Pantywaist
Sirs:
I am unable to secure a satisfactory explanation of Communist term "pantywaist" (TIME. Aug. 8, p. 8). Please define.
H. A. WASHINGTON
New York, N. Y.
A pantywaist is a kind of button-bestrewn under-jerkin worn by tots of both sexes. Little boys at an early age come to regard pantywaists as sissy.
--ED.
Woe Is Us!
Sirs:
Muncie Star says this trip of our President is costing the taxpayers a neat $150,000 and our Muncie Press states that it is costing another neat $500,000 to take the battleship thru the Panama Canal to meet the President and his party so they can fish. One of my mother's friends receives the Congressional Record and it is shocking what goes on. She is away and I tried reaching her before writing this note, but I am sure that you can find some honest citizen that does take this Congressional Record and you can have facts. . . .
R. S. S.
Muncie, Ind.
P.S. It will surprise you more to learn that the Government pays our President's mother $150,000 per year so Hyde Park (her home) can be called and used as the Summer White House. You can check this also. It came from a friend of hers, an honest woman of high integrity. Woe is us!
The Government pays Hyde Park's owner (Mrs. Sara Roosevelt) not a cent for her hospitality to her son. Nor is it true, as popularly rumored, that Franklin Roosevelt's recent fishing trip on the U.S.S. Houston cost taxpayers $150,000. Expenses of his 37-day holiday were paid out of his travel account ($25,000 a year), came to something between $500 and $1,000 for the entire trip. On his B. & O. special train, President Roosevelt paid one first-class passage plus one and one-half fare for single occupancy of a drawing room. All the other passengers--and visitors--paid their own fares. The Houston burnt some fuel on her trip, but deteriorated less rapidly than if she had been idle. According to the Navy Department, cost of operating the Houston is $800,000 a year, so that its total cost for the time the President was aboard could have been no more than $60,000. The sailors' pay went on anyhow. The President paid for his share of the officers' mess on the Houston--between $1.50 & $1.75 a day; his guests did likewise. --ED.
Fire Walker
Sirs:
Hindu mystic Fire-Walker Kuda Bux [TIME, Aug. 15] didn't do so well as John Hyde who, seeing Japanese priests perform this miracle, decided that he could do it too. He had noticed that the priests in their purifying ceremony before the walk rubbed their bare feet with salt. "So sure did I feel of the efficacy of the salt as a protective agent that on my second visit to the temple I determined to follow the priests in their apparently hazardous adventure, and so after rubbing my feet well in the pile of salt I walked rapidly over the bed of glowing coal, some 18 feet long. My confidence was not misplaced. In my feet I felt only a sensation of gentle warmth, but my ankles, to which no salt was applied, were scorched."
More intriguing than fire-walking is stirring molten metal with the bare hand. The following is from Memoirs and Correspondence of Lyon Playfair, by Wemyss Reid.
"The Prince [of Wales] and Playfair were standing near a cauldron containing lead which was boiling at white heat.
" 'Has your Royal Highness any faith in science?' said Playfair.
" 'Certainly,' replied the Prince.
"Playfair then carefully washed the Prince's hand with ammonia to get rid of any grease that might be on it.
" 'Will you now place your hand in this boiling metal, and ladle out a portion of it?' he said to his distinguished pupil.
"'Do you tell me to do this?' asked the Prince.
" 'I do,' replied Playfair. The Prince instantly put his hand into the cauldron and ladled out some of the boiling lead without sustaining any injury. . . . It is a well-known scientific fact that the human hand, if perfectly cleansed, may be placed uninjured in lead boiling at white heat, the moisture of the skin protecting it under these conditions from any injury."
The above will be found in Walter Hough's book, Fire as an Agent, in Human Culture. . . .
GUY ENDORE
Hollywood, Calif.
TIME readers will try this experiment at their own risk. Fire as an Agent in Human Culture was published by the Smithsonian Institution (U. S. Nat'l Museum bulletin No. 139).
--ED.
Dumpy
Sirs:
Thank you for the copy of TIME with the article on Dumpy [TIME, Aug. 22].
You may be interested to know that she is still bringing in the bills, her treasure now amounts to $34. We are still unable to find out where she gets the money. Your article was very good and absolutely correct.
MRS. H. C. STILES
San Antonio, Tex.
TIME'S hope: that Dumpy and Mrs. Stiles never lose faith in each other.
--ED.
Horse Legs
Sirs:
"Thingumabob . . . gallantly lifted himself to his feet again as the track veterinarian shot him dead" (TIME, Aug. 22). Let TIME or veterinary scientists explain why broken ankles and legs cannot be set, why valuable horseflesh is sacrificed. There must be a reason, other than such horses' usefulness as moneymakers (or losers) is ended.
RONALD H. ROGERS
Quincy, Calif.
A horse's bones are not extraordinarily brittle, but a horse's weight and its momentum often produce breaks that are too much for veterinary skill or owner's purse. But veterinary surgeons can heal many a horse's broken leg. One method: Cincinnati dentist, Dr. Peter Wehner, uses a cast made of dental stone, says he can mend even a compound fracture. Though Dr. Wehner has successfully treated four race horces, none of his patients has raced again.--ED.
Rooseveltiana
Sirs:
Yes, the stink remains in Reader Larsen's story of Franklin Delano--and most of it clings to TIME's smart college boys for publicizing it [TIME, Sept. 5]. Your good American readers respect our highest National office, whether or not they agree with its current incumbent. It was amateurish and cheap to offend the President, his office, and your readers of good taste and the essential proprieties.
ROBERT P. CLARKE JR.
Erie, Pa.
Americans have always told jokes about their favorite Presidents (Lincoln, Coolidge), their favorite automobiles (Henry Ford's tin lizzie). TIME sees no reason to bar its Letters column to a long-established American phenomenon. Franklin Roosevelt himself frequently takes advantage of his privilege as citizen of a democracy to crack jokes at other U. S. statesmen.--ED.
Sirs:
Among the few Rooseveltiana with a grain of truth is a story told of an occurrence at the church in Hyde Park where the President worships. The governors of the church ordered a plaque, stating that it was "The President's Church." Morning after the tablet was erected, passersby were greeted with a legend neatly chalked below it: "Formerly God's."
C. J. MURPHY Winnetka, Ill.
Humiture
Sirs:
Regarding your article on "Weather" TIME, Aug. 15, I wish to make clear that weathermen are correct and Banker Hevener is wrong--"humiture" is a fool word and indicates nothing whatsoever. A brief example which I believe proves it:
With a 90DEG dry bulb temperature and a 36% relative humidity, the "humiture" would be 63; but if the temperature fell 30DEG (giving a dry bulb temperature of 60DEG and a relative humidity of 100%) the "humiture" would rise to 80. Obviously there is something wrong with such a system.
If TIME is really interested in interpreting weather readings in their effect on human beings, and in not merely trying to popularize a new catchword--I would suggest that you investigate "Effective Temperatures" as used by air-conditioning engineers everywhere.
KENNETH MACKENZIE JR.
Minneapolis, Minn.
TIME admits the cogency of reader MacKenzie, et al.'s criticism of "humiture," but balks at swallowing such a sockdolager as "Effective Temperatures" (a composite index combining the readings of temperature, humidity, and air motion--supposed to show degree of human comfort). Can any reader suggest a concise compromise? --ED.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.