Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-02
PROPAGANDA for the conserva,

a PROPAGANDA for the conserva-
IN ton of snakes would carry with
1t an unpleasant sensation to
most men and women. whether they are
country or city bred, so deep and per-
sistert is their fear of and hostility to
snakes Yet for long time the NUM-
Der of the friends of snakes has beer
growing under the leadership of me
who have made close study of thes'
forms of animal life. Strong effort
are being made and it is said are meet
ing with success, TO point out that ven
omous or harmful snakes are very few
compared with the number of those
that are perfectly harmless, and that
it is very easy to make distinction be-
tween those that are harmful and those
that are not.
The harmless snakes, it is pointed out
by all the authorities on the subject,
have valuable functions in the scheme
of things and in the economy of nature
and should not be destroyed Allen
Samuel Williams, director of lnterna-
tional Psychological Society, has writ
ten: My own experience of score of
years in teaching people truths about
reptiles has convinced me that the COM
mon fear of and repugnance to reptiles
is not natural or even hereditary, but
acquired. An evidence is that hun
dreds of tests | have made prove that
little children are usually unafraid of
serpents, readily touching them. and
then taking them in their hands and
studying them with interest and de-
light
This student of reptiles has said that
because of the nonsense prevalent
about snakes, persons of all ages pre-
tend to justify themselves in slaughter
ing them, almost invariably in an un-
necessarily cruel manner. The boy
whose torture of harmless reptile is
approved, even applauGed, by his ig-
norant or heartless seniors is thus en-
couraged to extend his cruelty to birds
and mammals
1t was written some time ago in
Our Dumb Animals that there are
two great agencies which for years
have been teaching New England boys
to spare and be kind to harmless
reptiles. They are the two model
great state camps Beckett and Durrell,
of the Massachusetts, and Rhole Island
Young Mems Christian Association. Ii
was said that annual provision is
made for specific instruction TO the
boy campers about reptiles and their
economic values. and strong emphasis
is laid upon the ethical phase of the
subject. The result of such instruc-
tlO!l Is TO prevent any itdueI VI cam per
at Beckett or Durrell from killing
snake. Instead, every snake that ap-
pears as "A visitor is made to feel that
IL Is a welcome guest and is fed
watered. sheltered and fellowshipped
by the campers. The boys do not wait
for the snakes to call either, but go
out into the highways and byways and
gather them in. The boys, when they
return home, extend this knowledge
and attitude to their parents and
friends. and thus this leaven con-
stantly working is helping to revo-
lutionize popular knowledge about
reptiles in the two states.
1t has been repeatedly written by
naturalists in Washington that the
only venomous snake in this locality
is the copperheaG, and means of recog-
nizing this serpent on sight have been
given all possible publicity. There
is no record of rattlesnake having
been found around Washington within
the memory of man, and the water
moccasin" is said to be a myth, that
snake being a southern species, and ii
should not be COMPOUNDED with the
various non-poisonous water snakes
that are quite numerous along the
Potomac and Eastern branch and the
many streams that flow into those
rivers. Those naturalists who have
taken up the cause of the harmless
snake are positive in their assurance
that the time is coming when con-
servation statutes will recognize the
will protect them for the farmers