Man-Eater
Sirs:
Who would not eat a pound of cooked human flesh for $750,000 [TIME, May 13]? Tell these scientists, or whoever it is, they need not look further, as I will do it, providing it is the flesh of a man, white preferred. I would also like to designate the hour of the meal be evening, place, a ringside table where a good lively show is on, or the Pennsylvanians doing their best. I would also like to have the privilege of planning the rest of the menu to cat with my man.
I am trying to make it a little easier on some girls and boys to complete their higher education, and this amount would not be a bad sum to fall into my purse at this time. Besides two or three of the boys are studying medicine at present, and I think this is not a bad idea on my part, believe it would help them in more ways than one. Try to arrange it.
NELL JONES
New York City
TIME declines.--ED.
Guppy Gynecologists
In TIME, May 27, Miscellany, you tell of Dentist Klein performing a Caesarean operation on his lady guppy. No ichthyologist would call this the first. This is a common occurrence in domesticated tropical fish. About five years ago, when the writer was 17, he did this twice, once on a guppy, once on a swordtail. You will probably receive many letters in this same vein from other amateur gynecologists. The instrument used in the case of the writer's fish was the split fragment of a razor blade.
FRANK S. LEVY
Charlotte, N. C.
Sirs:
. . . You tell of the "guppy Caesarean." I performed one which I feel even more interesting. I had separated the mother guppy from the rest of the fish by placing her in an uncovered bowl. After an absence of several hours I found the mother guppy lying dead and absolutely stiff on the floor, having jumped out of the bowl which 1 had neglected to cover. Being interested in anatomy I decided to see just how the young were arranged in the mother. Imagine my surprise when the first baby I removed straightened out and began to squirm. I got a glass and salvaged seven living guppies out of the eleven present in the mother.
Of course such a thing would not be possible in mammals. . . .
MARIE C. MENEFEE
Rochester, Minn.
Twain on Titian
Sirs:
Doubly interesting is your cut of the Venus of I'rhino [TIME, May 27], since it once caused Mark Twain to froth and seethe.
In his Tramp Abroad he calls this nude "the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses. ... It isn't that she is naked and stretched out on a bed--no, it is the attitude of one of her arms and hand. If I ventured to describe that attitude, there would be a fine howl. ... I saw young girls stealing furtive glances at her; I saw young men gaze long and absorbedly at her; I saw aged, infirm men hang upon her charms with a pathetic interest.''
"Titian's beast" as he calls it, "without any question was painted for a bagnio and it was probably refused because it was a trifle too strong. In truth, it is too strong for any place but a public Art Gallery." J. G. BUTLER
Toronto, Ont.
Under Art in your issues of May 20 and May 27 you have printed nudes by Kroll and Titian respectively. Do you remember when you were a lad in your teens, perhaps attending preparatory or high school? Do you recall the almost unanimous and inevitable verbal and mental reaction on boys by the exhibition of female nudity in such pictures? To 99 boys out of 100 it is not art, but sex. Art is newsworthy and TIME-worthy; sex is not. For the sake of thousands of high school boys who read TIME why not select pictures for your Art columns that are recognized art and yet not likely to be ogled at in the high school library? Most of your adult readers would not object to such revision of policy.
E. F. SAYRE
Superintendent
Friday Harbor Consolidated Schools Friday Harbor, Wash.
TIME 1) doubts that any of its juvenile readers will be harmed by a nude painting, 2) takes for its standards of newsworthiness those of intelligent adults.--ED.
Sirs:
How come Mark Twain "became incensed" at the position of the left hand of Titian's Venus? All I can see in the left hand of the picture of Titian's Venus is a bunch of leaves--I can't see anything to become incensed over unless the leaves are poison oak.
FRANK L. HUFFMAN
Calif. Lands Inc. Soledad, Calif.
TIME's cut was made from an old engraving which showed Venus in reverse.
New Lie
Sirs:
In the May 20 issue of TIME I read: "Undaunted Upton Sinclair, emerging from several weeks' confinement in a sanatorium. . . ."
Every time I read a new lie about myself I wonder where did this one come from. Is it that the wish is father of the thought?
Please be informed that "undaunted Upton Sinclair" has not been in a sanatorium for 25 years. Since the EPIC campaign started, the one time I have been in a hospital was recently for about an hour while accompanying my wife to have a cardiograph record made. UPTON SINCLAIR
Pasadena, Calif. Northernmost Readers ?
Sirs:
... I have been a regular reader of TIME since its birth. . . .
During the winter it takes some time to get mail from the States. From Fairbanks, the northern terminal of the railroad, the mail is carried by auto (weather permitting) to Chatanika, about 30 mi.; from there to Circle, about 130 mi., it is carried by horses, a five-day trip; from Circle to Coal Creek, almost 55 mi., the mail is carried by dog team up the Yukon River, in 2 1/4 days. The dog team has been on time every week this winter, even in snow storms or 50DEG-below-zero weather. Due to the difficulty in getting the horses over the pass to Circle in bad weather, mail has not always reached us promptly. For that reason we received all four March issues at once. There will be no mail service this month, due to the river's breaking up, so we shall probably get four or more issues at once on the first boat in June. That will keep us busy ''catching up" on the news.
We are probably among your most northerly subscribers, as we are only 15 mi. south of the Arctic Circle. TIME keeps us in touch with the outside world and we discuss its columns with avidity. Since the mining development started last August planes have landed here fairly often from Fairbanks, bringing supplies at 15-c- a lb., new freight rate, papers and magazines and occasionally outside mail. There is no landing field but during the open season on the river the planes land on pontoons. During the winter they land on skiis on the frozen river snow and ice. . . .
MARY E. BISSELL
Coal Creek, via Circle Alaska
To Subscriber Bissell all thanks for her picture of TIME's reception in the North. But TIME finds its way to many another subscriber even farther north, in Fort Yukon, just above the Arctic Circle; in Bettles, Kiana, Kotzebue, Noorvik, all in Alaska about 30 mi. above the Circle; to three subscribers in Wiseman, 50 miles farther. Northernmost subscribers are in Tigara, Alaska and Narvik, Norway, both about 130 mi. above the Circle.--ED.
Capitol Cabs
Sirs:
In TIME, May 27, in making certain that the folks back home got no incorrect impression as to the extravagance of the Farmers' Delegation which visited Washington recently, you spoke of the low fares for cabs in the Capitol City, and for no apparent reason at all you added, parenthetically "(mostly Chevrolets)."
Without being particularly interested in the makes of cars used for taxicabs, I had noted that Plymouths predominated in those in which
1 have ridden in Washington. To check my observations, I counted the cabs which I saw this morning on my way to the office with the following result:
47 Plymouths
22 Chevrolets
12 Dodges
and one or two each of a few other makes. Particularly noticeable was that I saw only one Ford cab.
Either the Chevrolet cabs, which you indicated were predominant in Washington, avoid northwest Washington and Georgetown, through which I passed this morning, or you were in error. . . .
H. L. POST
Washington, D. C.
Noncombatant VFW's
Sirs:
In reference to 1) Comrade Barney Yanofsky's resentment of your calling VFW Commander Van Zandt a legionary [TIME, May 27] and 2) the overseas chestiness often displayed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars toward the Legion, let it be known that the proportion of legionnaires with overseas service is probably exceeded only by the ratio of VFW's who never got nearer to real powder than the powder puffs of Paris.
In round figures, out of four World War veterans, two reached France, and of these one saw the front line trenches. It was all in the breaks, in the throw of the dice.
It is almost time that some of these VFW's came down from the top of their perch where, like Shipwreck Kelly, they just sit and stare over the heads of the legionnaires into blank space.
G. D. HOUTMAN Commander
Post 93 American Legion Media, Pa.
Durable Beer Drinker
Sirs:
One of our members, Los Angeles Brewing Co., writes us that in TIME, May 13, two vital errors were made editorially in the item headed '"Finish" telling how a wounded War veteran, Galen Gough, 35, vaudeville strongman, lived for one month solely on beer, from March to May.
That is true. Gough, in 30 days, lost 48 1/2 Ib. and reduced his waistline 9 1/4 in. In error, TIME stated he ''guzzled 1,080 steins of beer." Really he drank ten 11-ounce bottles per day or a total of 412 average table or 8-ounce glasses, which is much less beer than you reported.
But worst of all, your correspondent wrote that at the conclusion of his feat "he was lugged off to a hospital. . . ." That we feel was an unwarranted inference that things did not go so well with Mr. Gough.
We have it on the authority of Mr. Charles J. Lick, General Manager of Los Angeles Brewing Co., and Dr. Charles F. Sebastian, that Gough immediately went to the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital in Los Angeles to be weighed and examined, as he had been on March 30 when he began his beer diet test. He had just let the 7,000-lb. beer truck loaded down with the entire Hollywood baseball team ride over his chest to indicate his sustained vitality. Dr. Sebastian reported Gough physically fit in every respect, whereupon the Legionnaire strongman was whisked to the Los Angeles Times' Cooking School to address more than 1,000 women for a period of nearly two hours.
According to last reports, Mr. Gough is still doing well.
L. PORTER MOORE
Director
Public Relations Department U. S. Brewers' Association New York City
To tough Beer-Guzzler Gough, congratulations.--ED.
Savage Tradition
Sirs:
Your account of the recent award of scholarships given by the American Academy in Rome [TIME, May 27] is even more disappointing than your report of the same event in previous years. You seem to imply that to Mr. Eugene Savage belongs most of the credit for the splendid record of the Yale School of Fine Arts during the past years. Mr. Savage, I believe, would be the first person to deny this. As Leffmgwell Professor of Painting his influence reaches only a small section of the Yale Art School. He has nothing to do with the instruction in architecture or sculpture.
I think most people at the Yale School of Fine Arts would tell you that entire credit for what is being accomplished there is due to Professor Edwin C. Taylor, whose very fine record it might pay you to investigate. RAWSON W. HADDOX
Director
The Mattatuck Historical Society Waterbury, Conn.
No Dragger-Out
Sirs:
Re the Seattle Times's news beat on the Weyerhaeuser kidnapping: Reporter Dreher didn't, despite TIME, June 10, ''drag the boy down on the floor of the taxi." The boy rested on the cushioned seat of the taxi with Reporter Dreher on the floor. A half mile beyond the point of transfer from the farmer's Ford to the taxi, two G-men cars were parked. The reporter wished to avoid having an interview interrupted by Federal agents; hence the informal positions of the boy and the reporter. The reporter is 59 but not corpulent, weighs 128 lb. at 5 ft. 6. The boy was taken directly home, without the reporter stopping for photographs or to telephone his newspaper en route, which would have given the Times an earlier street appearance than its rivals. Please correct your "drag-out and flooring" of George Weyerhaeuser.
REPORTER JOHN F. DREHER
Seattle, Wash.
TIME salutes 59-year-old. 128-lb. Reporter Dreher for roundly scooping many a younger, heftier newshawk on the return of George Weyerhaeuser. Underestimated by his opponents because he was the Seattle Times's golf editor, Mr. Dreher had twelve years' experience as the Times's police reporter, still covers every big crime story in the Northwest, keeps up his old friendships with law officers, reads a detective magazine every month. For further news of the Weyerhaeuser case see p. 12.--ED.
Weber Wages
Sirs:
... I wish to draw your attention to an article in TIME of May 27 under heading "Weber Withdraws." In this article Orlando Weber [retired president of Allied Chemical & Dye] points proudly to a $400,000,000 balance; $55,000,000 in cash or its equivalent and $200,000,000 paid in dividends with no Depression interruption; and most proudly to the fact that he has never cut wages. His own salary ran up as high as $780,000 for one year, enough to pay the President of the U. S. for over ten years.
Here are some facts about one of the Allied Chemical plants:
They used to employ about 275 men at bare living wage, and never near a high prevailing wage although work in the plant was more dangerous to health. Today they employ about 40 whose wages were recently cut, mechanical drawing about $24 a week and laborers $16 to $18 per week. Most all of the old employes who spent their life and health and were nearly due for a pension were fired. Thank God the Orlando Weber type of employer is not in full control of all industries.
A. H. RAGLOW Chicago, Ill.
Superstition
Sirs:
Re Senator Cutting [TIME, May 13, et seq.] have you heard the story connecting him with the Hope Diamond now owned by Mrs. McLean of Washington?
The night before Senator Cutting left for the West he was a guest in the home of Mrs. McLean. He, among other guests, was shown the Hope Diamond. Senator Cutting was the only one who touched it, against the wishes of the other guests present. See what happened?
I wouldn't even look at that thing.
E. WINSTON Washington, D. C.
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