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. . . There is no better illustration of racial prejudice . . . than an incident as the mob began gathering before Slaton's home, immediately after his courageous commutation of Frank's death sentence became known.
Albert R. Israel, for many years one of the most widely known Associated Press men in the South, was then a member of its Atlanta staff. When word came that the mob was assembling, Israel set sail for the scene with this parting admonition: "Fellows, if you want to get in touch with me, I'll be at the so-and-so drugstore at 9 o'clock, but if you telephone, for God's sake don't ask for Israel. Ask for Mr. O'Leary!"
DUDLEY HADDOCK Sarasota, Fla.
Sir:
When I was a child in Alabama, I remember hearing ignorant country minstrels strum guitars and sing:
Little Mary Phagan She went to town one day. She went to the pencil factory To get her weekly pay.
Until I read your article, I had never heard the name Leo Frank. What does this mean? It means that sympathy for the victim reached even to the children, but any hate or prejudice—intimated by your article—was interred "under the pines" . . .
BEN R. AUSTIN New York City
Okaying Miss K
Sir:
Congratulations on the fine article [Jan. 31] on Grace Kelly. I am very glad to know she has a mind of her own as far as her career and the publicity involved are concerned. Hollywood has miscast and ruined Greer Garson . . . Deborah Kerr will probably be in the same boat soon . . . and Audrey Hepburn will probably be playing in something called The Eleanor Roosevelt Story before long. But it looks as if Miss K can take care of herself . . .
ELIDA DEBEVOISE Northampton, Mass.
Jumbo-Package Jargon
Sir:
As a linguist and etymologist, I do sympathize with the editors of America in their outcry against the corruption of the English language by the advertising agencies [TIME, Jan. 24]. I feel, though, that Father Davis has overlooked the deeper meaning of the old fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin and the old rule that "the baby has to have a name." The excesses of the advertisers are merely proof that the Biblical injunction to Adam that he give names to the things of the earth is getting harder every day . . .
ERNEST N. KIRRMANN East Northfield, Mass.
Sir:
Can the excitable Rev. Thurston N. Davis, S.J. produce a U.S. family where the wife invites her husband to "make yourself comfortable, dear, in your slipper-gripper Mistletoes," or tells the children, "jump into your perma-sized skijamas, kids, while I make you some Dagwitches with diced cream and superfection strawberries?" Can he find a poor speller among those same children, who, doing his homework, writes "kar-pokits" or "kon-veen-yunt?" If so, the cross-pollenating Madison Avenue ad men would turn handsprings
KAY GROVE Colorado Springs, Colo.
Sir: