Spenders
Sirs: All praise for your subtly sympathetic account of the Anheuser-Busch fortunes (TIME, Dec. 6). I used to be something of a hister* myself and still am wherever I get a chance, so I mourned with you for what happened to those great St. Louis gents. But why didn't you drop one of your classy footnotes in that story and tell about the old time "spenders," as they used to call 'em, the backbone of the beer game. They were guys with whaling capacities for the old foamy, light or dark, ale, beer or stout, and the companies provided them with plenty of pocket money to go around from bar to bar, from city to city, walking up to the rail and yelling out real loud, "Round o' BUDWEISER (or Pilsener, or Pabst) ! Come on! Everybody up!" And everyone that was in that bar would scoot up to the mahogany to get a free drink. The theory was that some one else would then say, "Give us two of the same," or "This round's on me! Make her the same all round." Only the inexperienced, or the filthy rich and half-tight would fall for it hard, of course, but it was good advertising anyway, the best you could have bought. They were always big heavy birds, those "spenders," great jovial, red-nosed, pot-bellied hail-fellows that made the crowd feel good, though I once saw a skinny little Irish mick that did it and could drink his weight in beer without eating a single pretzel. It's too bad they re gone, isn't it ? FRED ("FRENCHY") SPAHLING
Chicago, Ill.
Nor did "spenders" relinquish their activities even going from city to city but operated with unremitted gusto in club cars of railroad trains.--ED.
Mechanics
Sirs:
I think the thing that impresses me most about your publication is your speed in getting news into your publication. It probably was an easy proposition to handle the news in a week's time and get it out when your circulation was only ten or twenty-five thousand, but I hardly see how you handle news events as rapidly as you do with your present advertised circulation of over 125,000. /-
JOHN N. BROWNING
The Ohio Valley Pulley Works,
Maysville, Ky.
For TIME, presses work overtime, mails are swift.--ED.
Terminology
Sirs: Admiral Irwin's letter published in TIME, Nov. 22, is not entirely accurate. Though the Admiral lives in close proximity to the enlisted men, his rank is such as to prevent much personal contact with their attitude on informal matters. And informally the majority of the bluejackets call themselves "gobs." I know this from daily contact and many informal talks with enlisted men. Almost invariably they use the term without thought as to its origin or meaning. There is, however, a decided prejudice against the term among officers and a few men. TIME can be just as concise and even more correct in using "bluejacket" for designating enlisted men. "Sailor" is too indefinite. Please do not publish my name as I do not want to offend Admiral Irwin--I happen to know him personally. Thank you.
TIME withholds this original subscriber's name and the name of the warship on which he serves, in deference to his wishes.--ED. Sirs: I wonder if "Admiral Irwin would object to someone calling a Marine a "Leatherneck," or an Infantryman a "Doughbelly" ? ROBERT W. HAWKINS, M. D.
Brazil, Ind.
A better question: Would Marine Major General Lejeune object to the first, or Chief of Staff Summerall to the second?--ED.
Miserable
Sirs:
I have your circular letter of Nov. 15 and I do not intend renewing my subscription to TIME. It is, without question, the most miserably and unpleasantly written magazine that I have had.
ERNEST INGOLD
Ernest Ingold, Inc. Wholesale Radio San Francisco, Calif.
Big Order
Sirs: . . . Question: Will you please enumerate for me in the order of their importance in the education of man--the works of George Bernard Shaw. This is probably a big order but I'm sure it would be appreciated by other subscribers besides myself. Thanking you for any effort on my behalf, DR. FRANCIS V. GOWEN
Philadelphia, Pa.
Author Shaw is reputedly of the opinion that the order of importance of his works is the same as the order of their appearance, and has written an explanatory and appreciative preface for each.-- ED.
Jog
Sirs:
Early last spring two young men who w.ere members of your staff staged a very interesting test, a sort of questionnaire, before a joint meeting of the local Association of Commerce and Advertising Club. The writer had the honor of winning this competition, whose prize was a year's subscription to TIME.
I understand that most of the participants who won prizes have received their copies. It is true that one of the winners died before the subscription started, but his widow is now enjoying TIME every week. The writer, however, has not yet seen a copy of TIME and I earnestly hope that this request may jog your memory.
MAURICE R. QUICK
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Hot Iron
Sirs:
I receive your magazine together with a large class of government students, in which we put about one-third of our class time in the study of TIME. It is an easy as well as interesting way of keeping abreast of present day movements.
TIME strikes me as being clever with a slight (very slight) spirit of the crusader. Having to put that word slight in is the one thing I dislike about your magazine. Brand crime, corruption and hypocrisy with a hotter iron. Fry the "greasy" politicians in their own fat.
Yours for a hotter TIME.
WARREN CAMPBELL
Norman, Okla.
Bad Jest
Sirs: Under SPORT, we read :"Joesting did his best. . . .Benjamin Friedman knew how to take Joest. He took him on his flank, etc." TIME'S SPORT editor must have been using his binoculars wrong end to. Here's how Bennie stacked up beside the "Joest": Net yards gained 11, (yes, eleven), Joesting 116. It generally took Bennie et al. to the number of three and four to "take the Joest" ; Bennie looked anything but Ail-American calibre in directing Michigan to but three first downs, one resulting from penalty, against 19 chalked up for the Galloping Gophers.
Why not tell the true story of how an unlucky fumble by Minnesota allowed the winning score to be made ?
A joint subscriber, and an admirer,
H. R. PORTMANN, P. M.
United States Postoffice
Currie, Minn.
World's Finest
Sirs:
In a number of your recent issues you have given space to the opening concerts, of the season, of many of our auspicious American Symphony Orchestras. You got as far west as San Francisco, enlightening your readers of the splendid orchestra up there, under the direction of famed and able Alfred Hertz.
I think you might well have included the activities of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, directed magnificently by Walter Henry Rothwell, and given the assuredness of financial support by our great art-patron and philanthropist: William A. Clark Jr., (son of the late Sen. W. A. Clark). We, in Los Angeles, know that our orchestra may well be included among the first seven, at least, in the United States. It numbers in its roster some one hundred of the most able musicians to be found anywhere. In fact, some of the chairs are occupied by men who could easily go out on their own as great soloists.
. . . Also, in Los Angeles, allow me to say, that exclusive of its tremendous economic possibilities, this city offers throughout the year the finest artistic attractions this world possesses. Theatrically, we are fast becoming independent of the East. . . .
We have a man here, Len. E. Behymer, who for the last 35 years has given So. California, each winter, the finest musical attractions that the world has to offer. In artistic and musical circles of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, London, Rome, etc. the name "Bee" merits international fame, and as a great impressario he ranks with the greatest of the times. L. E. Behymer has arranged for Los Angeles thirty-two performances of The Miracle, beginning some time next month, and we are to have Max Reinhardt, himself, here to give this great spectacle greater importance. Los Angeles owes, artistically, to W. A. Clark Jr. and L. E. Behymer, a debt of gratitude that should amount to a memorial. . . .
TIME is a great news-organ. I would not miss reading every week's issue, from cover to cover, for any other printed matter I ever saw!
GEORGE W. GRIMM
Los Angeles, Calif.
Hall of Oregon
Sirs:
I am writing to correct an error which appears on p. 26 of TIME, Nov. 8 in the footnote to the article regarding the University of Oregon.
The newly elected president of the University of Oregon at Eugene is Dr. Arnold Bennett Hall J.D., LL.D., who is brought here from the University of Wisconsin.
The president of the Board of Regents of the University of Oregon is Judge James W. Hamilton of Roseburg, Oregon, who has held this office for several years.
J. M. CLIFFORD
The Wilcox-Hayes Co.
Dried Fruit and Canned Food Dept.
Portland, Ore.
Suspicious
Sirs:
Is there anything your writers respect: Your circulation manager has just sent me "literature" suggesting TIME as a Xmas gift. One piece of his "literature" is a particularly inane letter about Santa Claus and a man named Marcus. The letter has this man Marcus refusing Santa Claus's offer of the Presidency of the United States simply because it "would mean packing up and moving to another city." Continuous reading of your weekly "President's Week" and now this latest slap at the highest office in the U. S. makes me mighty suspicious.
Louis C. AMES
Philadelphia, Pa.
Knows None
Sirs:
I have just received your circular with the pictures of Ben Franklin, Caesar, Marie Antoinette, etc. advertising special rates for subscriptions sent as gifts to friends. Very clever circular. You suggest to your subscribers that their friends are Caesars, Voltaires, Chaucers, Bacons. Very clever rates. . . .
No doubt you will get a lot of new subscribers but NOT from me! I don't know any Caesars, Franklins, etc. . . . I. K. JOHANSSEN
St. Paul, Minn.
Mountaineers
Sirs:
Can you supply any other stanzas of the poem on the mountaineers, one stanza of which was published in the Oct. 4 issue on page 38?
C. G. WOODBURY
3433 Porter St., N. W.
Washington, D. C.
The stanza that Subscriber Woodbury saw printed was:
The mountaineers are a hardy lot
They live in woody niches They tear their socks on jagged rocks,
And swear like angry witches.
Another one (incomplete):
The mountaineers are a hardy lot, They eat ground glass and matches, They wash it down with -- -- -- And wonder why it scratches. Let those subscribers who know other stanzas mail them direct to Subscriber Woodbury at the above address.--ED.
Robinn
Sirs:
. . . What place in TIME has the letter of Mary Elizabeth Robinn appearing in TIME on Nov. 22 ? Any itinerant may pick up salacious gossip among the servants and sycophants of the very exalted in London, in the Paris edition of a New York paper, or in the houses of joy in Berlin. . . .
Do not for one minute think that I am an Indignant Briton, if I protest. . . . The British have never made a Tin God of Edward, though we love him very much.
Citizens of the United States have tried to do that, as it has remained for this person from Boston to proclaim herself the vehicle of the excreta of Europe. . . .
Would it be possible to let us know how old Mary Elizabeth Robinn may be?
J. A. M. HEMMEON, M. D.
Wolfville, Nova Scotia Canada
Sirs:
Surely the great United States does not need the protection of Mary Elizabeth Robinn from a foreign prince who is quietly minding his own business in Europe ! . . . 'Tis true that "A cat may look at a king," but this lady's extraordinary interest in a bachelor prince evidently prompted her to follow him around. would appear as though she returned home piqued at a failure to penetrate even the outer fringe of the Court she presumes to quote. ... L. K. A.
Georgetown, Ontario, Canada
Sirs :
... I am not clear as to whether this lady is a disappointed old maid or a designing widow. . . .
To my mind, the dear old lady is evidently anxious to air her literary attainments, and to convey to such of your readers as may be interested in her communication the impression that her literary knowledge is widespread and that she is a very earnest reader of a great many interesting papers, but just why a lady of this sort should include Punch in her literary pursuits is beyond my comprehension, as her letter conveys very clearly that she is a person absolutely devoid of a sense of humor. I only hope that your correspondent is not endeavoring to enter the arena as a propagandist and bring any misunderstanding between the good feeling of this country and the good feeling of that country of which the Prince of Wales will in years to come be the reigning Sovereign.
JAMES HARTLEY
New York, N. Y.
Sirs:
Unless you continue to print more of Mary Elizabeth Robinn's letters and stop using the word "Manhattan" I will stop my subscription. . . . That disappointed virgin Robinn must need a mate to soften her perennial ire against the Prince of Wales. As far as I can remember (and that is some two years back) she has been scolding you about the Prince's baggy eyes, or is it trousers? You need no humorous column as long as you sow your LETTERS with such luscious tidbits of outraged virginity. If you stop my subscription because of the above--I'll --I'll--well, I'll have no more sunshine in my dreary, newspaper life! THEODORA MARCONE
New York Evening Post, New York, N. Y.
Sirs: The urge to write a letter comes to all Englishmen--they address it to the London Times. The same urge comes to Americans--they send it to TIME. But do you have to print letters like that of Mary Elizabeth Robinn? We gravely suspect Miss Robinn of being one of that shining galaxy of women who wear spectacles, carry Boston bags and hold degrees from at least three universities. Or maybe--this is mere conjecture, but we feel it may hit the mark--she is still smarting from being one of those American girls whom the Prince couldn't dance with because of an overcrowded dance program. On sober second thought, please do print every letter Miss Robinn writes; she is too entertaining to be buried in obscurity. . . . My husband complains against TIME. He says Dishes, Babies and Dinner all have to wait until I read it from front to back. EUNICE EDDY BRAATEN
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Sirs:
Permit me to protest the misspelling of my name on the letter page of your issue of Nov. 12. I have no desire to be thought a "Robbin."
MARY ELIZABETH ROBINN
Boston, Mass.
To the erring proofreader who permitted the addition of a "b" and the subtraction of an "n," a thoroughgoing rebuke.--ED.
* Newsstand-buyer Spahling's meaning is obscure but presumably "hister," pronounced with the "i" long, means "hoister" or "beer-hoister," slang noun.--ED. /- The print order of this issue is 154,000 copies.