Bloody Breathitt
Sirs:
Four hours ago I stood waiting for a train at Jackson, in Breathitt County. I had just read TIME'S generous words for my first novel, River of Earth.
This was publication day. I was proud. Deputy Sheriff Jerry Combs walked by. I saw his small badge, thought he should have a larger one, size of a fist. He turned away, and within three minutes was shot down stone dead. I don't know why. The high sheriff came. Men set off upriver and down, running with guns in their hands. A woman cried, "Oh Bonny, my uncle's jist got his brains shot out."
Long have I looked to this day, but I've got no pleasure out of it. I have seen a man die,
JAMES STILL Dead Mare Branch, Ky.
— Because of its many feuds, Breathitt County, Ky. long ago became known as "bloody Breathitt." One day last fortnight Frank Howard and his sons, Tom and Brown, walked into the Federal Surplus Commodities office at Jackson, demanded their quotas of apples, oranges, grits. E. J. Dawkins of the office staff told them to come back the next day.
The Howards, said Dawkins, began to talk tough and Tom Howard started filling his sack. Dawkins called Deputy Sheriff Combs, whose last words (to Tom Howard) were: "If you persist in this, I'll have to arrest you." Police Chief A. S. Sizemore arrested Frank Howard on a charge of murder.
Tom and Brown Howard fled to the hills, a posse after them. The posse came back without the Howards, who sent word by their mother that they would surrender in a few days. Seven days later they gave themselves up to High Sheriff Walter Deaton, who clapped them in jail until court comes March 11.—ED.
Still's Degree
Sirs:
You may be correct that James Still (River of Earth, TIME, Feb. 5) was "educated at Vanderbilt," but he, as did "better-known 'Mountaineer Poet,' Jesse Stuart," received his A. B. degree from Lincoln Memorial University.
Thanks for splendid review of splendid book.
STEWART W. MCCLELLAND President
Lincoln Memorial University Harrogate, Tenn.
Cherries
Sirs:
Please compare the enclosed copy of Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries with your footnote in the review of my Since Yesterday (TIME, Feb. 12). How about it? Knowing that there were various versions of the song I followed the published version.
FREDERICK LEWIS ALLEN
New York City
— TIME'S apologies to Author Allen, who followed the published version: Life is just a bowl of cherries Don't make it serious Life's too mysterious.
But the U. S. public learns its songs from records, not from sheet music, and the recorded version by Rudy Vallee (who sang the song in George White's Scandals of 1931) goes: Life is just a bowl of cherries Don't take it serious It's too mysterious.—ED.
Shell
Sirs:
Often in your columns you tell of a ship's having been brought to a halt because of a shell's having been fired across her bow.
I have a fairly good imagination but I still can't figure out how the captain knows about this shot. Does the shell leave a smoke track? Does it look like a comet? Does the captain see the gunner aiming ahead of his path?