Who Paid Tebbetts
Sirs:
In regard to the Coolidge-Tebbetts story (TIME, April 11), the general public is not aware that the New York Life rather than Coolidge himself paid the $2,500 to the St. Louis insurance man. You will no doubt be interested in our story of the case, it being an authorized one from the New York Life.
J. D. C ALDER WOOD
Assistant Editor
Eastern Underwriters
New York City
New York Life's story says that
"Mr. Coolidge is one of the most kindly of men and would never deliberately hurt anyone's feelings. Least of all would he attack an individual by innuendo. He had never before been sued and furthermore his experience in public life and with newspapers had taught him what he could expect in the way of publicity if he were to appear in court as a defendant. It would mean taking him away from the privacy which he so much enjoys in Northampton, Mass., and subjecting him to a tremendous amount of limelight for days with constant besieging of reporters and cameramen.
"Everett Saunders [sic] ... went to St. Louis and has arranged for the New York Life to pay to the attorney of Tebbetts the costs and legal expenses incurred since the beginning of the action. The impression that Mr. Coolidge sent his own check is incorrect." —ED.
Where Roosevelt Was
Sirs:
I notice on p. 17 of the issue of TIME of March 28 a footnote indicating that Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was mountain tramping in New York State when word came to him that President McKinley was dying in Buffalo.
For the sake of accuracy, I want to suggest that President Roosevelt was attending a banquet of the Vermont Fish & Game Club at the home of ex-Lieut. Governor Nelson W. Fisk at Isle La Motte, Vt. when this news reached him. He arrived in Vermont September 5, 1901.
RAWSON C. MYRICK
Secretary of State State of Vermont Montpelier, Vt.
Roosevelt addressed the Vermont sportsmen the evening of Sept. 6. Just as he was finishing, word came that McKinley had been shot. He rushed at once to Buffalo, stayed two days. Then, when the President's physicians declared their patient out of danger, the Vice President joined his family in the Adirondacks. As reported by TIME, it was in the Adirondacks, while he was climbing Mount Tahawus Sept. 13. that word reached Roosevelt of McKinley's impending death, which came before Roosevelt reached Buffalo.—ED.
"The Beautiful Youth"
Sirs:
Perhaps Florence Crabbe may not believe it, but it is true that when James Montgomery Flagg attended the Art Students' League during the '90s he was spoken of as "The Beautiful Youth," and with no sarcasm attached to it either. I must confess that when I looked at the cut in the March 21 issue of TIME I could hardly realize that he was the same Flagg who used to attract so much attention for his good looks, the Flagg with the straight, slender figure and the quiet manner touched with just a bit of blaze.
His criticism of the college girls may have deserved rebuke but not such a savage onslaught as in the letter under the caption "Flagg Flayed'' (TIME, April 11).
The cut referred to calls to my mind the verse of Garreta Busey:
This earthen mask that is my countenance