Banjo Boy Sirs: In TIME, Oct. 27, your article "Heroes" [about the theory that Abraham Lincoln was John Calhoun's illegitimate son] is a blot on your journalistic record that will be and should be hard to overcome.
Will you give us a biographical sketch of "Honorable" Felix E. Alley mentioned in same? M. C. BLAIR Carlisle, Ky.
>Now a judge of North Carolina's Superior Court, Felix E. Alley--on whose Random Thoughts and Musings of a Mountaineer TIME reported -- has had quite a life of his own. Born in 1873 at the base of North Carolina's Whiteside Mountain, Felix was the youngest of ten children, an asthmatic invalid as a boy. He worked his way through several years of high school, spending 5-c- or 10-c- a month for pleasure and keeping house for himself in a mountainside cabin. He borrowed $300 for a year of law school, finished his studies at night while clerking by day, had a wife, two children and debts totaling $500 when he passed his bar examinations. The debts were soon paid off, for as a lawyer he did well, especially with Negro cases. His dark clients called him "de bes' niggah lawyah dat atten's dese co'ts."
An urge for music and lack of money for an instrument moved Felix, as a boy, to make himself a banjo strung with J. & P. Coats spool thread. A Coats Co. stockholder, flood-bound at the Alley house, was so impressed by this contraption that he sent Felix a fine store banjo and persuaded the company to use a picture of a barefoot, banjo-playing boy as a trademark. At 16 Felix also wrote a ballad, Kidder Cole, which became famous.--ED.
Very Much Alive
Sirs:
YOUR ARTICLE ON RITA HAYWORTH STATED THAT ELISA CANSINO WAS DEAD. MY MOTHER IS IN SAN FRANCISCO AND VERY MUCH ALIVE. PLEASE BE GOOD ENOUGH TO RETRACT THE STATEMENT AS IT HAS BROUGHT ME MUCH GRIEF BY FRIENDS SENDING ME CONDOLENCES. . . .
GABRIEL CANSINO Chicago, Ill.
>TIME'S apologies to Elisa Cansino, Rita Hayworth's aunt, who is not only alive but runs a dancing school in San Francisco.--ED.
Men of the Year
Sirs:
Because so many millions of unhappy men believe (whether rightly or wrongly matters not) that in his hands and upon his decisions, rests the hope of the world, I nominate for Man of the Year: Franklin D. Roosevelt.
E. MITHOFF NICHOLAS
Barrie, Ont.
Sirs:
... I feel that only a very big man could put aside partisan politics and travel around on his own expense making speeches supporting his former opponent in an attempt to unite all the people of our country in our present efforts to see Hitler defeated. My nomination is none other than Wendell Willkie.
M. H. JACKSON
El Paso, Tex.
Sirs: I nominate Windy "Finito" Mussolini as 1940's and 1941's ghastliest flop.
W. I. LIPOVAC San Francisco, Calif.
Hortation
Sirs:
Remember the Reuben James! What are we waiting for? Let's go!
CORPORAL ARTHUR GUNTHER
Fort Ord, Calif.
Brawling Mothers
Sirs:
Just heard over the radio that those women who style themselves "American mothers" have staged another brawl, this time including the British Ambassador in their publicity. . . .
Have American mothers any defense against being included by inference in such public immodesties? Is there any method whereby these females may be restrained from vulgarizing and holding up to ridicule a name so far held as honorable among us? Can they continue to misrepresent the American ladies whose sons and husbands are proud to prepare to defend them, and who are too busy lending their hands to aid and comfort those same dear men to defend themselves against such embarrassing associations, however falsely assumed? . . .
ELEANOR BERNER
Newport, R.I.
Aesop's Bat
Sirs: When the British politicians and the Jewish exploiters finally get America where they want us--behind the eight ball--and the situation finally becomes apparent to the rabbit-brained masses, then all of you prostitute lickspittle congenital stool pigeons who now so smugly fawn on those elements that represent established wealth, power and authority, may find yourselves in the position of the Bat in Aesop's fable: kicked out and repudiated by both sides. Perhaps you think you will not suffer much inconvenience, at that, since in addition to the reputed characteristics of the bat, you also possess the ability of the chameleon to change to the safe color upon short notice.
The days of the forces which you serve are definitely numbered. You would realize that if you were out here in the clean air of the West. . . .
When the reaction comes (and it is later than you think) the figures of those few lonely, fearless men such as Lindbergh will tower as far above those of their slimy defamers as a giant sequoia towers above the bedraggled weeds at its base.
EARL HADLEY
Salt Lake City, Utah
No Halo
Sirs:
The writer who wrote on Stalin in the Oct. 27 issue of TIME has done a heart-rending job. . . . He performed an amazingly miraculous transformation. In a few short paragraphs Stalin has been transformed from the most bloodthirsty scoundrel on earth not only to a mere saint but to the deity of all the Russias.
It is amazing how readily reason gives way to sentimentalities. What mere children our hard-boiled editors actually turn out to be! ...
HERBERT H. BECK
Madison, Wis.
>TIME put no halo on the brow of tough and bloody Comrade Stalin. TIME did pin on his baggy blouse the Supreme Order of Utility-to-the-Nations-Fighting-Hitler.--ED.
Father Sill's List
Sirs:
Any Kent School alumnus can tell you that the President's "I have a map," [showing Nazi conquest plan for South America] is a variation of an old, old refrain.
Many's the time Father Sill, the Kent headmaster emeritus, used something suspiciously like it as an important aid to discipline. Let there be a general breach of school rules (but no tangible evidence to pin the blame on someone in particular) and out would come the familiar dodge: "I've got a list of every boy who's been smoking. ..." I can hear it now.
Ask any Kent alumnus. And ask him how many times he headed right for the study to "confess" before the list was made public. Ask him if he ever saw the list. Or ever knew anyone who ever saw the list.
The tune is the same. The President has just written new words to it.
EDWARD M. BRAINARD
Hartford, Conn.
>Shame on Father Sill for employing such unscrupulous methods.--ED.
"Going Into Hysteric"
Sirs:
When I read the article on Japan which had been printed in your journal issued on July 14, I could not refrain from laughing. Because it was an exaggerated statement and widely different from the real facts of recent Japan.
Accordingly I would like to present the word "Come and See!" Going into hysteric is always in danger to dispose of all the things happened in the world.
MR. SHUNPEI HOSHIKAWA
Kinsei-mura, Umagun, Ehime Prefecture, Japan
A Sailor Figures
Sirs: Have often wondered if the common workingman who goes on strike for higher wages ever stopped to do a little common figuring. ...
Suppose a man is making $40 per week and strikes for a 10% increase in wages and is out, say, two months, his total loss is $320, and we will continue in our figuring with the presumption that he gets his 10% raise, which amounts to $4 per week.
He has already lost $320. . . . With the $4-per-week increase, he has to work 80 weeks, or one year and seven months, to get back where he started when he went on strike. . . .
In the West Coast shipping strike in 1936 I figured some of the dock workers would have to work almost 40 years to be where they were when they went out on strike. . . .
As for my personal opinion on labor leaders like John L. Lewis . . . Hitler is an angel alongside him. And will venture the guess that 95% of the Navy feels the same way. ...
G. H. HAMPTON
C.B.M.,* U.S. Navy Newport, R.I.
Anti-Petty
Sirs:
SHAME ON TIME FOR DISTINGUISHING PETTY'S INDECENT VULGAR DISTORTIONS OF FEMALE FORM BY COVER PUBLICATION. MISS HAYWORTH'S PHOTOGRAPH SURELY SUFFICIENT. # Chief Boatswain's Mate. LET SUCH CRUDENESS STAY IN ADVERTISING WORLD WHERE SANE PEOPLE CAN IGNORE IT. ...
PROFESSOR THOMAS E. CASSIDY
St. Johns University Collegeville, Minn.
Philadelphia Water
Sirs:
Your odoriferous article on Philadelphia's water supply (TIME, Oct. 27) marks a new milestone in TIME'S steadily mounting reputation as a fiction publication. For your edification, I am sending you a pint of water drawn from a tap in my home. . . .
True, the lower Schuylkill is in a filthy condition due to drought, but that part of the river from which a portion of our supply comes is upstream of, and separated by a dam from this section. . . .
All honest Philadelphians deplore our political mismanagement of former years, but lay no claims to political machines of the caliber of Tammany Hall and similar organizations of several other U.S. cities. . . .
HERMAN G. EBERT Philadelphia, Pa.
>TIME did not say that Philadelphia's water was unsafe in any way, merely that it smelled, but TIME sent Reader Ebert's tap sample to a laboratory for analysis. It showed a relatively high count of harmless bacteria (perhaps his bottle was not thoroughly sterilized). The laboratory noted Reader Ebert's sample had a "slight odor" cold as well as warm.--ED.
Sirs:
We are glad to see you taking an interest in the controversy over the Philadelphia "water(?)" and its odor. But if Mr. Roosevelt thought it smelled bad 24 years ago he should visit the city now.
RUTH H. FISHER
Philadelphia, Pa.
Spelling & Meaning Sirs: I should like to inquire about the use in your columns of the words wackie and whacky. I am not certain whether they have the same meaning; and if not, I am not certain of the meaning of the latter.
In TIME, Jan. 27, you have a heading, "Finding Wackies,"and the article describes pretty well what wackies are. March 17, under the heading, "New Pictures,"you have a sentence: "Coffee Cup is a whacky extrovert, etc."The description hardly indicates that he is a wackie, but, as I am unfamiliar with whacky, I cannot be sure. . . .
THOMAS K. BROWN JR.
Editor, The Winston Dictionaries Philadelphia, Pa.
>When the late T. E. Lawrence had written his Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his publisher wrote to him, asking about certain spellings. Excerpts from this correspondence:
Proofreader: "Slip 47. Jedha, the she-camel, was Jedhah on Slip 40." Lawrence: "She was a splendid beast." Proofreader: "Slip 78-Sherif Abd el Mayin of Slip 68 becomes el Main, el Mayein, el Muein, el Mayin, and el Muyein."Lawrence: "Good egg. I call this really ingenious."Wacky and whacky can also be spelled wackie, whackie, wackey, whackey, wacquey, whaquey, wakki.
--ED.
*Chief Boatswain's Mate.
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