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"It has a restricted meaning, but I think the people spread it out a little when they choose. It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a 'baker's dozen.' It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure. The custom originated in the Spanish quarter of the city. When a child or a servant buys something in a shop—or even the mayor or the governor, for aught I know— he finishes the operation by saying:
" 'Give me something for lagniappe.'
"The shopman always responds; gives the child a bit of licorice root, gives the servant a cheap cigar or a spool of thread, gives the governor—I don't know what he gives the governor; support, likely.
"When you are invited to drink—and this does occur now and then in New Orleans—and you say, 'What again? No, I've had enough,' the other party says, 'But just this one more—this is for lagniappe.' When the beau perceives that he is stacking his compliments a trifle too high, and sees by the lady's countenance that the edifice would have been better with the top compliment left off, he puts his 'I beg pardon, no harm intended,' into the briefer form of 'Oh, that's for lagniappe.' If the waiter in the restaurant stumbles and spills a gill of coffee down the back of your neck, he says, 'F'r lagniappe, sah,' and gets you another cup without extra charge."
GEORGE L. MOORE
Wellesley Hills, Mass.
Scripps-Howard's Barnes
Sirs:
Last May you were good enough to make special inquiry as to whether I contemplated entering journalism. I told you that as soon as I could make any statement I would give you the information. I am to be associated with the Scripps-Howard Syndicate as editorial writer and investigator. . . .
This will be an experimental connection for a year. If I make good I shall leave the teaching profession for a field of wider usefulness. I may say that this has nothing to do with my connections with Smith College. I am on permanent appointment there and am this year on regular sabbatical leave. If I enter journalism permanently it will be because I find it more interesting than teaching.
HARRY ELMER BARNES
New York, N. Y.
Architect Wright
Sirs:
Your article Genius, Inc. in TIME, Oct. 7th, gives, I believe, an impression of my father's present position in architecture which is incorrect. The caption "Who's Who dropped him" together with the last sentence on the page "Twenty years ago his reputation in architecture was world wide'' and your failure tn mention any of his more recent achievements would indicate that he is something of a has-been.
His present international reputation is too secure to require defending by me or anyone else and you will find it very .largely based on buildings which he has created within the past 20 years, among them the Imperial Hotel, which may be famed among tourists for octagonal copper bathtubs and skyscraper furniture'' but is famed among architects and engineers as the building which withstood the Tokyo earthquake more successfully than any other.
His being dropped from Who's Who is unimportant except as proof of the unimportance of being dropped from Who's Who.