The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-21
HE DEALS IN SNAKES.
Big Trade I'm Reptiles by a MAJ Who
Likes Them.

Philadelphia Record.
Snakes have a strange fascination for
Charles Baker. They interest him as horses
interest w. c.. Whitney or as sapphires in
terest j. Pierpont Morgan. The young man
works for Jacob Hope. the ~well-know Phil
adelphia dealer in animals and birds. He
conducts for Mr.. Hope, in an isolated
building. a snakehouse of great size. Here,
in the busy season, there will be sometimes
as many as 1900 snakes together at one
time.
Mr.. Hope keeps snakes to sell to show
men. to museums. to geological gardens
and to experimenting physicians. For
small snakes he gets S. a dozen, for rat
tiers Sc each, for bull snakes IS each, for
copperheads s.. for black snakes s. and for
pine snakes $3.50.
These reptiles are looked after devotedly
by Charles Baker. Baker feeds them once
a month: he waters them once a week
and he studies them daily. They thrive
marvelously under his hands. Out of 5000
that he cared for last year only four died.
He himself is immune to snake bites. He
has been bitten so many times, his blood
contains so much snake poison that a new
injection of venom-from a copperhead,
from a cobra-has no effect upon him.
Baker said yesterday: Il grew up among
snakes, for my father was a charmer.
From my childhood | have been extract
ing their poison for physicians and remov-
eaten them alive under a sign that
shrieked, Eats EN- Alive, in fiery let
tiers / lave devoured hundreds of snakes
while ladies and children looked on.
1.-The snake business amounts in this
country to about SIS, 900 a year. The for
eign snakes that are marketed are the
Brazilian boa, the Indian anaconda and the
African piper. The United States snakes
are the copperhead, the RATHER, the black
snake and the pine snake.
There are 1850 kinds of snakes in the
world. There are the burrowers, that live
underground and rarely appear; there are
the ground snakes, that neither climb nor
dig; there are the tree snakes, that live in
trees; the fresh water snakes, that live
indifferently afioat or ashore, and the sea
snakes, which are deadly poison.
"a snake sleeps with its eyes open. Its
have nc eyelids. Also. a snake can't move
on a perfectly smooth surface. He must
have some projection, some inequality,
some knob. to help himself along with.
Look here"
Bake laid a tiny garter snake on a huge
plate of glass. The little creature had been
wriggling frantically, the picture of anima-
ton; but on the glass It lay quite limp and
helpless. Funny. isn't it?" said Baker.
He put the snake back in its box and re-
sumed.
the spring, when they first begin to come
out. March, April and May are the months.
Most of our snakes come from Florida.
and they flourish there. The men we buy
from make a good living at snake-catch-
ing. Maybe in two or three days a man
will earn $40 or $50. That is a good months
wages for Florida.
"But we buy many snakes from Jersey,
too. Pine snakes are plentiful there. They
i've In the pine woods and look dangerous
ter of fact, they are nonpoisonous and as
as kittens.
THE .nonpoisonous snakes are bought
mainly by the show people-the charmers.
They buy boas, pipers and anacondas, and
to fill up with hey also take some black
snakes and some pine snakes
I'm handling q big snake you must al
ways touch him with a soft. smooth, Gid
ing motion of the hand, making ii feel to
him as much as possible like the touch of
careful to keep his tail out straight. Keep
the tail straight and he can't coil on you.
His bite Is nothing. for he has no poison.
but his coil around your leg or arm or body
will crush the bones.
1.-The poisonous snakes the water moe
cas1ns, rattlesnakes and cop~perheads-are
bought for the Zoos. Now and then a doc
tor buys them heavily for a while. He
wants to experiment with their poison.
After he has been bitten two or three times
he stops buying.
There was a young man who used to
come here after pine snakes. That young
man would sit with his hands In among the
coils of a cageful of snakes for hours. He
WouIu tdht III > Hedu III MS ndnOS and lft
its face UT close to his own and gaze a
long time in its eyes. Then he would hold
1t off and stroke ii and study Its changing
color in a kind of a trance. 1 don't know
what pleasure or satisfaction he got out of
snakes. He bought over a dozen from me
during the year and kept them In his bed
room in a boarding house.. They all es-
capped one night through a rat hole and got
among the ~neighbors and raised general
ballyhoo.
People think that a snake is covered
with slime, and that its touch is loath-
some. But, as a matter of fact, a snake
is as pleasant to feel as a piece of ivory.
Its flesh is firm, and its perfect dry skin
is smooth and cool.
81 have been bitten by rattlesnakes. by
copperheads and by pythons. A python's
bite is harmless, but that of a RATHER or a
c~opperhead Is a serious matter. 1t is not
serious to me-, though. 1 am immune.
I'm India 10000 people die of snake bite
every year. IT is the cobra that bites them,
a terrible snake that everybody in that
country but the mongoose breads. The
mongoose hunts the cobra and kills 1t in
variably."