"Monty's" Stance

Sirs:

John Montague (TIME, Jan. 18) may have been a legendary character to some but, as "Monty" he was far from that to me, who knew him well during the years 1932-34, having picked up his acquaintanceship in the hinterlands of the old Westwood Hills Golf Club-not exactly a public course since you had to have $5 to play it for a month.

Monty wasn't so hot then, because he lost many a dime and quarter to me, who had yet to break 80. But as time went on something seemed to be happening to his game. He acquired from somewhere a very unorthodox-looking stance, placing nearly all his weight on his left leg and bending his right so that the ball almost came over and touched the left. From that basic position he would swing his clubs from driver to niblick, and give the ball an almighty belt such as you never did see. And straight, too; a remarkable coincidence in golf when such devious power was applied.

I have seen most if not all of the biggest names in golf play, including the long-hitting Jones, Little, Thomson, Wood, McSpaden and others but, in my opinion Monty could outdrive them all. As to whether he could actually outplay them over a given stretch, I would not say, since I was never witness to a round of his of less than perhaps 76. And this during the period when hearsay was crediting him with scores of anywhere in the low 60s (64 was not infrequently mentioned). But I never saw it at that time. Knowing, however, how he could drive a golf ball and remembering his great improvement during the time I played with him, I wouldn't be surprised.

WILLIAM STERN

Brookline, Mass.

Sand v. Sickness

Sirs:

An English engineer lent me a copy of TIME dated Nov. 30 wherein occurred a letter, entitled "Sick," from a man in Illinois who was so beset by the world that he wanted to join a monastery.

Now, we had just cut our way with facoes (hand knives) through 38 kilometers of the d--est jungle you ever saw, and when

I glanced at the letter, written by a guy who can walk on paved streets anywhere, wash his face and shave in hot water any time, and bum a ride any place if he is too tired to walk, etc. etc., then I also felt pretty ill I For a freeborn, two-legged, (presumably) hairy chested American to write such a letter is the limit! If the fellow is really sick, maybe the injection of a little spinal fluid will help him.

We came, one afternoon, onto a woodcutter's palmito hut, and prepared to camp in his clearing. We at once discovered that the caboclo was down and almost out with the terrible mel`ata, or malaria, and there we were--if we pushed on down the small stream, cutting clear every footstep, to a safe distance, it would have become dark and a h-- of a job to camp. If we stayed, we had a good chance of getting knocked up by mosquitoes bearing active bacilli. Besides, the poor devil was dying. So I took a snake serum syringe, boiled it, and gave the fellow a quinine solution in the arm. I guess I gave it to him too strong, because in about 15 minutes he had the h --of a cramp and probably would have turned black if Nature had not already saved him the trouble. Anyhow, we kept him breathing and after a time he came to. When the period for his next chill arrived, he didn't have much of one, so we fed him another dose in a cup of mate.

Now, quinine is expensive when you just have a little-we were eating the stuff in place of sugar-and the question was, should we leave him a little and send somebody out for him, or stay and take the chance of running out before he was able to take care of himself. The old boy solved the problem next day by showing us the picada (bridle path) which he had cut to a logging road, so we tied him onto his burro and shagged him to the carroc,a which carried the cutter's supplies. He was too sick to tell us his name, but the son-of-a-gun grinned, and fell off his burro trying to shake hands, when we loaded him into the carroc,a. The supply man took him in, and I hope he got well. The point is, this bird didn't have a "tostao" in his pocket, and his mamma didn't know where he was, but his craw was sandy!

It's too bad entirely if there are any monasteries left. I stood one Sunday afternoon at the head of a gigantic waterfall on the Rio Parana, looking down on the gorgeous rainbow the sun had painted on the gauzy curtain of spray which seemed to serve as a fairy robe to the river, veiling its lower stretches in a thunderous mystery. On the very edge of the rocky gorge, a tiny humming bird, that most marvelous jewel of nature, hovered about a gorgeous spray of boton d'oro-a glittering emerald set in a golden crown. And seeing, I said-"What monk can say what God hath wrought? What dull cap and gown can bring a smile to the lips of a dying man, who has seen God's creatures in all their splendid livery, marshalled in the battle of life under the starry ensign of heaven? Poor, blind, deaf mortal, whose strength does not rise in him as a flood, to see the morning sun array himself for his flaming march across the blue sky-whose heart will never leap to hear the wonderful sound of his native tongue-spoken by one long absent!"

With a world of wonders before him, it is inconceivable that a man, with arms to grasp and heart to feel, would deny his birthright to purchase a grovelling, cowardly existence behind cold stones that will throw his mumbled prayers into his teeth with mocking echo-- The filthiest, humblest caboclo here could teach such a one courage-the tiniest butterfly could show him beauty-and the ominous jaracasii could teach him awe!

WILLIE WEAVER

Curityba, Brazil

Trap

Sirs:

Contract or "Trial" Marriage (see TIME, Dec. 28).

Had Lawyer Delson searched the New York City records farther back to September 1906 he would have found that Mable McCoy Irvin and Dr. E. E. Moore made an attempt to prove that New York State had a law that would admit of a trial marriage. The ceremony only required two witnesses and notary. We announced ourselves husband and wife. Notary affixed his seal and turned papers over to us. We consulted with friends and the recorder in the city of New York and they all said if this paper was filed at end of six months the marriage was legal, if torn up at end of six months, no marriage. Had we consulted a lawyer, he would have told us the two witnesses made the marriage legal from the start. We found ourselves in the legal trap-divorce followed.

DR. E. E. MOORE Mount Airy, N. C.

Carolina Capers

Sirs:

Bishop William Lawrence described his participation in the recent consecration of his son as an Episcopal bishop as "a filial incident which has never before taken place in the history of the church in this country" (TIME, Jan. 25).

A similar "filial incident," which may also be without parallel in the annals of this church in America, is that in three generations of the Capers family of South Carolina have been as many bishops-grandfather, father, son.

The first, William Capers (1790-1855), was a Methodist bishop. His son, Ellison Capers (1837-1908), Confederate brigadier, was an Episcopal bishop, as is his son, William Theodo tus Capers (1867-), bishop of West Texas since 1916.

J. Riox McKissick

President

University of South Carolina Columbia, S. C.

What a Family!

Sirs:

I would like to inform you of an error in the Jan. ii issue of your fine magazine. In that issue there is a picture of two of the famous scientific Shull brothers looking at a kymograph. You have erred in the captioning of this. The one using the apparatus is a Government botanist (J. M. Shull) as you said, but the other, Dr. G. H. Shull, is not a geneticist from the U. of Michigan but is instead a plant geneticist of Princeton University.

It is easy to see how you made this mistake since the four brothers were present at the Atlantic City convention. The other two are Dr. A. F. Shull, an animal geneticist, and Dr. C. A. Shull, a plant physiologist of Chicago University. (Dr. A. F. Shull is the geneticist of the University of Michigan.)

It might be of interest to know that a fifth brother is a professor of German at the University of Michigan. What a family!

JOHN J. BYRNE, '37

Princeton University Princeton, N. J.

Rather Odd

Sirs:

Some of my American friends have just sent me a copy of your magazine TIME, dated Jan. 4.

On p. 23 there is an article entitled "Lady's Worms," and a photograph of the late Lady Emily Hart Dyke.

I am not complaining about the rather odd way in which the article is written, but I do think you might take the trouble to see that the photographs you publish are correct ones. Lady Emily Hart Dyke was very beloved in many parts of this country, and to see her photograph printed with the words "Mismating did not daunt her," and my own name underneath it, will give pain to many people.

ZOE HART DYKE Lullingstone Silk Farm Eynsford, England

To silk-worm-growing Lady Millicent Zoe Hart Dyke & family, apologies for printing a miscaptioned photograph of her late mother-in-law. -- ED.

Heil Helvetia!

Sirs:

I wish to correct some statements made in the issue of TIME for Dec. 21, under Foreign News regarding Switzerland and the trial of Frankfurter.

In the second to last paragraph you speak as if Switzerland were ruled by Hitler too, and that our Federal Council had to introduce that "furious Fiihrer" and anti-Communistic bill convince just to him please that we the Swiss are "on the right side of the Nordic fence."

It may interest you to know that the same Federal Council also told Germany that they would not tolerate another Gauleiter (district leader) of the N.S.D.A.P. to be sent to Switzerland to replace the murdered Gustloff. . . . Furthermore, the court did not sentence Frankfurter to 1 8 Nazis," but years' because the imprisonment, law of "just to the appease Canton of the Grisons requires a minimum sentence of 15 years, be it for a political murder or not.

Although we speak German in the Northern part of Switzerland, we certainly are not German, but SWISS, just as the French-and Italian-speaking people of Switzerland are also SWISS, and not French or Italian respectively.

HEIL HELVETIA!

OTHMAR STAUBLI Horgen-Ziirich, Switzerland Old Lie Sirs:

I ones" have which read were with written much for the 1936 amusement the contest "tall of the Burlington, Wis. Liars' Club.

Here is one that won the prize in a lie "con test" in an amateur minstrel show about 45 years ago: "Once there was an honest lawyer."

My father was a lawyer and was present at the minstrel performance, so to recall the incident in our family ever evoked much laughter in which father's always boomed out the loudest.

JUDE HARMONE Erie, Pa.

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