Query: "snail a column of dope"

[James A. Landau]

Two guesses, neither especially plausible:

1.  McGraw may have been  a notoriously slow writer, and getting something
out of him was like watching a snail.

2.  It's a transcription error for "sell" (not likely in print, but if this
article had been phoned in to a rewrite man (a common newspaper practice),
then "sell" could be misinterpreted over the phone as "snail".

       - Jim Landua