Letters: Jul. 22, 1929

Smith & Wesson Line

sirs: TIME has brought two delightful experiences me within recent weeks for which I am grateful. One of these was caused by the excellent, impartial review of my book on lynching, Rope, and Faggot, which appeared in the ssue of June 24; the other by TIME'S printing n the July 8 issue of letters from below the Smith and Wesson line threatening me with ynching, tarring and feathering and other courtesies. Such solicitude and statements as Mr. Eldon O. Haldane's that ''the well balanced Southerner hopes that lynchings of Negroes will increase rather than decrease'' amply prove, it seems to me, some of the main contentions of Rope and Faggot—the inherent lawlessness of certain parts of the United States and trigger-on." :k propensities to defend positions which are morally, ethically and practically indefensible. Such correspondents of yours as Messrs. Robert E. Lee and Eldon O. Haldane reassure me. The reviews of Rope and Faggot have dwelt almost without exception upon the judicial, impartial tone of the book. . . . Messrs. Lee and Haldane by their denunciation of me will help mightily in bringing the whole matter of lynch law to the attention of Americans who need to know the facts. Their brazen defense of murder, however, must not be attributed to all Southerners for some of the finest comments upon the book have come from Southern white newspapers and correspondents. . . . WALTER WHITE

New York City.

No more letters on the whites v. White controversy will be published.—ED. Kijkuit Sirs:

In TIME July 8, under the heading Books: "In the Pocantico Hills, N. Y., is an estate called Kijkuit (Dutch for 'Keep Out')."

The correct translation for Kijkuit would be "The Lookout."

If Mr. Rockefeller wished to put up the sign "Keep Out,'' in Dutch he would have to say Vcrbodcn Tocgant.

GERRIT VAN COEVERING

Grand Haven, Mich.

Sirs:

... I happen to have been born in Holland, as were my forebears for some 300 years and "Kijkuit" means "Lookout" if you use it as a noun. The sharp warning: "Look out!" in Dutch would be: "Kijk uit!" At Dutch railroad crossings we see the signs "Uitkujken!" "Kijk" is the Dutch for look. "Kijkers" is also the Dutch pet name for eyes, so that, if we tell a pretty girl that she has beautiful eyes, the Dutch would call them: "Mooie kijkers." To make the word seem still more useful, the Dutch also have kijkcr mean opera-glass or telescope and, if the Dutch had speakeasies (which they haven't and thank goodness have no need of) the peephole in the entrance door would be called, like Mr. Rockefeller's retreat, a ''kijkuit." EMILE W. VOUTE

New York City

The translation "Keep Out" was accepted by TIME from Biographer Winkler, author of John D.

Last week, Colyumist Walter Winchell of the New York Daily Mirror reported that Biographer Winkler's "confidential, unimpeachable" source on Rockefeller data was Mrs. Anne Urquhart Stillman.