Press: Son's Retort

Mrs. Walter Ferguson learned about the newspaper business when she went, as a bride, to Cherokee, Okla., where she helped her young husband run the weekly Republican. She learned about the home when three rapidly growing children came to the Fergusons. She combined the fruits of both experiences to write a column, "From a Woman's Viewpoint," which has been a successful feature in the Scripps-Howard dailies for more than a decade. Her column is a spirited, folksy discussion of anything that pops into her mind, from jelly-making to the problems of business girls.

Last week Mrs. Ferguson learned how a son feels about having a columnist in the family. Benton Ferguson, now 27, in the advertising department of Scripps-Howard's Fort Worth Press, wrote for his paper an intimate sketch of his mother which ran alongside her column:

"She owes me $10,000, at least, for acting as a guinea pig for her column for the past 15 years. First I got the brunt of her theories on how to raise children; next, I was the wild younger generation; then I was a youth caught in the clutches of a depression; then I was a young married man, and now that I'm a father I suppose the cycle will start all over again.

"Just to get even, here's some of the things she doesn't write about. She's 49. She plays bridge, and draws to inside straights in poker games. She reads all the time, even at the table.

"She used to spank her children entirely too much, and in spite of all she's written about raising children, her daughter, 20, and youngest son, 14, are ornery as the dickens.

"The only thing she can cook worth a darn is slaw with bacon grease on it, and they tell me that's fairly simple. Her kind of car driving makes Tulsa mothers keep their children in, and pedestrians slink up back alleys. She can't sew very well. . . .

"But she has one great redeeming feature, and that one is her oldest and boldest son."