Taft Daughter
Sirs:
How splendid for a famous man like Taft that one of his sons graduated from Yale while his father was in the White House and that his second son, much like his father in manner and mind, was an all around man in his class.
Is TIME just persistently anti-feminine or can it be that you never heard that he has a daughter whose accomplishments rather out rank the above? Really, you know!
MRS. EDWIN VAN RENSSELAER PAYNE
Rochester, N. Y.
Of the accomplishments of Helen Herron Taft Manning, Ph. D. (A. B. Bryn Mawr, 1915; M. A., Yale, 1916, Ph. D., 1924), Dean and Acting President of Bryn Mawr College, TIME is well aware.--ED.
Better Setter
Sirs:
In the issue of TIME of March 3, you have as a frontispiece, a fine picture of the great Pointer ''Mary Blue," with the question "Is the Setter Better?" May I be permitted to answer your question at least for one Setter?
I enclose a picture of my young Setter "Princeton" pointing quail in the fall of 1929, No.. 150917 A F D S Book. Sire: Florendale Lou's Beau (93779). Dam: Paliacho's Shenandoah Queen (85186):
Princeton, on Sept. 2, 1929, in the Manitoba All-Age Stake, when he was barely 28 months old, in a field of 52 starters including Mary Blue, beat all of the best Setters and Pointers of America and Canada. In the final series in the Manitoba All-Age Stake, Princeton was paired against the Pointer, Mary Blue. The result of this test did not leave the Judges long in doubt that Princeton was the superior of the Pointer, Mary Blue.
I have not run Princeton in the Quail Trials of the South during the past winter, although he is an even greater dog on quail than he is on prairie chicken, for the reason that I wished to use him for my own private shooting.
You can see an account of Princeton's Mary Blue's race in the American Field of Sept. 14, 1929-H. H. SWIFT
Columbus, Ga.
Knee-Rubbing Whales
Sirs:
The old oil can--a tanker--is rapidly lifting her cargo of Venezuela crude. A muffled, methodical, pumping, pumping, pumping sound, and a shimmying, twelve-inch, flexible, metallic, rubber hose, extending overside from her pipe line on deck to a connection on the dock, is all that is evident as this 100,000-barrel monster serenely discharges herself of a valuable oil cargo, and pumps it into storage tanks on shore, from where it goes to the stills and eventually becomes "gas."
A hand-me-down copy of TIME (issue of September 9) is lying on the chart-room table. . . .
-'An article captioned "Whales" has arrested my attention--and now that I have read it, I've something to say in regard to the substance of the footnote appended:
"There is no record of whales having been observed in actual copulation. Seamen say that when a whale wins his mate, he escorts her to the dark waters of great depths."
A number of years back while holding down my first job as a ship's officer, on a voyage from Hilo, Hawaii, to Salina Cruz, Mexico, in the vicinity of the Revilla Gigedo Islands, (Lat. 18DEG20' N., Lon. 114DEG 44' W.) approximately, on a placid spring day I noticed not far distant from the ship a considerable surface disturbance of an otherwise calm and listless sea.
The glasses were brought to bear upon it, and instead of a violent, submarine volcanic action I saw two mammoth denizens of the deep--two whales--who were having a glorious time, splashing and frisking, tail-thwacking and nose-bumping, diving and hurdling, and their actions for a considerable radius had churned the calm, listless sea into a veritable caldron of boiling, foaming, angry water.
At times this violent love-making would cease, as one of the whales would forge ahead, slowly but gracefully, turning over easily on its back as it went and keeping a position slightly beneath the surface of the water. The action resembling that of a swimmer as he turns on his back to float. The other whale well in the rear and swimming back up, would suddenly put on a burst of speed--full ahead, both engines--- as he ploughed a snowy, straight-as-an-arrow furrow through the Prussian-blue sea, which brought him swiftly forward to form that perfect, blissful contact with his mate.
The Old Man, a stern, thin-lipped Yankee skipper of the old school, came on deck at this juncture, saw what he thought were breakers--a shoal. He mounted the bridge ladder two rungs at a time and fairly tore the glasses from my hands.
"What's all this, Mister?" said he.
Then he chuckled, then laughed outright and added, "Wall, I'll be !"
"What are they doing, Captain?" inquired innocent me, and as he returned the binoculars to my keeping he said, as a twinkle lit up his cold, steel-like eyes, "Wall son, they're just rubbing each others knees."
CAPT. HOWARD F. HOZEY
American Diamond Lines Philadelphia, Pa.
M. I. T's Stone & Webster
Sirs:
On p. 16 of your issue of March 3 . . . you make the statement with reference to Stone & Webster, Inc. that it "Began as a private partnership between himself and a Harvard classmate."
TIME is generally so accurate I am surprised to find such an error.
Mr. Charles A. Stone and Mr. Edwin S. Webster were both graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Class of 1888 and neither have attended Harvard College. It is true that Mr. Stone a short time ago received an Honorary Degree of A. M. from Harvard College, but that is the only connection he ever had with it.
For many years he and Mr. Webster were members of the Executive Committee of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. . . .
FRANKLIN W. HOBBS Boston, Mass.
Newsboy
Sirs:
For the past several months I have been reading your magazine with very much enjoyment and interest, especially the Aeronautical Department. . . .
Here at McCook, Neb., a plains town, with a population of 8,000, Mr. H. D. Strunk, of the McCook Daily Gazette, is pioneering and promoting an Air Adventure--namely, delivering newspapers via the airplane to 43 neighboring villages and schools, every evening over a 380 mi. route. He calls his airplane the "Newsboy." It has been running since last September.
KENNETH C. SOMMER
McCook, Neb.
Great Cause
Sirs:
I should like to call your earnest attention to an article in the March issue of the Ladies Home, Journal. It is entitled "Easier Motherhood," and its author is Constance L. Todd. The article speaks so eloquently for itself, that no words of praise, description or exhortation in connection with it are necessary from an insignificant person. I think you will be serving a great cause and assisting in the relief of countless daily tragedies if you will give space to a review of this article.
MRS. DAN HUNTTNGTON FENN
Taunton, Mass.
"Easier Motherhood" describes synergistic anaesthesia by the Gwathmey technic. Known to medicine for about a decade, it consists of the specialized administration of magnesium sulphate, ether and morphine combined in a dose suited to the individual. Extensively and very successfully used in Manhattan hospitals, it has, says Author Todd, "'converted crying rooms into chambers of silence." Yet so little is it appreciated among obstetricians generally that in the last five years it is estimated only two-tenths of one per-'cent of U. S. mothers have experienced its benefits.--ED.
Carolinium, Berzelium
Sirs:
March 3 issue of TIME, p. 37, re Professor B. Smith Hopkins.
Charles Baskerville was the first American to discover a new element. He established the fact that thorium, hitherto supposed to be an element is really a combination of two substances called by him carolinium after the State of North Carolina and Berzelium after Berzelius a Swedish chemist who discovered thorium nearly a century ago. These new elements were first found by Prof. Baskerville in the monazite sand of North Carolina.
JOSEPH N. KANE
New York City.
But the Chemical Dictionary says "Berzelium, a supposed element of atomic weight 212 found by Baskerville in thorium salts."--ED.
Illini
Sirs:
The list of noteworthy Illini included in your account of Harry Woodburn Chase's election as president of the University of Illinois is excellent but by no means complete. Here are some others. . . .
HARRY PATTERSON
Chicago, 111.
Subscriber Patterson lists the following:
Arthur Newell Talbot '81, professor-emeritus of municipal sanitary engineering, able traction engineer (formula for laying railway curves, moving train stresses on tracks), pioneer in the development of reinforced concrete, the design of municipal sewage plants.
Carl Clinton Van Doren '07, literary critic, editor of the Literary Guild, lecturer on American literature in Columbia University.
Mark Van Doren '14, his brother, critic, anthologist (World Anthology of Poetry-).
Samson Miles Raphaelson '17, author (The Jazz Singer, Young Love).
Lois Feme Seyster (Mrs. Lynne) Montross '19, author and co-author with her husband (Town and Gown, Fraternity Row).
There are 96,500 living Illini. TIME has discovered and named 14 Illini note-worthies. Are there others?--ED.
Major Y
Sirs:
In your issue of March 10, I was interested find among the Letters, one from W. Lloyd White of Cleveland concerning Fencing.
As one of those of the Yale fencing team who, he says, received a major letter, I wish to correct an erroneous impression which has already called forth some comment here at college.
Those of us who were awarded our major Y were three in number. It was awarded for winning the National Junior Epee Championship on
The rule by which this award was made consists of the regular rules for the awards to the several sports and the fact that a major letter shall be awarded a team or individual who wina "National" Championship. . . .
WALLACE A. WALKER
Yale University Fencing Team New Haven, Conn.
Record Service
I am wondering if the book service TIME gives its readers extends also to phonograph records. This new department is invaluable to those ot us who are unable to get out and hear concerts. Only sometimes it is difficult to get records or to know if certain favorites are available. Just now I am particularly eager to know if Percy Grainger has made a record of his Turkey-in-the-Straw arrangement. And I should like to have some good records of music by Ravel. . . .
FRANCES MEANY
Spokane, Wash.
Subscribers unable to obtain desired phonograph records from local dealers can do so by addressing: The Music Editor, TIME, Inc., 205 E. 4-7nd St., N. Y. C. Enclose check or money order to cover regular retail price.
Let Subscriber Meany see TIME, Dec. 16 for a report on recent Ravel recordings. Of his "Turkey-in-the-Straw," Pianist Grainger has made no phonograph record--ED.
Sirs:
I saw with interest in your phonograph record notes that records by the Great Enrico Caruso are still being released. Is it still possible to obtain Caruso Tosca records? . . .
HAROLD FRASER
Knoxville, Tenn.
The late Enrico Caruso made one Tosca record--"E lucevan e stelle" on one side. "Recondita armonia" on the other (Victor $1.50).--ED.
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