"The Specialist"

Sirs:

An omission I believe unworthy of TIME has been noticed. I refer to The Specialist by Charles ("Chic") Sale.

This book seems to be very popular. Did you miss it or did you purposely ignore it?

V. G. STRICKLAND

Germantown, Pa.

Charles ("Chic") Sale is a vaudeville entertainer. The Specialist is one of his monologs, usually reserved by him for stag gatherings. Printed privately several months ago, circulated quietly (chiefly at newsstands), it has achieved wide popularity among people not squeamish at the mention of a "privy" or "backhouse." The speaker is a carpenter who specialized in privy construction, became thereat the champion of Sangamon County. He gives full details of the best design and procedure, with reasons.--ED.

Trifling But Helpful Sirs:

I have a suggestion to offer, trifling but helpful, I think. Why does not TIME, always precise, always timesaving, print the table of contents with the subjects arranged in alphabetical order? . . .

ERWIN KREUTZWEISER Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Subscriber Kreutzweiser's suggestion, sane, is herewith adopted.--ED.

Bohemia's Brown Sirs:

A slight inaccuracy crept into your admirable publication of Aug. 12, p. 59. In mentioning prominent real estate operators you say: "A third onetime Russian is Frederick Brown, etc." Frederick Brown is not a native of Russia. He and the undersigned were reared in Karlsbad, the world famous spa in Bohemia now named or rather misnamed Czechoslovakia. Karlsbad has been German for 500 years, despite the fact that the authorities want to force the Check name Karlory-Vary onto the world. . . .

Not intending to cast any aspersions on Americans born in Russia, I am simply trying to correct a misstatement of fact.

You should have classified Mr. Frederick Brown with Mr. Joseph P. Day, whom you declare to be "no Russian."

In conclusion permit me to say that Frederick Brown and his charming wife, who is a native American, are persons of culture, have traveled extensively, and despite great wealth are very unassuming. As philanthropists they have a national reputation.

HUGO GELLNER

Cleveland, Ohio

Cells for Two

Sirs: America, judging by the consensus of public opinion is invested with a so-called "crime wave" just now and a great many people are beset with doubt as to the cause of it. Everyone seems to have a different idea. We have been enacting more rigorous laws giving longer sentences which means that the prisons are filling up. Now we put two men in a cell intended for one. Some live in the hallways. Then come the riots among the prisoners. Our next step is to build more prisons--and so I ask you what will the end be? Are we reducing crime? Many of your readers must have opinions upon this subject and I therefore propose that they be invited to express them. I'm wondering whether the public is really interested or are they too busy in their mad rush watching the ticker in Wall Street, or worrying how to provide funds to pay the next installment on the new car! Perhaps they prefer to leave it to the President's Crime Commission to diagnose the case and propose a suitable remedy. . . .

B. OGDEN CHISOLM (Formerly U. S. Commissioner on the International Prison Commission) Ridgefield, Conn.

"Simply --" Sirs: I beg to advise that your cinema reviews are simply --.* Two cases in point appear in TIME, Aug. 12. The one having to do with Street Girl would have kept me away from that picture. The one about The Single Standard would have fortified me in my hour of waiting to get into the Capitol to see it. The two pictures merited just the opposite treatment. Street Girl was splendid entertainment, the acting capable and mature. The other could fix the attention only of one who had never been places, who was attracted by the liquefaction of Garbo's garments. I felt like a chump for standing as aforesaid. ROBERT EMMET CONNOLLEY New York City Do other readers agree? Disagree?--ED.

"Texas" Sirs: In describing the Robert E. Lee's race from New Orleans to St. Louis (TIME, Aug. 5) you say that the "Texas" is the pilot house. . . . Every Mississippi steamer has a pilot house but only the larger packets have a Texas. The small packets and tow boats do not have a Texas. The pilot house is built on top of the Texas. The members of the crew are quartered in the Texas on the large packets, leaving the cabin entirely for passengers. On small packets and tow boats the crew are quartered in the cabin. . . . E. CARROLL TABER Keokuk, Ia.

B. & P. Women

Sirs:

June 20 I traveled eastward, primarily to attend the Tenth Anniversary (Pioneers') Convention of the National Federation of Business & Professional Women's Clubs at Mackinac Island, Mich. That over, because it would be some weeks before I could tackle TIMES piled up during my absence--and especially because of interest as to how TIME would report this 1929 Convention of over 1200 B. and P. women of these U. S. and Canada--for the following two weeks I purchased TIME on New York newsstands.

Looked under "Business." No report. Turned to "National Affairs." No report. "Milestones." Surely there I would find--"Elected: Miss Marion H. McClench, Ann Arbor, Mich., President of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs," etc. Expected also to find a picture of the new leader.

But no. So far as TIME was concerned this great National organization just didn't exist, notwithstanding the fact that the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune and other papers had alert reporters on hand during the entire week. And yet, it is safe to estimate that that gathering, including many of the nation's most brilliant womanhood, represented a greater percentage of TIME readers than any similar group of men. Was TIME asleep during the week of July 8-13?

LILLIAN M. WENDEMUTH San Francisco, Calif.

Sometimes caught napping, TIME never sleeps. Let Subscriber Wendemuth burrow again into her piled-up TIMES, extract the issue of July 22, turn to p. 14, under department heading "Women," story headline "F. B. P. W. C." and read a 35-line report on B. & P. women.--ED.

Hagemann Flayed Sirs: In TIME, Aug. 12, Mr. Ernest H. Hagemann essays to haul you over the coals for a slight infraction on your part in German spelling and grammar. In his letter he says: "A week or so ago the Holland Dutchmen raked you over the coals for misinterpreting one of their words." I happen to be one of the "Holland Dutchmen" Mr. Hagemann refers to and I would like to know--from him--what he means by a "Holland Dutchman." I would like to have him tell me what other kind of Dutchmen there are in the world. Is Mr. Hagemann a "Germany German" and are you, Mr. Editor (presuming you to be a native here) an "America American"? By the same reasoning as used by your latest critic, Monsieur Poincare is a "France Frenchman" and Mr. Lloyd George is an "England Englishman." And so on ad libitum et ad nauseam. Mr. Hagemann must not be permitted to call to his assistance that oft-repeated mistake of saying that there are "Pennsylvania Dutch." The word "Dutch" there is a bastardizing of the word "Deutsch" just as a roving band of German musicians so often seen on our American streets is popularly referred to (by the ignorant) as a "Dutch band." The expression "low Dutch"--to designate a patois--is another popular misuse of the word "Dutch." There is no such thing as low Dutch. There is "low Deutsch" (German) and "high German." We Dutch-born have one language; and that's Dutch. And we're all of one nationality; and that's Dutch, top. Also, we may be called Hollanders. Would Mein Herr Hagemann call us "Dutch Hollanders"? When one criticises a magazine so uniformly accurate as TIME one should at least be certain of his ground.

EMILE W. VOUTE New York City

Sirs:

In defense of TIME. Nouns in the German language are not always capitalized. There is a reform movement in Germany which aims to eliminate this particular feature of the German language, along with many others. It is, of course, patriotic in modern Germany to use the old forms, particularly the use of script. When the "patriotism" naturally fostered by the Republic in its early years, returns to "normalcy" the scientific development of the German language will again, we hope, attain dominance.

WILLIAM T. HADE Friends Seminary, E. 16th St. & Rutherford Place,

New York City

Mars Consigned

Sirs:

In the event that it is not contrary to your established policy, I would appreciate it very much if you could send me the address of the Honorable Salmon Levinson, Chicago barrister. I am deeply interested in any steps taken to eliminate our arch enemy, war, and would like to exchange some correspondence with Mr. Levinson.

I think that this is an apt time to express my sincere thanks for the pleasurable moments which your magazine has given me. TIME, the weekly magazine, might well be compared with a full course dinner, served in faultless style, with everything superb from consomme to demitasse. I am looking forward to many more such meals. . . .

I thank you in advance for your attention to my modest request. I hope that we will both see the time when, in the mind of the layman, Mars will cease to rule on a celestial throne, but will take residence with his friend and cohort, Satan, in the bowels of the earth.

FRANK W. MCCALLISTER Lake Wales, Fla.

Peace-loving Lawyer Levinson's address: 134 S. La Salle St., Chicago, Ill.--ED.

Chauffeur & Lion Tamer

Sirs: An excerpt from the staid Times Weekly Edition, London, dated from Tangier, June 28, (From Our Morocco Correspondent) and captioned A TANGIER IDYLL--Love and Pistols for Two:

"A very respectable European chauffeur and a lady lion tamer have for some years shared a home in Tangier. Their life has been one of mutual affection, its surface being ruffled only now and again by the petty incidents inherent to such a protracted and intimate companionship.

"One of the incidents occurred yesterday when, having quarrelled, it is reported, over the ingredients of a salad, the lady fired seven shots from a revolver at her friend. As she is remarkably proficient in everything she undertakes, every shot took effect. The man lives, but in a much perforated condition, in which every vital organ has been missed by a hair's breadth. The doctors even predict his recovery.

"By a curious coincidence, a few years ago this same chauffeur with equal success, poured seven bullets from an automatic pistol into the body of the same much-appreciated lion tamer with similar results. Their affection is as remarkable as their marksmanship, 14 shots without a miss, and both protest against the interference of the police in their purely domestic affairs and ask to be reunited in order to continue their almost unbroken record of mutual esteem and forbearance. . . ."

D. M. HALLIDAY City Desk The Globe, Toronto, Canada.

Again, Tycoon Sirs: Had hoped you would tire of it--but no. I'll forgive you anything you have done--or anything you may do, if you'll abandon that alien "tycoon" thing. Even TIME cannot pluck it from its comic opera setting in the mind of the English speaking world, and give it adequacy or dignity, by all too frequent use. Is good old United States so poverty stricken that you must lug this in? It grates--ugh! H. VAN ANTWERP Farmers, Ky.

Tycoon is here to stay until 1) a truly formidable band of subscribers demands its banishment, or 2) a better substitute for overjournalized "magnate" is discovered.--ED.

*Unpleasant word deleted.