Great Falls Tribune from Great Falls, Montana • Page 2

Git EAT FAIAS DAILY TBIUnNF, MONDAY. JULT J5, 1007. GREAT FALLS 1JA1LY TRIBUNE ED 1887. MILLIONS OF OOLLARSTO FIGHT KSTA.tU.ISH PRINTED EVERY THE RIBUNE tlCOKlORATEDi WM. M.

BOLE, Preaidenf O. S. WAKDfcN. Maaacr Addreaa all communications to BA Tribune. Gret Falls.

Mont. OWLV HAUF-EWOUGIHI 'MIEW ON-' TG1E UIHED STATES NAVY Naval Official Says That America Would Be in Ridiculous Position at Sea if War Were to Be Declared Today, Particularly in Case the Enemy Were as Strong on the Ocean as Japan Good Vessels Left Idle and Their Crews Sent to Fill Places on Newer Ships. SUBSCRIPTION let me look at him. "The minute she had laid him on the table I pressed a stick across his head, picking him up by the head immediately behind the head in the way in which we always handle dangerous snakes, placed him. in a tumbler and fastened a piece of cheesecloth down over the top.

"The minute Mr. Lance-Head felt my stick be began to show fight, and be- -fore he was safely secured he had thrown open his mouth, disclosing three big fangs. He continued to show his anger by biting through the cheesecloth, his venom remaining on the bit of clotb instead oft reaching his victim, as he expected it to do. This is one of the object in stretching it across the top of the tumbler, to enable us to collect some of the snake's secretion and analyze it if we wish to. "In the present instance the fer de lance deposited on the cheesecloth within a few minutes between eight and 10 drops of venom, enough to kill four men.

The poor mother almost fainted when he heard of the danger they had all run. "This snake was about three and a half feet long. Its body was a pale green, with the little red circles about it to which the girl had admiringly drawn my attention. It had a villainous flat head, and over each eye was a small, hornlike spine. "I should have thought that the shape of the head would be enough to make the husband and father in the case suspicious, not to mention the red circles and the spines, which are rather exceptional.

But he had no technical knowledge of snakes." Daily. One Year, in advance $7.00 Six Months, in advance 3.50 One Month -75 Subscribers desiring address changed must New York Representative Fran Chicago Representative Frank R. Entered at the Postoff ice at Great Postage Free for United States and SWORN CIRCULATION WILL BE Falls 1 6 rjgL4 BEL OFFICIAL PAPER OF MONDAY, JULY 15, 1907. disparity is becoming greater all the time. CRUISER with Russia the peace strength of Japan's navy has been permanently enlarged.

No one but a Japanese official can tell with certainty just how large it is, but it is known that Japan was able to handle the ships she won from Russia in addition to her own. Her navy was increased nearly one-third by reason of the war. The navy personnel was correspondingly increased. It is believed by officers of the United States navy that Japan's navy personnel is at least one-fourth larger than that of the United States. Washington, July 13.

The talk of war between the United States and Japan has led to comparisons between the navies of the two powers, but every comparison thus far printed has been of ships, and not of men. In ships the United States is stronger than Japan, but in men to handle the ships the United States is weaker. Japan ean handle the ships she has, and the United States cannot handle all her ships at once. The battleships Iowa and Indiana have been laid up in order to furnish complements for the battleships Nebraska and other late additions to the navy. The battleship Ohio, commissioned after the war with Spain, will le the next to be retired.

The Iowa, Indiana and Ohio are good ships, not among the new ones, but well able to handle themselves in a fight against anything but the most modern vessels. They are not obsolete, in other words. Yet they- have been virtually thrown on the scrap pile on account of the shortage of men. The brand new battleships commissioned within the last two years are 10 in number. Five of them are in the class, and the other five are The larger vessels carry 915 officers and men each, while the 1 5.000-ton vessels carry a complement of 775 each.

The navy department has been forced, to desperate methods to find crews for these new ships. It has placed cruisers and battleships in reserve, sent others to navy yards, ostensibly for repairs and overhauling, but actually to get rid of them, and otherwise skimped itself in order to put the new ships into commission. If war should occur now against any strong power, the United States would find itself either unable to use all its ships or forced to confide them to half-trained men who are more likely to kill themselves than the enemy. The total strength of the United States navy in 1JM15 was 2.500 officers and 37,000 men. This includes the officers and men of the marine corps.

These figures have not been materially increased in the last two years. The total strength of the Japanese navy was away back in 1001, and since the war The Heywood Case Up to Date. The prosecution and the defense have both completed their case, so far as direct testimony i3 concerned, and at present the prosecution is engaged inoffering rebuttal testimony to explain or contradict some of the evidence offered by the defense. But both sides have now completed their main line of testimony and the general public have all the important facts before them and intelligent comment on the evidence can be made. In reviewing the trial up to date one is led to wonder if this is a trial of the murderers of Governor Steunenberg as charged in the complaint or a trial of the Western Federation of Miners for their part in the labor troubles of Colorado and Idaho.

Outside of Orchard's own story, there is scarcely any evidence at all bearing on the murder of Governor Steunenberg. We have had the story of the crimes alleged to have been committed by the Mine Owners' association or the federation at various times and in various states told and retold. We have learned that Pinkerton detectives employed by the mine owners of Colorado were scattered among the miners and assumed places of leadership in the unions; that In at least one instance a Pinkerton detective became president of the union, and urged the members of the union to violence and dynamite explosions. We have learned that Orchard and other murderous scoundrels appear to have had intimate and friendly relations with both the leaders of the federation and the chief detectives and leaders of the Mine Owners' association. The candid and impartial reader of all this mass of evidence will, we think, come to the conclusion that there was an equal spirit of lawlessness on both sides during those labor troubles in Colorado, but the blame for this spirit rests most heavily on the shoulders of the mine owners, for they commenced it.

It is not to be forgotten that all these troubles in Colorado commenced over; an attempt on the part of the federation to obtain an eight-hour day. In the beginning they, sought to accomplish this in a proper and legitimate way through legislation. The supreme court of Colorado, which appears to have been a partisan court from the beginning, declared the law unconstitutional in a decision that stands alone and is contrary to decisions of the courts of other states and the United States supreme court. Still the federation stuck to lawful methods. They secured an amendment to the constitution to meet the court's decision and it passed by the vote of the people.

Then the mine owners bought up the legislature and it refused to carry out the will of the people as expressed at the polls by the passage of an eight-hour law. Governor Peabody refused to include this duty in the call for a special session. Then the lawlessness commenced and tiie evidence goes to 6how that both sides were associating with and encouraging criminals and lawbreakers. All these things are only indirectly concerned with the murder of Governor Steunenberg. As far as that crime goes is no evidence that the officers of the Western Federation had anything to do with it outside of the testimony of Orcnard himself.

They had far more cause to desire the death of Governor Peabody, Gen. Sherman Bell, Judge Gabbert, and such men as these. The oifense of Governor Steunenberg, from a federation point of view, lay chiefly in his calling in federal troops to end a reign of terror in Idaho. In that act he only did his duty. The same statement cannot, by the widest charity, be made to apply to the officials of Colorado.

When it comes to considering the Heywood case from the ordinary point of view of a criminal trial the prosecution has made a total failure and Heywood will likely be acquitted by the jury. The state has failed to connect him in any vital way with that murder. There is much more than a reasonable doubt of his guilt in the mind of the average reader of the testimony, who has not made up his mind in advance of the trial. In view of all the evidence, we do not believe the prosecution ever expected a verdict of guilty, but that their purpose was to damage the Western Federation of Miners by showing that its officers were in intimate relations with a band of desperate criminals. In this they may have succeeded.

But at the same time the defense have shown that the mine owners were also criminals and associating with similar characters. DAY IN THE YEAR. R. A JL Weekly. One Year, in advance $1.50 ix Months, in advance 75 Three Months, in advance -50 One Year, not in advance 2.00 send former address as well as new one.

North rup. 330 Broadway North ruj. 884 Tribune Building as Second Class Mail Matter. Mexico. Elsewhere, Postage Added.

GIVEN TO ALL ADVERTISERS. CASCADE COUNTY Sam gets so shaky and trembles at the knees whenever the possibility of government ownership is mentioned. The fact is that this particular bogy man is ceasing to scare the voters. The straw is sticking out of his pants, and the wire running into Wall street is getting to be exposed to plain view, and when the railroad magnates jerk the w'ire causing the bogy man to make strange and wonderful contortions it does not scare the public any more. They see government ownership of railroads working successfully all about them, and for the benefit of the people, and the stuffed scarecrow labeled government ownership which is being dangled before their eyes has lost its usefulness in a great degree, except among a few timid ones.

NATURE FAKE. "In their way," said the old fisherman, "fishes are good weather prophets. If a storm is approaching the fish stop biting and they won't bite again until the storm is well over. They appear to know when a storm is coming and when it has really passed. And to fishermen and farmers living along the shore, fish foretell the near approach of cold weather.

Hours before it comes fishes leave the shallow waters in-shore and seek deep water, which in its depth will stay warm and keep in equable temperature after the shallower and surface waters have turned cold. Oh, yes, fishes know a thing or two about the weather." Cleveland Leader. NOTHING 'DOING. The musician was visibly annoyed. "But; hang it all," he said.

"I told your reporter three or four times over that the violin I used was a genuine Stradivarius and here in hi3 report this morning there's not a word, not a word," With a scornful laugh the editor replied "That is as it should be, sir. When Mr. Stradfvarius gets his fiddles advertised in this paper under two dollars a line, you come around and let me know." LI United States Supreme Court to Be Asked to Declare That States May Not License Selling of Liquors. Milwaukee, July 14. That well known men, representing unlimited wealth, are back of a movement to get a decision from the United States supreme court on the constitutionality of granting saloon licenses, a movement which is to be made national in its scope by a campaign of education this summer, is the announcement made by Charles E.

Newlin, a business man of Indianapolis, with whom the movement started and who is in Milwaukee with the expectation of getting one of the test cases started in Wisconsin. The movement is one of the most unique temperance crusades ever undertaken, it being Mr. Newlin's opinion, supported by the decisions of four Indiana circuit judges and the opinion of innumerable attorneys, that if a test case can ever be brought before the federal court the decision will put every saloon in the United States out of business in the same manner that it has been declared impossible to legalize lotteries, gambling and prize fighting. Pledges of financial support in fighting the case made to Mr. Newlin by John Wanamaker of Philadelphia, the well known merchant and philanthropist; William Wardwell of New York, former secretary of the Standard Oil company, but now retired; W.

W. Smith of the Smith Bros. Cough Drops company of Poughkeepsie, N. Manieere Manieere, attorneys of New York; F. F.

Wheeler, a real estate dealer of Los Angeles, and others are said to be a part of the unwritten history which lies back of the sensational decision rendered by Judge Samuel IL Art man of the Boone county circuit court at Lebanon, recently. Assured by these men that they will guarantee the money with which to make the fight in the federal court if a tease is brought to it, Mr. Newlin started the movement in Indianapolis, but, unfortunately for hi national plans, he was unexpectedly successful in the lower courts in every one of the four cases brought in Indiana and the defeated liquor men have refused to appeal. As a result, and on ihe advice of attorneys, both of Indiana and 01 the west, cases are to be started in a number of other states. With two addresses on the Fourth of July Judge Art man started out on a lecture tour which will take him from coast to coast and during which he will speak once or twice on each one of the 05 days of.

his vacation in defense of the ruling which caused an almost national sensation, Judge Artman being the first judge in the country to rule that the licensing of saloons is unconstitutional because the liquor traffic is inherently an immoral business and cannot be legalizea. Judge Artman will go west, through St. Louis, to the Pacific coast, and back through the northern and northern central states, to the middle Atlantic and New England states. Lincoln, Iowa, Morgan countyj W. Concord, N.

Cleveland, Ohio, Milwaukee or La Crosse, and other places have been selected as points of attack where cases will be started in the hope of getting one to the United States supreme court. Appeal will be taken on the first decision unfavorable to those who are inciting the cases, and who hold that it is not a question of temperance, but one purely of law, and who predict that within 10 years they will succeed in getting a decision which will put every saloon in the country out of business. They are greatly encouraged by the decision of Judge Artman, followed by similar rulings by Judge Ira W. Christian, of Hamilton county, Ind Judge Frank Hutchison, a special judge, and Judge Reed Holiman. The men be hind the movement declare they will keep up the fight until they carry a case to the highest court or until, if they cannot find a lower court to decide against them and saloon men persist in refusing to appeal, they have secured a local decision in every circuit, which will have practically the same effect.

That the case which led to the Judge Artman decision was part of a national movement to put saloons in the same position as lotteries, prize fighting and gambling, has not been generally known and the inside history of the case Was related by Mr. Newlin in conference with Milwaukee men, whose co-opera- 1 1 nun lie i seeKMiT. DENOUNCES TEDDY BEAR Joseph, July 14. The "Teddy Bear" fad was severely scored by Rev. Michael Esper from the pulpit in St.

Joseph's Catholic church today. The priest held that the toy beasts in the hands of little girls were destroying all instincts of motherhood and in the future would be realized as one of the most powerful factors in race suicide. Father Esper spoke earnestly to his congregation for 15 minutes on the sub ject, exhorting all parents to replace the doll in the affections of children and discard the "Teddy Bear" forever. "There is something natural," said Father Esper, "in the care of a doll by a little girl. It is the first manifestation of the feeling of motherhood.

In the development of these motherly instincts lies the hope of all nations. It is a monstrous crime to do anything that will tend to destroy these instincts. That is what the 'Teddy Bear' is doing and that is why it is going to be a factor in the race suicide problem if the custom is not suppressed." A DESPAIRING EFFORT. "Look here," said the prime minister, don't you think you are carrving mat ters with a rather high hand!" "No," answered the sultan, with a stealthy wink. "This is only a bluff.

I am trying to make them think my hand is high." NOT ALIKE. Willie "Your sister Mame and Mr Sopht are pretty thick, ain't they?" Susie "Gracious. in Of mimv Mame's thick enough, but Mr. Sopht is jest awfully thin." The transparent elaaa ruler, an inno vation, is of treat assistance to drafts men in their work. nuoFi BUSINESS BACK FROM THE DEAD.

"A recent invention of Professor Geo. Toe of South Norfolk, Virginia, has proved beyond all contravention either of two things: that, far as medical science has advanced, it is unable to say when animal life is extinct, or that it is possible, under some circumstances, to restore life when the subject is Whichever may be the case, however, the fact is not altered that the device mentioned has brought animation to animals which were undoubtedly in that state described by science as death, "As have so many of the great discoveries of science, that of Professor Poe grew out of a more or less accidental occurrence. In the year 1S76 Professor Poe succeeded in resuscitating a rat, which had been killed, by the simple process of pumping oxygen into its lungs. With this suoces as a basis to work ujK ii, he was encouraged to continue investigations and experiments along the same line, and these have resulted in the artificial respirator, the suc-cess if which is one of the marvels of the age." The above leads an article by Emmett Campliell nail on this interesting man and his work in the Technical World Magazine for August. "TELL THE TRUTH." In a wedding writeup in a Nebraska paper appeared the following: "It was a delightful affair for all and a relief for the bride's father, who is a poor, hard-working man.

The groom is a tall, handsome fellow, and should not be blamed for his brother being in the penitentiary for horse stealing. Miss Katie looked beautiful, wearing a large red hair ribbon in her locks, and the groom has whiskers." INCORPORATED 1889. The Cascade Bank OF GREAT FALLS. Capital $75,000.00 Surplus $15,000.00 ACCOUNTS SOLICITED. Every accommodation consists! with safe and conservative banMaf extended.

S. E. ATKINSON Preailat F. P. ATKINSON R.

S. Ford, Pres. R. P. Reckards, Gash.

T. T. Murphy, V. II. G.

Lescher, ACL CUSTOMERS Appreciate good service. The officers of this institution give their personal at- tention to ail details and thus insure best results. Your account with 11s will be appreciated and will receive our usual courteous and careful attention. Greatfalls National BanK GreatfaDs. Montana.

No. 3523. FIRST NATIONAL BANK. OF GREAT FALLS, MONT. United States Depository.

PAID IP CAPITAL $200,000 The Pioneer Bank of Cascade OFFICERS: John G. Morony John C. LaJor Vice Presides W. M. Thornton Casaltx- M.

Skinner Assistant Casals W. A. Brown Assistant Cashier INTEREST PAID ON TIME DEPOSITS CONRAD BANKING CO. UNINCORPORATED. Paid Up Capital Individual Responsibility OFFICERS: W.

G. Conrad James T. V. P. and Kaaarsx A E.

Schwingel Caaaisx Omar J. Malcolm CaikUx Tnla bank solicits aeoooats sad offers at as poaitora absolute aeenriry. prompt ana earefcl attention and tha moat liberal treatment woiMti mat with aaJe and profitable banklmr. Bar sad aeila foreign zenana, drawing- direct oa aj principal amen out and Kuropean dilaa, sad HBOlng la gwo letters of credit. Interest paid on Una depovlta- Tbe highest caaa priee paid for approved staM county cltv and school bonds and wsxranta.

ooooooooooooooooooxooxxxxooooxx Women Fascinated vfnakes "We would be in a ridiculous position if war should occur tomorrow, especially if Japan should be our antagonist. Japan has all her ships where they belong, in the Pacific, where ours soon will be, and she has men enoifgh to handle them. We have our best ships where they do not belong, and we do not have men enough to handle them. Japan is hustling her new ships. We are increasing the number of our new ships by adding huge Dreadnaughts which will either lie unmanned or drain the rest of the ships of their crews.

"The battleships Kansas, Minnesota and Vermont, which have recently been commissioned, are short of men. They need 915 men each. The Nebraska, commissioned July 1, needs 775 in all, and she is short-handed, too. The department will be compelled soon to lay up the Ohio in order to get more men for the new ships. The Ohio was launched in 1901.

She is not out of date by any means, but of. course when it is a question of keeping her afloat instead of a new ship the Ohio must go to the wall." This officer spoke frankly. He seemed to think that the sooner the country understands the situation in the navy, the better it will be. The cruisers California and South Dakota are to be commissioned at Mare island within two months. The department has raked and scraped to find officers and men for them.

In order to get them afloat and ready for business it has been necessary to cut down the complements of the new battleships Kansas, Minnesota and Vermont. Some of the officers and men from the Iowa and Indiana will go to the Nebraska, and others to the California and South Dakota. It is the policy of the department to get new ships on the Pacific into commission quickly, even if vessels in the Atlantic fleet are crippled. The cruiser Milwaukee was' manned and commissioned after a delay of several weeks in finding men, although the state department asked long ago that a first class cruiser be dispatched to Central America, in the next five years you must let me have his skin. "'We don't let anything happen to him, but you can get another fine snake skin without waiting for that.

"I don't care for another skin. It is this snake I love, and his skin I mean to "Well, she had to go away unsatisfied, of course. As our python is still alive and apparently in good health and spirits, she is not likely to have her wish gratified for many, moons, if ever. "The snake that this voung woman fell in love with is 30 feet long, weighs about 250 pounds, and could kill a horse. Its eves are its most conspicuous fea ture.

They are tawny yellow, cat-like, and intensely brilliant. 1011 can see them fix on an object and set like glass. "Snakes are said to hypnotize their in tended victims with their eyes. It seems possible that this python can exert hypnotic jower, and that in the case of the girl whose infatuation I have described it actually did do something of the kind. "People bring all sorts pets to the zoological park to have us prescribe for them, so I was not surprised when a lady and a little girl appeared ne day, bringing with them a pet snake they said was sick.

They wanted me to look at it. "The lady said that her husltand was interested in snakes, so they had a few harmless ones, including a couple of kin? snake, around the house. Their little girl was very fond of them, handling them with the utmos-t freedom. 'The sick snake came north in a bunch of she said. 'That was only a few days ago.

but the snake won't eat and is growinsr thin, so my husband thought if'vou'd just look at it "The child was carrying the snake in a fancy box, such as cologne comes in. As she opened the lid I noticed that it was gilt edged and lined witn padded pink satin a queer repository for a snake. "Inside, coiled upon the pink satin lining, was a horned fer de lance, one of the most venomous snakes that crawl. As if that were not enough for a-nerve shaker, I was paralyzed to see the child put in her hand and lift the creature out on her palm, saying: "'Isn't he pretty, with those red circles round his "But I knew if I showed my alarm the little girl would get frightened and make some motion which would startle the reptile, with the inevitable result that she would be bitten. So I said as calmly as I could: 'Just bring him over to the table and Strange Influence of Dread Jeptilej" Over zjlf any )ej" of the Feminine Gender.

Typt "If war should occur tomorrow could we handle the ships now 111 commission?" was asked of a navy officer who is recognized as an expert on the personnel question. "We could handle about' half of them," he replied. "We need 15,000 more men to handle the ships now in commission. If war should occur we would not have these men and could not get them. We have no merchant marine from which to draw seamen.

The naval militia would not do. The only way we could use the naval militiamen safely would be to scatter them among seasoned crews, as we did in the war with Spain. If the naval militia were placed in charge of a ship by themselves God help the ship and everybody in it. "The only source for recruiting men for the navy is the west. The only way we can keep the ships manned is by taking these raw men from the pineries and licking them into shape.

It is a long process and not very successful, as far as numbers are concerned. Either the recruiting system is at fault or young men in this country do not want to go into the navy. I think more men could be obtained if the recruiting 'system were overhauled. "The department asked congress last year for 3,000 more seamen, but congress cut the number down to 1,500. That's the way it goes.

If war should occur the navy department would be blamed for the failure to run out all our ships. This shortage of men has been called to the attention of congress year after year without avail. New ships are being added without making adequate provision for. new crews. Hie "The girl was carry in a big bunch of red roses at the I didn't like to do it, but she was so persistent that I at last told the head keeper to take her around and let her peep in at the door for a moment.

"The moment the door was opened the girl flung her roses into the midst of the cobras, which were placidly enjoying themselves in a little group in the grave in the bottom of the cage. Instantly the cage was in an uproar. "The cobras, terrified out of their senses, rose up with a tremendous hiss, undulating from side to side with the rocking motion characteristic of them when excited and inflating their hoods as they always do when angered. There is something very impressive in that graceful, vibratory motion of the angry cobra as it rears its body high in the air. But it is a challenge that no man who has met his cobra face to face is likely to forget or to court willingly.

"Knowing that the cobras would never quiet down so long as the roses remain ed in the cage, I told, the keepers they must get them out, and they finally did so with iron bars stuck from the rear. "In the height of the disturbance the young jierson who was the cause of it all- disappeared. She came back again a week or two later. When she saw me she wished me an airy 'Good morning' and passed out. "I never found out who she was or what she acted so for, and I can only conclude that she was a twentieth century Elsie Venner.

"There was a girl who used to come day after day to study the big python. It actually seemed as if she fell in love with it One day she surprised me by exclaiming: "'If anything happens to that snake I want his skin to make myself a short jacket. How wide would his skin be. spread out? "'From 14 to 18 inches, I replied. 'And how long? "'Oh, almost long enough for a three-quarter coat, or at least a walking I said, 'but I wouldn't advise you to wear it on Fifth returned the girl earnestly, 'if anything happens to the big python 0X0000000000000000K00000000000000X00000000 Government Ownership in Mexico.

Just across the southern boundary of the United States they are not afraid of either railroad consolidations or government ownership. An eastern newspaper brings us the news that a great railway consolidation is to go into effect on the first of next month in Mexico and that the government is to hold the controlling interest-in the consoidated roads. It says that "it is expected that all the details preliminary to the tpur-ehase by the government of a Jcon-trolling interest in the Mexican Central railroad, and the merging of that road with the National and International roads, which are already owned by the government and operated as one systm, will be completed about August 1. It is planned to efface the individual names by which the several properties are known, and to call the combined system the National railways of Mexico. It is further expected that the general offices of the several roads will be and their operation conducted from one central headquarters located in the City of Mexico.

Division offices will be established in Monterey, Torreon, San Luis Potosi, Vera Cruz, Tanipico, and probably other places. The report is that E. X. Brown, president of the National lines system, will be promoted by the government to the chairmanship of the executive board, and that C. R.

Hudson, at present vice president of the Mexican Central and in charge of the operating department of that road, will be made president of the combined lines. Mr. Clark, manager of the National line, is to be manager of the merged lines." If the smaller republic to the south of lis is not afraid of railroad consolidation and government ownership it will strike some of us as strange that Uncle The race of Elsie Verniers is not dead. Raymond L. Ditmars, curator of the snake house at the New York zoological park, finds many women on whom snakes exert a fascination similar to that which they exercised over Oliver Wendell Holmes' heroine.

Men, as a rule, look on snakes with a cold and critical stare as objects of loathing or mere curiosity, he says. But women some women are moved by them, fondle them, commune with them in a mystic way and seem to derive delight from watching their writhing bodies. "I seldom lecture on snakes," said Mr. Ditmars to a reporter, "that the women don't crowd round me at the close and insist on handling my live exhibits. My big king snake, in particular, never fails to excite interest.

"No, it isn't any particular feminine type that succumbs to the spell of the snakes, except that, curiously enough it is usually women of the well -braced, athletic type who seem to fall most completely under their charm. xoud think it would be the other way that high-strung, emotional women, given to introspection and a trifle morbid, would be the most sensitive. "But the latter generally run away, while the calm, steady nerved girls will prod and paw the snakes by the hour to see if they feel cold, will gaze sentimentally into their expressionless faces and will drape the snakes around their arms and necks without so much as a shudder. "At the New York zoological park we have had many illustrations of this weird affinity which exists between snakes and women. I shall not soon forget the day when a pretty, well-dressed young woman appeared in my office and asked to be allowed to go behind the cases and look in from the back.

It was a Sunday and the place was crowded. "'Well, we don't ordinarily allow the public behind the scenes, I told her. "But I am so deeply interested in she pleaded, 'especially in the cobras. Do let me look at the cobras from the.