LADY SNAKE CHARMER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 16 April 1908, Page 3

LADY SNAKE CHARMER.

AMERICAN CRAVING FOR REALISM. NEW YORK, February 25. America's "upper teiv' foregathered at tht> Hotel Plaza her© last night to assist the poor, and realised nearly £3000. The Plaza, which hns just been built at a ccsb of £2,000,001), has.- a ballroom splendidly a-cln.ptrd for social functions of all sorts. Real champagne was poured, and real cigars smoked, in the stage when Mrs. Waldorf Astor and a dozen other social leaders appeared in the' French pantomime, "Le Reveillon de.-Pierette," for charity. Tickets sold at £1 10s each, and many peoplo gave more. Mrs James B. Eustis, posing as Salambo, with:-a 6ft snake twined about her neck and gracefully clinging to the folds of her gown, was the sensation of the tableaux vivants, which were devised' and arranged by Prince Pierre Troubstskoy, and Mr" William Metoalaf, and other painters of New York, with suggestions by Mrs Patrick Campbell. ' Mr. Charles Barron,. a young Italian artist, who staged the pictures, w,as responsible for the presence of the snake. It was his idea that a live python would not Only add to the realism -of the picture, but would1 be «a novelty, and after Mrs Eustis agreed to its substitution for the uapier mache imitation which was used at the re- | hearsals, he went to the Zco to borrow a python six feet long, with a

body as thick as S-andow's arm. Dressed in a, white garment cut after thie stylo of the -period, with an effective background and beautiful lightning effects, Mrsr Eustis .< appeared holding the snake so that il's neck and head rested on. her bare shoulders, the body dinging closely to the folds -of her dress to her ankle, its black sides showing in sharp relief. For a moment it was motionless, then, it began, to sway gently to and fro, and the audience saw it was a thing of life, though they did not know that its fangs had been removed and that the creature had been mad© harmless.