Weekly journal-miner., 1919-11-19
Miss ssHauSaysNo
 Poison; She Kept
 ''Pet" Many Moons
(BY SHARLOT M. HALL)

had kept Gila monster as a pet over
 long enough period of time to be-
 come really friends with the curious
 big lizard.
 For about eighteen months a g.
 inch monster was my special pet and
 our friendship ended only with his
 accidental death. This animal was
 sent to me from the Harqua Hala
 mountains, and so far as have ever
 been able to learn was one of the
 largest specimens.
 1 have never had the least faith in
 stories of the deadly bite of this lizard
 ad in all my experience there was not ,the slightest indication of ugly tenn per. The big lizard started out with the name of Pinto, because he was a 1 specimen of wonderfully beautiful markings, an aristocrat among his kind Almost immediately a friend of mine, one of the ablest research physicians in Arizona at the time, named my pet "The Deacon" because of his habit of lifting his head with exactly the facial expression of Say ing grace" before his meals.
 The Deacon was never confined in small box after he came to me but lived in large screen porch in which the floor was sanded especially for his comfort This was ill the interesting old house in Phoenix built by Gov ernor Franklin and the huge turkey platter on which the governors Thanksgiving turkey had probably been served many a time was con verted into miniature lake in which The Deacon took daily siesta in. warm weather. He would stretch his glittering length diagonally across the Iplatter, tuck his nose comfortably up on the rim at one corner, and sleep for hours.
 From the very first week The Dea- con was friendly; he learned to com- hurrying to the door the moment he heard my step coming home and when his meal of two fresh eggs was broken into a little dish-which also had probably held dainties for the former governor, The Deacon ate his food delicately and with fastidious care not to get particle of egg on his gorgeous dress. Always there was that solemn lifting of the head between whiles-doubtIess only to aid ill swallowing-but so funny that it provoked every visitor to laughter.
 The Deacon hated eggs with the shell on and would nearly starve be- fore trying to break one; he loved big red ants and welcomed his ire quent trip to nearby ant hill under the late governors lovely pomegran- ate trees.
 From the first 1 could scratch the back of his head and he would lie still and almost purr with content; soon 1 could pick him up without a protest on his part, and often l push | ed him out of the way with my foot without the least evidence of annoy ing him. He knew his name and ! came clumsily but eagerly when 1 called and seemed to like companion ship and to be lonesome when alone.
 Evidently the big lizard is not clumsy oil his own ground for The Deacon could climb to the very top of the screen porch by inserting his claws i'll the mesh-his four feet were wonderfully like human hands and ' very flexible A trumpet vine grew across the very top of the porch and ! to cling to the wire screen on the in- side but in the shadow of the vine was The Deacon's favorite pastime; from 1t he met his death He had | grown very large and fat and so glossy that his coat glistened like amber and jet-even scientists who chanccd to visit me forgot to want to dissect him and admired his beauty. But one warm day a whirl- wind struck the porch while The Deacon basked on the wire ill the shade of the tall vine and he was flung to the floor and injured intern ally. A fever set in and he lived only three days. CurIed up on his sand bed he watched me as if begging me to help him. lifted his head as if grateful when I poured cold water over him, tried to eat his eggs, and at last moved his head a little and open cd his eyes at my least movement near him.
 have at one time or another per- ted most of the desert creatures and none was more interesting than the big Gila monster. There seems no question but the only poison about them is in the stomach contents. They bite only when leased or in-