Purge
In your March 4 issue, p. 22, col. 1 you say: "The job used to be held by Stalin's 'Dear Friend' Sergei Kirov, whose bumping-off in 1934 gave the world a new word: purge."
In Julius Caesar, in justification of the proposed murder of Caesar, Brutus says:
"This shall make Our purpose necessary and not envious: Which so appearing to the common eyes, We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers."
—Act II, Scene 1, lines 177-180.
DANA L. FARNSWORTH, M.D.
Williamstown, Mass.
Tax Facts
Sirs:
The burlesque picture and humorous story of me in your magazine of Feb. 26 resulted in a complete sell-out of that issue in Memphis.
News dealers are hollering for more copies.
A few additional facts about the protracted and diversified court contests of the Colliers over their taxes might be equally interesting. . . .
Our refusal to pay taxes was because of exorbitant assessments. The litigation extended through a generation. The amount involved finally grew to about $750,000. The controversies went through all the Courts of Memphis ; five times to the Supreme Court at Jackson, Nashville and Knoxville. I was rammed in every jail in Shelby County. Nevertheless, my daily salutation to my opponents was: "Good morning, boys. You haven't got me yet." The tax collectors were finally glad to accept full payment in "dirt." . . . We gave the City 200 acres of ditches, gullies and ravines—most of which area was inaccessible on account of three diagonal railroad rights of way, cuts, fills and bridges.
We retained 100 picturesque acres in the heart of Memphis—one half being virgin woods with massive oaks 250 years old. As additional compensation to us, the State and City built a scenic parkway through our tract 100 ft. wide, ¾ mile long, complete in every detail, costing them $175,000. So Old Tom didn't lose much of his family's inheritance by the tax litigations after all.
I am over 60 and I'll challenge any one of your millions of readers half my age to a bare-foot race, one, three or five miles.
I am sending you a recent photo of myself, not that its publication will again exhaust your sales in Memphis; but merely to convince you that I am not so much like a "nigger prize fighter" as your burlesque made me appear.
TOM COLLIER Memphis, Tenn.
SPCSCPG (Cont'd)
Sirs:
It is difficult to believe that Elmer Samson can have been serious in inquiring of TIME
(Feb. 19) if the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters George does "exist in actuality," since our famed brotherhood now includes thousands of members throughout the U. S.