Herewith are excerpts from letters come to the desks of the editors during the past week. They are selected primarily for the information they contain, either supplementary to, or corrective of, news previously published in TIME.
TIME, New York, N. Y.
Philadelphia, Pa. Mar. 18, 1925
Gentlemen:
Until your number of Mar. 16 was received and read, it had been my intention to renew my subscription to TIME, as I had previously entertained a good opinion of the paper and felt a moderate pride in being an Original Subscriber. The short article headed "Failure" on Page 16 of the above issue has entirely changed my feeling toward TIME, however.
I happen to be a more or less humble employe oi the Company referred to in that article and cannot but resent the gratuitous (?) "knock" which you have given it. The only charitable explanation I can think of for your publishing it is that you have fallen a victim to the same malicious propaganda that has been noticed in other directions. At any rate, if the contents of your weekly are to be judged by the material contained in the article referred to, my confidence in anything that TIME may publish has been shattered.
H. S. TYRRELL.
Ex-Subscriber Tyrrell is employed by the Victor Talking Machine Co. The item in question described how the Company had discontinued sponsoring radio concerts by Lucrezia Bori, John McCormack, Frances Alda, etc., had replaced these famed artists on their concert programs with such names as Rudy Wiedoeft, Billy Murray, Hank Burr.-- ED.
"Baleful Charge'
TIME, New York, N. Y.
Pasadena, Calif. Mar. 11, 1925
Gentlemen:
I wish to state my disapproval of the aspersions you cast upon the life-principles of "George Sherwood Eddy, famed preacher," in TIME, Feb. 23. In the same breath with which you accredit Mr. Eddy with having "in almost every land exhorted for peace, brotherhood," you fling at him the baleful charge: "He bullies men's consciences, he stirs their emotions." Is your method of procedure in matters concerning religion constructive or destructive? If the latter, as these words seem to imply, you would in my opinion, do well to omit the column on RELIGION from your publication.
EMMA L. LERCH.
"Bullies" was doubtless an unfortunate word; it was intended to convey an impression of the moral strenuousness for which Mr. Eddy is justly famous. "Jolts" would have been better--or "prods," "pounds," "lambasts," "whacks," "scourges," "belts."--ED.
Airedales
TIME, New York, N. Y.
Terrell, Tex. Mar. 5, 1925
Gentlemen:
Tn the Feb. 23 issue of TIME, you give an account of a dog show and speak of Pointer vs. Airedale. Could you please tell me where and when the name of Airedale was given to this 'breed of dogs? In the Standard Dictionary, there is a whole page given illustrating the various breeds of dogs, but the Airedale is not among them. The word is not found in the Dictionary, nor could I find it in Webster's. I would like to know if this is not a new breed of dogs and I would like to know how they came by this name. If it is not troubling you too much, I would thank you for this information.
HENRY A. HOWARD.
The Airedale terrier was first bred in the valley of the River Aire (tributary to the Ouse), in England. The old English Terrier, a strong, fearless dog, good for vermin and dead game, lacked a good sense of smell. So the people of the Aire valley crossed it with the Otter Hound, making it keen-scented and giving it better watermanship. Other crosses were made to improve the breed. The dogs were first known as Waterside Terriers. The Airedale Agricultural Society, at a farm show, held the first exhibition of this class of dogs in 1879, and decided to give them the name Airedale in honor of the event.--ED.
From an Ex-Captive
TIME, New York, N. Y.
San Francisco, Calif. Mar. 10, 1925
Gentlemen:
As you seem to get a "kick" out of the letters of criticism and praise that are sent you by your readers, I'll add my little contribution. In your account of the Lincheng bandit outrage of May 6, 1923 (TIME, Mar. 2, 1925, Page 10) there were a few inaccuracies. It was the Tientsin-Pukow express and not the "Peking-Shanghai" express that was derailed. Not nearly 300 Chinese were carried off into captivity. Nearly 30 would be nearer the truth. And the 24 foreigners captured were not all taken to their impregnable lair. All of the women captives were released on the very day of their capture except the young Mexican bride who refused to leave her husband, and two of the men made their escape on the same day. That left a balance of only 18 who made the journey into the mountain lair of these bandits. Miss Aldrich did not lag behind and eventually so far behind that she was enabled to escape. She was set at liberty by her captors before she had been in their hands 24 hours, together with the other women captives, as before stated. The only ones who lagged behind so far that they were enabled to escape were the wives of two Army officers, who were the last of the foreigners to leave the train, Mrs. Robert Allen and Mrs. Roland Finger. These inaccuracies incline one to doubt the accuracy of the statement that Miss Lucy Aldrich had $50,000 worth of jewelry which she buried in the ground and so miraculously recovered. Would any sensible woman be traveling anywhere with that much jewelry on her person?
One of the captives,
ROBERT A. ALLEN.
Dartmouth's Place
TIME, New York, N. Y.
New York, N. Y. March 18, 1925
Gentlemen:
In column 3, Page 16 of your issue of Mar. 16, I noticed that you state Missouri took third place in the intercollegiate glee club contest at Carnegie Hall recently. Such was the result announced over the radio that evening. But, according to a newspaper account subsequently published, a New York Herald-Tribune reporter, on looking over the judges' lists after the contest, found that the official announcer had made an error and that Dartmouth, not Missouri, won third place. Which is correct?
A. E. HADLOCK JR.
Dartmouth was third. All thanks to Original Subscriber Hadlock, Dartmouth graduate!--ED.
Screech
TIME, New York, N. Y.
Fremont, Neb. Mar. 16, 1925
Gentlemen:
I am not accustomed to doubting TIME--it has for me an absolute value in spite of Einstein. But one of your news items caused me to raise my eyebrows, open my mouth and give forth a faint screech. The item reads: "As Heidelberg is occupied by French troops, the funeral procession was deprived of any military pomp" (TIME, Mar. 16, Page 11). Heidelberg is my Alma Mater. I studied there from 1918 to 1921. To my knowledge, no French troops ever were stationed there; the nearest they came was Ludwigshafen on the left side of the Rhine.
Will you oblige a puzzled subscriber by investigating the case?
R. J. HAFRICMER.
Heidelberg was first occupied by French troops in March,. 1923.--ED.
"Biggest Colleges"
TIME, New York, N. Y.
Lynchburg, Va. Mar. 5, 1925
Gentlemen:
In your issue of Feb. 16, on Page 17, under "Education," you give the five largest colleges exclusively for women. The last one on the list is Mt. Holyoke with 722 students. Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va., is exclusively for women and its enrollment for 1923-24 was 772 and for 1924-25 is 816. A restatement of the facts would be appreciated.
WM. BLACK.
TIME had quoted from an article in School and Society by Dean Raymond Walters of Swarthmore College. In response to a letter from TIME, Dean Walters wrote : "The authority for my classification of Smith, Wellesley, Vassar, Goucher and Mount Holyoke as the five largest exclusively women's colleges is in the reports I have from about 160 colleges and universities on the approved list of the Association of American Universities. . . . I have signed reports from registrars of all these universities to back the figures given. Please note that they are all of the date Nov. 1, as have.been all the figures given in these series for many years."--ED.
"Truth in Advertising"
TIME, New York. N. Y.
Church Mission to the Deaf, St. Louis, Mo. Mar. 9, 1925
Gentlemen:
Renewal memoranda enclosed. Was about to write you in any case. Herewith is an advertisement (by the Dictograph Products Corporation) clipped from TIME, issue of Feb. 23. I believe you believe in truth in advertising. Could anything be more contrary to actual facts than the import of the following quotations taken from the advertisement:
"When deafness comes beauty goes."
". . . which immediately restores good hearing, even to the poorest ears."
The advertisement is cleverly worded but it claims too much. My acquaintance with people having "the poorest of ears" runs into the thousands, not one of whom has been helped by the "aid" advertised. Some 1,500 children with hearing more or less defective attend the schools for the deaf in various parts of the country--several being located in and near New York. There are 50,000 graduates and former pupils of these schools living in this country who would know of the aid if it was worth what is claimed for it. The vendors of the "aid" could go to the schools, the churches, the clubs and the associations for the deaf and show the deaf that its claims are true. But they won't. Why not advertise the actual facts and let it go at that?
J. H. CLOUD.
A copy of Original Subscriber
Cloud's letter was forwarded by TIME without delay to the Dictograph Products Corporation. Said they:
TIME, New York, N. Y.
New York, N. Y. Mar. 14, 1925
Gentlemen:
We acknowledge receipt of your letter of Mar. 12 in which you very kindly give us an opportunity to comment on a letter from a TIME subscriber.
He criticizes the Acousticon advertisement and says: "My acquaintance with people having 'the poorest of ears' runs into the thousands, not one of whom has been helped by the 'aid' advertised."
First, we hope you will ask your subscriber to analyze our advertisement and see that it offers an absolute free trial of ten days, we paying the transportation charges. Would it not seem impossible that a business concern could live and grow for over 20 years, doing business on this basis, if this product were not really of immense benefit to the hard of hearing people?
There are deaf people who cannot hear with anything. If the auditory nerve is dead, sounds mean nothing. But, for hundreds of thousands of people who do have some hearing, the Acousticon is just the difference between despair and success. The users of the Acousticon are people in every profession, business and occupation.
Just the other day, an eminent specialist of New York City sent us a letter from a patient, a Bishop to whom he had recommended the Acousticon. The Bishop said in the letter :
"I have given the SRFD Acousticon a fair trial during the past six days and I am aware of distinct improvement in my hearing, not only when using it, but when I lay it aside in my home. I find that I hear best with the lever of the transmitter on the stop next but one to the 'soft' end of the scale."
If your subscriber is really interested in learning what has been done for the past 20 years for the deaf people, and what is being done now, there are numerous sources to which he can apply for the information.
We suggest, for instance, such eminent ear specialists as Dr. Thomas J. Harris, Secretary of the American Otological Society, and past President Dr. James F. McKernan of New York City or any other eminent authority.
Lastly, our advertisement urges the deaf person to try the Acousticon. When he has tried it for ten days, he is capable of using his own judgment.
If we can give you any further information, or make any further comment, please consider us at your service.
EDGAR LOWE,
Vice President.
There are 44,885 deaf mutes in the U.S.--425 per million population. Total deafness, however, is rare. Even among these unfortunate mutes, from 15 to 20% have a useful amount of hearing. Affliction of the ear, found in innumerable forms and degrees, is commonly caused by scarlet fever, measles, tooth-cutting, catarrh, loud noises, old age. There have been occasional cases of apparent total deafness, arising from an unknown cause, which disappeared after a few years in a manner equally mysterious.
There is no "cure" for deafness. Science does what it can, but the fact remains that the human ear, the most delicate, most inaccessible of physical contrivances, once injured, can never be entirely repaired.
It has been claimed (in the press) that totally deaf people have gone for rides in airplanes, found themselves cured. This is a myth. The roar of the motor merely stimulates the eardrum so that a person can hear for a few moments after landing. Curious is the phenomenon by which those who hear are deafened and the deaf enabled to hear by an excessively loud noise. Often in moments of calamity--storms, shipwrecks, wars, railroad accidents, earthquakes--deaf men astound the world by hearing, acting upon orders to which others are deaf. Many deaf old ladies, on the other hand, can hear only those items that are whispered to them.
There are thousands of appliances for the deaf. Some of these are valuable and a real aid to the afflicted. Others are invented to barneyfugle rather than relieve, in the unfounded belief that the deaf are also dense and will clutch at any straw that has been made to look like an ear trumpet. For 15-c-, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Chicago, will furnish any asker a large pamphlet exposing fake instruments, quack medicines. Reputable specialists never claim to cure, only to relieve.
Deafness, a severe handicap, may sometimes be an actual stimulant to success, as is proven by the many deaf people who have become famed. Ludwig von Beethoven, who turned deaf in later life, continued to compose, though it became impossible for him to conduct. Thomas A. Edison once stated that he considered deafness one of his greatest blessings. Added he: "Folks who have anything to say worth saying make it brief and to the point if they have to shout." Carolyn Wells, able author, declares that she, while practically stone deaf, can hear treble notes, feel the rhythm of music. This is another phenomenon not uncommon; many deaf people make excellent dancers, for they can feel the time though they cannot hear the tune. Famed are the feats of lipreading performed by Helen Keller. It is little known that she depends largely upon manual spelling, the sign of the deaf, in order to understand.
At Washington. D. C, is Gallaudet'" College, only college for the deaf in the U. S., where deaf men are taught trades. Many become chauffeurs. They make excellent drivers, asserted Dr. Percival Hall, President of Gallaudet. Many people who desire privacy prefer them to any other type and procure deaf . . . mutes whenever possible.--Ed.
Rival Traditions
TIME, New York. N. Y.
Ohio University Department of History Athens, Ohio Mar. 19, 1925
Gentlemen:
In your issue of Mar. 16, Page 1, you state: "Thomas Jefferson rode to the Capitol, tied his horse to a fence." I grieve that you give editorial sanction to this ancient fable. Jefferson walked. See Muzzy, The United States of America, Vol. 1, Page 204.
WILMER C. HARRIS.
Says the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Instead of driving to the Capitol in a coach and six, he [Thomas Jefferson] walked without a guard or servant from his lodgings--or, as a rival tradition has it, he rode, and hitched his horse to a neighboring fence--attended by a crowd of citizens."--ED,