The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1902-10-10
TER
OF SNAKES
Queer Art of Man
Now Working
In Hawaii.

orklnE WIN water COlors. moulus,
plaster of paris. and all kinds of ash in
n room at the Pilot House is u man of
middle age who has one OF the quesrest
occupations on record yet one that is of
great benefit to the student of the pres
ent time and those who viii be students
centuries from now. The workman Is
John w. Thompson, a man of middle
| age, who spent twenty years OF his life
as keeper of the reptile house at Phila-
delphia's famous Zoo. Thompson IL the
inventor of new art-that of taking
casts OF all kinds of animal and sea
life and then painting them in their
natural colors.
Thompson is now making casts and
| painting them OF fishes found in Ha-
| waiian waters for the Bishop Museum.
But this is only an incident in his
career as he is known the world over
as the Snake Artist" Few people
knew at the time that Thompson work
/ ed in the Zoo that his room there was
! the studio of one of the most remark
! able sculptors and painters that the
world has ever heard of, for the finish
ed products of his labors are so start
, ling in their accuracy of representation
! that it Is hard for one to distinguish
| between his cast and the real thing.
1.-The Snake Man is one who Is but
! little known in Hawaii yet he would at
| tract considerable attention in any
| gathering. He is tall, powerfully built,
, with a finely shaped head. a strong
face, and merry blue eyes.
Although at present working on
| fishes, snakes are his mania and he
/ intends to make their study his life
! work for when he leaves Hawaii he eX-
| poets to travel to every snake infested
| corner of the world. gathering the most
| poisonous of reptiles and making faith
/ full reproductions of them in the cause
| of science.
| He believes that the snake Is the
most remarkable of all the many wrin-
kles of nature. He has studied all
kinds of snakes and it is safe to say
! that no one alive today knows more
about them. But in snakeless Hawaii
/ he has no opportunity to study them.
| Yet during his career he has made
casts of very nearly all known varieties
of reptiles.
Mr.. Thompson's work while in the
Zoo has been described by newspapers
and magazines of many countries in
many languages yet there are many un-
familiar with his work. He made many
4
had to use live ones for the work. Wh..e
| in the Zoo he was accustomed to take
a string with slip loose attached to
the end of pole. and, thrusting this
into a cage, snare a reptile and take
, IL to his study. Chloroform made the
snake temporarily dead, and placing
quilts in the wrisgler's nose to permit it
! TO breath freely he would then pour
| plaster all over it, The snake was
creased before this operation so as soon
as the plaster had hardened Mr..
Thompson could easily pull ii from the
mould and return it to its cage none
the worse for the experience. Then
/ the cast would be made in this mould
and after it had thoroughly hardened
and the mould had been Clipped away
I from the cast he would paint 1t in the
natural colors of the snake that had
I been used to make the mould The work
! of painting each cast was the labor Of
days as snakes have more colors and
tints than a rainbow.
| ! Although the mere thought of snakes
is distasteful to most people Mr.. Thonp-
son does not fear them and, although
having handled hundreds of live snakes
in making casts, he has never been bit
/ ten, having always given every atten-
! ton to the care and details of the work
he had in hand.
1t is said that after Mr.. Thompson
has completed his present work on Ha-
waiian fishes, which win furnish an
almost priceless collection Tor the Bish
op Museum. he will complete his re-
searches in other countries and return
ing to Washington induce the national
authorities to establish a snake museum
in Washington. His museum would
contain a painted cast of every known
variety of snakes. The expense would
not be great and the collection would
be a very valuable one as it would last
practically forever and specially valu-
able because of the fact that many of