Ohioan Presidents v. Virginian Sirs: A Virginian, in TIME, Dec. 15, p. 4, in a letter criticizing a statement of yours and titled by you "Virginia 8, Ohio 7" claims honors for his State as the Mother of Presidents. Virginia undoubtedly has a certain claim, but I think one much less valid than that of Ohio. Of Virginia's eight presidents, only seven were elected to that office; Tyler was Harrison's vice president. All seven of Ohio's presidents were elected. Furthermore two of Virginia's remaining seven were inaugurated before Ohio was admitted to the union, and four of the seven were inaugurated before Ohio's population equaled that of Virginia. Only two of Virginia's presidents were born after the Revolution, i.e. in the State of Virginia, and one of them was Woodrow Wilson whose political life, prior to his election to the presidency, was spent entirely within the boundaries of New Jersey. Ohio's seven were born in the State of Ohio. In other words, Virginia had a temporary advantage arising from geographical accident; as a seacoast colony it started first. ROBERT S. MONTGOMERY Boston, Mass.

Trench Rent

Sirs : I have heard recently from two different and quite authoritative sources that in settling the War Reparations Debts, France has charged the U. S. rent for the trench space the American troops occupied in 1917-18. Can you tell me if this has any foundation in fact ? FRANCIS H. HOYT Montclair, N. J. Ridiculous!--ED.

Rockne's Religion Sirs: We note that on p. 2 of TIME for Dec. 22 that Knute Rockne, the famous football coach, was converted to Catholicism some four years ago. We are enclosing a clipping from p. 20 of the Pathfinder for Jan. 3, which states that Rockne is a Protestant. Will you please explain the discrepancy between these two answers to the same question? . . . ALICE W. HICKMAN Sioux City, Iowa Knute Kenneth Rockne became a Roman Catholic Nov. 21, 1925.--ED.

Ferocious Painted Tom-Cats Sirs: In Jan. 12 issue of TIME is an article headed "Poisoned Promenade," which tells of what a hard time the authorities are having in New York in trying to prevent the dogs from killing the shrubbery in Park Avenue as they "run, sniff and soon " up and down that fashionable thoroughfare. I had a somewhat similar experience with dogs killing the shrubbery in front of my house, after the telegraph poles and trees had been removed from the street. And I succeeded in breaking up the frolic, although I didn't have to resort to arsenic in doing so. I had pictures of ferocious looking Tomcats done in yellow, and I placed these pictures in front of the shrubbery.

Sirs:

In Jan. 12 issue of TIME is an article headed "Poisoned Promenade," which tells of what a hard time the authorities are having in New York in trying to prevent the dogs from killing the shrubbery in Park Avenue as they "run, sniff and so on" up and down that fashionable thoroughfare.

I had a somewhat similar experience with dogs killing the shrubbery in front of my house, after the telegraph poles and trees had been removed from the street. And I succeeded in breaking up the frolic, although I didn't have to resort to arsenic in doing so. I had pictures of ferocious looking Tomcats done in yellow, and I placed these pictures in front of the shrubbery.

The idea was not exactly my own, but all the same it worked like a charm. . . .

W. G. Cox Burlington, N. C.

Wood v. Segrave

Sirs: Would you print in your Letters column a summary of the speed boat records made by Gar Wood the late Sir Henry Segrave. I should like to know the speed made by the late Sir Henry on the day of his death. Please inform me also as to the greatest speed made in a sea-flea and who by. This is to settle an argument and we have agreed that TIME'S report decides the winner. H. C. McGuire Cobourg, Ont.

Gar Wood's best average: 93.123 m. p. h. The late Major Sir Henry O'Neal De-hane Segrave's best: 98.76 m. p. h. After breaking the record, one June day last year in Lake Windermere, Major Segrave forced Miss England II to 101.11 m. p. h., struck a water-logged tree branch, hurtled to his death. Last week the reconditioned Miss England II carried Racer Kaye Don 100 m. p. h. on Lough Neagh, Ireland, in a trial preparatory to attempting the world's record at Buenos Aires before the Prince of Wales. The sea-flea (outboard hydroplane) record: 50.9 m. p. h., by Ray Pregenzer of Antioch, Ill.--ED.

Wolves & Moujiks

Sirs:

On p.180 of Paul de Kruif's estimable work Microbe Hunters, the author writes of nineteen Russian peasants, moujiks, who went to Paris (after having been badly mangled by a mad wolf) for the Pasteur treatment of rabies. Dr. (?) de Kruif further relates that all but three of these unfortunates were saved, "and all the world raised a paean of thanks" to Pasteur.

Now, along comes Dr. Axel Munthe, with his equally estimable book The Story of San Michcle and tells us, on p. 67, of the "terrible episode of the six Russian peasants bitten by a pack of mad wolves and sent to the Institut Pasteur." Dr. Munthe continues with his sorry tale of how these six moujiks all became "raving mad" and the "doomed men" were "helped to a painless death" and "all of the newspapers were full of the most ghastly descriptions of the death of the Russian moujiks."

Won't you or one of your erudite readers aid an oldTIMER, and tell us how many moujiks? and did they live or die? and was it wolf or wolves?

MRS. J. G. HAMILTON

San Mateo, Calif.

Number of bitten moujiks: 19. Number of wolves: 1. Moujiks cured: 16. Moujiks dead: 3. The wolf ran amuck in Smolensk province in March 1886. For two days & two nights it wrandered, at tacking everyone it met. One badly bitten man finally slew the beast with an axe. A Russian physician took the victims to Paris. Pasteur treated 16 of them with a new, intensive treatment (two inoculations daily). The three patients who died were treated by the then ordinary method (one inoculation in several days). The Tsar gave Pasteur a diamond cross of the Order of St. Anne and 100,000 francs for Pasteur Institute.--ED.

Folsom Break, 1903

Sirs:

TIME readers and subscribers in El Dorado County, Calif., and particularly in Placerville, are interested in your article in "Names Make News" column, issue of Dec. 5. Mr. McGeehan errs slightly in the time of the prison break referred to. The break occurred on the afternoon of Friday, July 31, 1903, and until the Thanksgiving break of 1927, which the undersigned covered as United Press correspondent, was the worst in the history of Folsom prison--"hard-boiled," "second-termer" sanctuary for the lawbreakers of California. On the following night, Saturday, Aug. 1, 1903, the main band of convicts, seven in number, were surrounded at the Victory Mine, Manzanita Hill, nine miles southwest of Placerville. Posses from Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Amador and other neighboring counties were reinforced by the National Guard Unit, Company H, then the pride of Placerville and northern California.

Two members of the Guard, Festus Rutherford, 19, and Griffin Jones, 21, were killed in the pitched battle that raged all night, their bodies recovered through the heroism of Guardsmen. Albert Gill, another Guardsman, fell with a bullet through his lungs and all night long lay without water while his comrades sought to kill or capture the ambushed men. Alfred Springer, a farmer in the Manzanita Hill section, was an innocent victim of the accurate aim of Guardsmen. Accidentally getting inside the guard lines, he was challenged by those on guard. Hard of hearing, he failed to respond to the challenge or to halt as ordered and fell with two bullets through his body. Mr. McGeehan's experience probably occurred in the rough, wild and sparsely settled section east of the fatal battleground on the days following the battle of Manzanita Hill. The other band of convicts entrenched themselves at Pilot Hill, 16 miles north of the Victory Mine, where a battle was fought without bloodshed. Subsequently, all the convicts were captured and returned to Folsom except three who were killed during the search and one "Red Shirt" Gordon. The latter's name is still carried on the rolls of Folsom prison as one of the few men to make good an escape, although a report within the last five years was to the effect that he was killed during a hold-up in South America. . . . H. B. THOMAS, Editor

The Republican Placerville, Calif.

Play About Paul

Sirs: A winter visitor in "sunny" California, while browsing in the Hollywood Book Store one rainy afternoon, I was attracted to a little volume entitled The Great Apostle, by a striking picture of The Crucifixion on the jacket. This book, written by H. O. Stechan and issued by a local publisher, fascinatingly presents the spectacular life of St. Paul in play-form--a welcome variation, since of the making of many books about the doughty Apostle to the Gentiles there seems to be no end. Often I have wondered why no one has ever been inspired to write a drama about the picturesque organizer of Christianity--and here it is. I call your attention to my discovery, because in the Jan. 12 issue of TIME a Minnesota clergyman thanked you for reviewing several works with a spiritual note, and asked for more. . . . MRS. MATHILDA MARKHAM Chicago, Ill.

Forelock Caught

Sirs:

I want both personally as one holding Dr. Ewing in very high regard, and as Director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, to thank you most sincerely for the very intelligent, succinct, accurate and safe publicity which you have given to the fight against cancer in your recent issue of TIME. I know of no single item of voluntary publicity appearing in a periodical that has made quite such a definite appeal to me. The question is such a difficult one and requires so much repetition of facts in order to educate the public that the service which you have rendered cannot, I think, be overestimated. It is another instance where TIME has caught itself by the forelock.

C. C. LITTLE Bar Harbor, Me.

Tribune v. Brothers Sirs:

Your issue of Jan. 19, at p. 13, makes a false charge that Leo V. Brothers was being "framed" for the murder of Alfred Lingle as a means of winding up the mystery. You expressly charge that Brothers was being "framed" by the Chicago Tribune; when considered with your other state- ments concerning this investigation, the charge necessarily also applies to Patrick Roche, Chief Investigator of the State's Attorney, and Charles F. Rathbun and James E. McShane, Assistant State's Attorneys, all of whom have been directly responsible for the conduct of the case.

We are requested by The Tribune Co. publisher of the Chicago Tribune, and by Mr. Roche, Mr. Rathbun and Mr. McShane to demand that you publish in the next issue of your magazine a retraction of this false and defamatory imputation. . . .

WEYMOUTH KIRKLAND

Kirkland, Fleming, Green & Martin, Chicago, Ill.

TIME gladly prints this authoritative denial of a suspicion current in Chicago. In reporting the story originally, TIME said: "Offsetting the 'frame-up' theory was the fact that nine unnamed witnesses of the murder had 'positively identified' Brothers as the 'big wavy-haired man with a glint in his blue eye' who had shot Lin-gle." Last week, one month after his arrest, Leo V. Brothers had his first hearing in open court, mumbled "On the advice of my attorneys I stand mute." Under the law the judge thereupon directed that a plea of "Not Guilty" be entered on behalf of Brothers.--ED.

Bishop & Babcock's Bean

Sirs: We refer you to article in TIME, Dec. 29, in which you state, p. 33, that the new White Motor Co. President is Ashton G. Bean, previously president of Bishop & Babcock.

Mr. Ashton G. Bean was and still is President of the Bishop & Babcock Manufacturing Co. . . .

W. C. LINEHAM, Treasurer

The Bishop & Babcock Mfg. Co.

Cleveland, Ohio

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