Omaha's Sarah Joslyn
Sirs:
In your article concerning the Joslyn Art Museum at Omaha you describe its donor, Mrs. Sarah Selleck Joslyn, as eccentric and sometimes known as the "Corn Belt's" Hetty Green (TIME, Jan. 11). Several years ago Mrs. Joslyn was voted Omaha's most useful citizen by the American Legion, and the only true comparison to Hetty Green, is her possession of wealth. She should not be described as eccentric, unless this word is used to describe philanthropy and unselfishness --two attributes Mrs. Joslyn possesses and Hetty Green lacked. You have also sacrificed accuracy for sensation alism in describing the creation of the Joslyn fortune. It was chiefly gained through the success of the Western Newspaper Union, much better described as an institution to make country newspapers more interesting to their subscribers and profitable to their publishers than purveyors of boiler plate. . . .
C. G. CARLBERG Omaha, Neb.
Never again will TIME compare Sarah Joslyn with the late Hetty Green. But TIME is not convinced that the Western Newspaper Union was chief source of the Joslyn fortune.--ED.
Sirs:
As a subscriber and constant reader of TIME it gives one a strange feeling, a cross between pity and shame, on reading your answer to John Thomas in which one can readily read between the lines your displeasure although camouflaged as news May we, with due respect for your opportunity to' dispense facts, remind you that the greatest pleasures of life are not derived from an ironic discrediting of the good intentions of others, but rather from encouraging their endeavors?
H. S. JOSLIN Sioux City, Iowa
To all concerned, TIME offers regrets for its unintended "discrediting" and hereby points with pride to Sarah Joslyn, to her good works and to the Memorial.-- ED.
Sirs:
Your answer calling attention to the business of Mr. Joslyn is, to say the least, in extremely bad taste. . . .
The building is not intended to be a museum, but is to be used generally as a centre for liberal arts. The building is newly completed and while it is true that there are not yet a great number of well-known paintings, these will be added from time to time.
EUGENE N. BLAZER Omaha, Neb.
Sirs:
. . . The early venture in the peddling of a remedy was only a small matter compared to Mr Joslyn's other laudable ventures and philanthropies. Even if true, why bring that up to the detriment of the citizens of Omaha and surrounding country? . . .
Draw a large heavy line through my name a a subscriber to TIME and give the balance due me to some needy one you meet on the street with the compliments of a Westerner. There are several other magazines that will appreciate Western subscriptions and Western spirit. You will probably hear more of this as time goes on.
DR. J. W. HELLWIG Omaha, Neb.
Outrageous Paish
Sirs:
"If my information is correct, and I think it is, nothing can prevent "a complete world break-down within the next two months."
Why did TIME print the above outrageous statement by Sir George Paish? (TIME, Dec. 21.) What if he is an eminent British economist? . . .
If you have any sense you will suppress for the duration of this Depression any further remarks by Sir George Paish or other "eminent" knockers.
RALPH B. STONE Chicago, Ill.
Knocker Paish, rapped by many a critic for his Major Knock, has recanted and is now Booster Paish. Boosts he in his latest critique of Depression: "I haven't any doubt that we are going into the greatest period of prosperity the world has ever seen if the necessary measures are taken. I'm sure there are enough reasonable people in the world to see that these measures are taken. . . ."--ED.
Palindrome
Sirs:
As a reader of TIME for several years I have no criticism to offer. TIME lends itself so nicely to a palindrome that I take the liberty of submitting the following:
Live on, Time, emit no evil.
CHARLES E. BUNNELL President
The Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines College, Alaska
Crank Letters
Sirs:
Publications such as yours, in which appear-articles on a diversity of subjects, without doubt provoke innumerable "crank" letters. Perhaps you have observed the interest with which they are read by the people around your office.
In the belief that the "crank" letter is a phenomenon of definite interest both psychologically and socially, I am compiling a collection of representative specimens. The sources are the unsolicited mail of newspapers, radio-stations, celebrities and officials. These are to be published in book form later.
My own experience in the press leads me to be sure that this type of communication has often appeared on your desk. The mail has brought you appeals, demands and advice, absurd, humorous or patently idiotic. You ve been commanded to "do something" about everything from the modern girl to the density of the atmosphere. And more likely than not, you've been told what to do.
May I respectfully request that you lend me a few of these curiosa with your permission to use them? If there are none on file now, will you send me the next few received? The writers' lames, of course, will not be printed in the book, nor, if you so desire it, will yours. . . .
D. P. RYAN Chicago, Ill.
Few indeed are the "crank" letters which TIME receives from its able-minded, articulate readership. But when "cranks" do write, their handiwork will gladly be placed at Psychologist Ryan's disposal under the conditions stated above.--ED.
Extraordinary Costs
Sirs:
In TIME Jan. 4 quote "After two weeks ot work, Congress . . . scattered for two weeks of rest. President Hoover had tried to induce Congress to forego its usual holiday. . . . Gently they hinted that his present anxiety would be more becoming if he had summoned a special session last summer or autumn."
Could you give me an idea how much such a special session would have cost the people of the U. S.?
E. C. HAFF JR. Elkins, W. Va.
Congressional salaries are paid on an annual basis whether members sit or not. To assemble an extraordinary session approximately $200,000 would be needed for mileage & travel expenses. Other average per diem costs: Congressional Record, $5.610; printing bills and committee reports, stationery, etc., $6,000; 78 pages at $4, $312; telephone & telegraph, $500; total, $12,422. A three weeks' special session of Congress would thus roughly cost: mileage, $200.000; printing and services, $260,862; total, $460,862.-- ED.
Gun Notches
Sirs:
When several numbers ol TIME were issued without any mention of our book I became a bit vexed because of Stokes having failed to send you a copy of Gun Notches in time, and wrote to them about it. ...
Were it not that the book has received unstinted praise from one end of the country to the other I would not have been surprised at your failure to give it some mention; but we have been informed that seldom has a volume of its nature received such universal commendation from the critics. To quote two reviews from the East and West, out of hundreds--or rather brief excerpts from the reviews--Struth-ers Burt in the Saturday Review of Literature writes: "It is another Trader Horn, but far better than Trader Horn and more veracious. Indeed it is minutely genuine from start to finish, which is by no means the case with the average history of the pioneer, especially when this history is autobiographical."
Otheman Stevens in the Los Angeles Examiner: "Some time ago a story of Billy the Kid was issued and called a 'Saga.' If that was a Saga Gun Notches is an Iliad, also an Odyssey. The story of a prairie fire is a bit of an exquisite word painting as ever was written; the incident when Bill Greene at La Cananea and Tom would have taken the State of Sonora from Mexico if Tom could have hog-tied General Kosterlitzsky is a new matter of history."
Of course, if you don't give us our due meed of praise in your valuable publication I shall be forced to perform a painful duty when next 1 visit your seaport: that is to shoot you so full of holes they can sift baled hay through you.
JOE CHISHOLM Hollywood, Calif.
Capt. Rynning careered the West from Wisconsin to Texas in the wild & woolly days. He started as a stair-builder but his good dancing got him a job with a Texas cattleman. He rode in many a stampede when "all you can do is ride blind and hope to Christ." At 19 he joined the cavalry to fight Apaches; marched through the 800-mi. prairie fire of 1889. After rough riding with Roosevelt in Cuba, he became captain of the Arizona Rangers, finally penitentiary warden at Yuma (1907). All in all he calls it "a pretty good old life. Bullwhacking, cowpunching, soldiering, border ranging, she's been a grand old pasear."--ED.
Japan, Joy & Jimmu
Sirs:
Perhaps I show my ignorance in asking the question that I do, but I see the following in your Dec. 28 issue:
"Cheerily a Japanese aid-de-camp spoke of 'taking over Chinchow by Christmas.' "
And again in your Jan. 4 issue I see the following:
"In Tokyo the Japanese Diet met briefly, passed a resolution 'in appreciation of the Army's efforts in Manchuria,' adjourned over the holidays."
Are the Christian Yuletide holidays recognized to that extent by the pagan Japanese? I wonder!
C. C. SCHOPPE Ardmore, Okla.
In Japan Dec. 25 is a national holiday not because of Christmas but because of the anniversary of the death of Taisho, the last Emperor. Nevertheless in the chief Japanese cities Christmas is celebrated with almost occidental joy and good cheer. Businessmen and government officials exchange Christmas cards, mostly supplied by Ito-ya, Tokyo's largest stationer. Some cards are old Japanese prints; others are thoroughly Western in design and sentiment; nearly all carry New Year's greetings. Big department stores like Mitsukoshi in Tokyo decorate their windows with Christmas trees, gilt stars, bells, streamers and station live Santa Clauses in their lobbies. On street corners stand Salvation Army Santa Clauses with their tripod pots into which passersby drop 5, 10 & 25 sen pieces (1 sen= 1/2-c-) for the poor. Some bartenders in Yokohama and Kobe dress up on Christmas night like Santa Claus, serve drinks, cut capers.
The holidays over which the Diet adjourned were not for Christmas but for the New Year, most important among Japanese festivals and officially celebrated from Jan. 1 through Jan. 3. Using the Gregorian calendar for days, weeks and months, Japan injects into its New Year's observance a strong Shinto flavor, rooted in the worship of imperial ancestors. But instead of reckoning its years from the birth of Christ, it counts back to the enthronement of Jimmu, its first Emperor. Thus 1932 in the U.S. is 2592 in Japan.--ED.
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