Motor Matt's Engagement; or, On the Road with a Show

How They Captured the Python.

Hamburg, as many know, is the great headquarters of the trade in wild animals for menageries and "zoos."To Hamburg are shipped lions, elephants, and giraffes, captured in South and East Africa, tigers from India, jaguars and tapirs from South America, gorillas from the Congo, orang-outangs from Borneo, and, in fact, about every kind of beast, bird, and reptile from all quarters of the globe.

The warehouses of the two principal firms engaged in this business are interesting places to visit after the arrival of a "beast ship," with news of unusually large specimens of animal life.

The narrator made such a visit some months ago on the arrival of a remarkably large, brilliantly marked python, shipped from Padang, Sumatra.This colubrine giant is more than thirty feet in length, and was bespoken by the Austrian government for a zoo at Budapest.

But the story of its capture is even more interesting than the huge creature itself, for this python had fallen a victim to its fondness for the notes of a violin.

There is a telegraph line extending across Sumatra, from Padang, connecting that port, by means of submarine cables, with Batavia, and Singapore.

Along this line of land wire are a number of interior stations.One of these, called Pali-lo-pom, has been in charge of an operator named Carlos Gambrino, a mestizo from Batavia, Java, educated at the industrial school there.

The station is on a hillock in the valley of the River Kampar, and is adjacent to dense forest, jungle, and a long morass.It is a solitary little place, consisting merely of four or five thatched huts, elevated on posts to a height of six feet from the ground, to be more secure from noxious insects, reptiles, and wild beasts.

As a general rule Gambrino has little enough to do, except listen to the monotonous ticking of the instrument.For solace and company, therefore, he frequently had recourse to his violin.

Thatched houses on posts in Sumatra are not commonly supplied with glass windows; but Gambrino had afforded himself the luxury of a two-pane sash, set to slide in an aperture in the side wall of his hut, and some five or six months ago, during the wet season, he was sitting at this window one afternoon, as he played his violin, when he saw the head of a large serpent rise out of the high grass, at a distance of seventy or eighty yards.

His first impulse was to get his carbine and try to shoot the monster, for he saw that it was a very large python, and not a desirable neighbor.But something in the attitude of the reptile led him to surmise that it had raised itself to hear the violin, and he passed at once to a lively air.

As long as he continued playing the python remained there, apparently motionless; but when he ceased it drew its head down, and he saw nothing more of it that day, although he went out with his gun to look for it.

Nearly a fortnight passed, and the incident had gone from his mind—for large snakes are not uncommon in Sumatra—when one night, as he was playing the violin to some native acquaintances who had come to the hut, they heard the sounds made by a large snake sliding across the bamboo platform or floor of the little veranda.On looking out with a light, one of the party saw a huge mottled python gliding away.

But it was not until the reptile appeared a third time, raising its head near his window, that the telegrapher became certain that it was really his violin which attracted it.

In the meantime the operator at Padang, with whom Gambrino held daily conversations by wire, had told him that the German agent of a Hamburg house at that port would pay ten pounds, English money, for such a python as he described.

Gambrino began scheming to capture the reptile.In one of the huts at the station there was stored a quantity of fibre rope, such as is used in Sumatra for bridging small rivers and ravines.

Gambrino contrived three large nooses from this rope, which he elevated horizontally, on bamboo poles, to the height of his window, and carried the drawing ends of the nooses inside the hut.

This was done after the operator had ascertained that at times the snake would come about the house and raise its head as if it heard the violin.

Some time later the python was beguiled by the music into raising its head inside one of the nooses, which a native, who was on the watch while Gambrino played, instantly jerked tight.

What followed was exciting.The reptile resented the trick with vigor, and showed itself possessed of far more strength than they had expected.

The rope had been made fast to a beam inside, and the snake nearly pulled the entire structure down, making it rock and creak in a way that caused Gambrino and his native ally to leap to the ground in haste from a back entrance.The reptile coiled its body about the posts and pulled desperately to break away.Altogether, it was a wild night at this little remote telegraph station.

The next morning a crowd of natives collected; and as the python had by this time exhausted itself, they contrived to hoist its head as high as the roof of the hut and to secure its tail.

It was then lowered into a molasses hogshead, which was covered over and trussed up securely with ropes.

In this condition the python was drawn to Padang on a bullock cart.It is said to weigh more than four hundred pounds.

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ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY.

All of us who were singing "On the Road to Mandalay" a few years ago—and there were mighty few of us who let it alone vocally—will be a bit surprised to be informed that Rangoon, where the dawn comes up like thunder and other interesting things happen, looks to the approaching tourist like an up-to-date American business centre.

In fact, according to a writer, the capital of Burma has many American towns beat a mile in the civic improvement line."Its electric-lighted highways, all broad, neatly paved and well drained; its brilliantly illuminated boulevards, with rows of graceful, well-trimmed trees bordering both sides; its blocks of buildings, all laid out after a carefully considered plan, showing little of architectural beauty but much of austere regularity, astonish the stranger.

"When you take into consideration the fact that Rangoon has a system of parks and parkways with beautiful shade trees, choice flowers, and crystal lakes, artificial and natural, dotted about them, and that it provides breathing spaces for people living in congested districts, you cannot but form a good idea of the aliveness of the municipal corporation. A good horse-carriage service, now being rapidly superseded by the trolley, makes transportation easy and cheap. The city has provided splendid schools and playgrounds. Yet sixty years ago Rangoon was a mere fishing village."

One item from Mr. Kipling's picture of Rangoon referred to the elephants hauling teakwood in "the slushy, squdgy creek."Well, they are still at it, working with wonderful precision and an apparent sense of responsibility.They don't try to soldier, never get in one another's way or mixed up with the machinery, no matter how cramped they may be for room.

Some of them take the teak logs which have been floated down the river and tow them ashore.Then they drag them to the sawmills, either rolling them with one foot while they walk on three, pushing them with their tusks, or pulling them with a chain attached to a breast strap.

Inside the mill an elephant selects a log, picks it out with his tusks, kicks it up to the saw with his toes, then tying his trunk in a kind of knot around the log, holds it against the teeth of the saw while it is made into boards, pushing aside the outside slabs as they are cut off and adjusting the log to make boards of the proper thickness.

Then he piles the boards up neatly, standing off to examine the effect, and if he finds a board out of line carefully adjusting it.Sometimes a pair of elephants working together exchange peculiar grunts, as if they were giving and receiving directions.

They are used in Burma for various purposes.The young calves are ridden like horses, with a soft pad and stirrups.They are found especially valuable in bad country, and may be ridden fifty or sixty miles a day.A tap on the side of the head, a slight pressure of the knee, or a word whispered in the ear is all that is required to guide them.

It is not at all a difficult matter for an elephant in prime condition to outrun a fast horse, but they cannot jump.A deep ditch only six or seven feet wide is impassable to them.

Working elephants are in their prime when they are twenty-five years old.They are expensive to feed, it being declared in Rangoon that an elephant eats a quarter of his weight in feed every day.An average day's food for one is certainly eight hundred pounds.

Socially Burma is unlike other Oriental countries.Men and women—even young men and women—walk together in the streets and mingle in social gatherings.Courtship always precedes the marriage.

The Burmans are ardent lovers, and when a young man and woman find that their parents do not approve of the match they usually repair to the woods and return after a day or two as man and wife, sure of parental forgiveness.Marriage among Burmans is an extremely simple affair.The only ceremony performed is the eating together out of the same bowl of rice.Usually a feast is given to the relatives and friends of the families concerned.No sacrifices are offered, no services are performed.

The Burman wears a smile on his countenance, laughs and looks upon life through rose-colored spectacles.Both the women and the men wear rich-hued silken clothes.But while there is gayety there is no indecorum or impropriety.

For women Burma is a little heaven on earth, if we are to believe enthusiastic writers.Mrs. Burman is ubiquitous.Jewelry stores containing untold wealth in pearls, rubies, and other gems are in charge of women.Markets and fruit stalls are run by women.

At the railroad station a woman sells you the tickets and another one is ready to take dictation and to do your type-writing.Not long ago a woman stockbroker died leaving a fortune which she had made herself.But the Burmese woman does not let business interfere with motherhood.She runs the shop with one hand and the children with the other.

When she marries the woman retains her own name, and any property she may have inherited or acquired.When divorced she is expected to support her children, but this is no hardship for her, since she cared for them when she lived with her husband.The Burmese child rarely sees the father, but is brought up to look to its mother for guidance and support.

The Burmese woman takes a great interest in public affairs, and the portals of the University of Rangoon have been open to her for a number of years.Her intelligence, her beauty, her freedom from racial caste prejudice, all make her an acceptable bride in the eyes of foreigners who go to Burma.

Marriage with a foreigner means as a rule that she can live in plenty and comfort without working.Naturally she looks upon such a marriage with favor.The Burmans are of Mongolian origin, and consequently the Chinese and Burmese marriage produces a virile race.With this exception the intermixture of races in Burma has not proved desirable.

This is especially so in case of marriages between Europeans and Burmans.The offspring of such marriages are termed Eurasians, who unfortunately seem to be looked down upon both by full-blooded Europeans and Burmans.

Almost as difficult a problem as that of the Eurasian is the tobacco problem in Burma.Men, women, and children smoke.The cheroot at which they almost incessantly puff is eighteen inches long and about a quarter of an inch in diameter.It is wrapped in a banana leaf, and its mouthpiece consists of bamboo.The Burman tobacco is so strong that only one-fourth of the filling of the cheroot consists of tobacco.The balance is a mixture of innocuous herbs.

If possible the Burman exceeds other Asiatics in hospitality.He is par excellence the host of Asia.Any stranger may stroll into a Burman dwelling and demand hospitality for at least three days.No remuneration is expected.Opposite a Burmese house one usually finds earthen pots of water placed for the use of the traveler, under a roof especially made to shelter the water from the hot rays of the tropical sun.These pots are tightly covered with earthen lids, which protect the water from dirt and dust.

The social life of the Burmans is interesting in the extreme.They indulge in boxing matches, pony, bullock, and boat races, cock fighting, splitting cocoanuts, snake charming, and juggling.Chess and dominoes are the favorite games.Theatres are in great vogue.The plot of the play is usually somewhat monotonous, for almost invariably the hero is a prince of the blood royal, the heroine is a princess, and the rustics from the villages figure as clowns and jesters.

The dancing, though different from what it is in the Occident, is not without interest to a Westerner.The motions of the dancers are graceful and spry.Burman amusements last days and nights.The best known secular festival is the pwe.

The entertainment is melodramatic.Comedy and tragedy are introduced, music and dancing are included.The plot of the play is flimsy.The performance includes tricks of clowns who are masters of their art and intensely amusing.The musical instruments in the orchestra consist of a circle of drums, gongs, trumpets, and wooden clappers, and the music out-Wagners Wagner in its deafening noise.

Many religious festivals are celebrated.Probably the occasion when presents are distributed to the priests is the most interesting.The people bring their presents and pile them up outside an alley made of bamboo latticework.One brings candles, another matches, another brass vessels, etc., as though some previous arrangement had been made as to just what each one shall give.

For the most part the donors are women, and all of them are dressed in their best.The monks, attended by a boy carrying a large basket, pass down the bamboo alley in single file, and each basket is filled with presents.A trio of masqueraders with faces blackened, dancing to comic music, follows the procession.Anything that has not been distributed to the priests is gathered up by them.

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BUFFALO BILL STORIES

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425—Buffalo Bill's Balloon Escape; or, Out of the Grip of the Great Swamp.

426—Buffalo Bill and the Guerrillas; or, The Flower Girl of San Felipe.

427—Buffalo Bill's Border War; or, The Mexican Vendetta.

428—Buffalo Bill's Mexican Mix-up; or, The Bullfighter's Defiance.

429—Buffalo Bill and the Gamecock; or, The Red Trail on the Canadian.

430—Buffalo Bill and the Cheyenne Raiders; or, The Spurs of the Gamecock.

431—Buffalo Bill's Whirlwind Finish; or, The Gamecock Wins.

432—Buffalo Bill's Santa Fe Secret; or, The Brave of Taos.

433—Buffalo Bill and the Taos Terror; or, The Rites of the Red Estufa.

434—Buffalo Bill's Bracelet of Gold; or, The Hidden Death.

435—Buffalo Bill and the Border Baron; or, The Cattle King of No Man's Land.

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338—Working His Way Upward; or, From Footlights to Riches.By Fred Thorpe.

339—The Fourteenth Boy; or, How Vin Lovell Won Out.By Weldon J.Cobb.

340—Among the Nomads; or, Life in the Open.By the author of "Through Air to Fame."

341—Bob, the Acrobat; or, Hustle and Win Out.By Harrie Irving Hancock.

342—Through the Earth; or, Jack Nelson's Invention.By Fred Thorpe.

343—The Boy Chief; or, Comrades of Camp and Trail.By John De Morgan.

344—Smart Alec; or, Bound to Get There.By Weldon J.Cobb.

345—Climbing Up; or, The Meanest Boy Alive.By Harrie Irving Hancock.

346—Comrades Three; or, With Gordon Keith in the South Seas.By Lawrence White, Jr.

347—A Young Snake-charmer; or, The Fortunes of Dick Erway.By Fred Thorpe.

348—Checked Through to Mars; or, Adventures in Other Worlds.By Weldon J.Cobb.

349—Fighting the Cowards; or, Among the Georgia Moonshiners.By Harrie Irving Hancock.

350—The Mud River Boys; or, The Fight for Penlow's Mill.By John L.Douglas.

351—Grit and Wit; or, Two of a Kind.By Fred Thorpe.

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MOTOR STORIES

The latest and best five-cent weekly. We won't say how interesting it is. See for yourself. High art colored covers. Thirty-two big pages. Price, 5 cents.

16—Motor Matt's Quest; or, Three Chums in Strange Waters.

17—Motor Matt's Close Call; or, The Snare of Don Carlos.

18—Motor Matt in Brazil; or, Under the Amazon.

19—Motor Matt's Defiance; or, Around the Horn.

20—Motor Matt Makes Good; or, Another Victory for the Motor Boys.

21—Motor Matt's Launch; or, A Friend in Need.

22—Motor Matt's Enemies; or, A Struggle for the Right.

23—Motor Matt's Prize; or, The Pluck That Wins.

24—Motor Matt on the Wing; or, Flying for Fame and Fortune.

25—Motor Matt's Reverse; or, Caught in a Losing Game.

26—Motor Matt's "Make or Break"; or, Advancing the Spark of Friendship.

27—Motor Matt's Engagement; or, On the Road With a Show.

28—Motor Matt's "Short Circuit"; or, The Mahout's Vow.

29—Motor Matt's Make-up; or, Playing a New Rôle.

For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by

STREET & SMITH, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York

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STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City. Dear Sirs: Enclosed please find ___________________________ cents for which send me:
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MOTOR STORIES

Every boy who reads one of the splendid adventures of Motor Matt, which are making their appearance in this weekly, is at once surprised and delighted.Surprised at the generous quantity of reading matter that we are giving for five cents; delighted with the fascinating interest of the stories, second only to those published in the Tip Top Weekly.

Matt has positive mechanical genius, and while his adventures are unusual, they are, however, drawn so true to life that the reader can clearly see how it is possible for the ordinary boy to experience them.

HERE ARE THE TITLES NOW READY AND THOSE TO BE PUBLISHED:

1—Motor Matt; or, The King of the Wheel.

2—Motor Matt's Daring; or, True to His Friends.

3—Motor Matt's Century Run; or, The Governor's Courier.

4—Motor Matt's Race; or, The Last Flight of the "Comet."

5—Motor Matt's Mystery; or, Foiling a Secret Plot.

6—Motor Matt's Red Flier; or, On the High Gear.

7—Motor Matt's Clue; or, The Phantom Auto.

8—Motor Matt's Triumph; or, Three Speeds Forward.

9—Motor Matt's Air Ship; or, The Rival Inventors.

10—Motor Matt's Hard Luck; or, The Balloon House Plot.

11—Motor Matt's Daring Rescue; or, The Strange Case of Helen Brady.

12—Motor Matt's Peril; or, Cast Away in the Bahamas.

13—Motor Matt's Queer Find; or, The Secret of the Iron Chest.

14—Motor Matt's Promise; or, The Wreck of the "Hawk."

15—Motor Matt's Submarine; or, The Strange Cruise of the "Grampus."

16—Motor Matt's Quest; or, Three Chums in Strange Waters.

17—Motor Matt's Close Call; or, The Snare of Don Carlos.

18—Motor Matt in Brazil; or, Under the Amazon.

19—Motor Matt's Defiance; or, Around the Horn.

20—Motor Matt Makes Good; or, Another Victory for the Motor Boys.

21—Motor Matt's Launch; or, A Friend in Need.

22—Motor Matt's Enemies; or, A Struggle for the Right.

23—Motor Matt's Prize; or, The Pluck that Wins.

24—Motor Matt on the Wing; or, Flying for Fame and Fortune.

To be Published on August 9th.

25—Motor Matt's Reverse; or, Caught in a Losing Game.

To be Published on August 16th.

26—Motor Matt's "Make or Break"; or, Advancing the Spark of Friendship.

To be Published on August 23d.

27—Motor Matt's Engagement; or, On the Road With a Show.

To be Published on August 30th.

28—Motor Matt's "Short Circuit"; or, The Mahout's Vow.

PRICE, FIVE CENTS

At all newsdealers, or sent, postpaid, by the publishers upon receipt of the price.

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STREET & SMITH,

Publishers,

NEW YORK

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