Shriners & Secrets

Sir:

Congratulations ... for your article on Harold Lloyd and the Shriners [TIME, July 25], in which you presented the clearest picture of Masonry that we have ever seen.

RUSSELL A. AUSTIN JR. Washington Conclave Order of DeMolay Aberdeen, Wash.

Sir:

. . . Many people are under the impression that just any man can plank down his money and become a Mason. Well, it's not true . . . Many famous and prominent men have tried many times to join a Masonic Lodge, but have failed . . . We never go out and solicit members, either.

BEN L. BROWN Cincinnati, Ohio

Sir:

I read the article with quite some surprise, not to mention disgust. The tone . . . was deplorable. In short, it sounded to me as though TIME might be harboring a little ill feeling toward Masonry . . .

E. W. McNicol

Springfield, Ohio

Sir:

While "Masonry is an exclusively male reservation" today, there has been an exception . . .

The Honorable Elizabeth St. Leger Aid-worth, the only woman Freemason . . . was initiated into Masonry in Lodge No. 44 at Doneraile Court, County Cork, Ireland, in 1712. Intentionally or inadvertently, the young lady was in an annex of the lodge room while a degree was being conferred. On attempting to escape from the room she was discovered . . . After considerable discussion, the members decided that only one course was open to them. The fair culprit, with a high sense of honor, at once consented to pass through the impressive ceremonials she had already in part witnessed . . .

JIM CHADWICK

Marysville, Calif.

Sir:

... In Elizabeth Bowen's [biography], Bowen's Court, she says:

"In a small alcoved room in Doneraile Court, a Miss St. Leger became the only lady Free Mason. The popular story is that she hid in a clock, her family says she happened to fall asleep on a couch; anyhow, whether by design or accident, she overheard what the Free Masons were saying, so they made her one of their number. In her portrait the lady . . . has a dogged, impassible face [see cut]. I support the idea of the clock."

FRANCES BIRD Chicago, Ill.

Sir:

. . . You touch briefly on William Morgan, and his attempted "exposure" of Masonic secrets ... In the old Batavia cemetery . . . stands a tall shaft surmounted by the figure of a man. This monument was erected in 1880 by the National Christian Association, a group opposed to all forms of secret societies. An inscription at the base of the monument states that it was erected to William Morgan "by volunteer contributions from over 2,000 persons residing in Canada, Ontario, and 26 of the United States and territories ... He was abducted from near this spot in the year 1826 by Free Masons and murdered for revealing the secrets of their order."

CHARLES E. BIRMINGHAM Batavia, N.Y.

P:Morgan's monument has stood for almost 70 years, but Morgan's fate is still in dispute. Anti-Masonic groups claimed that he was murdered and thrown into the Niagara River. They even produced a corpse which was buried with great ceremony--but which turned out to be someone else. Masons believed that he voluntarily left the country. Hie was later rumored to be a hermit in Canada, posing as an Indian chief in the Rockies, and living in Constantinople, having become a convert to Mohammedanism.--ED.

Taste Buds

Sir:

The first paragraph of "The Old Oaken Barrel" [about two Kentucky Senators who tasted a leather-headed tack in a barrel of bourbon--TIME, July 25] is slightly reminiscent of an anecdote used about 400 years ago in Don Quixote. Two of Sancho Panza's cousins, renowned for sensitive taste buds, were enjoying a barrel of wine. Although both pronounced the liquor excellent, one cousin noticed a slight taste of leather, while the other objected to a taste of iron. The other imbibers, less discerning than Sancho's kinsmen, ridiculed the two. On emptying the cask, however, the cousins were proved correct, for in the bottom of the cask was an iron key tied with a leather thong.

JAMES L. FORD

Owensboro, Ky.

Sir:

. . . Other things being equal, experts know that the more desirable bourbon is aged in a new, charred, white oak barrel, as opposed to used cooperage.

The statement concluding TIME'S article--"Such matters [used v. new barrels] are actually pure custom; the Scotch prefer used sherry casks"--is nearly as irrelevant as saying that gin producers prefer not to age in barrels at all.

I hold no brief for Kentucky bourbon distillers as such, but I assure you that . . . the choice of cooperage is not pure custom but is of fundamental importance.

MARRON W. FORT Chemical Engineer Newburyport, Mass.

Better Description

Sir:

We were surprised that TIME, July 11 [in its report of the sweeping vindication of British press ownership by a Royal Commission] described the Daily Express as a "scandalmongering, penny paper." I cannot think that you would accept that as a true or fair description of the Daily Express.

E. J. ROBERTSON Managing Director Daily Express London, England

P:The description is half right--the Daily Express sells for a penny. Otherwise, the Express is curt, concise, sometimes sensational, sometimes angrily opinionated.--ED.

Western Distribution

Sir:

As a child I attended several grades in a tiny, old-style country school deep in the Ozarks. It has always been a source of amusement in our family--that part of our "education." Now I am horrified to see my own son entering school in much worse surroundings: more dilapidated, crowded, dirty and understaffed schools than that Ozark country school . . . May I suggest that someone make a mold of Principal Joseph Schwertz of New Orleans' Beauregard school [TIME, July 25], then cast about 1,000 copies of him and distribute them in California?

MRS. K. L. GERLACH

Oakland, Calif.

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