The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1906-03-30
A Boy Talks With Animals.

The New York Herald publishes the
following curious story:
Perhaps the strangest case OF communl-
cation and understanding between man
and animals ever investigated by scientists
has come to light in Eastern Alabama-in
the section of the cotton country between
Wedowee and Rockdale. The astounding
reports from the case have startled the
students of psychology, and the possibility
of the establishment of complete under
standing between man and the lower ami
mails is suggested by the facts of the case.
Howard Erwin, 6-year-old boy, is
reported by competent authority, and the
reports are substantiated wholly or in part
by the Investigations recently conducted,
to be able to converse with, to understand
and to make himself understood perfectly
by animals of all kinds. By some mys-
FERROUS power-not yet understood and not
understood at all by himself-this boy,
otherwise perfectly healthy and normal
lad, holds long talks with cows, with mules,
with dogs, horses, sheep, cats-even with
the barnyard fowls-and he understands
and reports to his father or the others Just
what the animals want, all their griev-
ances, their sickness and their wants
How he does it the boy does not know
The power, it seems, was born in him Z.
While fond of animals, he seems not to be
more so than any healthy child, nor do
they seem especially attached to him, with
the exception of Trace, his old coon dog,
and the relation he appears to bear to them
is simply that of friendly translator or
intermediary between them and their mas
tiers.
Nor has anyone yet been able TO dis
cover whether 1t Is spoken language 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 that anyone can understand, nor
does the alleged language sound in any way
connected or to have any meaning what
ever
The discovery that the child is possessed
of a strange power has thrown veil of
mysticism and superstition around him.
The negroes avoid him and watch him with
a strange mixture Of fear and admiration.
When the child was just beginning to
toddle around the house it was noticed he
was not the same as other children when
he was in the presence Of human beings
He was extremely intelligent from the time
be first began to notice things-and lac
read the minds Of his mother and father
aud 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, 3 years older
;han 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 s&ys, 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 ,oiiled toward the trundlc bed and
role,f into it,
She Is not a particularly bright woman
uOr vet one Of much education. although
she can read and write, but even she pug
Eled her brain about the child. Aud.
when he learned to talk, she noticed it still
more
One evening she and her husband were
sitting wilh the children on the porch Of
their h,tle home. when Howard. who had
been stretched OUT on III, floor with hi,
head 10 the iu.'. BODY. wabbled 10 hi.
tee, aud said NAV. Trace SAYS the
nlule Is in the corn patch. "
nWha, viii the child say nextY asked
Mrs. Erwin. Hes al the time telling
me What the do. saws ar what the ria.
told him. never saw such a child lie
must Do crazy.
Half an hoar later the mule was found
in the corn ratch.
NAV said Howard another day
Trace says he had a i'm. Inn. k,llin,.
sheen the other pirbt
Listen to the boy said the mother
The idea Of Traes killip, sheen WIZ
there ain apy sheen arynnd here excan,
Mr. Tomlfson and non. If them ha.
been Killed
well ar.ue,l the bay he ,,vs him
and ,be Marion 3,y kilaj ~, 49,, IL
MIR Tsmlf.,n. ls,ck ,,s,ur, ;,
And the nsx, day the e,r,.,s.,, If ,vo
sheer wer,. found IN The bo.bes =, ,ha