Canophobe Butler Answered, Flayed
Sirs:
I had to laugh at William Mill Butler's letter about the "dog nuisance." Supposedly, all homeless dogs go eventually to the pound, where they are put to death. Before being rounded up by the dog catcher, they have deprived no one of food, having fed on garbage rations delectable to the dog palate, which no child would eat.
As for dogs legally owned and taxed, they are as legitimate a luxury as Mr. Butler's tobacco. Or, if he doesn't smoke, he no doubt has other expensive habits. Scientific tests have proved that dog-owning children have a 50% better chance of growing up into honest, thoughtful citizens. And would Mr. Butler deprive thousands of lonely city people of their only companions? I refer, particularly, to "old maids" and bachelors in strange cities, to say nothing of invalids. Of course there is no need to call attention to the hundreds of useful farm, police and hunting dogs.
As for the "highly commercialized" dog breeding business, it may interest Mr. Butler to know that dog breeders cannot possibly make a living on the "profits." It is merely a sport and a hobby, supplementary to the breeder's regular business. The elaborate kennels which Mr. Butler probably refers to are the property of millionaires, and are as expensive a luxury as their fine stables. Showing dogs at the shows is one of the few American sports where there is almost no graft. . . .
E. LOUISE MAGARY
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Sirs:
. . . Mr. Butler seems to think that there is a scarcity of food in the country and that dogs are depriving starving children of much-needed nourishment. From what I have read about the low prices of farm products, including livestock, it would appear that there is more food than can be absorbed by the poorly distributed purchasing power of the American people. . . . The spending of money by those who have enough of it, even though it be for so small an item as food for dogs, helps to give employment to stock-raisers, the railroads, butchers, and workers engaged in the preparation of dog food. . . .
FRANKLIN I. CARTER Port Deposit, Md.
Sirs:
Your correspondent, William Mill Butler, is long on ideas, but short on thought. As everyone knows (who cares enough for dogs ever to have owned one), 900 out of every 1,000 canine members of families (and I call them that advisedly) eat only what is not and will not be consumed by the human members of those families.
It follows that "mitigation of the dog nuisance," up to destruction of 100% of these 900 dogs will add not one whit to the available food supply for babies this winter.
Organized destruction of the remaining 100 dogs would be so expensive as to render what is left of the argument economically unsound, even if a force could be recruited sufficiently heartless to carry it out. TIME does well to propose no "plan."
JEFFREY SHEDD Evanston, Ill.
Sirs:
I read Daddy's TIME every week. Nov. 21 you published a letter, "Babies and Dogs." I am a boy 10 years old. I had a beautiful setter that was a constant guard, companion and friend until I was 8. Then she died. I now have a nice police dog, one of the seven million dogs mentioned, I guess. I have a little friend who has what Dad says is just "a mangy cur,'' another of the seven millions, but Bobby loves him just as much as I love my police dog, and it would be fun to see someone try to kidnap Bobby, or any of us, when "Rough Neck" is around.
The man who wrote that letter never had a dog of his own, and he sure missed a lot of fun and pleasure. Daddy says he has missed a lot more than that, and he is sorry for him.
I am glad that TIME "proposed no plan" for getting rid of our dog friends.
SONNY CONRAD (JOSEPH L. JR.)
P.S. I could say a lot more about this but I must not consume too much TIME. Durham, N. C.
Sirs:
In answer to the letter of dog-baiting Bulletin the Nov. 21 issue of TIME, I want to say that there is an exception to that old axiom that reads: "There is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us. . . ." It is an historic fact that criminals, idiots and the dregs of humanity have had dogs to worship them, yet your correspondent seems never to have attained that happiness. . . .
And as for dog-baiting Butler's prudery over our "disgusting system of commercialized breeding"--is prurient-minded Butler "disgusted" with our selective breeding of bulls to make better meat, and cows to give better milk? And does he think Luther Burbank was "disgusting" in his selective mating to make lovelier flowers, better vegetables, a more beautiful world? . . .
MARY McCORD THRASHER Washington, D. C.
Middle Class Teachers
Sirs:
TIME of Nov. 14 under the heading of Education reveals a distressing retrogression and admission of defeat on the part of the National Council of Teachers of English. . . .
Let the teachers in all our public schools--more particularly our high schools--first learn grammar, then teach it; and they will not have to lower the nation's standards in order to justify their own "better middle class" speech.
Many North American visitors to the European continent have been either amused or insulted at the signs in French and Italian shop windows: "English spoken: American understood." Shall we deliberately abandon all just reason for resentment at this foreign affront?
ALFONSO RAGLAND JR. Dallas, Tex.
Ward for It
Sirs:
In your recently published account of the paternal Insull in the maternal ward in Greece (TIME, Nov. 14)--surprised, astounded was the undersigned at the remissness of your catch-line writer in omitting
"The Greeks Had a Ward for It."
DAVID L. MOORE Hartford, Conn.
U. S. C. Scored On
Sirs:
Have finally caught ever-correct TIME in error, perhaps justifiable. In Sports of Nov. 14 issue, TIME is quoted:
"For the first three periods of last week's game against California, U. S. C. did what everyone had expected. Then, in the last quarter, occurred something that has not happened before this year--Southern California was scored on. . . .''
Beg to remind TIME U. S. C. scored on twice before during this year--in the Rose Bowl New Year's game Jan. i, 1932 with Tulane, final score: 21--12. . . .
LEON BLUMBERG Los Angeles, Calif.
Robbin v. Robins
Sirs:
As there is no "amnesia" or any other mental thing wrong with my family will you please permit me to state that I am no relation to President Hoover's unfortunate friend, Col. Raymond Robins for whom I have every sympathy.
I am not his sister, Miss Elizabeth Robins, and I hope I shall receive no further expressions of sympathy, which are embarrassing, to say the least. Any such messages should be sent to Miss Robins in London where she is greatly respected and in every way a credit to the Robins family, no relatives of mine. . . .
Is it possible, TIME, that you do not know the Prince of Wales has a "double" who went to Belfast? That small, simple fact explains why the Irish acted as they did. Of course English papers cannot mention such things but I have spent enough of my life with English people who know to know.'
You might tell your other magazine FORTUNE that there are not three slot machine gambling devices in Buckingham Palace. The . King and Queen cannot of course defend themselves against such nonsensical assertions but I take the liberty of defending them. The late King Edward used to gamble disgracefully at cards but King George is opposed to all gambling. . . .
MARY ELIZABETH ROBBIN Boston, Mass. Whitaker Wright's Suicide
Sirs:
Your interesting account of Lord Reading contains two inaccuracies, which you might like to note for your private information, if not for publication.
1) Whitaker Wright committed suicide, not in his presence, but in that of (to use your own attractive phraseology) suave, pale-faced Lawson Walton, K.C., by whom Wright was defended. While the suicide was happening. Rufus Isaacs, as he then was, was engaged in a consultation in his chambers. The news was brought to him, and gave him a terrible shock, so he told me.
2) The author of the forensic witticism mentioned in the last paragraph was not Isaacs, but [Edward Henry, Lord] Carson. This is well-known and a constant subject of reference in after-dinner speeches--in other words, a Carson chestnut.
I do not often trouble to correct inaccurate statements of the press, but being a reader and admirer of TIME, venture to do so on this occasion.
LORD RIDDELL
P.S. Swindler Wright's suicide took place in a consultation room in the Law Courts, where he was having a consultation with his Counsel after the verdict. London, England
TIME's authority for saying Whitaker Wright poisoned himself in court: Cecil John Charles Street's Lord Reading, Encyclopedia Britannica.--ED.
Banyuls
Sirs:
The matter of wines is perhaps too important in the U. S. at present to let pass the error on p. 36, second column, of your number of Oct. 24.
Banyuls, contrary to what you mention, is not in any way a wine comparable to Dubonnet or Byrrh: it is a perfectly natural wine, completely uncolored, and containing no quinine or any other material whatever. In fact wine other than purely natural, coming from other than a certain specified region, made from other than certain specified grapes, cannot be shipped or sold under the name of Banyuls. It is, as you say, a dessert wine, and not an aperitif.
Aperitifs, however, such as the two that you mention, and numbers of others, such as L'n Nicolas, which is made at Perpignan, a short distance from the village of Banyuls (Byrrh is also made close by, at Thuir) are made from other types of wines, to which are added essential oils from certain herbs, to give the requisite tastes, a certain amount of quinine, which gives the necessary coup de fouet (crack of the whip) to the appetite, a certain amount of sugar to counteract the bitter taste of the quinine, and a certain amount of alcohol to bring it up to or 18 degrees, which assures the stabilization of the mixture.
These wines are of excellent quality, although not natural products, and act not only as aperitifs, but as tonics, when one is run down. . .
RICHARD WALLER
Le Luc (Var), France
Bubble & Squeak
Sirs:
In the Nov. 7 issue of TIME, under Cinema, appears this quotation:
"The Old Dark House (Universal). The British are a chipper, extraverted people, given to good table manners, 'God Save The King' and gobbling up puddings such as 'bubble & squeak.'"
May I say that Meals Tested, Tasted and Approved, put out by Good Housekeeping Institute (second edition copyright 1930). gives the recipe for "bubble & squeak" as follows: i Ib. round steak cut in i-in. cubes
1 tablespoon fat
2 cupfuls cubed potatoes 2 cupfuls sliced onion
1 No. 1 can ( 1/2 pt.) mock turtle soup
2 teaspoonfuls salt
1/8 teaspoonful pepper
flour to thicken
"Saute meat in fat. Put a layer of sauteed meat in a greased casserole, then a layer of onions and then a layer of potatoes, salting and peppering each layer. Over all pour the mock turtle soup and enough water to cover. Measure liquid used. Cover closely and cook in a slow oven of 350DEG F. for two hours. For every cupful of liquid used stir in one tbsp. flour mixed in an equal amount of cold water. Cook 15 min. longer. A baking powder biscuit crust may be put on the casserole after the thickening is added. If this is done, raise the temperature to 450DEG F. for about 15 min. to bake the crust. Serves six."
This could not be called a pudding as a pudding contains fruit--according to recipe books and Webster's dictionary.
MRS. I. E. CARPENTER San Pedro, Calif.
Cater v. Catty
Sirs:
Not in a spirit of criticism but for the sake of correctness, may I comment on your use of the word "catty-corner" in TIME of Nov. 14: "Sir James [Barrie] lives ... on London's Adelphi Terrace catty-corner from George Bernard Shaw's former home." The proper spelling is "eater-corner" or less properly "cata-corner." The word implies the numeral four as does the word "cater-cousin," fourth cousin
P. I. NIXON, M. D. San Antonio, Tex.
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