Mrs. Jeppe Flayed

Herewith are excerpts from letters come to the desks of the editors during the past week. They are selected primarily for the information they contain either supplementary to or corrective of news previously published in TIME.

Sirs:

It grieves me that you are obliged to publish such a report in your able publication, as that by Mrs. Karen Jeppe, chief of the Syrian League Commission, in TIME Oct. 4.*

It is no secret that indescribable hatred and revenge for the Turks, lurks in the heart of every Armenian, everywhere.

Is it therefore credible that Christian women, such as the Armenian mother is known to be, would bargain their most precious jewels (babies), to dogs (Turks) whom they would not hesitate to destroy; for gain ? Hardly.

Turkish harems contain many Armenian girls; however, these girls were abducted and forced to serve their Turkish masters.

They would not hesitate to destroy themselves, for they are ashamed and do not care to exist.

I am an Armenian and I know what I speak, and hope through your able paper to disprove this report, which has earmarks of a biased woman. LEE A. ZARTARIAN

Philadelphia, Pa.

Decidedly Wrong

Sirs:

Do you think it was necessary to put in the phrase "do not trust Mr. Lee" in your article reprinting the article concerning me in the October Mercury and printed in TIME, Oct. 4, p. 23 ? It may be that some newspaper men are not willing to put themselves in my hands but you imply by suggestion that newspaper men do not trust my word. I do not believe that you will find any newspaper men who question the accuracy of any statement that I make to them. I regret that the method you have used in quoting the article gives that impression.

Aside from the fact that the incident you quote from the Mercury is related inaccurately in the Mercury itself, and that the writer of that article pretended to write a character study of me without ever having given me personally an opportunity to give him my side of the story, there isn't very much to say; except that you are publishing a fine magazine. IVY L. LEE

New York, N. Y.

It is part of the business of Ivy L. Lee, famed and unique adviser on public relations to many great corporations, to tell newspapermen what he wants them to know when he wants them to know it. Naturally, this sometimes conflicts in time and circumstance with professional curiosity and rivalries of some newspapermen. The incident culled by TIME from the Mercury was intended to illustrate a phase of this natural conflict. But, "do not trust" was decidedly the wrong phrase for the situation.--ED.

Becoming Innocence

Sirs:

. . . Let the disgusting bits of news alone--even if they are news. Women read TIME and don't you think we want to try to keep women from being so doggoned sophisticated and hard-boiled and modern ? Let's keep them on the pedestal we used to have 'em on. Sophistication doesn't be- come women, now does it? Innocence does. . . .

H. M. APPLEGATE

Williamson ("Oh Henry!") Candy Co. Brooklyn, N. Y.

Klyn Giv-a-wey

Sirs:

sey, kut awt "penton building" on ywr letr-hcd, estymed frendz, it is a klyn giv-a-wey, it edmits yw are in a wun-hors sity where rustics now where a few big bildinz ar.

insted ov "penton building" giv street and numbr. hwat ar street and numbr for? yw sym tw concede that klevlnd, owhayow wil nevr by enytin mowrn a kontry vilidz.

EDGAR DAYTON BRINKERHOFF certified public accountant of the state of new york

East Orange, N. J.

Filipinas

Sirs:

. . . Your remark [TIME, Sept. 6, p. 6]. "fat and lean Filipino females . . . ambling about naked" is not only bad diction but creates an entirely erroneous mental impression. Filipino is the masculine gender and the word applied to "females" should be 'Filipina"--further there are no adult Filipinas who amble about naked, particularly in the coastal towns, and my experience with these natives since 1900 is that even the so-called wild or "head hunter" tribes of the interior are quite modest.

As a slight diversion it might interest your readers to know that bathing in the Philippines is conducted in any convenient place--at a well or "on the bank of a stream where the carabao dream" and so far as adult females are concerned there is no undue exposure of the person. When the bather arrives at the place of the bath she loosens her saya (skirt) which is tied round her waist and lifts it to cover her bosom. She then removes her floppy camisa (waist) and camison (chemise) if she wears the latter garment, kicks aside her chinelas (slippers) and goes to it.

The water is always cold and sometimes she has a piece of soap, sometimes she uses a smooth rock, with which she rubs her entire body.

At the conclusion of the bath she anoints her hair with coconut oil in which some particles of coconut meat may be seen and then knots her hair up out of her way and washes any clothes she may desire to clean. Then in her wet clothing she goes home for dry, and to comb and dry her hair. JASON M. WALLING

Lieut. Colonel 24th Infantry Fort Benning, Ga.

"No Gentleman"

Sirs:

. . . In describing happenings at the Tunney-Dempsey Fight you speak of a gentleman who stood up--sat down--and placed his flask beside him. Is that the act of a gentleman ? Could you not, with better propriety, have used the word "man" ? It is like some of our Sport writers who speak of "customers" instead of spectators at our various athletic games. . . .

F. L. STRATTON

New York, N. Y.

Urning, Lesbian

Sirs:

I keep a copy of Funk and Wagnalls Practical Standard Dictionary on my desk, but once in a while a word is used in your great family guide that stumps me; for instance, Urning, Lesbian (page 20, TIME, Oct. 11).

Do any of your folks know of one volume that might. . . enable a country banker to peruse TIME profitably? . . . This request is made in all seriousness. . . .

I read and appreciate TIME thoroughly, so please do not think that I am trying to get wise with you, your policies or the type of wording that adds a great deal to the attractiveness of your paper.

J. H. MYERS

The First National Bank Black Rock, Ark.

Webster's New International defines both Urning and Lesbian. --Ed.

"Move to Rome"

Sirs:

I have been purchasing TIME at the news stand each week, and have been trying to figure out your attitude on American principles, but for the life of me after reading each issue, brim full of bunk and lies, I have come to the conclusion that the Editors are just printing their own views on each article they put into print. I have searched through dope sheets, piles of them, and have failed to find said editors' names, among the "wise guy" writers of the age, past or present. And after reading the Sept. 20 issue on page 7-- I can readily see where they get their orders from. Why not move your plant over to Rome, I am sure you would not have so many canceling their subscriptions as it shows in each week's "letter" column.

HAP HALLER

Big Creek, Calif.

Absurd & Insulting

Sirs:

A few days ago, I sent you a check for a half year subscription to TIME. I am sorry I did it, for, after reading your last issue, Oct. 4, I found the article "Core of Potency" under the heading of RELIGION most unhistorical, absurd and insulting to any Catholic, and for that matter to any serious unbiased person who has taken the trouble to read the history of the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

If this is your policy ... I do not want your publication, and, even though I have paid this subscription for half a year, I wish you to stop the sending of same.

Assuring you that I'll do my best to see that TIME is not ready by any Catholic of my parish, I remain REV. EDWARD ALBOUY

Flagstaff, Ariz.

TIME Marks

Sirs:

. . . Your ever occurring adjectives "famed" and "able," also the phrase 'As it must to all men, Death came. . ." or, as in TIME, Oct. 4, p. 14, "As it must to all dogs, Death came. . ." are not at all irritating to me as seemingly to some subscribers. These are merely TIME marks to me, by which I am assured, from week to week, that the same crowd of snappy editors is still on the job....

R. ROGGENBROD

Fort Worth, Tex.

"Aiches"

Sirs:

I was interested to see in one of your recent issues [TIME, Sept. 27], in your very interesting paragraph regarding Kipling, that you included among the sayings and phrases that Kipling had added to our current English speech the following lines:

"The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone."

These two lines are part of the famous missionary hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," written by Bishop Reginald Heber in 1819.

EGBERT W. SMITH

Executive Secretary

Executive Committee of Foreign Missions Nashville, Tenn.

Hymnologist Bishop Heber retained his "aiches." Poet Kipling touched up and immortalized the couplet by dropping them: "The 'eathen in 'is blindness . . ."--ED.

Sort of Tone

Sirs:

I'm not renewing my subscription to TIME because of the report in that paper of the Biennial Convention of the Y. W. C. A. in Milwaukee in April [TiME, May 10]. I went to the convention--then I read your report. It wasn't exactly garbled but it was a bit satirical and had a false sort of tone to it. ...

MABELLE W. FORD

Newton Square, Pa.

Variety

Sirs:

I have just finished reading the letter from Mr. R. B. Ericsson to you printed in TIME, Oct. 4, concerning "gruesome incidents" of no interest to readers of TIME, and I wish to say that I absolutely disagree with him, not only in that connection but in comparing your magazine to the publications of Hearst. Your magazine is the most unique printed at the present time, and I hope you will never change its style or contents. It is the first magazine I read of the several to which I subscribe. I have also read the Hearst publications, and anyone who compares them, with their mess of scandal and untrue stories, to TIME needs spectacles. Variety is the spice of life, and in this case TIME is Variety.

KATE D. WARREN

Washington, D. C.

Honors

Sirs:

Not to let Mr. Craig have all the honors I am submitting another name, which is not harmed by turning upside down. HAROLD B. MAYHEW

Hyattsville, Md.

Conscience

Sirs:

TIME is the pioneer of a new journalism. It is honest. Public confidence in newspapers is gone. They show too much preference for slush and lies. The people feel that the papers must know better, and are simply perverse. TIME picks its way, has not only discrimination but a conscience.

Serious or ridiculous instances abound in each of your issues. There is the typical female, Mrs. Marshall Field III, thoroughly feminine in her anxiety to seem unfeminine. You are giving real reports from Mexico, with sufficient hints of what the church of Rome means when it demands its type of tolerance. Newspapers are unbelievably dull about the policy of that church which says she is "the same things. . . ."

WILLIS THOMPSON

Armstrong Memorial Presbyterian Church Norfolk, Va.

Obi

Sirs:

You will receive many letters as to Yoshiwara life, TIME, Oct. 11, p. 17. ...

Girls of the Lilith profession, licensed, must tie their Obi (sash) in front. Other girls tie the Obi behind. The Geisha ties the Obi behind.

L. C. BAKER

Comstock, N. Y.

*Mrs. Jeppe reported to the Assembly of the League of Nations:

"We have rescued from Arabian harems 1,400 Christian women within four years. . . . Our chief difficulty has been with the women themselves who are usually well treated by their masters, and seem to prefer a life of luxury and laziness to the work we are able to offer them in Christian surroundings. . . . They are mostly Armenian girls sold into harems when mere children, often by their avaricious parents. . . ."' and revenge for the Turks, lurks in the heart of every Armenian, everywhere.