Harvey in Character
Sirs:
The picture you printed of Downey Harvey, of San Francisco, in your July 5 issue shows him in a mood in which few, if any, of his friends have ever seen him.
The enclosed photograph is typical of Downey despite his ''unique infirmities" to which you refer in your article.
REQUIN PRINGHAM
San Francisco, Calif.
Mrs. Bridges' Fall
Sirs:
Let TIME accept a correction on a trivial statement made in the biography of Harry Bridges (TIME, July 19)--"his wife . . . fell out of a window while hanging out the wash." She was not hanging out the wash, but bringing it in.
I happen to know about this incident because I heard the details firsthand from my aunt, Mrs. H. Allari, who was Harry Bridges' neighbor for several years. She lived at No. 2840 Pine Street, San Francisco, on the left side of the "five-room flat to a five-room house" from which the Bridges are moving next week.
Before Mrs. Bridges fell out the window, my aunt was unaware of the identity of her neighbors, although their kitchen windows were but 4 or 5 ft. apart. The Bridges' daughter used to enjoy taking my aunt's dog, Difo, for walks, but my aunt didn't know the girl's last name. Once in her presence she raked that terrible Harry Bridges over the coals but the child did not even peep.
Well, it was just about dusk when Mrs. Bridges started to take in the wash. It was on one of those hellish, back-breaking pulley lines. She had removed the first clothespin, when she lost her balance and hurtled out the window. She fell two stories to the concrete below into a space about as big as a closet. She struck the drainpipe to my aunt's flat and this broke her fall.
My aunt was eating her supper. She heard Mrs. Bridges scream and plop on the concrete below. She ran down two flights of stairs and arrived in the little dark alley the same time as Harry Bridges. He was in his undershirt with shaving cream on his face. The woman appeared to be unconscious and Mr. Bridges asked my aunt to remain with her while he went upstairs to telephone for an ambulance.
In about half an hour the police arrived. They asked Harry Bridges his name. My aunt says she can still recall her surprise upon hearing him reply, "I am Harry Bridges."
Surprised, too, were the police. They assumed that he pushed his wife out the window. They questioned my aunt and tried to make her admit she had heard Bridges and his wife quarreling. They went upstairs into my aunt's kitchen and measured the distance between the windows of the two flats to ascertain if she could have heard any words, had there been any.
Finally the police gave up in their attempt to pin anything on Harry Bridges. The ambulance arrived in about an hour and took the suffering woman to the hospital.
After returning home from the hospital, Mrs. Bridges went over to thank my aunt for remaining with her in that dark, cold alley. Mr. Bridges never said a word, but looked as if he might have one day when he was backing out his car from his garage when my aunt happened to pass by.
VESTA MORGAN (MRS. W. W. MORGAN)
Le Grand, Calif.
Nice Fellows
Sirs:
Fifty million males can't be wronged like the way you did in your magazine July 19. I mean when you called Mae West the "public passion of 50 million movie-going males."
Now there may be "50 million movie-going males" from 15 to 65 in this country, and I am not going to be the one to say this is a lie. But I happen to be one of them, and my wife wants to know what is all this about Mae West and me. Now I have never seen one of her moving pictures. Honest and cross my heart. I have told my wife this, too, but she just wags her head in a kind of "You're not kiddin' me, Brother" fashion and says she knows what she saw in a magazine.
I think a lot of us other innocent fellows have been put in a bad light by what you said and that you owe us an apology.
You don't need to be afraid that I will sue you for whatever I could sue you. My reputation wasn't so much to begin with, anyhow. But you ought to have a conscience about what you have done to a whole generation of us, if you don't take it back.
Just think of what the history books would say about the kind of progress between the time when Horace Greeley said "Go west, young man," and when Mae West said "Come out and see me some time."
I believe if I were you I would think things over, swallow my pride, and apologize. At least I would point out, if I could, that some of the 50 million were French or German or something and that there are still some nice fellows and timid souls in the U. S. who don't indulge in Mae West.
MURPHY JONES
Dubuque, Iowa
Generals
Sirs:
The admirers of former Chief of Staff Peyton C. March will probably descend upon you in force for your omission of his name from the footnote at the bottom of p. 11, TIME, Aug. 9. If he was not a general then both my memory and my encyclopaedia have failed me.
KENNETH H. GORDON
Lansdowne, Pa.
Sirs:
I believe your footnote is in error when it states that Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Pershing were the only full generals in the history of the U. S. Of course, I realize that temporary generals such as Summerall, MacArthur and Craig aren't really generals in the fullest sense, but I have always been led to believe that one George Washington was a full general. You may wriggle out of this apparent error on the grounds that when Washington was general the U. S. proper did not exist except in the form of the loose Confederation of States. To all intents and purposes, however, old George was a full general in the fullest sense.
THOMAS B. SMOTHERS JR.
1st Lieut., 18th Inf.
Fort Hamilton, N. Y.
A recheck of the facts proves TIME correct. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Pershing are the only permanent generals in U. S. history. Tasker Howard Bliss and Peyton Conway March served as temporary generals during the World War, were created full generals on the retired list by an act of Congress in 1930. Charles Pelot Summerall and Douglas MacArthur held the courtesy rank of general while acting as chiefs of staff. Present Chief of Staff General Malin Craig will drop back to his regular rank of major general when his term is up. According to War Department records, George Washington, although General & Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, never held a rank higher than lieutenant general in the U. S. Army.--ED.
Joyous Lot
Sirs:
Your article in the current issue (TIME, Aug. 9), headed "Discontented Mutes" does us a grievous, though unintentional injustice.
First of all, the caption under the photograph, designating the young lady as "mute" is erroneous. She is an entirely normal person who has graciously acted as official convention interpreter because of her familiarity with the sign language. . . .
Far from being a "gloomy" convention, it was one of the cheerfullest ones. Whatever "discontent" was manifest, was the natural cry of a body of ambitious individuals seeking due recognition from a grudging world that would deny them even opportunities of making a living. Do you know that defective hearing is less of a handicap than defective technical or clerical knowledge? We suffer not so much from loss of sound as from the wrong and often ignorant attitude entertained by many employers.
Please, then, won't you help correct the erroneous impression of us as "discontented," "mute" and "gloomy?" We are a joyous lot, I assure you. Dame Nature has, in her mysterious way, compensated us with a greater degree of sight-perception and the ability to concentrate on the job. And, oh yes, we do possess a sufficient sense of humor. . . .
MARCUS L. KENNER
President
National Association of the Deaf New York City
Gripes, Pard!
Sirs:
There is Balm in Gilead! Your "Discontented Mutes" ... hit the bulls-eye with a bang! . . .
A few of my people queried the head, "Discontented." I pointed out the word describes us--in fact describes ALL civilization--to a T. ... So if any write in, criticizing you, just say the Illinois member of the N. A. D. publicity committee gave that article his full and free approbation. . . .
. . . Only erratum in article is title 7 under pix: "N. A. D.'s Kenner & Mute." Gripes, pard, that lady is Mrs. Constance Hasenstab Elmes, hearing daughter of our venerable deaf pastor, married to a hearing lawyer, who was interpreter for convention. . . .
JAMES F. MEAGHER
Printing & Publicity Committee,
National Association of the Deaf
Chicago, Ill.
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