The age-herald., 1901-05-05
NED BRACE TALKS ABOUT THE SUCCESS
 OF THE ELKs' FAIR AND OTHER THINGS

I am glad to learn that the Elks' Street Fair has been a decided success. The Elks have cleared in the neighbor- hood of sl0oOo on the weeks show The gross receipts In the midway alone have been more than s1s.0oo
 The midway has been quite show It talkee all sorts of people to make up world and some very peculiar ones to make up midway. One man either owns or controls all the little shows of the midway. He travels them about as Bar mum and Bailey do their circus. Some of them he pays salaries; others he plays on commission. The salaries and expen- ses are about S4000 a week. However, if he plays many towns like Birmingham he will make fortune in a season.
 The man who runs the midway is Frank W. Gaskell Up to three years ago he was a brocery merchant in Alliance. o. He is a fine-looking fellow, with face which resembles that of statesman more than that of a snowman. He Is. not unlike President Mckinley, who once represented the Alliance. Ohio. district in Congress, He Is college graduate. of fine address and of an excellent apprecia- ton of humor He enjoys the excitement of controlling all these midway shows and Is naturally much pleased with the prof It's he makes on them He was telling me last evening about some of the peo- pie he employs He thinks Thompson, his high diver. is the best attraction. Thompson gets a salary of $500 week and Is under contract to dive twice a day from the top of a ladder 85 feet high into a tank of water IS feet long by 12 feet wide, with about feet of water in the same. Mutually, this man Thompson must keep himself in the very best of phy- sical condition, for should he make a mis- calculation in diving from this ladder tower 1t would mean a horrible death. Thompson started several years ago div
 ing from ladder 20 feet high He has gradually increased the distance until his feet, Is actually S5 feet.
 The Roscoes and Unos who "eat 'em alive" are still drawing cards. This is
 probably the most dangerous of all the
 midway performances of the present day.
 MT. Gaskell tells me that there are some four score of them In this country at
 present Twelve were killed last year by being bitten by rattle snakes.
 As little as you may think of It.. the raising of snakes has become a regular business There Is a snake farm in San Antonio, Tex, which supplies all the Ros- coes and Unos of this country. The av- craze snake eater gets fresh box shipped to him every week by express
 They are prepared at the San Antonio farm before being shipped; that is, the
 rattlers have their fangs extracted. For | fourteen days afterwards they are harm less. New fangs, however, grow out In | from fourteen to twenty days and then a rattler becomes dangerous, but they l never bite except in self defense and the | man who knows how to handle them feels that he Is perfectly safe. In fact, a rat tier can't bite unless he first coils up, and
 1t is easy for a snake handler, surrounded by a number of harmless reptiles, to l throw an armful of them about a rattler before he can coil and strike.
 l The snake charmer is careful when he | allows one to bite him to select one which
 has had his fangs extracted These snakes | are therefore as harmless as a garter
 snake.
 As a matter of fact these fellows do
 really bite the heads off of snakes but as to swallowing them-even the very small ones-that is simply a sleight- of hand trick.
 The snake charmers, as rule, are sim