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By the shovelful, it can't begin to equal a fraction of the tenderness, pity, humanism and dignity evoked from a single painting by a Wyeth, or a Hopper, or a Shahn, or a Broderson, and others of the Outsiders.
WILLIAM D. GORMAN Bayonne, N. J.
The Original Christys
Sir:
The Christy Minstrels [March 29] will be hard put to score any hits as lasting as some of those introduced by the original Christy
Minstrels, who were organized by Edwin P. Christy in 1842 and were the most famous minstrel show in the country for almost two decades.
Edwin P. Christy has been long forgotten by all but a few devotees of the early minstrels. Not so the name of one of his proteges, Stephen Collins Foster, some of whose best-loved ballads were popularized by Christy. If the New Christy Minstrels can develop a smash hit like Oh, Susannah or Old Folks at Home, both of which were first presented to the American public by E. P. Christy's minstrel troupe, they will deserve to rank with their illustrious predecessors.
This 1847 title page indicates what the original Christy Minstrels looked like in blackface. The song to which this title page belongs was written by Christy himself, and is entitled Farewell, Ladies, which, as you might suspect, has now become Goodnight, Ladies and has been played countless times at the expiration of formal and informal dances.
LESTER S. LEVY Pikesville, Md.
> Randy Sparks, founder of the New Christy Minstrels and an avid folk music researcher, elected to name his group after the 19th century minstrels because "they were the first big group to sing in harmony and to break the ensemble down into individual acts."—ED.
LSD & Life
Sir:
It is obvious from your article [March 29] on psychedelic drugs that your writers have never had the opportunity personally to experience the effects of psilocybin, mescaline or LSD. The major critics of drug research at Harvard are also all men who have never had an individual experience with the drugs.
In every describable way, naturally occurring profound experiences that have been reported to me (most common—intense love, esthetic entrancement, religious ecstasy) in open-ended questionnaires resemble psychedelic drug-induced experiences of the subjects of Drs. Leary and Alpert.
The overwhelming majority of the subjects who have taken LSD, mescaline or psilocybin through Drs. Leary and Alpert report that their lives have been changed for the better. I have taken these drugs a number of times myself. I feel a reverence for the experiences they have induced, just as I feel a reverence for my most cherished, naturally occurring profound experiences.
DAVID P. NOWLIS Harvard University Cambridge, Mass.
Sir:
The assumption of the learned Drs. Presnell and Leary that the mentioned drugs will always produce desirable or pleasurable results is probably in error. For a person with memories of horror, these drugs might cause terrible reactions.
LARRY E. MCGEMSLING
Los Angeles
Sir: