Query: "snail a column of dope"

[Gerald Cohen]

    Would anyone have any idea what "snail" means in "snail a column of dope?"
I found it in the eclectic sports column "Sporting Tit-Bits by
'Mac'," in _San Francisco Bulletin_, March 26, 1913, p.19/2-3:
"As a player of baseball Thorpe offers conclusive evidence that he is
a real Indian... But just as long as McGraw can snail a column of
dope a day in all the New York papers next to the pure reading matter
about the aborigine we take it that the Sac and Fox is worth every
cent the cashier of the New York club hands him on pay day." ---(G.
Cohen: The president of the American League had recently forbidden
players to pose as the writers of baseball columns written in fact by
others. McGraw was the manager of the NY Giants, and Jim Thorpe, who
had lost his Olympic medals, was now one of his players. The March
26, 1913 item just above seems to portray Manager McGraw as actually
writing the column, based on inside information about his player
Thorpe.)

---Gerald Cohen