46 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



circle, that Hans was an "impostor," that he could not "think," 

 and that his mind was nothing much after all. 



Poor Hans! The glory that should have been his, and 

 imperishable, is gone. He was the victim of scientists of one 

 idea, who had no sense of proportion. He truly was a think- 

 ing horse; and we are sure that there are millions of men whose 

 minds could not be developed to the point that the mind of 

 that "dumb" animal attained, — no, not even with the aid of 

 hypnotism and telepathy. 



The bare fact that a horse can be influenced by occult 

 mental powers proves the close parallelism that exists between 

 the brains of men and beasts. 



The Trap-Door Spider. Let no one suppose for one 

 moment that animal mind and intelligence is limited to the 

 brain-bearing vertebrates. The scope and activity of the 

 notochord in some of the invertebrates present phenomena far 

 more wonderful per capita than many a brain produces. 

 Interesting books have been written, and more will be written 

 hereafter, on the minds and doings of ants, bees, wasps, spiders 

 and other insects. 



Consider the ways and means of the ant-lion of the East, 

 and the trap-door spider of the western desert regions. As one 

 object lesson from the insect world, I will flash upon the screen, 

 for a moment only, the trap-door spider. This wonderful insect 

 personage has been exhaustively studied by Mr. Raymond L. 

 Ditmars, in the development of a series of moving pictures, and 

 at my request he has contributed the following graphic descrip- 

 tion of this spider's wonderful work. 



"The trap-door spiders, inhabiting the warmer portions of 

 both the Old and New Worlds, dig a deep tunnel in the soil, 

 line this with a silken wallpaper, then construct a hinged 

 door at the top so perfectly fitted and camouflaged with soil, 

 that when it is closed there is no indication of the burrow. 

 Moreover, the inside portion of the door of some species is so 

 constructed that it may be "latched," there being two holes 



