THE EVENING STATESMAN — SEPTEMBER 3, 1907
ANOTHER CHAPTER FOR NATURE FAKER EDITION.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 3.—J. P. Melvin, of Redding, California, adds the following chapter to the “Nature Faker” incident:
“I have no disposition to enter the lists with President Roosevelt on natural history, because that is something I know very little about. But the recent declaration of the great English naturalist, the Rev. Theodore Wood, to the effect that some birds bind the broken or injured legs of their kind seems to give weight of authority against our wise president, who lately denied that allegation with some vehemence.
“When I was a boy, living back in Maryland, the case of a common black snake which had been cut in three pieces by a man in my father’s sawmill and afterward spliced and put together by a ‘doctor’ snake, came under my observation.
“I remember the remarkable occurrence very well. I saw the snake cut in the manner described and some hours later returning to the spot where the pieces lay. I observed the effort at mending and putting them together. A ‘doctor’ snake was doing the work, having already incased the joints in green brier leaves, which adhered to the wounds as if stuck by glue. “Such an instance as I have disclosed could be verified by many persons in the south, where the ‘doctor’ snake is often heard of.”
From— The Evening Statesman. (Walla Walla, Wash.), 03 Sept. 1907. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
