She is an
awful bitter, and she has such long
teeth that when she grabs hold of any
thing she can't let go for minute. A
few days ago we stirred her up a bit,
and then let her snap at fish on a
stick. 1t caught in her teeth, and she
held on. Then, finding all of a sudden
that she had something to eat in her
mouth, she swallowed it. We followed
this with about dozen more. 1t
worked like charm. All we have to do
when we want to feed her now is to
pinch her TAIL, and at the same time
I poke a fish at her. The fish go every
in temper she won't even look at the
! fish"
'Do you have any trouble in procur-
! ing food for your snakes?'' Snyder was
asked.
eyes, for some of the new ones, but
! afteY. fhorsya hnnn in or oar n
time we don't have any trouble. Some
I Of the rat-eating snakes want live rats,
/ but they don't get them except at pretty
| long intervals. We keep few rats on
/ hand, and when we want to feed rat
/ tier we take long strip of beef, clip a
little hair from live rat, and sprinkle
! ii over the meat. The snake smells the
rats fur and dives in without loss of
| time. AS for the rat, he doesn't mind
being sheared at all, but seems to like
4 it after awhile. We often work the
same racket on bird-eating snakes. In
this case we have some of the smaller
feathers from a chicken on hand, which
Times.
Queen Victorin's Havana Cigars.
Queen Victoria has a great dislike tc
smoking, and will not tolerate the use
of tobacco in her immediate neighbor.
hood. And yet the cigar bill for her
guests is very heavy one. The prin.
cipal item is the brand of the finest
Havana cigars, which are specially
made for her, and sent to Windsor il
glass tubes Theoretically sealed
Queen Nictoria's could not be had ever
in Cuba at wholesale prices under
dollar apiece. The men who max,
them receive 30 cents for each cigar
and none but the Oldest and mos
skliitul workmen are entrusted Will
their manufactu At this rate the,
can earn quite 4 small fortune, 10,
800 cigars day can be turned out b,
the best mean. y, World.