Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1879 — In the Coils of a Serpent. [ARTICLE]

In the Coils of a Serpent.

One of the most intrepid Wild-bejwt tamers in Europe, Karolyi, a Magyar of colossal stature and extraordinary physical, strength, has recently fallen,a victim to a dread bontmgeqcv of nis perilous profeeslau. l He was perform-, tog, before a crowded audience in Madrid the other day, one of his most sensational feats, which consisted in allowing a huge boa constrictor, over twenty feet in length, to enfold his body hn its tremendous coils, when suddenly piercing cry escaped him, which was greeted by the public with a round of applause, under the supposition that its utterance constituted part of theperformance. It proved, however, to o€ the outcome of & strong mini’s death-agony. The gigantic snake had tightened its ooils and crushed poor Sarolyi’s life out of him with one terrific squeeze. As his head fell back and his eyes became fixed in a glassy stare, the plaudits died AwAy/aba we re succeeded by the stillness of utter consternation. The snake • and it* lifeless victim swayed for a secflpd or. twq of inexpressible fcor-

tarts jSSTbottiM bo* did not in the least relax his grip upon the corpse, which remained for more than an hour imprisoned in its hideous thmUdom, nobody danqg the lithe monster, of whose powers such appalling proof had J>een given. At length it occurred to one of Karplyi's attendants to place a bowl of milk in a which slowlyunwonnA fromthe dead body and glided Into it* deu, irresistibly temptea thereto by its favorite dainty. A post-mortem examination of the unfortunate athlete’s remains discovered no fewer than eighty-seven fractures of his bones* effected by the constriction of the serpent's coils*, His death must haVe been almost instantaneous, as the spine was disarticulated in several places. —London Telegraph.