The Story of Willie

Sir:

Enjoyed the story [July 26] of Willie Mays--light, sparkling, with just a dash of Durocher to make it zing home.

JANE DOWNEY Wooster, Ohio

Sir:

Frank Forbes says: "I was worried to death about the kind of people [Mays] might get mixed up with. He'd have to live in Harlem, and believe me, that can be a bad place . . ." Why does the pride of New York have to live in Harlem? We who are about to be Supreme Court-martialed expect Yankees to show us the way (we don't even say d-- Yankees any more). Suspect our Northern friends have too many irons in the fire, none of which are hot.

FRED CRUIKSHANK Selma, Ala.

Sir:

. . . When the Giants visited Okinawa last November for three days and two games with G.I. teams, they came as guests of the American Chamber of Commerce and with Army permission. The ballplayers were split up and stayed in the private homes of the various business people, two and three per home. We found them all to be regular fellows, courteous, well-behaved and quite friendly.

No one familiar with current major-league baseball, especially a Giant fan, would have recognized the team the Giants fielded in the late innings of the second game on Armistice Day. The score had reached high figures, as in the first game, so the Giants began rotating positions against the Army and Air Force team, which were Far East service champs last year, incidentally, and quite good by service standards. In the final inning, the team included Leo Durocher at short and Freddie Fitzsimmons pitching (no runs were scored). This brought real nostalgia to the older spectators present and a rousing ovation for the two good sports who could easily have gotten conked by a batted ball from the husky Army batters . . .

H. C. COLEMAN Tokyo, Japan

Flanders' Fields

Sir:

What a pleasant surprise you gave all of us over here by 1) resuming publication of your series on "Europe's Provinces," and 2) dedicating one [July 26] to Flanders . . .

RALPH MAYER Brussels

Sir:

. . . Let's have many more . . .

JOHN J. PASSANISI

Boston

Sir:

A native Flemish and faithful reader . . . warmly congratulates you on your most interesting article about Flanders. It was both instructive and in excellent taste. A special tribute goes to Monsieur Pierre Bou lat, TIME'S photographer, for his magnificent work . . .

J. L. GOETHALS Jerusalem

Sir:

TIME errs in stating that "Mademoiselle" from Armentieres was an invention . . . The little French girl who slapped a general's face and thus inspired the famous war song was as virtuous as she was pretty. She was employed at a cafe early in World War I when Armentieres was a resting place for troops . . . Entertainment was organized by a London music-hall actor, "Red" Rowland, and the Canadian songwriter Lieut. Gitz-Rice*. . .

When a Canadian general, attracted by the cafe waitress, attempted against advice to kiss her, she slapped his face in front of his staff. The story quickly spread, and the two authors thought it would make a hit in their show. They took the music of the familiar French folk song Mademoiselle de Bar-le-Duc and added new words starting: "The general's in an awful fix." A warning that the general was not the only one who would be in a fix if their version was sung decided them to make the unkissable mademoiselle the heroine. The song immediately caught on and soon millions of men were marching to the tune. What has become of her is not known . . .

HUGO R. KNIGHT Washington, D.C.

P: Reader Knight's version is supported by a New York Times war correspondent who, in December 1939, interviewed "the original Mademoiselle in a village far from her native Armen-tieres." Then a grandmother (age 50) with lungs damaged by German gas, she was willing and able to sing about herself to the nostalgic Timesman. The municipal authorities of Armentieres, however, now claim that the song was written about the anonymous mesdemoiselles of easy virtue who first welcomed British Tommies there in 1915. --ED.

Brimful & McGinful

Sir:

After reading Phyllis McGinley's poems in TIME [July 19]: Be they holy or tainted/ They're all of them sainted.

It isn't often one laughs

At hagiographs,

But suddenly here's a page brimful

Of vignettes that are punny,

Delightful and funny--And neither prosaic nor sinful.

They're nothing so much As the exactly right touch--And obviously Phyllis McGinful.

E. J. DALY

Midland, Mich.

According to Graves

Sir:

I was shocked and hurt that you would dare print such an absurd article as the review of that horrible book [The Nazarene Gospel Restored] by Robert Graves and Joshua Podro . . .

MRS. V. M. LEWIS

Nashville, Tenn.

Sir:

... As a Christian, I strenuously object to the heretical utterances of Novelist Graves. His opinions regarding Our Blessed Lord are highly blasphemous. To speculate on the Crucifixion as a falsehood is to tear down Christianity . . .

OLIVE ROWLAND ARMSTRONG Philadelphia

Sir:

Why should Mr. Graves be a crank for teaching what we Muslims have taught for years--namely, that the Prophet Isa ("Jesus") . . . did not die on the cross--and that the "New Testament" is ... a blasphemous book? I'd rather believe Mr. Graves than believe the purple-wattled bishops . . . Christianity is not a harmless fairy tale. It is a dark superstition ... I prefer Mr. Graves to Pope Pius XII and Billy Graham . . .

ANTHONY CURTISS

Casablanca, Morocco

Sir:

... In view of Mr. Graves's past achievements, I hardly think it is proper or fitting to palm him off with: "But when a crank has the reputation and writing ability of Novelist Graves . . ." Past personal contact with Robert Graves assures me that this . . . study will eventually come to revolutionize theological thought, which no amount of undermining on your part will repress.

CHARLES F. CORBETT New York City

Sir:

Thanks for your review of the book. If you'd taken those authors and their "work" seriously, I think I'd have buried all my copies of TIME sadly and crossed you off the list. But you came through beautifully in your very decorous but witty debunking of the whole nonsensical thing . . .

DOROTHY M. FARRELL Washington, D.C.

Snap, Crackle, Mom!

Sir:

It is too bad that some mothers of teenagers do not get up to get breakfasts for their children [TiME, July 19]; but why blame mother entirely? A teen-ager should begin to take on some responsibility of adulthood. He or she . . . has as much time as anyone else--exactly 24 hours a day . . . My nine-year-old can already cook an egg (boiled or fried), make a piece of toast, squeeze an orange and pour a glass of milk!

VERONICA HENNING

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Sir:

What is the matter with these students? ... If I did not get up for mine (a college grad), he would not eat until noon.'Why blame Momism and not world tension or commercialism? . . .

EMILY JEAN JOHNSON Cincinnati

Sir:

. . . Let those teen-age monsters get Mom's breakfast ... as well as their own . . . before taking off ...

M. MORISON

Peekskill, N.Y.

Poet's Protest

Sir:

As Editor of Poetry and an officer of the Modern Poetry Association, I want to protest against the article which appeared in TIME, July 12. Your note, under PEOPLE, purporting to be a news item about the resignation of Mrs. Borden Stevenson from the board of Poetry, contained this statement: ". . . Poetry magazine, the flat-broke association's outlet for its members' rhymes . . ."

Poetry has published more than' 4,000 different poets since 1912 ; the total number of board members during these years has not yet added up to 50. Of these 50, only about six, who were recognized poets, have ever had their poems printed in this magazine. Two of these poets were Pulitzer Prizewinners . . .

KARL SHAPIRO

Chicago

Theological Thoughts (Contd.)

Sir:

Concerning those letters [July 26] commenting on Jane Russell: Perhaps Miss Russell's views on religion were a bit unorthodox, but I find nothing in them to warrant so sharp a rebuke . . .

DAVID MILLS

Chicago

Sir:

... If Jane Russell thinks that God is "a Livin' Doll," she is one step higher than those people who never get to know God. ALBERT C. ROTOLA Denver

Sir:

Re the stir over La Russell's comment: No observer of life will be disturbed, for it is a simple truism to even half-deaf observers that most girls who are trying to be "sharp" are notably similarly wearisome in limiting expression to a repetition of current pat phrases ... It would have been thoroughly in keeping if Jane had prefaced her predication with "Let's face it." It's surprising that a modern girl would omit that devastating, penetrating philosophy. Also, a modern girl could have well been expected to comment: "He's a Smart Cookie . . ."

BOB GALFIN

Washington, D.C.

* Among his wartime hits were Keep Your Head Down, Fritzie Boy and Dear Old Pal of Mine.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.