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There isn't a question but Longfellow's pen
Created a classical masterpiece when
He gave us the poem so pleasing to hear
Of the famous achievement of Paul Revere;
And yet it's a target for critics because
He never made mention of William Dawes,
Who started from Boston an hour before
And outrode the other by two miles or more.
Dawes didn't have signals to give him a start—
The Patriot Warren just bade him depart;
But not by mere chance was he chosen to go—
He excelled as a horseman, and the Chronicles show
He pummelled a Briton for slurring his bride
So Warren knew Dawes was a man for the ride.
From the start of his journey jar into the morn
He rode like a wraith for the nation newborn;
He wakened the people and covered the ground.
And his horse on the roadway made just as much sound
As the man's who rode bravely by Middlesex farm . . .
Note: Dawes left Boston through Boston Neck, on the South; Revere rode from the North. Both were headed for Concord, where the American supplies were stored. Neither reached that objective. They were intercepted by British patrols at Lexington. However, they gave the alarm that was to arouse the world, to Samuel Prescott, a young doctor, who carried it on to Concord.—From Chronicles of the time.
JOHN C. WRIGHT
Lansing, Mich.
Glorious Thought
Sirs:
I thrill—I positively thrill at the suggestion of Subscriber Sidney Henderson (TIME, April 9) that President Coolidge should fly with Charles Augustus Lindbergh!
What a glorious thought! Our great-souled President aloft in space with the Lone Eagle. . . .
Of course he should do it—he must! If other TIME readers will join me I will undertake to start a petition—signed by women only—which would eventually be presented to Mrs. Coolidge, asking her to ask the President to fly with Lindbergh.
I think that such a method would be approved by everyone, even by those who believe that a man has no right to fly without the consent of his wife.
MRS. ROY L. FILLMORE
New York, N. Y.
Sirs:
. . . "Coolidge & Lindbergh" appeared on p. 2, TIME, April 9.
The signer, Sidney Henderson, has evidently forgotten that Mr. Roosevelt refused to ride in an automobile when they first came out and said he felt much safer riding behind horses. As nearly as I can remember he did not make use of an automobile until after the Spanish American War.
ELLA FORBES
Chicago, Ill.
Mr. Roosevelt rode in a U. S. automobile in 1900; he was sufficiently courageous.—ED.
Sirs: