Letters, may 27, 1957

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Epitaphs

Sir:

Your article "The Passing of McCarthy" [May 13] was well written, well documented and objective. His last years must have been like those of Boyle and Joxer Daly, those other two friends of John Barleycorn in Juno and the Paycock. They, too, saw "the whole worl's in a state o' chassis."

CLAUDE DE CRESPIGNY Houston

SIR:

AMERICA LOST ONE OF HER HEROES, WHO WAS CRUCIFIED ON A STONY PATCH OF BIGOTRY AND POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY. GOD REST HIS SOUL. JAMES A. BOULES PASADENA, CALIF.

Sir:

Joe McCarthy's friends will not like your story of his passing. Never a friend of McCarthy, neither did I. "Have you left no sense of decency?"

JANE A. HAMM

Shaker Heights, Ohio

Sir:

After the maudlin sentimentality with which our newspapers treated the demise of a man who occupied one of our Senate seats for eleven years, TIME'S account was like a breath of fresh, clean air.

N. J. NICHOLS Milwaukee

SIR:

A DAY OF RECKONING COMES FOR EVERY MAN. NATURALLY, JOE'S CAME EARLY.

WILLIAM D. HARRINGTON JR. LINCOLN, MASS.

Sir:

Senator Joseph McCarthy has just performed his greatest public service.

J. N. JENSEN San Leandro, Calif.

Sir:

I sincerely hope that the vilifiers and detractors of Senator McCarthy have as few mistakes to answer to God for as Joe has. EDWARD CLARKE The Bronx, N.Y.

Middle East Maelstrom

Sir:

That King Hussein cover [May 6] was the best TIME has used since I forget when.

ROBERT H. KILLWYN Los Angeles

Sir:

For the first time I can now say that I understand what is really going on in the Middle East.

EDITH L. NORTON Findlay, Ohio

Sir:

I am happy that King Hussein has apparently thwarted the Egyptian-Syrian plot against him. Let us hope that Hussein's new-found power does not go to his head.

JOHN NEUFELD Detroit

Sir:

Your insistence on accusing Egypt of being a pro-Communist country, which is not true, will move Egypt closer to the Soviets. Egypt is pro-itself.

MUSTAFA EL-RIFAI

Norman, Okla.

Hidden Treasures

Sir:

Highly appreciative of your fine article in the May 6 issue on ''Masterpieces of Chinese Art," and especially of the reproduction of Cowherd, I am prompted to send you the following quotation from a poem by Tu Fu (712 to 770 A.D.) concerning Han Kan, the T'ang Dynasty painter of Cowherd. The poem, A Song of a Painting (in my English version* from the literal English text of Kiang Kang-hu), is addressed to General Ts'ao, who was a painter of war horses preceding Han Kan. Tu Fu, easily one of China's greatest poets, would apparently not have agreed with your estimate of Han Kan as being "China's greatest painter of horses":

. . . Han Kan, your follower, has likewise

grown proficient

At representing horses in all their attitudes; But picturing the flesh, he fails to draw

the bone—So that even the finest are deprived of

their spirit. You, beyond the mere skill, used your

art divinely—And expressed, not only horses, but the