Post by Morgan Sierra on Apr 15, 2011 12:51:31 GMT -6
The Legend of Old Rip
Can a horned-toad survive for thirty-one years without food, water or air, and with only a Bible for company? That was the question many Texans were asking back in 1928 when the cornerstone of the old Eastland County courthouse was about to be opened. The horned-toad was inside.
How he got there is a mystery, as is how he could possibly survive a three decade entombment, but that is only part of a much larger story, one that would ultimately involve thousands of people throughout the state of Texas, and a horned-toad traveling a nationwide publicity tour that culminated in a visit to the White House and a meeting with the President of the United States.
It all began in 1897 when Eastland County officials decided they needed a new brick courthouse to replace the aging stone structure which had been serving as the county seat since 1875. The old building was demolished and the site was prepared for the new one. On the day construction was to begin a large celebration was planned to commemorate the event. Officials would give speeches, a band would play a number of selections and the cornerstone for the new building would be leveled.
It is an engineering custom to place objects in the cornerstone, which is a hollow block of stone that serves as a sort of time-capsule to remain sealed until the destruction of the building. Items included usually consist of such things as letters, coins, tokens, jewelry or other inanimate pieces that could contribute to future posterity. This is what county clerk and band musician Ernest E. Wood was thinking about as he hurried home on that fateful day of July 29, 1897 to retrieve his instrument. He wanted something he could contribute but could not decide exactly what it should be. As he was leaving his house he spied his young son, Will, playing in the front yard with a horned-toad, a common practice of children in those days.
The horned-toad, or horned-frog as it is known in parts of Texas, is not actually a frog at all. It is a reptile. Its official name is the Texas horned-lizard, a diminutive cousin of the iguana family. These critters once roamed the Texas countryside by the millions, scurrying under rocks and logs, hiding in burrows and crevices and trying to avoid the groping hands of young boys who considered the little lizards to be ideal pets. The animals were generally docile and reclusive, not at all aggressive or dangerous, and not usually prone to perform remarkable feats which would draw upon them fame, fortune and the accolades of millions of people.
There is one horned-frog , however, that managed to do that very thing, beginning when Mr. Wood snatched the animal up off the ground and carried it in his pocket to the festivities. Arriving there in time to witness the laying of the stone he convinced a friend that his newly-acquired horned-lizard would make a perfect addition to the stone's contents, although neither of the men could explain how the animal would contribute to future posterity, except maybe to test an experiment.
A Dallas Morning News article had recently claimed that horned-frogs could live for extended periods of time, possibly even as much as a hundred years! The article theorized that the lizards could enter a period of suspended animation that would allow them to survive without food or water. It was well known that they performed this feat every year during the blustery winter months, so why not for even longer periods of time?
With this as inspiration, the horned-frog was deposited into the cornerstone along with a Bible, the only other addition. The metal cover was then tapped into place and sealed with mortar.
Thirty-one long years went by and the citizens of Eastland County found themselves once again in need of a new courthouse. The 1897 structure was in such a sad state that expensive repairs were deemed necessary. In addition, Eastland had become an area of intensive oil-drilling activity and the old courthouse was insufficient to handle the increase in official business. The County Commissioner once again decided that a new building was in order and the old one was to be torn down.
As the demolition day approached rumors began to circulate about the cornerstone's hidden occupant. Was it possible that the creature had survived all of those years? If not, had any of his remains been preserved? After three decades nobody was even sure if the event had actually even taken place. If it was true, then a legend could be in the making. Could a horned-toad survive for thirty-one years without food, water or air?
Scientists have long heard tales of supposedly extinct creatures surviving while encased in stone. Many of these cases have been documented over the centuries but the exact cause of it has never been proven.
In 1761 The Annual Register, a French scientific journal, published a series of articles about animals being recovered from within solid stone. Most of these unfortunate creatures were petrified but at least one was reported to have survived intact. In the late sixteenth century, Ambroise Pare, a French surgeon was supervising the breaking up of some large stones by quarrymen when from within one of the stones hopped a large toad. As if finding a toad in a stone were not unusual enough, this one was said the be "full of life."
In 1818, Dr. Edward Clarke, a geologist, found three well-preserved newts in a chalk quarry. He carefully dug them out and placed them on a newspaper in the sun. As Dr. Clarke watched in astonishment the newts began to move! Two of them quickly died but the third was so energetic that Clarke carried it to a nearby pond where the animal showed its appreciation by promptly escaping. The newts were described as being different from any living newts and were presumably an extinct species.
In 1851 in Blois, France, a workman opened a large piece of flint with a pickax and found a toad inside. The cavity the animal was in was fitted exactly to the toad's body, except for a small area above the back. The creature and its rocky home were later sent to the local Society of Sciences for study.
In 1853 a horned-lizard was found in New Mexico in a block of stone "so solid as to preclude the entrance of the smallest insect." It was later sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The lizard lived for two days after its release.
In 1865 a living toad was freed from a block of limestone twenty-five feet below ground. A local geologist expressed the opinion that the toad and the rock he was quarried from were six-thousand years old!
Along with these chance discoveries some interesting experiments have been conducted. In 1825 Dr. Frank Buckland, Dean of Westminster, buried twelve toads in a block of limestone sealed with a sheet of glass. Exhuming the toads a year later he discovered that several were still alive. Unfortunately, the glass had cracked and this cast a shadow of doubt over the validity of the experiment since it was conceivable that water and insects could have entered into the cavity providing sustenance for the toads.
Another experiment was undertaken by a Frenchman in 1862 in order to test the theory. He encased twenty live toads in plaster molds and buried them in the ground. Twelve years later he was rewarded with the realization that several of them were still alive.
Could the Eastland County horned-toad pull of the same miraculous feat?
Anticipation of the frog's emergence and a surge of publicity caused people to flock to the courtyard square in droves. This was helped in part by a death-penalty murder trial, the last the old courthouse would ever hold. Estimates put the number of people in attendance at between 1500 to 3000. County officials, aware that the whole thing might be a hoax and determined not to be duped, recruited some of the county's most forthright citizens to witness the opening. The list included County Judge E. S. Pritchard, who was to preside over the ceremonies, and several local ministers, including Reverend F. E. Singleton who was slated to be the first to verify the contents of the stone.
First the Reverend inspected the stone to be sure the seal was still intact. Then a workman began chipping away at the mortar.
Ernest Wood, who was still very much alive and in attendance that day called out, "If there's a horned-toad inside it's mine!"
The crowd laughed then held their breaths as the cover was removed and the esteemed Reverend peered inside. After a few anxious moments he announced that he could see the toad. Each of the other witnesses also verified that the body of the animal was there. Then a local businessman, Eugene Day, reached in and pulled the little horned fellow out. The frog was flat and crusty and appeared to be very dead. The body was then passed along to Judge Pritchard who held it up for everybody to see.
Suddenly the crowd gasped in astonishment...a few people screamed...one lady fainted dead away! The frog began to move! Its legs twitched, its mouth opened, it inhaled a huge gulp of air and puffed up to its normal size. The horned-frog was alive!
The town-folk quickly gave the little lizard a name, Old Rip, after Rip Van Winkle, a legendary character who supposedly slept for ten years. The horned-frog had done even better. Somehow Old Rip managed to survive a thirty-one year ordeal and in doing so was soon carried away with the euphoria of the crowd into the annals of the history books...but not without some controversy.
Critics cried fraud and pointed to businessman Day as the perpetrator. It was theorized that a bit of sleight-of-hand had been enacted and that the real dead toad had been replaced with a live impostor. Since Day had his coat on when he reached into the stone he could easily have hidden a lizard up his sleeve and substituted it at the proper moment. There are, however, several problems with this theory. While horned-frogs may be found happily running amok during the heat of summer they tend to make themselves scarce in the winter. On a cold February day a toad would have been hibernating in some inaccessible crack or crevice and any potential practical joker would have had a hard time finding one.
There is also the veracity of the witnesses to contend with. All of the men present had a clear view of the proceedings and while it is possible they may have played along with the prank in the name of good fun it is doubtful that three devout men of cloth would carry the truth to their graves. Of course, this controversy could have been avoided if Reverend Singleton had retrieved the animal as he had rolled up his sleeves in preparation to do.
There are other theories about how a switch could have been performed. Mr. James Dabney, a long-time resident of Eastland, claimed that members of the construction crew were involved. Supposedly the night before the ceremony a few workers had gone to the site to make sure everything was ready. The men were curious about the contents of the stone so they opened it and found a Bible. As they were preparing to close the stone one of the men discovered a horned-toad and casually pitched him inside, thus ensuring the outcome of the legend.
This also remains doubtful since the stone, along with a small portion of the wall it was attached to, appeared to be undisturbed and intact when examined before the ceremony. Add to that the previously mentioned scarcity of wintering reptiles as well as the improbability of night-working laborers and this scenario seems very unrealistic. There is also a contrasting account of a group of youths who claimed to have kept vigil at the courthouse the night before the opening to prevent any attempts at Tom-Foolery and they said there were none.
There is another possibility--that the story is true and Old Rip is what they claim him to be--a veritable legend. As such, he enjoyed all of the accoutrements and entrapments that fame and fortune provide. He was taken to a clinic for a medical check-up and except for a fractured leg he was given a clean bill of health. One of the doctors sent Rip's official report to a magazine for publication. He was placed in a goldfish bowl and set on display for the hordes of people who flocked into town to see. At first Rip only stared in shocked disbelief at all of the attention he was receiving and for a while he even refused to eat, but after a few weeks he became accustomed to his stardom and his appetite returned. The little fellow then began gulping red ants as quickly as they could be fed to him, and his admiring public clamored for more. The amount of publicity surrounding the story was enormous. Newspapers all over the nation carried pictures of Old Rip, magazines featured articles...everybody was interested.
Then a crises appeared. A few days after the ceremony a report went out that Old Rip had been toad-napped. Some diabolical thief had taken him out of his bowl and quickly left town. An A.P.B. was dispatched and the crook was quickly apprehended in El Paso. C.F. Sheppard, the toad-napper, claimed he was on his way to California to display the horned-frog for a fee while the story was hot. He was returned to Eastland where a mob awaited in favor of lynching but the charges were later dismissed when the county attorney ruled that there was no specific law against theft of a horned-toad.
Will Wood, who was made guardian of the frog since he had been the original owner back in 1897, also realized the financial opportunities available and accepted a $10,000 offer by some out of town investors to display the horned-frog in Dallas. He left for what would be a short-lived stay. Back in Eastland people were still pouring into town anxious to see the immortal frog and were leaving disappointed. Embarrassed Eastland officials put out a call for Old Rip's return. Dick Penny, the promoter who arranged the deal tried to keep him from leaving. Claiming breach of contract, Penny sued for $6,295.25 and tried to get a writ of attachment preventing the horned-frog from being moved. During the confusion Old Rip was quietly smuggled out in a brown paper bag. The lawsuit was never settled.
Old Rip returned to the lap of luxury but people still wanted more. A nationwide tour ensued. At St. Louis a crowd of 40,000 people turned out to gawk at the legendary lizard. The zoo offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who could prove that the story was a fraud but nobody even attempted to claim it.
In New York Old Rip landed a starring role in a motion picture which showed him happily munching on red ants. One of the film's costars was Henry Ford. Old Rip also found time to attend a Broadway musical and received a backstage pass and a meeting with Irene Delroy, the show's star.
Finally, the highlight of Rip's illustrious career occurred in Washington when frog and keeper were invited to the White House as special guest of the President. Calvin Coolidge actually canceled several appointments and then was kept waiting for fifteen minutes for a chance to hold Old Rip and listen to his amazing tale. There was a brief moment when the two important figures sat staring at each other and the newspapers reported that "Silent Cal" had finally met his match.
Afterword Old Rip returned to Eastland and a somewhat normal life. It was not to be a lengthy one however.
Into every life a little rain must fall and for Rip that rain came in the form of a "blue norther," a wicked storm that happened to blow in just as the little fellow awoke from hibernation. The plummeting temperature caused Rip to develop pneumonia and on January 19, 1929 he silently passed away.
As the world mourned a special casket was prepared. The embalmed body of the horned-frog was placed on display in a local funeral home and once more throngs of people filed by to see him and pay their last respects. Some openly wept while others still wondered if the story were actually true. There had been many arguments in its favor, from the accounts of other animals freed from stony prisons to the scientific fact that horned-toads can hibernate for months at a time. Maybe Old Rip drew his strength from the Bible that shared his confinement.
Eastland resident Charles Connellee offered another explanation. "Every loyal Texan inherently knows that a Texas horned-toad will live for one hundred years without food or air if it remains in Texas. It's just jealousy of Texas that is causing these scientific doubts about the toad." Whether or not this is true remains to be seen. The arguments still continue with just as much intensity and passion as they did during the horned-frog's controversial life. No satisfactory evidence has ever been found to prove the story one way or the other, and the truth about "the horned-toad that astounded the World" may never be known.
As for Old Rip, may he finally rest in peace.
Can a horned-toad survive for thirty-one years without food, water or air, and with only a Bible for company? That was the question many Texans were asking back in 1928 when the cornerstone of the old Eastland County courthouse was about to be opened. The horned-toad was inside.
How he got there is a mystery, as is how he could possibly survive a three decade entombment, but that is only part of a much larger story, one that would ultimately involve thousands of people throughout the state of Texas, and a horned-toad traveling a nationwide publicity tour that culminated in a visit to the White House and a meeting with the President of the United States.
It all began in 1897 when Eastland County officials decided they needed a new brick courthouse to replace the aging stone structure which had been serving as the county seat since 1875. The old building was demolished and the site was prepared for the new one. On the day construction was to begin a large celebration was planned to commemorate the event. Officials would give speeches, a band would play a number of selections and the cornerstone for the new building would be leveled.
It is an engineering custom to place objects in the cornerstone, which is a hollow block of stone that serves as a sort of time-capsule to remain sealed until the destruction of the building. Items included usually consist of such things as letters, coins, tokens, jewelry or other inanimate pieces that could contribute to future posterity. This is what county clerk and band musician Ernest E. Wood was thinking about as he hurried home on that fateful day of July 29, 1897 to retrieve his instrument. He wanted something he could contribute but could not decide exactly what it should be. As he was leaving his house he spied his young son, Will, playing in the front yard with a horned-toad, a common practice of children in those days.
The horned-toad, or horned-frog as it is known in parts of Texas, is not actually a frog at all. It is a reptile. Its official name is the Texas horned-lizard, a diminutive cousin of the iguana family. These critters once roamed the Texas countryside by the millions, scurrying under rocks and logs, hiding in burrows and crevices and trying to avoid the groping hands of young boys who considered the little lizards to be ideal pets. The animals were generally docile and reclusive, not at all aggressive or dangerous, and not usually prone to perform remarkable feats which would draw upon them fame, fortune and the accolades of millions of people.
There is one horned-frog , however, that managed to do that very thing, beginning when Mr. Wood snatched the animal up off the ground and carried it in his pocket to the festivities. Arriving there in time to witness the laying of the stone he convinced a friend that his newly-acquired horned-lizard would make a perfect addition to the stone's contents, although neither of the men could explain how the animal would contribute to future posterity, except maybe to test an experiment.
A Dallas Morning News article had recently claimed that horned-frogs could live for extended periods of time, possibly even as much as a hundred years! The article theorized that the lizards could enter a period of suspended animation that would allow them to survive without food or water. It was well known that they performed this feat every year during the blustery winter months, so why not for even longer periods of time?
With this as inspiration, the horned-frog was deposited into the cornerstone along with a Bible, the only other addition. The metal cover was then tapped into place and sealed with mortar.
Thirty-one long years went by and the citizens of Eastland County found themselves once again in need of a new courthouse. The 1897 structure was in such a sad state that expensive repairs were deemed necessary. In addition, Eastland had become an area of intensive oil-drilling activity and the old courthouse was insufficient to handle the increase in official business. The County Commissioner once again decided that a new building was in order and the old one was to be torn down.
As the demolition day approached rumors began to circulate about the cornerstone's hidden occupant. Was it possible that the creature had survived all of those years? If not, had any of his remains been preserved? After three decades nobody was even sure if the event had actually even taken place. If it was true, then a legend could be in the making. Could a horned-toad survive for thirty-one years without food, water or air?
Scientists have long heard tales of supposedly extinct creatures surviving while encased in stone. Many of these cases have been documented over the centuries but the exact cause of it has never been proven.
In 1761 The Annual Register, a French scientific journal, published a series of articles about animals being recovered from within solid stone. Most of these unfortunate creatures were petrified but at least one was reported to have survived intact. In the late sixteenth century, Ambroise Pare, a French surgeon was supervising the breaking up of some large stones by quarrymen when from within one of the stones hopped a large toad. As if finding a toad in a stone were not unusual enough, this one was said the be "full of life."
In 1818, Dr. Edward Clarke, a geologist, found three well-preserved newts in a chalk quarry. He carefully dug them out and placed them on a newspaper in the sun. As Dr. Clarke watched in astonishment the newts began to move! Two of them quickly died but the third was so energetic that Clarke carried it to a nearby pond where the animal showed its appreciation by promptly escaping. The newts were described as being different from any living newts and were presumably an extinct species.
In 1851 in Blois, France, a workman opened a large piece of flint with a pickax and found a toad inside. The cavity the animal was in was fitted exactly to the toad's body, except for a small area above the back. The creature and its rocky home were later sent to the local Society of Sciences for study.
In 1853 a horned-lizard was found in New Mexico in a block of stone "so solid as to preclude the entrance of the smallest insect." It was later sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The lizard lived for two days after its release.
In 1865 a living toad was freed from a block of limestone twenty-five feet below ground. A local geologist expressed the opinion that the toad and the rock he was quarried from were six-thousand years old!
Along with these chance discoveries some interesting experiments have been conducted. In 1825 Dr. Frank Buckland, Dean of Westminster, buried twelve toads in a block of limestone sealed with a sheet of glass. Exhuming the toads a year later he discovered that several were still alive. Unfortunately, the glass had cracked and this cast a shadow of doubt over the validity of the experiment since it was conceivable that water and insects could have entered into the cavity providing sustenance for the toads.
Another experiment was undertaken by a Frenchman in 1862 in order to test the theory. He encased twenty live toads in plaster molds and buried them in the ground. Twelve years later he was rewarded with the realization that several of them were still alive.
Could the Eastland County horned-toad pull of the same miraculous feat?
Anticipation of the frog's emergence and a surge of publicity caused people to flock to the courtyard square in droves. This was helped in part by a death-penalty murder trial, the last the old courthouse would ever hold. Estimates put the number of people in attendance at between 1500 to 3000. County officials, aware that the whole thing might be a hoax and determined not to be duped, recruited some of the county's most forthright citizens to witness the opening. The list included County Judge E. S. Pritchard, who was to preside over the ceremonies, and several local ministers, including Reverend F. E. Singleton who was slated to be the first to verify the contents of the stone.
First the Reverend inspected the stone to be sure the seal was still intact. Then a workman began chipping away at the mortar.
Ernest Wood, who was still very much alive and in attendance that day called out, "If there's a horned-toad inside it's mine!"
The crowd laughed then held their breaths as the cover was removed and the esteemed Reverend peered inside. After a few anxious moments he announced that he could see the toad. Each of the other witnesses also verified that the body of the animal was there. Then a local businessman, Eugene Day, reached in and pulled the little horned fellow out. The frog was flat and crusty and appeared to be very dead. The body was then passed along to Judge Pritchard who held it up for everybody to see.
Suddenly the crowd gasped in astonishment...a few people screamed...one lady fainted dead away! The frog began to move! Its legs twitched, its mouth opened, it inhaled a huge gulp of air and puffed up to its normal size. The horned-frog was alive!
The town-folk quickly gave the little lizard a name, Old Rip, after Rip Van Winkle, a legendary character who supposedly slept for ten years. The horned-frog had done even better. Somehow Old Rip managed to survive a thirty-one year ordeal and in doing so was soon carried away with the euphoria of the crowd into the annals of the history books...but not without some controversy.
Critics cried fraud and pointed to businessman Day as the perpetrator. It was theorized that a bit of sleight-of-hand had been enacted and that the real dead toad had been replaced with a live impostor. Since Day had his coat on when he reached into the stone he could easily have hidden a lizard up his sleeve and substituted it at the proper moment. There are, however, several problems with this theory. While horned-frogs may be found happily running amok during the heat of summer they tend to make themselves scarce in the winter. On a cold February day a toad would have been hibernating in some inaccessible crack or crevice and any potential practical joker would have had a hard time finding one.
There is also the veracity of the witnesses to contend with. All of the men present had a clear view of the proceedings and while it is possible they may have played along with the prank in the name of good fun it is doubtful that three devout men of cloth would carry the truth to their graves. Of course, this controversy could have been avoided if Reverend Singleton had retrieved the animal as he had rolled up his sleeves in preparation to do.
There are other theories about how a switch could have been performed. Mr. James Dabney, a long-time resident of Eastland, claimed that members of the construction crew were involved. Supposedly the night before the ceremony a few workers had gone to the site to make sure everything was ready. The men were curious about the contents of the stone so they opened it and found a Bible. As they were preparing to close the stone one of the men discovered a horned-toad and casually pitched him inside, thus ensuring the outcome of the legend.
This also remains doubtful since the stone, along with a small portion of the wall it was attached to, appeared to be undisturbed and intact when examined before the ceremony. Add to that the previously mentioned scarcity of wintering reptiles as well as the improbability of night-working laborers and this scenario seems very unrealistic. There is also a contrasting account of a group of youths who claimed to have kept vigil at the courthouse the night before the opening to prevent any attempts at Tom-Foolery and they said there were none.
There is another possibility--that the story is true and Old Rip is what they claim him to be--a veritable legend. As such, he enjoyed all of the accoutrements and entrapments that fame and fortune provide. He was taken to a clinic for a medical check-up and except for a fractured leg he was given a clean bill of health. One of the doctors sent Rip's official report to a magazine for publication. He was placed in a goldfish bowl and set on display for the hordes of people who flocked into town to see. At first Rip only stared in shocked disbelief at all of the attention he was receiving and for a while he even refused to eat, but after a few weeks he became accustomed to his stardom and his appetite returned. The little fellow then began gulping red ants as quickly as they could be fed to him, and his admiring public clamored for more. The amount of publicity surrounding the story was enormous. Newspapers all over the nation carried pictures of Old Rip, magazines featured articles...everybody was interested.
Then a crises appeared. A few days after the ceremony a report went out that Old Rip had been toad-napped. Some diabolical thief had taken him out of his bowl and quickly left town. An A.P.B. was dispatched and the crook was quickly apprehended in El Paso. C.F. Sheppard, the toad-napper, claimed he was on his way to California to display the horned-frog for a fee while the story was hot. He was returned to Eastland where a mob awaited in favor of lynching but the charges were later dismissed when the county attorney ruled that there was no specific law against theft of a horned-toad.
Will Wood, who was made guardian of the frog since he had been the original owner back in 1897, also realized the financial opportunities available and accepted a $10,000 offer by some out of town investors to display the horned-frog in Dallas. He left for what would be a short-lived stay. Back in Eastland people were still pouring into town anxious to see the immortal frog and were leaving disappointed. Embarrassed Eastland officials put out a call for Old Rip's return. Dick Penny, the promoter who arranged the deal tried to keep him from leaving. Claiming breach of contract, Penny sued for $6,295.25 and tried to get a writ of attachment preventing the horned-frog from being moved. During the confusion Old Rip was quietly smuggled out in a brown paper bag. The lawsuit was never settled.
Old Rip returned to the lap of luxury but people still wanted more. A nationwide tour ensued. At St. Louis a crowd of 40,000 people turned out to gawk at the legendary lizard. The zoo offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who could prove that the story was a fraud but nobody even attempted to claim it.
In New York Old Rip landed a starring role in a motion picture which showed him happily munching on red ants. One of the film's costars was Henry Ford. Old Rip also found time to attend a Broadway musical and received a backstage pass and a meeting with Irene Delroy, the show's star.
Finally, the highlight of Rip's illustrious career occurred in Washington when frog and keeper were invited to the White House as special guest of the President. Calvin Coolidge actually canceled several appointments and then was kept waiting for fifteen minutes for a chance to hold Old Rip and listen to his amazing tale. There was a brief moment when the two important figures sat staring at each other and the newspapers reported that "Silent Cal" had finally met his match.
Afterword Old Rip returned to Eastland and a somewhat normal life. It was not to be a lengthy one however.
Into every life a little rain must fall and for Rip that rain came in the form of a "blue norther," a wicked storm that happened to blow in just as the little fellow awoke from hibernation. The plummeting temperature caused Rip to develop pneumonia and on January 19, 1929 he silently passed away.
As the world mourned a special casket was prepared. The embalmed body of the horned-frog was placed on display in a local funeral home and once more throngs of people filed by to see him and pay their last respects. Some openly wept while others still wondered if the story were actually true. There had been many arguments in its favor, from the accounts of other animals freed from stony prisons to the scientific fact that horned-toads can hibernate for months at a time. Maybe Old Rip drew his strength from the Bible that shared his confinement.
Eastland resident Charles Connellee offered another explanation. "Every loyal Texan inherently knows that a Texas horned-toad will live for one hundred years without food or air if it remains in Texas. It's just jealousy of Texas that is causing these scientific doubts about the toad." Whether or not this is true remains to be seen. The arguments still continue with just as much intensity and passion as they did during the horned-frog's controversial life. No satisfactory evidence has ever been found to prove the story one way or the other, and the truth about "the horned-toad that astounded the World" may never be known.
As for Old Rip, may he finally rest in peace.