The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1907-08-26
THE PRESIDENT
COMES BACK
SAYS NATuRE F4lSEss ARE OF
gEcIsloF 81 Risiois p5gER=
VEIL sAc CTS.

sJsSs sATgRE FAKE Rs ARE or
5EcIsoF pE 7islc ss sEE
vEKI CTS!
IN Eyeryb Tor s. pteTn ber
dent Roosevelt renews his stack : On "a
sW. ]. Long ana other alleged saatnPe
Takers man article over his own y SIG
mature. fhe II esident Ignores Dr.
Long, reply to his arst attack ae ets /
ling that there can be no more p
icontroyersy between real students ri q
mature and the takers than thersceu, "
he between gnlIne scIntists and the
IifabficatoFs OF the cardtf Giant He
says inBp9rt:
The modern nature takeT ls 81.
course an object Of derision to every.
scientist worthy Of the name, tosyelE'y
real loyerof the wilderness, to every
faunal naturalist, to every true hunt.
er or nature lover. But il is evident
that he completely decelves many
good people who are wholly Ignorant
Of wild life. Sometimes he draws on
his own Imagination for his fctions;
sometimes he gets them secondhand
from irresponsible guides or trappers
or Indians
I'm the Wilderness, as elsewhere,
there are some persons who do not.
regard the truth; and these are the
very persons who most delight TO ill.
credulous Strangers with impossible.
stories Of wild beasts. AS for Indian,
they live in world Of mysticism, and
they often ascribe supernatural. traits
to the annals they know, just as the
men Of the Middle Ages. with almost
the same childRlke faith, credited the
,marvels told Of the unicorn, the basil
isk, the roc, and the cockatrice.
"of all these nature takers the
most reckless and least responsible is
Mr.. Long; but there are Others who
run him close in the yellow Journal
ism of tile woods, as John Burroughs
has aptly called it, 1t would take a
volume merely to catalogue the comic
absurdities with which the books Of
these writers are filled. There Is no.
need of discussing their theories; the
point is that their alleged facts are.
not facts at all, but fancies. Their
most striking stories are not merely
distortions Of facts, but pure inyen-
lions; and not only are they inyen-
lions, but they are inventions by men
who know SO little of the subject con-
corning which they write, and who to.
ignorance and such utter recklessness,
that they are not even able to distin-
guish between what is possible, how
ever wildly improbable, and mechanl-
cal impossibillties. Be it remember
ed that am not speaking Of ordinary
mistakes, Of ordinary errors Of obser-
walton, Of differences Of Interpretation
and opinion, but deliberate perver-'
sion of fact
1T is not probable that the writer's
in question have even SO much as
seen some Of the animals which they
minutely describe. They certainly do
not know the frst thing about their
habits, nor even about their physical.
structure, Judging from the internal
evidence Of their books, / should gf1aye-
". doubt II they had ever seen avid
wolf OF avid lynx. The wolves and
lynxes and other animals which they
describe are full brothers Of the wild
beasts that appear in Uncle Remus'
and 'Reynard the Fox, and deserve
the same serious consideration from
the geological STANDPOINT.
ut is hald amusing and half exas-
perating to think that there should
be excellent persons toswhom I'll nee
,essary to explain that books stuffed,
with such stories, in which the stories
are stated as facts, are preposterous
in their worthlessnes. Thee worthy
persons wildly call to mind Professor
[Lounsburys comment on the Infinite,
capacity Of the human brain to With
stand the Introduction Of knowledge.
The books in question contain no
statements which have already long
been known as established by trust
worthy writer's. The fables they con
tain bear the same relation to real nat
ural history that Barnum's famous ar.
tificial mermead bore to real fish and
real mammals. No mn who has really
studied nature in a spirit of seeking
the truth, whether he be big or little;
can have any controversy with these
writer's; it would be as absurd as to
expect some genuine student Of anthro-
poloby or archaeology to enter into a
controversy with the clumsy fabrica-
tors Of the Cardiff Giant Their
books carry their own refutation; and