Hopping Mad

Our vision was obscured by flying fur when we ran a photograph in last October’s Readers’ Album which purported to show jack rabbits fleeing a dust storm down the main street of a Kansas town. Among our readers who pulled the fur away was Thomas P. Elliott, president of the Barnes County Historical Society in North Dakota, who wrote us:

“Your picture has been doctored by taking part of a photo of a rabbit hunt, and cropping it to fit on the photo of a Kansas main street in the 1930’s. A close look reveals the croppingjob and the fact that the shadows of the rabbits are on the left side, while the shadows of the men to the left of the picture fall to the right. Also, the buildings on the right side of the street do not cast a left shadow, as one could reasonably expect.” Warren Johnson, who had sent us the photograph, explained that this particular picture was very much like one he had taken in the thirties, and that the two had become mixed up in his files: “Since I have moved several times over the years,” he wrote, “I probably threw away all the old pictures and negatives. Forty years is a long time back and they all fade in time. But as you know, we can all make mistakes.”

Amen.