"Puissant Rajah" Sirs:
Being in the habit of reading every word in every issue of your magazine, I begin to shrink from again encountering "potent." Why not vary it with "puissant"?
Also "tycoon" begins to unnerve me as I see it approaching. Why not also "rajah"?
For instance:
"Owen D. Young, puissant rajah of electrical utilities."
One advantage of "rajah" is that you can swell it into "maharajah" for a "tycoon" of superlative grandeur.
For instance:
"Lord Rothermere, puissant maharajah of publication and publicity."
Another advantage about East Indian titles such as rajah and maharajah would be that for potent or puissant lady magnates you could say "begum."
For instance:
"Ruth McCormick, Illinois dairy begum."
You will understand that these suggestions are not for making you different but only admiringly for making you more and more what you are.
WILLIAM HARD
Washington, D. C.
What say subscribers?--ED.
What a Difference !
Sirs:
TIME, Aug. 19, p. 62, footnote locates the newly wedded Crokers (1914) in "Iceland." Surely Ireland was intended. Only one letter different, but what a difference!
GEORGE F. CRAWFORD
Cincinnati, Ohio.
"Swan Upping" Flayed
Sirs:
I wish your correspondent could have been with me at Maidenhead on the Thames when he wrote TIME'S disgraceful story about "swan upping" (TiME, Aug. 5). I would have boxed his ears, as I should like to box yours now!
There was nothing in TIME'S language that a gentlewoman could find worthy, neither sympathy for the mother and father swans over-powered by Englishmen whom I do not hesitate to call callous brutes, nor any tenderness for the little frightened swanlets as their bills were nicked with sharp knives! Do you approve of such savagery to animals? If you do you ought to have your own noses nicked!
The only thing that cheered me up about the whole dreadful sight was a splendid brave mother swan who beat and beat with her wings at one of the men until his nose bled. Ordinarily I am made ill by such a sight, but I held onto myself and gave almost a cheer for that swan!
... It was surely unnecessary for you to distinguish between a mother and a father swan by such terms as "pen"' and "cob" . . . and was it necessary for you to call the swanlets by such an ugly word as "cygnets"?
. . . Just let any of our Boston women catch some man "swan upping" in our parks! ... Of course at Maidenhead I was helpless, except that my blood boiled. Shame on you, TIME, for not denouncing "swan upping"! MARY ELIZABETH ROBBIN
Biarritz, France.
TIME would deplore "swan upping" at Boston, where it could not serve the picturesque purpose of distinguishing by nicked bills all cygnets not belonging to His Majesty George V.--ED.
Sirs:
Your account of Swan-Upping on the Thames was most interesting. I was surprised to learn that such intelligent and progressive people still do such apparently silly things, tho, of course, I had heard that the British were, or seemed ta be, quite fond of things ceremonious and ritualistic. However, I won't laugh at them now. First, let British readers suggest some things which U. S. people (I know of no other adequate term for inhabitants of U.S.A., and always hope TIME will coin one) do which seem equally as foolish to the British. Of course Prohibition will be one, but there must be others.
CURTIS J. QUIMBY
Lawyer Jefferson City, Mo.
Yankee Division
Sirs:
In the issue of TIME, Aug. 19, p. 10 under Army & Navy you say, "The 26th is the 'Yankee Division,' National Guardsmen from Maine."
The Yankee Division was made up of the National Guard from all the New England States.
ELIOT W. LOVETT
Gloucester, Mass.
Sirs: You give Carroll J. Swan the title of "Lieutenant." He is Lieutenant Colonel of the reserves and was a Captain in the War of the 26th Division. He wrote a book following the War entitled My Company. Swan is a graduate of Harvard '01--one of New England's leading advertising men. . . . J. M. SWEENEY
Boston, Mass.
Mohammed Ali's Stud
Sirs:
A section in the Foreign News column of your Aug. 19 issue of TIME refers to one Prince Mohammed Ali of Egypt.
His Highness may have "a talent for catastrophe," but a newsmagazine of your calibre should not overlook the fact that he also has a talent for breeding Asil Arabian Horses. From what I know, I would say that his main interests are confined to breeding the best horses in the world. His stud in Egypt and Lady Wentworth's stud in England are the only two horsebreeding establishments in the world (except the secret breeding tribes of the Arabian desert to which only the initiated few are admitted) where one can find an unpolluted strain of the blood to which the present day thoroughbred owes all the good that is in him. . . .
The photograph shown in conjunction with your P. M. A. article makes me think you have the Prince confused with his sparring partner. When did the noble gentleman shave his heavy black mustachio off? J. FRANZ FISHTER
New York, N. Y.
When in fighting trim, Prince Mohammed Ali is minus mustache.--ED.
Shin-Plaster Law
Sirs:
You would perform a public service if you would devote space to debunking the myth that it is a crime against the Federal law to issue a check for less than one dollar (TIME, July 29, P. 52).
The law in question dates from July 17, 1862, not from March 4, 1909, which is merely the date of a recodification. The act was intended to prevent private competition with the fractional paper currency in denominations less than one dollar, which the government was then issuing, which were commonly called "shin-plasters." It still serves a useful purpose in preventing the flooding of the country with quasi currency issued by individuals or corporations, but it has no application to a person who draws an ordinary check on his bank account for a sum of less than one dollar.
The Supreme Court of the United States made it plain more than 50 years ago in the case of Van Auken vs. U.S., 96 U.S. 366, that the issuance of a check for less than a dollar was not an offense under the act unless there was also the element of intent to circulate the same as money.
This statute has been made the text of several articles criticizing Congress and other law making bodies, but such criticism is based on a misunderstanding of the law, and is a disservice to the public by creating the false impression that our law making bodies regarding, or frequently pass ridiculous legislation. OLIVER G. BAILEY Cincinnati, Ohio Texas
Ridiculed
Sirs:
I have been following TIME very closely for the last few weeks in some hopes that I would find something of local interest that has attracted much attention and comment. Namely, it is the vote taken recently in Texas on two proposed amendments to the State constitution; one of them providing for an increase of the Governor's salary from $4,000 per annum to the appalling (decided so by the people of Texas) sum of $10,000, the other providing for some reforms in the Texas Supreme Court. However, both of these proposed amendments met with defeat.
This fate I attribute to the ignorance and intellectual backwardness of the people of Texas as a whole. The largest State in the Union will not pay their Governor but $4,000 a year! A State with a population well over ten million will not pay their Governor as large a salary as the Federal Government pays their representatives to Congress! The State of Texas will not reorganize their Supreme Court into modern form! . . . This situation is ridiculous! . . .
HUGH WATSON
Wichita Falls, Tex.
Roasting Ear Juice
Sirs: I note that Mr. J. H. Landers of Temple, Tex., has called your hand about the height of skyscrapers; reminded you that the omission of the Amicable Building at Waco, Tex., was a grave one. Mr. Landers might have related an amusing quip well known in the Southwest. It is told that a gentleman from Shreveport or Tulsa (the old chronicles are not explicit) was made acquainted with a Waconian. "So you're from Waco, are you?" he drawled. "Yes suh, thass right," agreed the Waconian. "And may I ask, suh. what floor do you live on?" wisecracked the Tulsan. In expiation to outraged Waconians, I concede that Waco is a thriving and beautiful city, probably near the 50,000 mark in population (including Negroes). Although the place is --* with Christians, transcontinental travelers, U. S. Highway 77, Canada to Mexico, need not hesitate to stop overnight, as a very good quality of roasting ear juice, distilled in the lush, dewy blackland river bottoms of Central Texas, is procurable at a fair price. R. E. VOOHNMAD Oklahoma City, Okla. Kentuckiana
Sirs:
I notice in your issue of Aug. 12 that three things vividly associated in the public mind with the State of Nevada are divorces, silver and the Mackay family.
What are three things now most vividly associated in the public mind with the Commonwealth of Kentucky?
W. W. THOMPSON
The National Park Fund, Louisville, Ky.
Vivid Kentuckiana: blue grass. Bourbon whiskey, the Derby. Mammoth Cave. --ED. Drunk Definitions
Sirs:
Your issue of Aug. 12, p. 50, under Medicine refers to drunkenness. I am moved by this article to give you the definition of Dean Samuel F. Mordecai, late of the Law School of Duke University:
"Not drunk is he who from the floor Can rise again to drink once more: But drunk is he who prostrate lies And cannot cither drink or rise." I am also reminded of the definition of Dean Gulley of Wake Forest College Law School; that is to say:
"No man is drunk until he has to hold on to the grass to keep from falling off the face of the earth."
T. A. BURNS
Asheboro, N. C.
*Unpleasant word deleted.