Letters, Jun. 28, 1948

Presidential Couplets

Sir:

Some rhymester, unknown to me, got a 35-year drop on Ogden Nash (who lately jingled the list of U.S. Presidents—TIME, June 14). We eighth-graders in San Francisco's Madison Grammar School were obliged to chant in unison:

Washington first—he arranged the finance;

Then came John Adams, who quarreled with France.

Thomas Jefferson third—Lou'siana he bought;

Then Madison, under whom England was fought . . .

It pains me to confess to Miss Dora Plagemann, the handsomest teacher in San Francisco in my day, that for the order between Madison and Taft I must now take recourse to the World Almanac.

ALBERT L. FURTH

Chappaqua,...