COVER STORY
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first glance at her clear-cut features, her tight-fitting costume of high-laced
Roman boots, black silk tights, Hussar coat of black and gold revealing the
Junoesque proportions of a body which instinctively reminded one of the
fabled Amazons.”
Zora herself knew she was physically up to the job, saying she was “160
pounds of strong muscle, bone and sinew.” While they lived with the circus,
the Alispaws dreamed of leaving and settling down on a piece of property
out West. They had saved up money, as well as diamonds, which the itinerant
troupe used like a savings account.
‘NOT FOR ALL THE GOLD’
When they made the decision to leave, Zora declared that she would
never return to the circus. “Not for all the gold that is beneath the moon,”
she told a reporter.
Snyder, who was attached like a child to Zora, grieved and trumpeted for
days after she left. “If an elephant loves you, he loves you with his soul, heart
and hide,” she wrote. After a number of new trainers, Snyder finally rebelled.
He went berserk and was put down in a blaze of gunfire, forever giving him
the notorious label “Snyder, the man killer.”
In December 1917, the Alispaws traded their diamonds for homestead
property in the mountains of northwest Colorado. They survived that first
winter in a dirt-floor log cabin where solitude was the greatest danger.
CABIN FEVER
Zora admitted to a case of cabin fever so bad her husband hid the guns in
a snowdrift. Circus life had meant living with other people around the clock.
Now only Zora’s pet horses and a cow were around to keep them company.
The two rallied, however. Zora headed the local Red Cross and staged
entertainments for the war effort. Their cabin became a showplace, filled
with chintz-covered furniture and fine linens. She served meals made of
vegetables from her garden.
Zora poses for a photo while working for the Sells-
Floto Circus in 1913. She described herself as “160
>> pounds of strong muscle, bone and sinew.’’
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17