Old as the Kansas City Star itself is its reputation for taboos. Its late great founder William Rockhill Nelson 50 years ago kept a list of persons who must not be mentioned in the Star's columns. Moreover, Colonel Nelson being portly, no Star cartoonist dared caricature a fat man. The present-day taboo of the Star and its morning running-mate, the Times, is less explicable, more picturesque. For reasons of his own Publisher George Baker Longan will not permit snakes to be pictured or mentioned.
Untrue is the longstanding legend of the Star office...