Snake eater bitten by a snake – it sounds like a bad reality television show, but it was part of the entertainment back in the early 1900s. In those days, trips to the asylums to watch the crazies was a family event. “Freaks” and people willing to do daring stunts (like walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope) were the television of the day. Below is a newspaper snippet from 1903 about a boy who made his money biting the heads off of snakes. Then, one day, the snakes got even and a Moccasin bit his tongue.
Snake Eater Bitten by Moccasin
A dispatch from Lake Charles to Wednesday’s dailies says:
“Esau, the snake eater,” while giving one of his exhibitions in this city today, was bitten on the tongue by a poisonous rust head moccasin.
The snake was caught on the bank of Calcasieu Lake and sold to “Esau,” whose proper name is John Rufe, of Newark, N.J.
In his exhibition “Esau” picked up the snake and put its head into his mouth and bit it off. The snake in the meantime had sunk its poisonous fangs into the tongue.
The boy is now lying at the point of death. His tongue is swollen so badly that he is gradually choking to death, and the body is turning a dark brown as the poison spreads through his system. There is little hope for his recovery. [Source]
