Show 5 0 11 side 1 11 e 0 0 diverting chronicles of circus life si I 1 IN B by y FRANCIS METCALFE copyright by W G chapman FEEDING THE SERPENTS AND A GRAND transformation tho the animals had received their evening me meil 0 the proprietor came from the arena and joined tho the stranger Bt ranger and press agent at the table outside I 1 can nover never understand the inter est people take it in seeing the cornnor ous oua an animals emals fed it la Is no more than giving a bone to a dog he be said as he took his seat and let it is one of the best drawing features tei tures of the s hom and the same people remain night after night to see the meat poked into tho the cages snakes aro are more particular feeders than ana an other ani am mals mala and the will mill not touch an thing mahich is not alne alive when it is brought to them this is the night tor for feci feeding ling them and it if aou ou care to remain until the bromil cromil has gone aou ou can see how it is done long as I 1 haie hae been in tho the business I 1 learn something new every everi day and I 1 never neer saw a cobra fed artificially until last week when branau nl hindu snake charmer received one direct from in ha dia it seems that they are cannibal snakes and ill lne e upon their oil own n kind in india but thit that would mould bo be too ex e a diet here and he forces feed down its throat the thousands of incandescent lights on the big coney island tower went merit out the signal that the tha barkers might cease from barking and the spillers spi elers spiel no more until the morrow brought its fresh crowd of 0 amusement seekers and the proprietor led the way into the arena the assistants carefully removed the great boas and pythons from the boxes laying them on the floor where them the crawled cradled lazily about their delicate forked tongues vibrating Mb rating like streaks of red flame while branau removed a slat from a crate of rabbits and put a halt half dozen of them on the floor the little animals had no instinctive fear of the serpents serpents for the hopped about among them and N 1 q I 1 IN U w v 1 aa I 1 qa U g N 01 11 7 al ie JAKE WS HAVING THE TINE TIME OF H hia 15 LI LIFE FE over theli thel wriggling bodies ancon cerneil but the snakes were hungry liter after a fast of two weeks and the wasted no time in getting to the business before them the proceed ing wis mas the same ame in eich case A serpent would mould crawl cravi up to the rabbit and place its nose at which the lit tie ile tuny amy beast would mould sniff curiously close to that of 0 its prospective sup up per the nd led forked tonge tongue would mould pass rapid over its face and the rabbit made no attempt to me move e whether it alas was the effect of somo some quality in the breath of the snake or the traditional charm of the serpent it was mas hard to qa av but the rabbit made no move to escape but solely it yielded to the fascination of the th snake the large transparent ears dropped to the side of the head and the body muscles rt relaxed until the tickling of 0 the serpents tongue caused no reflex movement of the paws ians the snake thin carefully m with ith drew its head until the slim alm neck was nag in the form of a letter S and when it again straightened out it was with inith the force of a released steel spring a and 11 I 1 t the lie a aim ain of the flat held head yvis was un c erring r r I 1 n g the stroke was mas so rapid that it was ivas difficult tor for the eye to follow and the rabbit never knew nap hall pen bened d for its body mide made a quick cir C cle Is lit in the air and in les than a sec ec 0 old id all that was to lip b seen wig is one small pax paw protruding front from the coiled body bod which had brought it a quick and merc itil death the janns of the serpent have seized it b the snout and thrown throan it back into its coils and the first ilist pressure lulla hills it although altho the ever tightening embrace crontin ues aes until the bones bents are crushed athin the unbroken skin so that it can bo be easily ono anc of the natives brought out a curiously TOY v 0 en circular basket m which it lie handled with mith great cire care and set ting it in the middle of the cage re clr d to a respectful distance branau crouched on the floor beside it and tl though the performance iv Is 11 not accompanied by the weird oriental which signaled the public ip ap of the snake charmer the enec expression of ills his face an and tho the in cannIness of the surroundings jide it impressive tor for he was mas about to handle tho the coat t de capello tho the most venomous snake in all tho the great collection he a no time in the pantomime and mean incan tation of the ring performance but quickly threw off the cover and NN when ben the hooded head irose arose swaging above the edge of the basket he started a low loin whistling and passed his big slim brown hands with mith lightning rapidity above it iio ho never removed his gaze from the head of the serpent and his hands moved moed so rapidly that they were a al most invisible inu Ini sible isible until quicker thin a snake could strike one of them dirt dart ed cd down domn and caught the slim neck behind the distended hood ile he rive gave a sharp exclamation of triumph ind and sprang to his feet the cobra coiling its body about his bare brown arm and giving eier aeri indication of rage I 1 am always alays glad gild when that part of the performance is 0 er cr said the proprietor with mith a sigh of relief of course it is all in the da s work mork with mith branau and he has done it thousands of times but some day ho he hlll ft be a fraction of a second too slow ind and then well I 1 shall hatie hae to get another snake charmer watch him now and 3 iou ou will ill see cometh something ang which only the men of his caste can do brandus s white teeth glistened as he smiled at the proprietor and point ed first to his bis own eyes and then to those of the serpent he brought tho the head of the cobra close to his face his expression became fixed and stern and the pupils of ills his widely opened eyes which chich had been dilated until the iris ins was vas but a narion rim contracted to the size of pin heads the cobra gazed at him fixedly and the tense body slowly uncoiled from his big arm and hung limp and motionless and dranda laid it on the floor as lifeless and inert as a piece of rope one of his assistants handed him a glass containing a couple coupie of raw eggs and handling it as carelessly as it if it were mere a harmless garter snake he picked up the cobra and forced a tube of polished bamboo between its jaws IN lien hen ile he had poured the eggs through the tube he diex it ind and care carefully full replaced the snake in the basket still apparently lifeless but bending over lie he blew sharply into its face and the cobra v N as instantly instant lv re animated into fiji five e f feet i ec I 1 0 of f its held head rica reared rc d up above the edge the spec hood distended in anger but I 1 cled hrandt du clapped on the cover and the snake felding feeding mas finis finished toi foi two in weeks eels that is a great performance of 13 randus s said tho the press jaent but it profits us nothing because beci the best part of it cannot be shown to the public I 1 never see a snake fed without thinking of something which liap bened when nhen I 1 hiis running i side show with nith the greatest greit cst show on earth 1 I ou know thit that the dime museum business was mas run to death while the craze lasted in this coun country and freaks got so lommon common that sou coulon couldn t throw i stone in the streets of any largo large cita without hitting one of ern em finhen hen tho the fickle public jirld of giving up its limes dimes to ice gee em am a gu named merritt ind myself had a choice collection on hand and wo NO went cut on the roid road with the big show for the summer thinking perhaps our business would mould pick up in the fall our two greit attract attractions igns were mere the biggest boi boa conA constrictor rIctor in rapt mt which we a calli d lake and tho heaviest fat min man in tho the world that snake nake was about two hundred feet long ind while the fit min man much on length lie he held tile record for licit belt mca measurement tile ine hundred and tanti seven pounds lic he weighed as we me on oil our own scales at every cir performance perform jacc their red feed bill was quite an item as the tork tok a halt half dozen sheep ever two mals aks and the fat man who wis billed ss signer adipose avoirdupois benitt invented that needed about a side hidu of beet beef cera aveo day imars are a aeilous lot and as hird hard to manage as prima don nas and these two tile monstrosities came to hate bate each other like poison they were mere in different lines but you may have noticed that the side hide show professor 1 uses up most ot of the superlatives 1 tives in the english langin po a when he gives his lecture anil and each of 0 cm been seemed d afraid that vie tle other boulo bould got some ome ot of his share of 0 the diction irv adipose used to look at lates colled coiled bod as it if nc lie would mould like to sit on oil it and litten flatten it out and the nako would anoula return the glanie with mith i a naughty little tN twinkle inkle in its eve as aa if he uis v is estimating hott hol much it NN would 0 uld have to stretch its skin to ac A A in its interior it made merritt anxious about ere em ahat blame fat tool fool mill bill masts aisle away amay and spoil his shape it if he don t stop worrying he says and he cuts 1 1 lot of his its talk out of the description of the snake and uses u es the words on adipose mabe vou think snakes are stupid but they aren t and the be hoi pot got the hump and refused to un co coil 11 himself to show his length unless he got his full share of the spiel it cheered avoirdupois up tip though and when we a moved to the next town he stood around to gloat over jake when he ii was as being mon 0 from the travel ing box to th the exhibition tho snake t been fed fd tor for ten davs das and he v was as good and lively as iv well ell as being out of temper so when he caught sight of the signor signer he seat scat the aci bivs s with ono one flip of his tall tail and went for him ive heard beard of bear hugs hut but I 1 never saw such a squeezing as that boa gave gale poor adipose it i was as a long way may around him but the snake made about i a dozen wraps and ill all we could see of the fat man is was as a pair of feet sticking out at one end of 0 the flip coil and his face which looked lie a purple hanest moon projecting from the other jake reache s out and gets hold of a tent peg with nith his tail which indich gnes gives him a purchase an ano then he tightens up tor for fair and adi pose lets out a holler you could hear bear a mile of course we me got busy with crowbars and jackscrew jackscrews jack jacks screws crex a and tried to pry jake oft off but there was mas nothing doing and the harder we pried the closer he cinches cinched up on adipose merritt usually had a suggestion to make so I 1 looked at him and he was lost in thought but in a minute he bright ens up and calls tor for a rope we can it pry the blame snake away from the man says he as be tied the rope around the signor signers a feet so 80 well try to pull the man away from the snake all hands tell fell to and pulled to beat four of a kind but jake just up a bit and grinnel an and d adipose let out another holler you need a traction engine ou that rope sacs I 1 when they gave it up as a bad job and merritt who was looking a little discouraged gave a NN hoop bring an elephant he veiled and when illien one of the bola started off on a run tor for the menagerie he called after him to make that order two elephants the bathis came lumbering over and merritt tied the rope around the shoulders of one and put another rope wound jakes neck and the shoulders shoulder of the other elephant now pull blamo blame vou aas he heading em in different and giving one of em a kick hick and chev put their shoulders against tile the ropes it was mas a might interesting perform ance to every ons one but adipose who didn dian t seem to enjoin it at all judging front from the vella he let out jike jake wis was having the time of his life and the harder the elephants pulled the tight er he squeezed the signor signer and when iben he felt that they were mere getting the better of him he made i a supreme ct cf fort which kinked kicked up tip eveir muscle in his boda but there was nas no hold ing on against those brutes and pret tv soon the fat mm man commenced to slip out from the coils feet first it vis mass a queer thing to watch and big hia legs stretched so that I 1 though his I 1 m mould nen never er come into sight ills his legs had been about the size ol of barrels when tile the snake grabbed him but between the stretching and the squeezing the were mere now three times is long and about is as large as broom sticks lie he weighed as much as ever eier when the elephants finall got him out but the flesh was m as distributed different and instead of being six si feet tall and feet beet around lie he MIS mas thelie feet long and built in pro portion the ana f e was mas up against it too for he had crimped himself so with mith tint that last squeeze that he couldn coulden t straighten out tho the kinks and lie he kept in the same shape as lie was wrapped around the ichor we tried to straighten him out bit bi t it vins mas no us use he just staged colled coiled up like ilke 1 I spring the signor signer was mas aliahmed a of him self pelf arid and haan hadn it a word mord to sa so BO lie ho just kept quiet and tried to get used to his new shape and a birds ee blew bew of things merritt and I 1 vere nere feeling pretty blue when along comes tody hanilton hamilton ha nilton tho the circus press allut and is as soon asi U bo be sn sal whit ind had happened hippen cd lie he made a run for ii a trolle car don t let em apt awai he yelled veiled ba back C it 0 01 ei L I 1 his shoulder dei tills this i the biggest scoop on record and I 1 in oft for the printing ollice it 11 make i good stora stor ill all right but hero do nie tome come in on iti if is as merritt lolong mournfully at AdI adipose pOc well a couple of hours later late I 1 had to go into the cit to order some new togs for the signer bignor nho mho looked as it he be more dies diesel ed in a particulars particular li bag g bathing suit since lie he had been stretched out and the first nr t thin thing I 1 say sav mab in a procession ot of sand sandwell mell men marchins marching down the street tho the ink dry on the posters lut tod had been bus and there in laming flaming red letters vas mas ill ohp announcement JUST ARRIN anahed ED AT THE BIG DONT MISS SEEING THEM LENGTHY LOUIS THE TALLEST MAN IN THE UNIVERSE I 1 CIRCULAR SAM THE josf GIGANTIC ER i capi 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