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Sympathy of practicality for Readers Hooper and Page who are worrying with hogs on ice and barn rats. Let Readers Hooper and Page try to catch a "hog on ice" and they will have no need of book-lore to explain the expression. Deferentially and apologetically to Reader Hooper; the expression in the hinterlands is not "pert as a barn rat," but applies to sundry persons who are described as having "the cheek of a privy rat." The bucolic rhythm beats only in the backwoods.
E. C. MITCHELL
Paducah, Ky.
Sirs:
Your Lincoln, Neb. correspondent is right about the hog on ice and wrong about the hog going to war. He approaches his opponent slowly and obliquely so as to make best use of his tusks.
"Come here at once, and don't sidle up to me like a hog going to war." my mother used to say to me, soap in one hand, a wet cloth in the other.
H. S. BARTHOLOMEW
Lansing, Mich.
Suicide
Sirs:
Regarding the suicide plunge of John William Warde from the ledge of a hotel window [TIME, Aug. 8], may I suggest how to handle such cases in the future? Call out the fire department; deluge the waiting, watching mob with high-pressure streams of water. This would have three salutary effects: 1) wash away the morbidity of the mob; 2) clear the streets for traffic; 3) divert the would-be suicide's attention from his own real or fancied woes. Turn about is fair play.
GRAPH WALDEYER
San Francisco, Calif.
Sirs:
Psychologists call it Schizoidmaniacism, but John William Warde, standing at the brink of death was just a peeved little boy. And like any severely spanked little boy, wanting sympathy, he took the colossal modern manner of calling attention to his troubles. That he should carry out his grand gesture, is the fault of the City Fathers who turned this little-boy prank into a three-ring circus, by roping off the streets and permitting photographers to lie untrampled on their backs, instead of keeping lanes open and business functioning as usual. Newspapers and national broadcasters screamed invitations to all and sundry to come to the Big Show, instead of pleading with the public to ignore the boy and permit sanity to overcome hysteria. John Warde was offered a baseball game, instead of a job. Whatever his last thoughts may have been, it is certain he received the thrill of his unimportant lifetime to find himself in the spotlight, which is all he started out to do in the first place. Whether he jumped or fell, is immaterial now. The fact remains that he was murdered by a sensation-hungry pack of human wolves.
MAY B. BURNS
Shreveport, La.
First Love
Sirs:
The statistical critic who reported on the cinema Love Finds Andy Hardy [TIME, Aug. 8] must have been an insurance agent, surely is a sourpuss.
Was TIME'S critic never in love a first time? Actor Rooney didn't overemphasize a youth's first love one bit. Take it from me, I know.
D. F. B. II
Dayton, Ohio
Biggest Flag
Sirs:
"As the King's car reached the Place de la Concorde, there broke out from the Eiffel Tower an enormous Union Jack, said to be the largest flag ever made. . . ." (TIME, Aug. 1).