ND A GRAND TRANSFORMATION

The animals had received their evening meal when the Proprietor came
from the Arena and joined the Stranger and the Press Agent at the table
outside.

"I can never understand the interest people take in seeing the
carnivorous animals fed; it is no more than giving a bone to a dog," he
said, as he took his seat. "And yet it is one of the best drawing
features of the show, and the same people remain night after night to
see the meat poked into the cages. If it were not for the prohibition of
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals I could give a
feeding exhibition which would be novel and interesting, for
comparatively few people have ever seen a snake eat.

"It is because a snake will not eat unless it kills its own food," he
continued in answer to a question from the Stranger. "Snakes are more
particular feeders than any other animals, and they will not touch
anything which is not alive when it is brought to them. This is the
night for feeding them, and if you care to remain until the crowd has
gone you can see how it is done. Long as I have been in the business, I
learn something new every day, and I never saw a cobra fed artificially
until last week, when Brandu, my Hindoo snake charmer, received one
direct from India. It seems that they are cannibal snakes and live upon
their own kind in India, but that would be too expensive a diet here,
and he forces feed down its throat."

The thousands of incandescent lights on the Dreamland tower went
out--the signal that the barkers might cease from barking and the
spielers spiel no more--until the morrow brought its fresh crowd of
amusement seekers, and the Proprietor led the way into the Arena. Brandu
and his two native assistants were carrying the boxes which contained
the snakes into the big exhibition cage, and, when the three men
joined them, the weirdness of the surroundings made a profound
impression upon the Stranger. All of the lights in the Arena were
extinguished, with the exception of the small cluster directly over
their heads, and pairs of luminous spots from the great semicircle of
cages at the outer edge of the building reminded him that the human
beings in the cage were not the only interested spectators of the
proceedings.

[Illustration: _"A procession of sandwich men."_]

The assistants carefully removed the great boas and pythons from the
boxes, laying them on the floor, where they crawled lazily about, thei