Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-15
PREFERS SERPENTS TO
THE BEST OF MANKIND
In Five Years Charmer La Belle Carmen Has Met
With Fifty Accidents and She Believes Her
Pets Bring HoodOo, Yet She Loves Them

pull the snake away but could not
Then | tainted. When l revived they
had killed all three of my big snakes
and the circus people would not let me
do any more snake acts with the show
Hurt by a Lion
"The next serious accident was when
l was with Norris e. Rowe's show
down in Mexico. The hills down there
are very steep. I was riding one horse
and leading another in the parade.
The lion cage was right behind me.
On one of the hills. the steepest 1 ever
saw, the horses that We're dra wing the
lion cage slipped and the whole bust
ness came sliding down the hill.
tried to get the horses back out of the
way, and | did so, but when the cage
with the lions in it came past me, it
was only a few inches away, and one
of the lions put out his paw and struck
me on the shoulder. The blow knocked
me from the horse and the frightened
animal stepped on me. | was a sight
when they took me back to the tent
The accident kept me from work for
nearly a month.
Then followed A chain of minor ac-
cidents which lasted me until / went to
work at the Chutes pavilion bout two
months ago The first piece of ill luck
was when | slipped in the den at the
Chutes pavilion and broke a muscle in
my leg | tainted and a coppeThead
snake in the cage bit me in the neck
and one Of the small boa constructors
tried to choke me.
Immune to Poison
"T am immune to snake poison. as
l have been struck so many times by
my pets and I was rescued i'm time to
keep the boa from strangling me. Here
he is now; isn't he beauty"
yes, he isn't" remarked the visitor
"Then ! got telegram that mother
was dead in New Orleans. my old
home continued Carmen. Il was on
the street when ! opened it. and when
I read the news tainted. ] was taken
10 the police station and they say I
threstened 10 commit suicide. Perhaps
did. don't remember.
"Ab0It . week later, on Sunday
afternoon. went ont riding with a
party NJ friends. When we got out to
Eastlske park ny horse stumbled and
threw me over mis- head. 7 fell under
his body nd was pretty badly bruised
when ! was @Een on. / insisted on
riding the bes sr back 10 the barn, how
eyer. and after 7 had fallen off another
time I dld get him 10 the livery stable.
That kept me In bed for nearly a
week
"A few DAYS later 7 tripped on the
mat going downstairs here and fell to
the bottom. That battered me up
considera bly,.
The Last Mishap
! THE last Of my mishaps was when
/ one of my snakes got away and
dropped on the lsndady Of the house.
/ The snake 81 ~ a canary bird on her
hat and dropped off the FIRE escape to
catch il. The woman nearly died from
| the shock. I got my pet back all right,
though some men had taken him to the
saloon and were feeding him whisky.
Here, won't you accept one Of these
snakes as gift from me? No?
~ will give You a harmless one that
will be real affectionate in a few days
I assure you that you are perfectly vel
come to have one If you care for it,
Well, some people are that way about
snakes But. all the same, ] wouldn't
trade my snakes for the best man in the
whole world