[Illustration: 1853. AGE 20.] [Illustration: 1865. AGE 32.] [Illustration: 1873. AGE 40.] [Illustration: 1877. AGE 44.] [Illustration: TO-DAY. AGE 60.] JULES VERNE. [Illustration: 1848. AGE 20.] [Illustration: 1858. AGE 30.] [Illustration: 1868. AGE 40.] [Illustration: 1886. AGE 58.] SOME PROFESSIONAL ADVENTURES OF KARL HAGENBECK. BY RAYMOND BLATHWAYT. As Karl Hagenbeck stood with me, in his Hamburg Wild Beast Emporium, before the great cage of the boa constrictors and pythons, he naturally fell to relating some of the curious adventures that have befallen him with snakes and other brutes. There was a great ugly looking boa constrictor coiled up in a corner by itself, a most repulsive looking animal. "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said Mr. Hagenbeck, looking fondly on him. "He swallowed four whole sheep in one day, and only nine days after that he got another, and seemed to enjoy it as much as if he had been fasting for months. Come and look at this cage, where you can see a revengeful member of the species. He once had a companion, but now he's alone through his own fault. He and his companion were peculiarly fond of rabbits, and we threw one into their cage one day. They both darted for it, and, while the poor little shivering animal crept into a corner in a fright, the snakes quarrelled as to whose 'bonne bouche' the rabbit was to be. The smaller one won, and this great wretch retired to a corner and watched his foe devour the rabbit, and then lie down in that state of repleteness which it is the highest ambition of these great snakes to attain. The big fellow then, seeing his rival's helpless condition, roused himself, and a moment afterwards he vigorously attacked the creature that lay gorged in the corner. We all rushed to see what would happen, and I declare to you, that in a very short time the big snake had swallowed the small snake, rabbit and all." "Would you like to see them in action?" said Mr. Hagenbeck to me, and, as he spoke, he opened a cage door and boldly stepped in amongst a number of big sleepy reptiles. He coolly began lifting them up by their enormous coils, just as one would lift up great coils of rope, and there was soon a mighty stirring amongst the previously inert masses. They writhed to and fro, their scales glittering in the pale light of the winter sun, and with a great hissing, an irritated rearing back of their heads and a constant projection of their long forked tongues, they began to move about the cage--a hideous, mixed-up mass of repulsive life, that made one involuntarily step back from their bars. "You don't like the look of them," said Mr. Hagenbeck, with a smile, as he stepped out and rejoined me. "They are queer fellows, certainly, and gave me a big fright once." "I should have imagined more than once," I said, as we turned from the ugly mass of twisted snakes.