Test Scores

Sirs: All kudos to Eurich and Wilson for the Current Affairs Test in the magazine for June 29. I hied myself straightway to this town's first TIME-booster, Author August W. Derleth, candidly hoping to catch him with little better than a college average. Despite the fact that he is revising a major novel on option to Scribner's Sons, putting together an anthology of poems for another New York publisher, and arranging a book of his own poetry besides reading for review and otherwise an average of 30 books and 40 magazines a month, Author Derleth scored a clean 97--missing three questions in Transport, two in Business & Finance, one each in Science, National Affairs, Foreign News. I am curious to know how this compares with the average score. HUGO SCHWENKER Sauk City, Wis. Median scores on latest TIME test: college students--53 ; senior high school students--44; junior high school students-- 38.--ED.

Sirs:

Would a comparison of Current Affairs Test scores be practicable or advisable? Herewith are my scores on the four tests so far; I should be interested in knowing what others report:

Winter 1935 96

Summer 1935 100

Winter 1936 93

Summer 1936 102

Average 97 3/4

On none of them did I peek.

CHARLES CASSIL REYNARD

Greenville, Ohio

Sirs:

It is indeed a rare occasion when I find time to read more than newspaper headlines. Rarer, however, is the occasion when I miss reading TIME cover to cover. So to concise, complete, all-embracing TIME I give credit for whatever knowledge I possess of current affairs.

In the past two Current Affairs Tests my rating climbed from 72 to 79. In this week's test I hit 81. If what you say is true and 60 is above the college average, then keep your college education and give me TIME!

MORRIS LEVY

New York City

Sirs:

. . . Current Affairs Test, Question No. 105, you state: "A 19th Century French painter who is famous for the distinctive yellow coloring . . . ." The answer you give is Van Gogh.

Van Gogh was not a Frenchman. He was born in Zundert, Brabant province, The Netherlands, son of a Dutch clergyman and his wife, Anna Cornelia. It is true that his distinctive yellow coloring was developed during his residence at

Aries, France, but does that make him a French painter?

NORA SANFORD

Belleville, Kans.

No. TIME'S testmakers stand corrected.--ED. Sirs:

My thanks to TIME for placing provocative Current Affairs Test on last six pages. It makes it so easy to rip out and consign to the nearest wastebasket without disturbing balance of magazine.

LEON S. DEL WORTH Kutztown, Pa.

Yogi's Trick

Sirs: For the public's information regarding the "Levitation" trick in TIME, June 29, under Science--it is not a Scientific phenomenon but simply a magician's trick and TIME is very misleading by presenting it under Science and for the public's sake this impression should be corrected. This type of levitation trick was sold by Martinko & Co., 635 Sixth Ave., New York City, 35 years ago and was discarded by magicians because of its crudeness and as explained by TIME any person not totally blind could easily see through the trick. For a "consideration" I will gladly duplicate the trick in my own parlor using a broom instead of a stick and without flowing robes, wild eyes etc. and before any committee TIME wishes to choose. WILLIAM H. MOSELEY JR.

Clementon, N. J.

Sirs:

. . . Your Science Editor deserves a stern rebuke for his ignorance of mountebank methods. . . .

The trick is really very simple. The pole (probably not the one originally exhibited) has a strong metal core, and fits solidly into a socket in the ground. Onto its upper end, through the folds of the elaborate knot, is rigidly attached a horizontal iron rod, which passes under the Yogi's arm to the upper side of his body, and from the end of which he is suspended by means of some sort of harness around his body. The rod is concealed by his half-closed hand and voluminous, wrist-length sleeves.

The descent from the pole, shielded from direct view as it was by the tent, might have been accomplished in a number of ways. . . . Probably the manner of attaching the horizontal bar to the upright stick was such that, while supporting the Yogi, the bar could still be caused by vibration, to slide intermittently down the pole. To illustrate this process, take a round stick and a flat stick with a hole in one end the size of the cross-section of the round stick; slip the hole of the flat stick over the round stick, and attach a weight to the other end of the flat stick. The round stick, held vertically, will then support the flat stick and its weight horizontally from its top, yet jiggling the weight will cause the flat stick, still horizontal, to descend slowly to the base of the other.

This demonstrates the principle of one possible way in which the descent may have been effected, the horizontal rod in this case projecting out from the vertical pole through the folds in the drape, and being disjoined and disposed of before the removal of the tent. But there are several other possible methods that the semi-secrecy of the tent would have permitted. In any event, Plunkett's assertion that "evidently we were not meant to see this part of the performance, or it would all have been done in the open" is incredibly naive. If the demonstration were genuine and aboveboard, why should there be any part of it not meant to be seen? Magicians are well-acquainted with the psychological effect of inducing spectators to believe they are seeing what is not meant to be seen, while in reality just enough is being concealed to hide the secret of the illusion.

Whether or not Yogis can "induce cataleptic rigidity in a limb or in the whole body" is irrelevant here: it would require not even an "unbelievably strong" man to stiffen sufficiently for the purposes of this trick; nor would he need to "cut adrift from this world and concentrate on the spiritual life to the exclusion of all else." RAYMOND BLAIR

Sioux Falls, S. Dak.

Sirs:

. . . June 29, under heading of Science, you devoted more than a full page and five cuts to Levitation photographed. Permit me to say it is just another example of the basic cause of many men and women being converted to so-called psychic cults.

As an old retired magician I salute a fellow member of the ancient art of magic who performs in India under the name of Subbayah Pullavar and who thoroughly mystified P. T. Plunkett, the tea planter, and Pat Dove, the camera man, as well as the editorial staff of the Illustrated London News. . . .

Now for the lowdown! It is against the principles of the better magicians to expose magicial secrets. However, the Houdinis, Harry and Bessie, performed this same minor illusion over forty years ago. . . .

I, myself, presented the identical illusion many times in Canada, the U. S. and Cuba, using a girl. I saw it performed, in the open, at the Chicago World's Fair two years ago and at the San Diego Exposition May 10 this year during Magicians Day at the fair. . . .

A blacksmith with a little steel, a little leather and a couple of buckles can always turn out the fundamentals for a darn good seance but we call it MAGIC.

EDW. SAINT

Business Manager for Mrs. Harry Houdini Hollywood, Calif.

Sirs:

The magicians of the U. S. are having a good laugh on their English cousins who fell for the story in the Illustrated London News which TIME reprinted.

This "scientific" effect has been discarded by the Coney Island sideshow ballyhoo merchants. ... I don't know a single magician in the U. S., or even a carnival sideshow fakir who would dare to attempt this feat today, for every 16-year-old youngster probably knows how it is done. Actually what happens is that the fakir wears a harness, or corset-like arrangement. . . . Enclosed herewith are photostats from the most famous book of magic ever written--Modern Magic by Professor Hoffman, which was written in England in the early 1890's. . . . Note that it was in 1849 that Robert-Houdin, famous French magician, first exposed the Indian methods publicly. . . . All of the sideshow workers in the U. S. that I ever knew used this corset arrangement. JULIEN J. PROSKAUER

President

The Society of American Magicians New York City

According to Professor Hoffman's Modern Magic, the trick is done by means of an iron and leather harness worn by the performer which is attached by means of a ratchet to the upright stick.--ED.

Cigar-Chewer Sirs:

TIME, June 29, p. 9, carries a picture of the hanging of one Arthur Gooch.

Close scrutiny of the photograph seems to indicate that the man to the left, facing the camera with unbuttoned coat, is chewing a cigar. Was he? Who is he?

It had been my thought that executions usually carried an air of solemnity and the cigar-chewer does not seem to add dignity and sobriety to the occasion. However, maybe I'm wrong.

JOHN B. DAVIS

Minneapolis, Minn.

He was. He is George B. Hall, U. S. deputy marshal.--ED. Bumpkin Protest

Sirs:

What is a bumpkin? Webster defines it as an awkward, clumsy, rustic; a country lout!

As a constant reader of your valuable magazine, I feel that I am justified in registering a protest over the use of the word bumpkin as descriptive of the 7,300 farm women who recently attended the conference of the Associated Country Women of the World in Washington, D. C., p. 63, TIME, June 15.

MABEL D. AHART

Regional Director Associated Women of the American Farm Bureau Federation Lincoln, Calif.

Bulletin No. 1

Sirs:

In the June 22 issue of TIME I note the interesting and informing discussion under Medicine, on pp. 59 and 60. On the latter page, Dr. Welch is quoted to the effect that the discovery of insect transmission of disease by Dr. Theobald Smith was one of the great contributions of this country to medical knowledge.

Knowing of the high standard of your valuable paper in discussing scientific matters accurately, I take this occasion to state that Dr. Smith, who is mentioned in connection with Harvard and Rockefeller Institute, conducted and published his epic-making discovery early in his career, while he was a Federal employe in the Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

The citation is: Bureau of Animal Industry Bulletin No. 1, Investigations into the Nature, Causation, and Prevention of Texas or Southern Cattle Fever, made under the direction of Dr. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, by Theobald Smith and F. L. Kilbourne. Published by authority of the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1893.

J. R. MOHLER Chief of Bureau

Bureau of Animal Industry

U. S. Department of Agriculture

Washington, D. C.

Medalman

Sirs:

On p. 59, TIME, June 22, I notice a cut of Major Edgar Erskine Hume, with left side of tunic almost hidden by six rows of ribbons. Each row has five or six ribbons, a total of 30 to 36. It is only idle curiosity, I admit, but would it be possible for you to give a list of what all these medals are for. An officer in our Army who had served over 20 years might possibly have six or seven ribbons, the three War Service .Medals (1914-15 Star, General Service & Victory), the long Service (20 years), a Coronation Medal, and say two awards for valor such as D.S.O. and M.C. He would then have what we consider a nice array, but 36--Vovl! . . . G. M. MORRISON

Igloo Refrigeration Co. Ltd. Toronto, Out.

Major Hume's 34 medals: Distinguished Service, Silver Star. Purple Heart. Victory, with four battle clasps (U. S.); France's Legion of Honor; Belgium's Order of Leopold; Poland's Polonia Restituta, War Cross; Rumania's Order of the Star, Order of Regina Maria, War Cross; Czechoslovakia's Order of the White Lion. War Cross; Hungary's Order of Merit; Bulgaria's Order of Military Merit; Serbia's Order of St. Sava, Order of the White Eagle; Imperial Russia's Order of St. Anne; Spain's Order of Military Merit; Italy's Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, War Cross, Earthquake; Greece's Order of the Saviour, War Cross; Norway's Order of St. Olav (Knight); Lithuania's Cross of Vytis; Latvia's Order of the Three Stars; 'The Netherlands' Red Cross; Peru's Order of the Sun; Bolivia's Condor of the Andes; Venezuela's Order of the Liberator; Nicaragua's President's Medal of Merit; Ecuador's Abdon Calderon; Colombia's Guardia del Libertador.--ED. Rat's Nest Sirs:

TIME, June 29, p. 44, column 2, bottom: ". . . he (President William Foster Peirce of Kenyon College) let students haul him up the road to the President's house in a dusty rattletrap buggy."

TIME, you were deceived. There was no road, he did not go to the President's house, and the buggy was neither dusty nor was it a rattletrap. Ray Reibs, '37, and I pulled the buggy (lately retired and in good condition) up from the valley and spent the biggest part of one morning washing, polishing, and greasing it. However, if TIME'S informer had only looked tinder the blanket covering the seat on which Dr. Peirce sat, he would have found a recently vacated rat's nest!

HOWARD LANE POLAND '38

Kenyon College Gambier, Ohio

Sirs:

. . . The article written in TIME'S usual piquant style (TIME, June 29) deals with me both accurately and kindly. I am sure that the alumni and friends of Kenyon will thoroughly approve and enjoy this discriminating notice of my fortieth anniversary. . . .

WILLIAM F. PEIRCE

President Kenyon College Gambier, Ohio

Compliment -L- Correction

Sirs:

May I compliment the member of your staff responsible for the story contained in your June 29 issue. Both the "pros and cons" are in the main fairly stated. But in the same fairness may I ask two corrections. First, it is stated "both parents are now dead." My mother is quite alive and resides with my brother at Santa Monica, Calif. Second, it is stated I "took the job of managing Landon at a salary of $800 a month." I at no time received a salary or any other form of remuneration, ex- cepting only expenses, for my part in the Landon pre-convention campaign.

JOHN HAMILTON

Chairman

Republican National Committee Columbus, Ohio

To Chairman Hamilton, TIME'S deep regrets for two such errors of fact.--ED.

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