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Harris Dickson tells President Roosevelt that their mutual friend Leo Shields appears to still be of the opinion that he found a stinging snake. Dickson knows that from Shields’s persistence, if there is a stinging snake somewhere in the swamps, he will find it. Dickson is now in North Carolina.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-12
Harris Dickson sadly writes to President Roosevelt to report that the snake that Leo Shields caught, claiming it had a stinger, does not have a sting. Raymond Lee Ditmars classified the specimen as a farancia abacura (commonly known as a mud snake), and Dickson directs Roosevelt what page of a book to find a picture of it on. He says he is afraid their friend Shields “is a nature fakir, although he means well.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-26
Harris Dickson informs President Roosevelt that he recently stayed with Leo Shields, who claims to have caught and killed a stinging snake. As Roosevelt does not believe such an animal exists, Shields has given Dickson the preserved animal to show to Roosevelt in order to prove that he is not a “nature fakir.” Dickson will be in Washington, D.C. on June 21 or 22, and would be happy to either send Roosevelt the snake or stop by in person.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-17