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The Public Ledger was running Isles of Fear serially. F. W. Welty, a prominent Catholic layman, was Managing Editor and the undersigned was reading Mayo's stuff on the night copy desk. Well, you know how it is Christmas Eve. The piece for the next day came over the desk when the undersigned was feeling as a person working on Christmas Eve does feel, and it got only a cursory reading, a few paragraph marks and a head. Well, so Christmas Day, the Ledger published a gratuitous insult to the Virgin Mary, it being Miss Mayo's opinion of most Filipinos' opinion of the Christian Madonna.
With many Catholic readers (and a Catholic M. E.) you can imagine that things got pretty hot for the Ledger in the ensuing weeks. In some churches parishioners were told not to read the paper henceforth. The Cardinal wrote a letter to Mr. Curtis. My landlady made me move. The Ledger accumulated what is perhaps the most remarkable "Don't" list in the history of American journalism (and there have been some swell "don't" lists), in an effort to avoid any further annoyance to the Catholic Church. One of these "don'ts" represents to my mind the farthest South in newspaper rules. That summer, when the St. Louis National Team was playing in the World Series, we were not permitted to refer to them as the Cardinals.
C. S. MORGAN JR.
New York City
Fearful Night
Sirs:
Having recently returned to America, my attention has been drawn to an account in your issue of Dec. 18 headed "Premier Duke & Jackson'' describing the tragic fire which took place at my house the "Heronry," England.
In so much as many people have been led to place confidence in the accuracy of reports in TIME I think it is only proper that I should point out that there are no less than eight mistakes in the article. It would seem that your correspondent in order to get a good title to the article altered the facts, or at any rate, made use of various incorrect reports in the London papers.
Further, by the implication of omission, the article gives the impression that Mrs. McCormick and I made no attempt to save our guests, while our chauffeur, Jackson, called the fire department, took full charge of all rescue work, and was the first to discover that the Duke de La Tremoille was still in the burning house. The only reference to Mrs. McCormick and myself states that ''we walked safely out of the front door."
As regards Jackson, it is true that he did, acting on Mrs. McCormick's orders, fetch a ladder with the help of Farmer Gay and subsequently entered the Duke de La Tremoille's room through the window. Long previously by shouting and throwing stones at the window I had sought to rouse the Duke if he were there. Behind the window curtains Jackson found little smoke, no fire. The room was empty, the lights lit and the door to the corridor closed. The Duke had unfortunately left his room without attempting to escape by the window, and tried instead to traverse the suffocating fumes of the corridor. Here he died, having missed the right direction in seeking the staircase.