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Mysterious Pages Sirs: In your issue of Sept. 28, you publish a letter from Mrs. Charles H. Bassett of London, England, where she states among other things: "In our copy of this week's TIME (Aug. 31) p. 19 & 20 have been deleted by the British censor. To ensure that in future we get our TIME intact we are ordering our issue direct from your circulation office." I have for years subscribed to many foreign papers, including TIME, and never have any of them been censored or deleted. Also, it is quite obvious from Mrs. Bassett's own statement, that in England there is no "censor"—since she hopes to get her TIME intact through the post.
In justice to liberty-loving Britons you ought to point out that the "censoring" or, rather, the entire elimination of whole pages is done not by an official censor but by TIME'S own "Puritan" distributors, and is only applied to copies sold on the bookstands of the British Isles.
ARNOLD LEVY
Hindhead, England
Britons who want TIME intact should subscribe direct to Roy E. Larsen, 350 East 22nd Street, Chicago, Ill.—ED.
Hoot, Toot & Whistle Sirs:
Possibly not an alert railroad but an interesting one is the Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington,
Vt. (known to natives as the Hoot, Toot and Whistle) which last month let excursionists ride in the locomotive cab, fire the 44-year-old engine, ride on the top of cars for 22 of its 24 miles of track up the Deerfield River valley from the east portal of the Hoosac Tunnel.
Given over nowadays to freight, the line runs an annual excursion for the Railroad Enthusiasts, organization of engine lovers that migrates from Boston and other New England points. Manager William B. McCleland and President Harry Pope are cordial hosts to the enthusiasts who know every inch of the line, look forward with glee to the rattles and cinders of the antiquated rolling stock.
Two flat cars are equipped with chairs from the Readsboro factory of President Pope, the Boston & Maine Railroad lends an old day coach for the trip, now reaching only to Mountain Mills, two miles from Wilmington, Vt., where the line's trestle was washed out in the March flood. The remainder of the trip was by automobile.
No arguments existed as to who would fire No. 21, the honor went to George P. Becker, construction superintendent of the F. S. Payne (elevator) Co. of Cambridge, Mass., whose hobby is stoking locomotives.
This year's trip was free from derailments, cows on the track, which last year delighted and delayed the enthusiasts. Only disturbing note was a rumor that the tracks above Readsboro might be torn up.
Another attraction of the erstwhile narrow-gauge line is the switchback at Whitingham Dam, reputed to be the only one east of the Rockies, constructed when the dam (largest earth dam in the world) forced rebuilding of much of the roadbed.
GEORGE C. WHITNEY
Greenfield, Mass.
Unique Experience
Sirs:
I noted with interest your account in the Oct. 19 issue regarding the "Off the Beaten Path" trip operated out of Chicago by the Pennsylvania Railroad. This was a unique experiment in transportation and doubtless will be the forerunner of many such trips in this part of the country just as the trip in the East was the forerunner of many more there.