The Gloomy Dean

Sir:

. . . The most horrible thing I have yet read in TIME appears in the issue of July 27. William Ralph Inge, 93, the "Gloomy Dean" of London's St. Paul's, is quoted as telling London's Daily Express that he does not know there is a life beyond the grave--"in the sense in which the Church teaches it"--and has no vision of a "welcoming God."

I would have given much to have kept this dreadful interview out of your columns . . . I thank God that there are few like him in the great Anglican church . . .

(THE REV.) LAWTON RILEY Dean

Christ Church Eagle Lake, Texas

Sir:

... I am a Roman Catholic, and while I do not agree with the teachings of the Church of England, I do greatly resent your publishing this type of utter nonsense . . .

F. H. NEITZEL

Boise, Idaho

Sir:

. . . Out of the mire of wishful thinking, Dean Inge lifts the whole field of religion. He is a fearless seeker after spiritual truth . . .

At the end of World War I, a group of us followed the verger through the vast spaces of St. Paul's. When someone mentioned the Gloomy Dean, the verger said firmly: "'E hain't the Gloomy Dean; 'e's the sad hop-timist!"

L. E. REMINGTON

Washington, D.C.

Metaphorical Chowder

Sir:

In TIME, July 20, we read: "Author [Bertrand] Russell uses live bait and barbed hooks, tickles out many a specimen of his lifelong enemies in suburbia . . ."

If "tickling" is an art ... in which fish are taken without tackle by skillful manipulation of the hand, then TIME has its gills in the net of mixed metaphors.

V. A. TORKILDSON Milwaukee

P: Reader Torkildson should have seen the metaphor that got away.--ED.

Square in a Cube

Sir:

Who's the square in 3-D (cube that is) diggin' Pete Candoli blowing clarinet on Hey, Bellboy! platter [July 27] review? Tha's a trumpet, Dad . . .

MAINE MORRIS Santa Monica, Calif.

Sir:

Man, you goofed!! . . . Give credit to Pete's horn. It's the most!

RICHARD GROSSMAN Philadelphia

Garnish That Fulcher

Sir:

. . . When we see Kentucky and Mississippi arguing as to who was responsible for the discovery of the mint julep [TIME, July 20], without even a mention of the Mountain State, we think it is time to step in and defend our honor. The Kentucky julep didn't even become popular until around 1881 . . . In the early 1830s, a tavern, which later became the Old White and still later the Greenbrier Hotel at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., was famous for its mint juleps . . . But there are indications, turned up by our office, that the julep was invented right in this section early in 1800 by slaves who used a mountain brew called fulcher* whisky and garnished their master's juleps with the mint that grew around their crude cabins . . .

ANDREW V. RUCKMAN

Executive Director

West Virginia Industrial and Publicity Commission

Charleston, W. Va.

Domestic Symphony

Sir:

... I am happy that Eleanor Steber had such a wonderful success in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten [TIME, June 29] . . . I remember . . . exhausting rehearsals with Richard Strauss ... I went to his home in Garmisch--he studied the part of the [dyer's] wife with me.

He really was a very simple family man, entirely devoted to his temperamental wife --he was really a henpecked husband ... I sang a lot of his lieder, and often his wife Pauline would listen. Some of the lieder seemed to bring back happy memories to them both, and Pauline would run to him, throwing her arms around him, saying with big sobs of touching sentimentality, "Do you remember, Richard?"--and he would have tears in his eyes, too. They were a strange couple. They fought like mad--needless to say, Pauline always started these fights . . . He said to me when I departed: "You have seen a lot which you will find strange in this house. But believe me, all the praises in the world are not so refreshing as my wife's outbreaks of temperament."

He was so accustomed to meeting people who adored him, bowed before him in reverence. He did not like it; he was a thoroughly straightforward man--and his Pauline was like a draft of fresh water . . .

LOTTE LEHMANN Santa Barbara, Calif.

Code for Young Men

Sir:

Re your July 27 article, "The Need for Risk Capital--Where Is the Small Investor?": You imply that the stock exchanges are remiss in failing to brainwash the public back to the advantages of stock ownership . . . But Government penalties of nonproportional taxation, excessive controls and filing of forms has written a new code for the young men: 1) Avoid individual initiative, leave this to your union organizer, don't be antisocial; 2) Be a salaried man, employ no one, and avoid all the paper work and contact with governmental controls; 3) Never take on a business risk; when tempted, close the eyes and repeat, "What I want most is security from the cradle to the grave."

Savings accounts? Yes. You can have one and still be a "worker." Stocks? No. The birthright of "worker" will now be tainted with capitalism . . .

A. G. WOOD

Los Angeles

Sir:

The "little man" will probably continue to pull his purse strings tight when it comes to buying common stocks until he is shown how easy it is to acquire ownership of shares "by the dollar's worth."

I am one of some 3,000 "consistent investors" who are accumulating well-known dividend-paying stocks out of income without going into debt, without using large sums of money, and without watching the ticker tape. I buy what I know and buy as I go ...

THOMAS R. REMINGTON

Rochester, N.Y.

Illinois Report

Sir:

In your Aug. 3 account of my forced resignation from the presidency of the University of Illinois . . . there is one item that constitutes a misstatement: "Last winter he [Stoddard] got into a fight with Illinois Governor William G. Stratton, who refused as unreasonable Stoddard's request for more than a half million dollars to set up a university TV station." Actually, the Governor never received any such request from the university . . . The maximum amount approved by the board of trustees was $175,000 per year. Since the Governor would not approve the total university askings, which included this item, it was decided to place the station on a minimum basis.

What we fought against was an absolute prohibition against educational TV in the state of Illinois ... I am proud to have opposed [it], but I cannot take much credit for its defeat . . .

GEORGE D. STODDARD President

University of Illinois Urbana, Ill.

* A brandy base with corn liquor added.

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