Letters: Apr. 26, 1926

Herewith are excerpts from letters come to the desks of the editors during the past week. They are selected primarily for the information they contain either supplementary to or corrective of news previously published in TIME.

"Chuff"

Sirs:

My commendation on your use of the word "chuff" (TIME, April 5, "In Little Rock," p. 18).

As a noun descriptive of the sound of a milk-train engine, it fits and therefore is good. Is this a new word?

JOHN THURSTON

Rochester, N. Y.

Such onomatopoetic creations should be judged by their success rather than by the dictionaries. In this particular case credit is due to a typesetter who set "chuff" for "chug." An able proofreader, quick to sense the merit of the "new word," let it stand. —ED.

Profanity

Sirs:

Three times in about a year you have printed profanity, and it is a great shock to me to find myself repeating such language.

The first time it was in connection with two soldiers who were being court-martialed for making derogatory statements about the U.S. Government. You told enough that they said without repeating their cuss words.

Then, after boosting TIME as a good paper for boys and girls to read, you dig up an old ditty that Bismark's sister used to sing in which Satan swears (TIME, Feb. 22, p. 11) and now (TIME, March 29, p. 38) you allow an "adder" to leave a shot of poison in the form of a witty, unforgettable coined word where youth will ran into it head-on.

My little girl often reads aloud to me and it just happens that I have kept her from seeing these three breaches of decency, but I hope that I shall not be obliged in the future to read TIME before she sees it. Your publication is the cleanest, most wholesome I have ever read, but I am suggesting this improvement.

R. G. LEONARD

Los Angeles, Calif.

Gumption

Sirs: When a man criticizes a married woman who has gumption enough to earn a living for any reason at all, and usually she does so to support her orphaned children or to complement her husband's earnings while she at the same time competently conducts her household—then such a woman (as I am) can discuss the economic needs of her work.

But when some—* like your Mrs. Helen Hoffman (TIME, April 12, LETTERS) accuses us married workers of lack of respectability, I'd like to commit mayhem on her. Poor, coddled hausfrau! Perhaps a man stupid enough to marry such a nixnox has been superseded over his rut by an alert married woman worker. Yet his "missus" need not squall.

(Mrs.) HELEN WUENSCH (Worker)

New York, N. Y.

*Word omitted to avoid libel.—Ed.

Aleck

Sirs:

Some days ago the New York Herald Tribune characterized H. L. Mencken as a "Professional Smart Aleck," a phrase which aptly describes those who write such stuff as "Came an eagle" and "a rival musnud of learning" in TIME, April 12, pp. 33, 34... Let me remind you that this sort of thing has been going on for two* years, and...ceases to be funny.

I shall not ask you to cancel my subscription, as others have done, because TIME gives me a rapid and useful survey of world news each week, but, by Jove! you do make it hard to read.