The Press: Star v. Snakes

That President George Baker Longan of the Kansas City Star hates and fears snakes has long been known (TIME, Aug. 8, 1930). Star editors and reporters are under strict orders to keep snakes out of its columns at almost any cost. Last week newsmen had two new, choice Star v. snake anecdotes to savor.

Fortnight ago three-year-old Donald Richardson left Kansas City General Hospital after being cured of Purpura hemorrhagica (capillary bleeding) by injections of cottonmouth venom. The Kansas City Journal-Post related in newsworthy detail how the poison thickened the blood and stopped seepage through the ruptured vessels. The Star merely stated that Donald had been cured by injections of "venom," left it up to readers to guess whether the venom came from Cleopatra's asp or a chemist's test tube.

Earlier this month the Star omitted "My Day" by Eleanor Roosevelt, printed a curt paragraph explaining that "a visit Mrs. Roosevelt made yesterday to a reptile farm in Sarasota, Fla., contained no information the Star believes its readers would enjoy. . . ." Not until last week did Mrs. Roosevelt learn the reason her column was dropped—the Star's old snake taboo. She had devoted a paragraph to telling how rattlers and moccasins are "milked" for medical purposes.