Slander's Sister
Sirs:
We resent the unfavorable publicity we are receiving because of your untruthful article on Lionel Stander, my brother [TIME, July 27]. . . .
It certainly is news to us that he comes from Hell's Kitchen! He was born in The Bronx 29 years ago when The Bronx was sparsely populated. When he was 11 years of age the family moved to an attractive house in Mount Vernon, N. Y. If Westchester County is Hell's Kitchen, quite a few of the so-called best people are residing in the slums. In January of this year we moved to Manhattan.
Lionel went to the Mount Vernon Public Schools, Carson Long Prep School and was graduated from the Dwight Preparatory School. He was sent to the University of North Carolina. He left college and home to go on the stage when he was 20.
FRANCES STANDER
New York City
Sister Frances Stander misreads TIME'S meaning. TIME did not say that Brother Lionel actually came from Hell's Kitchen, did say that his accent was that "of an illiterate Hell's Kitchen ragamuffin."--ED.
Appreciative Dentists Sirs:
Permit me to express my appreciation of your very acceptable report of the meeting of the American Dental Association held in San Francisco.
A meeting that involves a registration of 8,000, with all its varied interests, makes a demand on the staff of any magazine that attempts to report it, and TIME, July 27, carried with it an account of the meeting that was not only a credit to your publication but a compliment to our profession.
C. N. JOHNSON
Editor
The Journal of the American
Dental Association Chicago, Ill.
Sirs:
Your splendid article and pictures . . . are certainly appreciated by our local group.
We feel it is a gesture of warmth and good feeling toward our profession and our efforts. . . .
KARL L. MILLER, D. D. S.
Secretary
Dayton Dental Society Dayton, Ohio
Sirs:
You did a good job of covering the American Dental Association convention. However, when you stated that there are only 58,004 U. S. dentists, you were considerably off the track.
The U. S. census shows 71,000 practicing dentists. S. S. White Co., large dental manufacturers, maintain a list of 69,000. . . .
Oral Hygiene, which has been published for over 25 years, reaches each month according to its current Controlled Circulation Audit Report, 64,552 practicing dentists. . . .
W. B. CONANT Vice President Oral Hygiene Publications Chicago, Ill. Courageous Weasels Sirs:
I want to register a lusty kick against your use of the term "weasel words'' to describe the craven replies of the League of Nations poltroons to the brave but pathetic speech of Emperor Haile Selassie.
I have three pet weasels and they are damned splendid little animals--courageous, intelligent and dependable, with more than their share of curiosity and self-respect. In short, they have admirable characters.
The weasel is synonymous with courage and I am unable to understand why you should so misuse the word. . . . Adjectifying the "lower" animals to describe dastardly conduct on the part of "Superior" animals is always incorrect because the lower animals never act in a dastardly fashion. Snake is not a proper isynonym for treachery, nor, on the other hand, is a rattlesnake a gentleman--he is a rattlesnake. If you had as little means of defense as a rabbit, you would be equally timid, though I have seen rabbits behave courageously. The only criticism I can level against the mouse is his utter lack of dignity, but if I were that small I would undoubtedly be as lacking in that quality. I have found opossums to be ''treacherous" and unappreciative of the kindness of their captors but so are gangsters and the latter have the advantage of a somewhat higher I. Q.
A. PIERCE ARTRAN
Curator
California Serpentarium Los Angeles, Calif.
Let Weasel-lover Artran turn to Webster's Dictionary, there read: "Weasel words--words that destroy the force of a statement ... as a weasel ruins an egg by sucking out its contents while leaving it. superficially intact."--ED.
Photos Sirs:
After your flaunting on front page of your July 6 issue the despicable picture of John L. Lewis, I do not wish any more issues of the magazine. Lewis is no friend of mine nor of American industry.
J. A. BAXTER
Sioux City, Iowa
Sirs:
It is beyond my comprehension that a publication as broad as TIME publishes [July 20] such a repellent photograph of so intelligent and highly-respected individuals as Stephen S. Wise and his wife, preparatory to their sailing several days ago. . . .
Dr. & Mrs. Wise are indeed a handsome couple. . . .
Aren't photographs approved prior to their insertion in your magazine?
ANN MILLER
Brooklyn, N. Y.
No.--ED.
Sirs:
. . . May I ask that if in the future you ever have occasion to use a picture of me again you will let me know, in order that I may give you one a little better than the one you are using [TIME, July 6]. I have no idea where that one came from. I do not recall ever having seen it myself.
EFFIE J. TAYLOR
Dean
School of Nursing Yale University New Haven, Conn.
Sirs:
That TIME should stoop to the yellow journalism of publishing the two pictures of Mr. J. P. Morgan (July 13) I consider a disgusting exhibition of just the kind of thing that drove Charles Lindbergh and his family from this country. . . .
In protest of this kind of breach of etiquette, I wish to cancel my subscription. . . .
MARION AMY LIPPITT
San Diego, Calif.
Sirs: That picture of President and Mrs. Roosevelt (July 20) was worth a year's subscription to TIME. The President may have a Cabinet and a Brain Trust but everyone can see where he gets the lowdown. And the expression on his face--bored to distraction! You won't get any stop-my-subscription letters for printing that picture.
RILEY P. MARTIN
Rock ford, Ill.
Sirs:
... I wish to express my disapproval of the picture [of President & Mrs. Roosevelt]. We all look foolish at times and to publish a picture like that seems to me neither kind nor gentlemanly.
VIGGO WESTERGAARD
New York Citv
Sirs:
To TIME, thanks for a chuckle. July 20 issue showing the First Lady and her husband was a knockout. . . .
W. O. ALLEN Cashier
First National Bank Wayne City, Ill.
Sirs:
"Surprise" would not start to explain the attitude of a number of your readers who, upon opening their last copy of TIME [July 20], saw the likeness of the Italian murderer [Benito Mussolini] adorning the front page. . . . A. BALZHISER
Drummond, Mont.
Sirs:
As an Italian by birth, I wish to commend you not only on the exceptionally fine picture of Il Duce but also on the fair and enlightening article on ''Business of Empire. . . .
M. GIORNI
San Diego, Calif.
African Self-Help
Sirs: As far as Self-Help Stores are concerned (TIME, July 6; July 20), the writer can go back to Darkest Africa at the opening of the century.
In the years 1900-01, I worked in Old Calabar, Nigeria, for the African Association Ltd., a large trading company.
Goods were either sold for cash or bartered for native products, palm oil, kernels, ivory, cocoa, etc. Business was transacted in a large, rectangular, corrugated-iron structure, the store located on the ground floor, with European living quarters above, surrounded by a wide veranda.
Customers were required to leave any belongings they might have outside, and then passed empty-handed (they had no pockets) through a gateway in the main counter, which was guarded by the white clerk in charge and the colored head "shop boy." They then ambled around the various counters and gathered up whatever they wanted, and took them to the counter, where they were checked and settlement was made. . . .
As all goods were personally selected by the customers, no exchanges were considered, or claims allowed. Colored assistants were employed, not to sell, but to keep the stock in good order, and to see that buyers did not absentmindedly slip small articles of value into their loin cloths, and then ''forget" to put them on the counter for checking when settling up.
When this happened (not infrequently) it was just too bad for the culprit, because we had a special treatment which--but that's a "dark" story, so we better quit right here.
H. LLEWELLYN JONES
San Francisco, Calif.
No Errors, No Fun
Sirs:
My own chance to appear in your Letters department loomed into view when you decided to give Gar Wood Industries, Inc. a little space [TIME, July 20]. However, upon close scrutiny, I found exactly no errors. I never have any fun!
BILL WOOD
Saranac Lake, X. Y.
Rare Indeed
Sirs:
Rare indeed is a concern whom Dun & Bradstreet lists with a top-notch (over $1,000,000) capital rating but only a third-grade (fair) pay rating. Gar Wood Industries, Inc. of Detroit is one of these rarities.
TIME reports that Gar Wood is letting the public in for the first time with an offer of 320,000 shares of the company's 800,000 shares of stock.
. . . With this new money in the Gar Wood treasury Gar Wood can again pay for materials promptly (for a time at least).
Rare indeed is it also when TIME overlooks facts like these. . . .
C. C. WALTON
Kalamazoo, Mich. Grandfather's Hell
Sirs:
The amusing article on Hell [TIME, July 20] . . was of especial interest to me. It was definitely news that the lovely spot owned by my grandfather, George Reeves, has become known by such a hot name. I know nothing of its present condition but can assure you that it did not look like Hell when I last saw it. As proof, I enclose some pictures of the lake, the dam and the large, rambling old house, which was no ordinary farm house. ... I well remember when it was full of beautiful old furniture, including a grand piano. For many years a German music master lived with the family, earning his living by giving lessons to my numerous aunts, "if my doughty old grandfather changed his earthly abode for one bearing the same name, I hope they are alike in all other particulars. It would make living in Hell quite charming. MABEL REEVES NORTON Madison, Wis.
Norway's Hell
Sirs: . . . You decry the lack of genuine "Hell" in the U. S. You will be interested to know that what the U. S. lacks Norway has and is unenthusiastic about. On any map of Norway you will find "Hell" plainly listed--somewhat to the north of Bergen. When there several years ago, I learned that the word "Hell" has an entirely different meaning to the Scandinavian than to the American.
RICHARD H. WELS
New York City
Let Reader Wels see TIME, June 11, 1934: "An hour's train ride from Trondheim. Hell is a popular excursion spot for U. S. travelers who delight in sending home picture post cards of the railroad station. The Norwegian word for Hell is helvede. Hell means luck."--ED.
"Harriet"
Sirs:
In the estimation of all living graduates of the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia, TIME will have reached a new high through its article on "Harriet" (July 27). To Dr. Weaver's "boys," this account will bring back happy memories of the lovable, courtly, scholarly old man who for many years was the professor and head of the Department of Anatomy at that institution.
I have heard from Dr. Weaver's own lips the story of Harriet. In all important details I believe your account is correct. . . .
Dr. Weaver was one of the greatest anatomists that ever lived, both in knowledge and skill, and he would have made a great surgeon. He was about 82 years of age at the time he taught my class dissection. It was amazing to see with what dexterity he handled a scalpel, although at that time his fingers were somewhat deformed by the arthritic change of age. He used to apologize for his "clumsiness" by saying that his fingers were "all thumbs."
ALLAN D. SUTHERLAND, M. D.
Hahnemann, 1925 Brattleboro, Yt.
Miss MacDonald's Teeth (Concl'd)
Sirs:
When I read your cineman's able review of San Francisco [TIME, July 6; July 27], I wanted to tell you that, if I never received another copy of TIME, I should still feel amply repaid for the two-year subscription I had just sent you.
BARBARA BURNS CHAPMAN
Roanoke, Va.
Sirs:
Those now famous teeth of Jeanette MacDonald's have long irritated me. ... I was overjoyed to see them back into print. ... I offer my compliments to your cinema critic. . . .
ELIZABETH HALSEY
Butler, Pa.
Sirs:
. . . Bravo to TIME for its cryptic, neatly-turned observation, "acting with her teeth." . . .
W. W. WHITNEY
Huntington Park, Calif.
Sirs: . . . The national problem of Jeanette MacDonald's teeth stirs me to write. . . .
Briefly, the bicuspid-conscious critics of your movie reviewer display much more chivalry than imagination in their outrage. . . . Instead of limiting themselves to nasty remarks about your reviewer, I suggest that they start a fourth-party movement in defense of Miss MacDonald's molars. . . .
MILTON BERLINER
Springfield, Mass.
TIME hereby withdraws Cinemactress MacDonald's teeth from further public discussion.--ED.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.