Evening star., 1946-08-17
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trace,yeu
FALLS CHURCH, Va.

d.
Dear Sir:
For two consecutive wears I have
been visited by a full-grown black
snake, which made his annual call late in
July. leaving his card or cardigan as
concrete evidence lying on the ledge
extending from the upper portion of
the fireplace
This seasons visit was observed from
the back porch. just as he slithered
through an opening in the fiagstone
walk toward the foundation The open
ing was made by a skunk during his
Information period last year.
The snake was observed esrlv in
May, coiled around growth of wild
huckleberry bushes, having emerged
from his winter hideout with his true
skin, and I am told by old timers that
1t is customary for them to shed such
skin in midsummer, which shedding
process causes the snake to be irritable
and itchy, and he seeks the roughness
Of the bark of trees, stonework or
ledge to work off the integument
Although I have been warned
against snakes during my 10 years resi-
dence in these woods, have failed to
see but this one and learn that he is
HdTIHleSS unless attacked.
One neighbor said that her grand
father felt very hurt when his hired
man killed blacksnake in the barn.
1t was kept there to catch mice and
rats. So I find myself on the lookout
but unsfraid of the blacksnake, which
strengthens my theory of live and let
live. Sincerely, o. E. c."
The District of Columbia and nearby
Maryland and Virginia are not in the
same class exactly with Ireland, which
Is supposed to have no snakes at all
but they come pretty close to it.
One may wander for years in the
suburbs and parks, and even in the
open farmlands without finding snakes
of any sort.
Occasionally one of the pretty little
ring snakes gets into house, or is seen
scurrying into a wood pile
Mostly residents of the suburban
areas. even recently established COM
munities, fail to find snakes, though
they may look for them assiduously
enough.
In moving to the suburbs, they seem
to be going into the deep country. At
least that is the way it seems to a per-
son just out of an apartment or row
house
There are, indeed, many snaky look
ing places, but about the nearest to
crawler to ever issue from them is
hoptoad, now and then, or field mouse
AS for toads, they are almost extinct
in and around the city, except in some
old streets where plenty of trees make
for a proper toad habitat.
The only toad we ever saw in the
District was in Georgetown.
This fellow liked the concrete side
walk He would come out in the hot
evenings and catch himself flies and
others.
The old superstition about toads and
warts is unfounded Nobody knows ex-
actly what causes warts, but it may be
believed that hoptoads have very little
to do with it.
Toads are more acceptable to most
persons than snakes. They are good
insect scavengers, and should never be
harmed.
Snakes come in the scavenger class,
too, accounting for many inimical ro-
dents. Nature seems to have way and
scale of values all her own.
If we interfere too much, where we
should let things rest, we run the dan
ger of upSetting this natural balance.
But since man is an interfering crea-
ture, he mostly fails to let alone the
hawks, snakes, toads and other crea-
lures which. In the main, play an i'm
portant part in the chain of life.
Perhaps some day man will learn to
establish a SIRE set of values Certainly
he has had enough time already to do
this, but since he SO often accepts his
ideas ready made, he has yet to make
the idea of '1et alone" part of his
scheme of things. When he does, maybe
he will let his fellow man alone and
thus end wars.