Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 224, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1911 — “BIG ANNIE" IS A MOTHER [ARTICLE]

“BIG ANNIE" IS A MOTHER

Largest Snake In the Zoo Gives Birth to Fifty-Seven Offspring and All but Nine Are Living. New York.—-Perhaps it was because there were only a few visitors at the xoo the other afternoon and only a-few discreet attendants in the reptile house. Or maybe that had nothing to do with IL Anyway, at about three o’clock there was a portentous thrashing and writhing In the cage sig Annie, the prise l»-foot anaconda, shares with Rex, a royal python. Assistant Curator Ditmare heard the noise and looked in. Then he ran out and gathered up 14 keepers. “I want you to come with me," be told them. “Big Annie is—or rather she will—Never mind, come on quick and get her out of the cage." It took only a few minutes to untangle Big Annie’s 19 feet —lengthend get her in another cage. And then, before the legendary Jack Robinson could earn mention, there were 57 now little anacondas at the zoo. Dr. W. Reed Blair, who was hurried over, said he’d be gosh dinged, or something like that, if he’d ever seen the like before. Nine of the 57 didn’t seem to appreciate the breathing world and left IL The others perked right up. and now they are crawling all over each other as lively as flame Blair said they were “doing fine." R. H. Mote, a newspaper editor In Port of Spain, Trinidad, who sent Big Annie to the xoo, got on the cable aimoat at the moment of Annie’s good fortune, and sent word that be bad found the 19 loot mate of Annie, and

should he send him along. Mr. Ditmars cabled “Sure.” But If things keep on the curator fears the too may have more anacondas than it really needs.

Old-Time Consumption Cure. London. —The publication of the final report of the royal commission on tuberculosis recalls the elaborate “cure” for consumption in the past. There is the French "cure.” for instance. which Sterne survived. Sterne was taken ill in Paris and the best medical advice was sought. The verdict was consumption. And the prescription proved worse than the malady. First of all. a cockerel had to be procured to be flayed alive and pounded in a mortar. This executed, the result was boiled together with poppy seeds, and to the broth thus spoiled a crawfish was added. Moreover. it-was absolutely necessary that ft should be a male crawfish, otherwise the doctor would not guarantee the “cure.” And Sterne took his gruel like an Englishman and still lived on!