Only a few days ago, a colonial official back from Africa drove his wife to desperation by keeping 70 young crocodiles in the bathroom. She complained to the police. that the reptiles wandered all over the flat, frightened the children and rendered her life one long night mare. Now we have the story of another earnest student of Nature who went in for snakes. A. resident in a quiet no-thoroughfare near the Porte Maillot suddenly found himself confronted by a snake, which, he says, reared its head and hissed at him' threateningly, Killed it with his walking-stick, On the same day, a servant-girl nearly trod on a serpent about three feet Jong, which was asleep on the pavement in the sunshine, Her shrieks Dbrought-n policeman, who despatched the raztile with his sword.
Next day, two more snakes were killed close' by. They are believed to have escaped from the house of fan artist who some years ago dis tinguished himself by bringing a ion from Africa. The roaring of this creature caused great alarm in the neighbourhood, and the pressure of public opinion soon compelled the artist to part with his pet. His son soams to have inherited his fathers zoological tastes, which in his case took the form of snakes, his idea being that these creatures could tw, trained to do tricks: " Apparently' they disliked education.
The fancy for keeping, strange creatures in flats frequently has shown itself in Paris, Some yours before the war, during a threatened strike of transport workers, which was expected to cut off milk supplies, a Parisian who had two young children actually tried to keep a cow in a bedroom. The experiment did not last long.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.