The Lamar register., 1906-03-07

munication and understanding De-
tween man and animals ever lnvestf
gated by scientists has come TO hshs
in eastern Alabama-in the section OIL
cotton country between Wedowee anu
Rockdale. The astounding reports
from the case have startled the stuu-
ents of psychology and the possibility
of the establishment of complete I'M
Outstanding between man and the
lower animals is suggested by the
facts of the case.
Howard Erwin, a 6-year-old boy, is
reported by competent authority, anu
the reports are substantiated wholly
or in part by the investigations recent
ly conducted, to be able to converse
with, to understand, and to make MIN
self understood perfectly by animals
of all kinds. BY some mysterious
power-not yet understood and not un-
derstood at all by himself, this boy.
otherwise a perfectly healthy and nor
NAL lad, holds long talks with cows,
with mules, with dogs, horses, sheep
cats-even with the barnyard fowls
and he understands and reports to MS
father or the others Just what the ami
mails want, all their grievances, their
slcknesses, and their wants.
Acts AZ Their Interpreter.
How he does it the boy does not
know The power. it seems, was born
in him. While fond of animals he
seems not to be more SO than any
healthy child, nor do they seem espe-
cially attached to him, with the excep
80 10 dog and
the relation he appears to bear to
them is simply that of friendly trans.
lator-or Intermediary between them
and their masters.
Nor has any one yet been able to
discover whether 1t is by spoken Ian
guage or by some mystic transference
of thoughts that they understand each
other. 1t is known that when he is
near an animal they both make sounds
occasionally, but he speaks nothing
tina. any one can understand nor does
connected or to have any meaning
whatever.
The discovery that the child is pos
sessed of strange power has thrown
a veil of mysticism and superstition
around him. The negroes avoid him
and watch him with a strange mix
ture of fear and admiration.
And also within the last six months
1t has been observed that his power of
communicating with the beasts of the
field appears to be waning-and those
who have studied the case declare that
within few years the strange power
will vanish entirely.
Could Read Minds of Humans.
When the child was just beginning
to toddle around the house it was no.
ticed he was not the same as other
children when he was in the presence
of human beings. He was extremely
intelligent from the time he first be-
gan to notice things-and he read the
minds of his mother and father and
his sister Lizzie before he could talk
The mother, who worked hard, had
little time to spend with him in play
and his companions were his sister,
three years older than he. and Trace,
the coon dog. The mother noticed
first that she did not have to speak to
her child when she wanted him to do
something. Often. she says. she
started to tell him it was time to take
a nap-and, before she could speak, he
either cried in protest against being
put to bed, or toddled towards the
trundle bed and rolled into it.
She is not a particularly bright wom-
an. nor yet one of much education, al
though she can read and write. but
even she puzzled her brain about the
child. And, when he learned to talk,
she noticed it still more.
Dog Tells Him the Truth.
One evening she and her husband
were sitting with the children on the
porch of their little home, when How
ard, who had been stretched out on
the floor, with his head on the dogs
body, wabbled to his feet and said:
NAV, Trace says the mule is in the
corn patch"
What will that child say next?'
asked Mrs. Erwin. Hes all the time
telling me what the dog says, or what
the pigs told him. l never saw such
a child. He must be crazy"
Half an hour later the mule was
found in the corn patch.
81 reckon the dog told the Riddle the
TRUTH" remarked the father when he
came back. Il reckon l ought to have
gone out then. Shouldn't be surprised
If old Jem had foundered herself"
After that the child's strange power
was watched with the greatest inter-