The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-16

live, and dere I find my playmates among de snakes. Ah but l love dem! At first dey not like me. Nol But I deter mined to make dem like me. To me 1t was as we say in de Spanish-guerra chuchlla. But de snake is like anything else. When it sees a friend 1t recognizes him at once You see 1 am what you call de-er-er-immune."
 She barred her arm up to her shoulder and there thick as the sands on the sea shore were the venomous remains of the serpents fangs-which daily are thrust | into the dark hued skin of this Indian girl
 Some people in my audiences have 1 sal6, We-no-nah observed, dat de l fangs were taken out of de snakes l 1 use in my acts, but Spanish proverb says, La mentira tiene las piernas cortas'-and it might be applied in this case easily. Why, 1 have a ship ment of from F to 25 snakes each week. They are all new practically. I have lost three magnificent specimens since l came to Birmingham. You see, when they bite me and I strangle them as do, they only live very short time after ward. The warmth of the hands about their bodies. their captivity, everything tends to make them short lived"
 Incidentally it may be remarked that We-no-nah, the Indian Princess, is in pri- vate life Mrs. w. O. Learn of San An tonic, Tex Her husband has the largest Snake Shop in the West, from which 2O,- GOO snakes are shipped annually to vari- ous parts of the world.
 "The hunters get my snakes every week and ship them to me-" We-no-nah went on to tell me- and with the exception of my pet snake, 'Beebe.' I never use one over a week or ten days in my act" Do you find the female of the species more deadly than the male?" I asked cuiously
 T always instruct the hunters never to send me de female snakes if dey can avoid it. she replied. "Dey are much more hard to manage-like-er. er-wom- an, l guess My husband says dat is so. Dc male-he one big bluffer-and wom an knows how to fix him. One thing, de latter de snake is, de better natured he is--again like people. 1 believe dey say dat fat people are de most pleasant, eh?''
 And what is their menu?" I asked, and tell me something of their habits"
 'The Snake in captivity eats very lit- tle," the Indian Princess told me. "Dey Legin to starve themselves once dey are taken from dere habitation. Dey eats only about once a week. Now for my Beebe, I buy canary birds once a week and feed him, but he drinks water out of my hand every morning. AS to dere hab- it's, you see, when you come in, it was about 10 o'clock and not one of dem had opened dere eyes Dey are like de fash | ionable society lady. -Dey stay up wid de bright lights and sleep late in de mornings. Yes!'
 Suppose one of those horrible mon- sters were to strike at your face,' I said
 We-no-nah smiled that pretty smile of hers, showing the most glorious snow white teeth. and she pushed her large | |. l.. e. la 1.nlr at Der forehead. There was an ugly scar the result, she told me, of fearful Rat tlesnake's fangs.
 "The first time I was bitten" she said, l T was i'll unto death for six weeks-ter- rible sick stomach, and oh, so i'll. Next 1 time it was only about four weeks of sickness Den less and less as I grow 1 immune, until now--well, you see how it affects me. I'm immune to four bites q day. More than that-well, who knows what might happene"
 Besides being a wonder with the awful reptiles that she queens it over, We-no- nah is a very clever woman in many | other ways.
 She is an expert with the needle, makes all r'own clothes. cures all the snake skins herself that she uses in these, and does the most beautiful Indian bead work
 She had trunk after trunk of lovely work and when she opened her hat trunk felt morally sure that perfectly good snake was going to crawl out, as they had from the others-and so 1 said thought I'd better be going.
 And you are not a bit afraid of thu l hoSrid thngs?' I asked again.
 Certainly rot" slre said. but I'll tel you little secret. There's just one thns in the world that I AM afraid of
 What IS it?" I begged eagerly.
 "A mouse" she laughingly replied which goes on to show that the Indiar
 Princess is "just like other girls afte all