Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1907-09-23
DARWIN As A NATURE FAkER.
How Does Mr.. Roosevelt Regard the
Great EvoIutionist's Animal
Stories?

occupied the columns of magazines
land newspapers for several months
part relative to President Roosevelt's
attack on nature fakers," am
prompted to ask attention to a few
facts which have come to us from
standard authorities. President Roose-
Welt is undoubtedly a great man and
thoroughly informs himself on SUBJ
jects he ventures to discuss before he
bares his breast to the arrows of crit
les he frankly challenges.
| Nevertheless, there are certain
things which naturalists of undisput-
ed recognition. and, indeed. of the
highest authority. have told us about
animals that should. il would seem,
rouse the righteous indignation of our
noble chief. According to the canon
of criticism which seems to prevail,
any act of animals which approaches
the wisdom or acumen of human be-
ings is to be disavowed on the ground
that being devoid of souls, they can
have no genuine intelligence. There
seems to be some danger that the the
1 illogical scheme of salvation would
be forced to make room in heaven for
the illimitable hosts of the inferior
kingdoms should it ever be demon
strated that they possess souls. lit
with CLEAN of divine intelligence,
ga s,,cb o., ;ss,,a wight no embar.
r,ssiny m The Iir,i,ed canacitv of the
rrar,,o,s IN tho sties RESTRICTED IN
the tenancy of suppliant and repent
an, sinners However embarrassing
IL may be to any archaeological fore
g,,mn.s of human fate. 4, cannot he
denied thar some remarkable facts
have heen voucbed for nv indisput-
able authorities that speak eloquent
~ of the exceptional humanlike INTEL
lligence of the lower animals.
For instance. IL would seem to be
quite as UNIQUE and humanlike an act
as the binding of a birds broken leg
with splints devised by some avian
genius that certain mice should enjoy
such a cultivated sense of harmony
that they would sing together in tune
| full unison. Nevertheless, describing
such a rodential musical recitation a
critic saws: THE last bar would fire.
quently be prolonged to two or three.
and she would sometimes change
from c sharp and d to natural and
ID. then MARBLE on these two notes a
4 Nnlle, ana Nlflu WIFI a
on c sharp and D." This acute critic
went SO far as TO take down the mu-
steal notation of the performance.
which he avouches as the actual work
of the vocal rodents.
Another extraordinarily fortunate
critic attended a concert rendered by
gibbons. aniamls that do not naturally
sing, and speaking of il he saws: 1T
appeared to me that in ascending and
descending the scale. the intervals
were always exactly half tone: .
. The quality of the notes is very
pure. and I have no doubt that a good
violinist would be able to give a cor
rect idea of the gibbons composition -
If these are fake stories. they at
least, as | shall soon show. come from
high source.
Again this same authority declares
that the following remarkable situa-
ton ensued when two chimpanzees
were brought together. never having
seen each other before. For a mo-
ment they rested in silence. eyeing one
another apprehensiyely. But soon
/ they placed their arms upon each
others shoulders as IL to test the sud-
den friendship; then. feeling the thrill
of mutual ioy. threw out their arms.
and. rubbing their far-protruding tins
together, embraced one another with
vigorous hug. Then. standing I'M.
their arms still mutually encircled
they lifted up their voices with a ire
mendous veil of delight, Could any,
thing be more human than that? II is
no modern mature faker" however.
who is narrating these curious incl
dents. II is none other than CharIes
Darwin, as any one NAV discover by
reading his Descent of Man" or his
Animals and Plants Under Domesti-
cation"
But one who has read Romane's
Animal Intelligence" and recalls how
wonderfully human and Ingenious
were the tricks his NET ane nerformed.
how unioue and original were the de-
vices he would invent to relieve him
self from acknowledgements. will not be
| altogether COMPOUNDED by the stories
of these awful nature takers.
Do you remember that wonderful
cebus of Romane's? Here is only one
little thing he did among many more
quite as amazing: He happened on
hearth brush, the handle of which
screwed into the brush. Although he