Letters, may 25, 1953

(2 of 4)

As a New Zealander, I find it curiously gratifying to deem, from your April 13 and April 27 notes about Mrs. Frank Small's hole-in-one golfing habit at Invercargill, N.Z., that readers of TIME are worldly wise and so know where and what N.Z. is.

BRUCE FALCONER

Wellington, N.Z.

Returning P.W.s

Sir:

I am surprised to notice that unusually accurate TIME Magazine erred [May 11] in referring to Pic. James R. Dunn of Anderson, S.C. as a Negro.

W. R. DUNN

Greenwood, S.C.

—I Let the record be set straight: Pfc.

Dunn is a white man.—ED.

How They Got Sitting Bull

Sir:

In your April 20 issue, you . . . describe Sitting Bull at the time of his death (Monday morning, Dec. 15, 1890) as being "old, fat and quiet," and state: "a detachment of Indian police galloped up to his cabin . . . and shot him to death.

"He did not die without a fight. A pitiful handful of his friends battled the policemen, and 16 men were killed in the brutal fray . . ."

To show how little his own people thought of him, out of about 5,000 on the Standing Rock Reservation, he had a following of about 150 at the time of his death, and that was the "pitiful handful" that battled the 45 policemen. It was in resisting arrest that he was shot . . .

I was there that morning. There is but one other policeman living (that I know anything about) who was there too. He is Lieut. Col. M. F. Steele (ret.), living in Fargo, N.Dak. He is very feeble, and over 90 years old ...

MAJOR W. G. WILKINSON

(Formerly Private, Troop G, 8th Cavalry) Clearwater, Fla. Sixteen years after defeating the Sioux, Steele was a cavalry instructor at Fort Leaven worth. One of his noted pupils: George Catlett Marshall. Steele died in February at the age of 91.—ED.

Green Cheese Over Jersey

Sir:

Fantasy apparently dies hard, even among TIMEsters. In your issue of May 11, you say that the "Garden State of New Jersey" is pronounced "Goddan State of New J-eh-sy." The silent r, a phonetic phenomenon typical of New York City, has, admittedly, spilled across the Hudson into the only places on the west bank known to the provincials of the Big Town. In the hinterlands (all areas more than ten miles from Manhattan) live approximately 90% of New Jersey's people. These people invariably pronounce their r's, and are proud of thus distinguishing themselves from the denizens of the city of "New Yawk."

If someone should tell TIME that the moon is made of green cheese, look at him with suspicion. His story will not be true, either.

GEORGE F. MONAHAN JR.

North Plainfield, N.J.

Sir:

... I would suggest that you form your opinion about the physical make-up of our state not only by looking out of train windows on a trip to Washington, but also by a delightful, refreshing tour around the southern Jersey countryside.

FRANCIS E. DAVENPORT

Pitman, N.J.

Starlit Disaster Sir: TIME'S April 27 review of the 20th Century-Fox picture Titanic states that the ship went down [April 15, 1912]in a moonlit sea.

There was no moonlight that night. Starlight, yes, but no moonlight. I happen to be one of the survivors . . .