Tom Hickman's Shooting

Sirs:

In your August 3 issue of TIME I see a note on the Texas-Oklahoma "Bridge War" to the effect that Ranger Captain Tom Hickman had "hit 18 out of 20 matches at 50 feet shooting from the hip;'' also that Ranger Goss had "cut a playing card at 20 yards with his pistol inverted."

Such accuracy is truly remarkable but is never encountered except in the movies. I fear the reporter on that detail was a bit enthusiastic since the .45 Colt Single Action, pet side arm of Captain Hickman, is not capable of shooting 20 shots at 50 feet inside a circle less than about 1 3/4 inches in diameter even when fired from a machine rest which eliminates all personal errors. Hip shooting also is principally used in the movies and not by the well regulated pistol expert.

I suggest that you ask Captain Hickman for the facts in this case as TIME has been misinformed.

CLYDE T. ERVIN

Chief Physicist

The Peters Cartridge Co.

Kings Mills, Ohio

TIME placed too much credence in one (a non-Texan) who claimed close acquaintance with Captain Tom Hickman and his pistol prowess.--ED.

From Captain Tom Hickman this reply:

Sirs:

... I have read with much interest the copy of Mr. Clyde T. Ervin's letter which you so kindly enclosed. He is absolutely correct about the correctness of pistols.

The thing that puzzles me is the fact that the publishers of the different newspapers and magazines would use such a story as the shooting yarn without making the least effort to verify it. During the entire dispute over the Red River free and toll bridges, I did not have a pistol in my hand, in fact 1 am such a poor marksman that I never shoot until the other fellow has shot at me. I have been busy writing letters trying to explain how it could be do'ne. Ranger Bob Goss, a member of my company, can hit a playing card turned edgewise with his pistol turned upside down. He does this about twice out of every five shots. . . .

TOM R. HICKMAN

Captain

Company B, Stale Ranger Force Fort Worth, Texas

Journal-Post & Doherty

Sirs:

As a constant reader of TIME since Volum 1, No. 1, I have noticed the article in your issue of Aug. 17 regarding my father, the late Walter S. Dickey, and the agreement between Mr. H. L. Doherty, M. B. Sharp and myself.

The present management of the Journal-Post has not changed one whit because of this arrangement with Mr. Doherty. He has no representative on the Board of Directors, nor in our employ. We are not. therefore, concerned with the opinions of far-distant newspapers as to this arrangement which is of importance to the people of Kansas City's own territory, many of whom hope it will be the means whereby an unbalanced newspaper situation born of jorce-majeur will gradually be corrected.

What the public and most newspaper men do not know about this situation or about the fortunes of the Kansas City Journal-Post would fill a very large book. Some few of them do know, however, that during the last two years, or since January 1, 1929, under strict management and careful operation the Journal-Post has materially reduced operating expenses and that during the calendar year of 1931 the curves of revenue and expense will cross for the first time in several years.

That will happen and would have happened even if the present arrangement with Mr. Doherty had never been made. We, therefore, suggest that time, rather than TIME, be judge of the outcome of this venture.

. . . Kansas City Star-Times within the last two months was seriously considering the possibility of purchasing the Journal-Post or assisting some one else in so doing; the only barrier being the difficulty of keeping secret their entry into what would have been a newspaper monopoly in a city of this size.

Their switch from satisfaction on our completion of an arrangement for purchase that might have limited the Journal-Post management as to funds and sinews of war (incidentally keeping off other foreign unmeasured competitors) to their present attitude is consistent with the resentment they have always felt whenever a competitive newspaper has shown signs of making progress. An inquiry among unbiased newspaper men anywhere will reveal this to be true.

W. LAURENCE DICKEY Editor

The Journal-Post Kansas City, Mo.

Doherty &. Raymond's

Sirs:

Is a telegram such an event in TIME'S editorial office that you must have each wire-letter set in caps? Henry L. Doherty's comment in the Aug. 10 number looks like a Raymond's ad. Do you really expect us to read half a column of caps without thinking mean things about you? And won't you keep unnecessary caps out of your stories?

HARRY P. GROSSMAN

P. S. In case you don't know or have forgotten. Raymond's. Boston's noted store of the gaspipe racks was described in FORTUNE, May, 1930. Typical Raymondisms: Puttygoodshirts luggemoff; erhelluverfinebunch ladies undies; whereubotthehat.

Maiden, Mass.

When correspondents to TIME take the trouble and expense to telegraph their communications. TIME will continue to print such communications, if TIME-worthv, as received.--ED.

Frogs Eat Ducks -?

Sirs:

In your issue of Aug. 10 you mention under "Duck Moratorium?" that some factors contributing to duck mortality are "Turtles, hawks and even large fish. ..." I wish to add an additional factor. Several years ago I shot a large bullfrog. When preparing the same for the skillet I found a young wild duck in the frog's stomach. Mr. Bullfrog is not so innocent as he looks.

G. F. SPEER

Milwaukee, Wis.

When preparing "Duck Moratorium?" TIME heard bullfrogs mentioned as occasional eaters of ducklings but, in the absence of specific proof, omitted frogs from the list of duck enemies. Last fortnight a frog was reported as having drowned a robin (TIME, Aug. 24). TIME will welcome news of other frog feats.--ED.

Charivarists' Bowl

Sirs:

TIME, Aug. 17th, was misinformed with others as to the contents & amount of the silver bowl left by charivarists in the Marengo, Wis. charivari. Witness letter written by victims, appearing in the Ironwood Daily Globe, as enclosed. Their liberality was over-estimated by reporters.

MRS. HARRY RIMSTEIN

Ironwood, Mich.

Explained Mr. & Mrs. Arvo Juoni: "Miss Lillian Kovala placed a bowl on the table and the serenaders or charivarists tossed coins into the bowl. The money was counted and it amounted to 94-c- We wish to thank Miss Kovala and also all the other charivarists for it. Here is the truth. The money totalled to 94-c- and not almost $30. We want you to please print the truth about this."--ED.

Strong Hearts

TOO FANTASTICALLY DIRTY TIME AUG TENTH TITLE CRIME FAT OILY WOMEN ETC WHY AFFRONT FAIR ITALIAN WOMEN WHO HAVE GIVEN BIRTH TO MOST THAT IS FINE IN THIS WORLD STOP POVERTY STRICKEN WOMEN IN SQUALID DOMICILES WHAT STRONG HEARTS THEY MUST HAVE HOW FRIGHTFUL THEIR LOT IN A COUNTRY THAT SQUEEZES SIMPLICITY STOP BE UNDERSTANDING BE MEN.

JEROME DELISI

Washington, D. C.

Sirs:

A masterful piece of work--those two descriptive paragraphs under Crime, p. 14, TIME, Aug. 10.

Let's hear more from the fellow who wrote it. Dickens' diction--that's what it is to me. What more can be said?

After reading it. I felt like calling TIME and savins--''Hello--Hello--is that you Dickens?"

H. W. JOYCE

Squantum, Mass.

Unafraid Southerner

Sirs:

As a Southern-born white man, I take issue with the statement in TIME, Aug. 17, p. 10, subject "Races": "In the back of every Southern white man's head lies a mortal dread that some... crazy black man will lay hands on his wife or daughter, rape her, kill her or both."

In spite of the qualifying adjective, "crazy." I am afraid most readers would make a generic application of the sentence. This would be unjust both to Southern whites and to the millions of self-respecting, law abiding, industrious Negroes who comprise the major portion of our colored population.

Naturally I cannot speak for every Southern white man. For myself and for my acquaintances, may I say that we do not entertain any more fear of such a calamity than any man, here or elsewhere, entertains of violence at the hands of criminals, white or black.

Villains among Southern Negroes, crazy or otherwise, are in the minority, just as villains are in the minority in the white race.

Residence in the North caused me almost to despair of ever hoping for the Northern whites to understand the attitude of Southern whites toward Negroes. The unfortunate statement referred to tends, in my opinion, to further the misconception.

Some years ago I heard Booker T. Washington speak to an audience of whites and blacks. One of the jokes of his speech fitly typifies the condition of the Negro race. After excoriating the blacks present for misconduct, Washington turned to the white section of the audience. "You white folks have a great responsibility for the Negro,'' he said. "The Negro is a born imitator; whatever the white man does the Negro will do. We have white cooks and Negro cooks, white doctors, Negro doctors, white lawyers, Negro lawyers. The Negro does whatever the white man does. Why I actually heard of a Negro robbing a bank in Texas the other day!". . .

W. G. HASTINGS

Atlanta, Ga.

Sirs:

... I apprehend and appreciate the distinction made as between a black man and ''some CRAZY black man . . . will rape her, kill her, or both." Which distinction, however, I fear the Negro intelligentsia is going to overlook, as its editors upon whom you depend for information about ALL Negroes as "The Negro" begin to strafe TIME for "goin" 'gainst the race" in its comment on the Birmingham assault. They "solve" the race problem for a living; and categoric language means nothing when it will not permit of reasonable race-problem exploitation by them.

However, the paragraph is far-fetched per se. For, first, every Southern white man does not carry in the back of his head any mortal fear that his wife or daughter will be raped or killed or both by some black man. crazy or otherwise. Many of him has a forbidding superiority complex; just as every Southern black man does not have mortal fear of some day being lynched, easy recourse of many Southern whites to it to penalize black men even for misdemeanors notwithstanding. And. last, white men's vigilance over their women folk is far more practical, certainly more nearly possible, than is true of "the other way around."

RIENZI B. LEMUS

Grand President

Brotherhood of Dining Car Employees New York City

Ignorant Reporter

Sirs:

Would not the ignorant insolence of this reporter, removing neither hat nor cigaret when interviewing these stricken parents, bar its reproduction in any publication except the world's greatest newspaper from which it was clipped?

PAULINE M. WETZEL

Polo, Ill.

The picture, clipped by Reader Wetzel from the Chicago Tribune ("World's Greatest Newspaper"), was taken by Detroit's Daily Mirror (gumchewers' sheet-let owned by the Tribune's publishers). It showed a round-shouldered, straw-hatted young man with a cigaret hanging from his mouth smirking at Mr. and Mrs. Rudolf Gold, interviewing them about their young daughter Vivian and their nephew Harry Lore who had just been murdered and burned with another young couple by three fiends (one a big Negro) in Ypsilanti, Mich. (TIME, Aug. 24).--ED.

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