Eaton's Expedition Sirs: ". . . Captain William Eaton. Under his leadership and the Stars & Stripes, the capture of Derna was made by 10 U. S. Marines, 38 Greeks and 400 Arab mercenaries" (TIME March 22, p. 24).

Many "historically-minded Marines'' will question TIME'S authority, if not TIME, for this statement.

This writer is at present at work on an original motion picture story, "First to Fight," based in part on the U. S. war with Tripoli and the capture of Derna, and covering the period up to and including the participation of Marines, "picked men, to lead the storming of Chapultepec under Major Twiggs and Captain McDonald Reynolds," at Mexico City in 1847; i.e., "From the Halls of Montexuma to the Shores of Tripoli."

During my research I have found that William Eaton was not a captain of Marines, nowhere in official records of officers attached to Commodore Treble's squadron is the name of a Captain William Eaton listed. However, he was the U. S. Consul and given special authority to execute the war. He was referred to as "General" and later was an officer in the U. S. Army.

TIME was right in that he was commander-in-chief of the forces which captured Derna. In addition, these forces consisted of a Colonel Leitensdorfer, a Tyrolese colonel of engineers, a medical officer (probably Mendrici), Lieut. O'Bannon, U. S. Marines, Midshipman Pascal Peck, U. S. Navy, a Marine non-commissioned officer, six Marine privates, 25 cannoneers (including three officers), 38 Greeks (including two officers), Hamet, a friendly Arab, and 90 men, an Arabian cavalry detachment under Sheik El Tahik and about 200 footmen and camel drivers, 107 camels and a few asses.

CAPTAIN OWEN ERNEST JENSEN 13th Battalion. Fleet Marine Corps Reserve Los Angeles, Calif.

TIME did not say William Eaton was a captain of Marines. And it was not after but before the Tripoli expedition that he saw service in the U. S. Army, first as a Revolutionary volunteer, later as a regular Army captain.

In 1798 he was made U. S. consul at Tunis. In 1804 he became "Navy Agent to the Barbary States" and as such led his heterogeneous force from Alexandria, Egypt, through the Libyan Desert and attacked Derna from the landward side while U. S. gunboats under Commodore Samuel Barron bombarded the town from the sea. Hot of temper and loose of tongue.

Captain Eaton was never properly rewarded for his heroism during his lifetime, died in iSn. a disappointed man of 47.--ED.

LaGuardia's Kegling Sirs: TIME, for March 22. under Sport, states in connection with the American Bowling Congress, ". . . New York's plump little Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia bowled the first ball. It rolled ignominiously into the gutter. . . .

Last night I watched a newsreel in which Ed. Thorgerson was the sports spokesman. J showed New York's Nazifoe opening the event. His Honor threw a ball down the alley traveled smoothly and squarely down the boards to end in an eminently satisfactory strike.

Has LIFETIME reporting overlooked obvious ability as a Kegler of vivacious LaGuardia? RUDOLPH H. SJOGREN Worcester, Mass.

Mayor LaGuardia's ball opening the Congress knocked down one pin. With practice he later improved his form, recorded a strike for the newsreels.--ED.

Sea and Air Deaths Sirs: TIME, MARCH 29, P. 38. ERRED WHEN IT STATED "MANY WERE CONVINCED THAT IN TWO YEARS THE GOVERNMENT COULD GO A LONG WAY TOWARD MAKING THE AIR AS SAFE AS IT HAS MADE THE SEA IN THE PAST TWO." I TRUST TIME WILL PRINT THE FACT THAT IN 1935, ON THE GREAT LAKES AND HIGH SEAS 355 OF 411,825 PASSENGERS ON AMERICAN MERCHANT VESSELS LOST THEIR LIVES. IN THE SAME YEAR COMMERCIAL AIRPLANES IN THE U. S. A. CARRIED MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY PASSENGERS--746,946 WITH FATALITIES TO 15 PASSENGERS AND AND 14 CREW AND ONE LOST ON GROUND, AN ADVANTAGE OF 22 TO 1 IN FAVOR OF AIRLINE TRAVEL DESPITE THE FALSE IMPRESSION PEOPLE MAY HAVE GAINED FROM TIME'S PLAYING UP OF AIRLINE MISHAPS.

J. R. THORNTON Aurora, Ill.

Reader Thornton should recheck his figures. The only Department of Commerce statistical breakdown regarding marine accidents in 1935 is for the period June 30, 1935 to June 30, 1936. According to the Department of Commerce, during that period, 239,816,321 people traveled on U. S. ships. Of these 338 died, 273 by suicide, personal accident, natural causes. The remaining 65 fatalities were among crews. Fact is, no passenger lost his life on a U. S. ship in that time from a preventable cause.--ED.

Sweet Racket

Sirs:

The following information concerning a local police trap operated in Bay St. Louis, Miss. is of interest to all commercial travellers who have occasion to pass through that State. In publishing this warning you will be doing thousands of travelling men a great favor and help to break up this racket. The following is an exact and truthful resume of what happened to me. For substantiation I enclose the official documents in the case.

As you know, some States, particularly in the West, require all commercial vehicles from out-of-state to register and pay a fee to cross the State. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, etc. all have control stations at the State line with State officers on duty. All commercial vehicles are assessed according to weight and type of vehicle. These fees are reasonable and I have heard no complaints from other salesmen about these States. Mississippi, however, is operating a vicious racket which is taking thousands of dollars a year from salesmen. And I mean the salesmen, not the companies they work for; for as a rule, while the company pays all interstate fees, the salesman must pay his own fine.

I left New Orleans for Mobile. The only way I knew I had crossed the Mississippi State line was the change of U. S. highway markers. There was no sign or control station or officer on duty to warn me of what was to follow. Bay St. Louis is the first town I reached. Still no sign. I proceeded through town. At the outskirts I was stopped by a patrol car with an officer and another person, whom I found out later was the "witness." I was asked for my permit. I asked what sort of permit was necessary and was told that all commercial vehicles must have a permit, which, in my case, would cost $2. I said that inasmuch as there was no control station or officer on duty at the State line I assumed that no permit was necessary, basing my assumption on the fact that such was the case in other States; but I also said I would gladly comply with the law and asked him where to obtain the permit. I was then "arrested" without further ado. They took me back to the court house. I was brought before the Justice of the Peace and the only preamble to the case was a terse remark by the arresting officer--"Here's another one."

The Justice immediately began to scribble on a pad. I asked him what it was all about and was told to keep quiet until he finished writing. He then looked up and said, "Fine and costs will be $8.05." I demanded to know why he fined me without letting me state my case and was informed that 'under the law" he could fine me anything he wished from $1 to $100 and if I didn't keep quiet he would raise the fine. It then began to dawn on me that I was in a spot so I shut up. I paid the $8.05 and was handed a "Fee Bill." It is interesting reading and a tip off on Mississippi mathematics. The arresting officer stuffed the money in his pocket.

I asked if the case was closed and was told that it was. I then asked if I could ask some questions without being fined again and was told that I could ask but that an answer would not necessarily be made. I asked when the ordinance had been passed relative to commercial vehicles. The answer was 1934. I asked to see a copy of the ordinance. The Justice couldn't find one. The arresting officer couldn't find one but the "witness" finally produced one from his coat pocket. On examination of this I found that my license would have been $2. Now here is the peculiar part of the whole transaction. The fine of $8.05 was itemized under various headings but NONE OF THESE SUB HEADINGS INCLUDED THE PRICE OF THE PERMIT. I asked about this and was told that payment of the fine released me from paying the permit. A closer examination of the fee bill showed me that the money was divided as follows: Justice of the Peace fees $3.15 Arresting officer's fee 2.90 Fine 1.00 Witness fee 1 .00 total $8.05

My continued study of the copy of the ordinance led me to believe that it was passed as a revenue raising measure for the STATE. Let's see what happens. If I had been stopped at the State line in a decent way and paid my permit the State would have $2. This fee by the way increases with heavier trucks, and properly supervised this ordinance would bring the State a great deal of revenue. As it is. you will note that the J. P. made himself $3.15#151;the officer $2.90--the witness (that guy killed me, he never once spoke a word) $1-- and the fine was $1. WHAT DOES THE STATE GET OUT OF IT?

In passing I wish to say that I saw no other written record of the whole transaction except the fee bill which I enclose. There was no carbon on the pad from which this was torn. I do not say that a record was not made later but I DO say that the whole mess stinks to the high heavens as a petty chiselling graft, taking advantage of men who cannot afford to pay such fines. Not so petty at that if you figure a dozen or so commercial out-of-State travellers per day. This estimate is not high as this route is the accepted all-year route from the Coast to the Southeast.

The more I thought about the matter the madder I got. On arriving at the Alabama State line I made a bee line for the nearest highway patrol station, asking what fees were necessary, I was told that the State was free to commercial travellers. They then asked if I had been swindled in Mississippi and told me that it was a sweet racket which had been going on since 1934. These Alabama highway patrol boys make it a point to warn all travellers from their side and told me that even so, many travellers are "arrested" WHILE ON THEIR WAY to the office in Pascagoula. . . .

JAMES BLACKTOX

Reginald Denny Industries

Hollywood, Calif.

John Stink's Story Sirs: How come, TIME? In the issue for March 29, I read that "last week" John Stink, wealthy Osage, emerged from a 50-year retirement in the woods. In March 1933, as a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners (an unpaid commission of more than 60 years' standing, since abolished by the President on the ground of economy), I was visiting in the Osage country and called at the log cabin home of John Stink or Ha-ta-moie, whose emergence from the hills was hy no means a new story at that time.

In my scrapbook is a full-page story from the Tulsa Daily World of April 7, 1935. The Omaha Indian woman in charge of John, who wrote the article, fixed the date of his reappearance in society as about five years previous. Isn't your news item a bit delayed? FLORA WARREN SEYMOUR Attorney at Law Chicago, Ill.

Sirs: Some one pulled your leg re John Stink, hermit Osage--(TIME, March 29). The atavistic old fellow has not just come down from his tree to claim $200,000. It's quite a story. Probably too long for publication in the Letters Column, but it will be interesting to your staff.

Many years ago, John Stink did go into a state of coma while afflicted with smallpox during an Osage epidemic. He was "buried," according to tribal custom, with some of his personal effects atop the ground. Then, also according to custom, his relatives divided his horses and other property, held a few wailing feasts and proceeded to forget him.

But John would not be forgotten. He revived. When he returned to the kinfolks to claim his property, they insisted that he was a dead Injun. John was ostracized and he became a hermit. Grimly determined to recover his horses, he took them, one by one, in the darkness of several nights.

There are Osages who declare that he did not draw the line at his own horses.

When the Osages struck oil, royalties were not paid to individual Indian land owners, but were received communally and distributed, equally, to the "headrights." Some of the tribesmen took legal steps to be declared competent and proceeded to have a hilarious time with the new wealth. The incompetent Osages are now most competent, for they have cash reserves in Washington and their incomes are stable, amounting to $1,000 per quarter-year, with special cash dispensations for special needs. The competent Osages are now, with a few fine exceptions, busted, except for meagre funds that filter in from new oil production and lease sales.

John Stink refused, for many years, to live in a man-made shelter of any kind. A member of the firm of McLaughlin & Farrar, Indian traders and storekeepers, was appointed guardian for the eccentric old fellow and his simple needs were met with supplies that cost very little of his accumulating cash.

Once, during a bitter winter, the guardian begged him to sleep on a pile of blankets in the store. John seemed to agree but when closing time came and he was locked inside the store, he set up a warlike screeching and threatened to wreck the place. He was turned out and he took to the woods to sleep in his usual way.

John's companions were dogs--scads of them, all the imaginable cur-mixtures. In summer he would come into Pawhuska--Osage capital-- choose a sunny spot at a principal intersection and curl up on the sidewalk to sleep, a heavy blanket keeping off flies and scorching sunrays. His dogs would curl up about him to doze or to snarl and snap at passersby. Once, the city dog-catcher captured his pets and shot them. John disappeared for a few weeks, then returned to town with more dogs than ever.

A few years ago, government officials, realizing the old boy to be something of a menace to paleface citizens--he carried a long knife and was somewhat irascible--enclosed a part of his land with a high, man-proof, woven-wire fence and put him inside. A comfortable house was built for him and an Indian man and wife were employed to care for him. At first, he resented his caretakers, running them off the place with the knife and he absolutely refused to sleep in the house. When he became slightly more reconciled, an elaborate teepee was built for him. It must have been 20 feet across its circular, hardwood floor; the poles were of polished hardwood and the covering was gaudily decorated with Osage hieroglyphic figures. He conceded that this might be a fit place for a red man to sleep. Much later, he was induced to spend a night in the house. He lay down upon a bed but, when morning came, the mattress had been dragged to the floor and John slept there.

The writer is convinced that John Stink never lived in a tree. It was his custom to hang his few utensils in a tree when he left a hideout. In fact this writer was once a member of a young hunting party that shot holes through his crude pot and pan.

He has been living a moderately civilized life in his wire enclosure for several years, still spending very little of his oil money. He dislikes white men, he still wears the long knife in a scabbard at his belt and he is reticent in conversation with most of his Osage brothers. Franklin Revard, a member of the tribal council and a prominent Osage, is one of the few to whom John will speak in Osage grunts.

I understand he has no living relatives. If this is true, John's well-hoarded cash will pass, at his death, into tribal funds and be spent by those whom the white man has taught to Spend--with a capital S.

Yours for better Injun whoppers GORDON HINES

Detroit, Mich.

John Stink's story comes in many forms. To Readers Seymour and Hines, TIME'S thanks for an interesting variorum.--ED.

Backbone

Sirs:

What do you mean by calling buyers of sweepstake tickets "simpletons" in your story on the running of the Grand National in the March 29 issue? You insult the backbone of this country. If I was a subscriber to your magazine I would cancel my subscription.

MAYER MELTZER

Syracuse, N. Y.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.