Letters, Dec. 27, 1937

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Furthermore I don't like your pictures, for the saucy captions below them induce me to take time from an already busy life to read the text. And I don't think the text is very dignified or edifying, either; it shows situations too starkly and photographically. Your covers are execrable, too. . . . Also, your magazine comes too often. By the time I can get it away from the rest of the family a new issue has come. . . .

I demand that you cancel our subscription at once. But keep on sending the magazine for the rest of the family, and while they're squabbling over it maybe I can at least get the news from Lowell Thomas.

So. And aha! I've done my best to write a letter as nutty as any of those you print. I admire you for giving space to such damn fool stuff, and I like your sense of humor shown in doing so.

HENRY M. STEBBINS

Madison Heights, Va.

Water, Clear & Cold

Sirs:

Your translation of the remark in Swedish by the Finnish composer Sibelius (TIME, Dec. 6, p. 33) is good English but poor Swedish. As you have it: "Other composers may manufacture cocktails; I offer the public pure cold water." . . .

Here's a faithful, literal translation: "Here in a foreign country you manufacture cocktails in unlike colors; and now I come with clear, cold water."

A free translation might be: "Foreigners compose 'cocktails' in clashing colors; mine is water, clear and cold."

JAMES E. NELSON

Rochester, N. Y.

P. S. Let me say that the article on the Nordic giant is fine. As to his ancestry, Sibelius undoubtedly is more Swedish than Finnish.

Other authorities would make it ". . . and now I come with pure spring water."—ED.

Chinchillas

Sirs:

In the July 19 issue of TIME there was a very interesting article about two boys, Robert Urian Jr. and Charles Curry of St. Louis, who brought five live chinchillas from Chile and had them in an air-cooled garage in St. Louis.

What luck have they had with their chinchillas? Are they still alive? I would very much like to know. . . .

MRS. D. F. GRAHAM

Springdale, Utah

The Urian-Curry farm now has not five but eight chinchillas. The cubs, three months old, are housed in spick new cages.—ED.

"Monolingual Leatherneck"

Sirs:

During over 20 years' service in this outfit I have heard many descriptives applied to some of my brother officers, but never before did I hear one called a monolingual Leatherneck (col. 3, p. 18, issue of Dec. 13).

If your adjective means what it sounds like it should mean, there seems to be some error. Colonel Price speaks Spanish, German and French with equally conspicuous adeptness. He can also handle Mandarin Chinese better than most amateurs. . . .

What is a monolingual leatherneck anyway ?

[MAJOR] CAMPBELL H. BROWN

Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

Evidently not Colonel Price.—ED.