The letter (August/September “Correspondence”) from Paul V. Lutz, Houston, Texas, is typical Texan braggadocio and hyperbole. The war between the legal and illegal immigrants to the Mexican Territory of Texas was a defensive action to avoid being driven from said territory by the armies of Santa Anna. The establishment of an independent country was ex post facto to the defeat of the Mexican forces.
On the other hand the area now known as the state of Vermont was claimed under “Royal Grant” to be the property of each of the colonies of New Hampshire and New York. The earlier settlers thereof drove out the newcomers from each colony and established an independent republic that fought beside the Thirteen Colonies during the war for independence from England, later becoming the first independent republic to join the Union (as its fourteenth state).
Carl J. Davis
West Burke, Vt.
More Independent Republics
Not to take anything away from Texas as it celebrates the 150th anniversary of its independence, but reader Paul V. Lutz goes a step too far in referring to it as “the only state (outside the original thirteen) to achieve independence by revolution.” Less well known, perhaps, but no less a historical fact, is California’s onetime status as the California Republic following the revolt against Mexican authority in 1846.
True, the “Bear Flag Republic” under President William Brown Ide existed only from mid-June until the Stars and Stripes were raised some three weeks later, but during that short time California was indeed another state outside the original thirteen to achieve its independence by revolution.
C. Stanley Gilliam
Sacramento, Calif.
Immigrants All
I enjoyed Tim Forbes’s story about his grandfather Forbes (June/July). In the same way, I have always thought that a story about my father, also an immigrant, and his friends was interesting. My father was Norwegian, and in 1908 his father gave him a new suit, twenty-five dollars, and a boat ticket to New York City. He eventually got there and continued on to Detroit, where he went to the center of town (Grand Circus Park) and sat on a bench, contemplating his next move. Two men sat down next to him, both immigrants and also newly arrived in Detroit. One of the men was German, the other Irish. They decided to pool their small resources and rent a room for three. For several months they lived on very little—the Irishman ate mainly peanuts, the German sauerkraut, and the Norwegian fish. The Norwegian went to work on the assembly line at Midland-Ross, the German at Ford Motor Company, and the Irishman worked as a song-and-dance man. The German and Norwegian wanted to be engineers, so they bought a course from the International Correspondence School in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The very American punch line to this story is that my father, Einer Almdale, ended up as vice-president of MidlandRoss, with more than a hundred inventions to his credit; the German, Rudolph Herrklutz, became the master mechanic for the Ford Motor Company—second or third man to old Henry Ford; and the Irishman became a successful movie actor—Jack Oakie.
Einer R. Almdale
Hilton Head, S.C.
Weather Forecast
The articles in your special section “The Life and Times of U.S. Weather” by David M. Ludlum and William B. Meyer in the June/July issue brought back an experience I had regarding the science of weather forecasting as it was known in the early 1950s—at least, how it was in New England.
At the time, I was business manager of the old Boston Herald. In our office we had a private dining room where lunch was served to the top brass and where we entertained visiting celebrities such as Congressman John McCormack, or Ted Williams, who was at the height of his baseball career.
In the fall of 1954 a bad series of hurricanes hit New England. So it seemed appropriate to invite an eminent meteorologist to lunch to tell us about it.
After the meal and the usual pleasantries, the expert settled back and in pontifical tones proceeded to give us laymen the real inside story. He said he would tell us why hurricanes were so terribly powerful. To start with, “They always originate and come in off the ocean, which, of course, is water. And do you know what water is? It is H2O (with great emphasis on the H). Now, you all know of the explosion of the new hydrogen bomb. What you don’t know or realize is that the H in H2O, water, is the same H that makes the hydrogen bomb so powerful. That is why hurricanes have so much force.”
We were all politely silent. At least we had learned something about why our New England weather forecasts had long been so undependable.
I hope and trust that the scientific background of our current batch of weather experts is better than that of forecasters in 1954. Personally, I find that relying on a ring around the moon and an east wind to predict wet weather, or a red sunset and dew on the evening grass to ensure a good day ahead, is still much more dependable than all the fancy television charts and newspaper columns from the National Weather Service.
William Baumrucker
Marblehead, Mass.
Sometimes
Amos ’n’ Andy were white? (“Gods of Pennsylvania Station,” August/September issue.)
Roberts
Cody Kissimmee, Fla.
Freeman Gosden as Amos and Charles Correll as Andy were indeed white in the famous radio series of ‘Amos ’n’ Andy.” However, when the show was transferred to television in 1951, the parts were played by the black actors Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams. Never as much of a hit on television, the show was taken off the air in 1953, partly because it was offensive to blacks.
Soldier Holmes
Judge Miller B. Zobel’s thoughtful analysis of Oliver Wendell Holmes’s character (June/July) was presaged by H. L. Mencken in a 1930 issue of The American Mercury: “Let us think of him as something that he undoubtedly was in his Pleistocene youth and probably remained ever after, to wit, a soldier. … On at least three days out of four, during his long years on the bench, the learned justice remained the soldier.…”
Judge Lynn N. Hughes
United States District Court
Southern District of Texas
Quickstep
In David McCullough’s “I Love Washington” (April/May issue), the author says that Truman “in Woodrow Wilson’s war … learned a military pace of 120 Steps a minute.” Please note that for many years the cadence was 128 and was only changed from 128 to 120 in about 1940 when Infantry Drill Regulations, Field Manual 22–5, was changed and simplified.
Col. Sidney W. Hagerling
Fort Collins, Colo.
Present at the Creation
I was interested in Timothy Forbes’s editorial “Liberty Alive” (June/July) because I was early associated with American Heritage and have watched its development. I think he has a feel for the magazine.
Back in 1949 the only historical journals of national and regional scope in this country were academic, fearful of popularity, and largely dull. The state historical magazines were smaller imitations of these few bellwethers. Illustrations were carefully avoided. The American Association for State and Local History decided to demonstrate that American history could be made readable and colorful without sacrificing accuracy, substance, or even profundity. The initial concept was the idea of Earle Newton of the Vermont Historical Society and the late S. K. Stevens of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission. 1 was drawn in with them, then being secretary of the Indiana Historical Society and a writer of history. We tapped a few others of our colleagues, begged and borrowed color plates, and on the proverbial shoestring launched American Heritage in September 1949 as a quarterly. We found a few academic historians who agreed with us that history did not need to be dull. The new magazine was encouragingly received in spite of the fact that we could not undertake a subscription campaign. Of course, most academic history departments ignored or casually dismissed the new voice for years.
We persevered, but our success was strangling us. We all had regular jobs outside the magazine and we could not raise the funds needed to advertise it or hire a staff. We got up to a circulation of fifteen thousand in 1954, and we found a means to approach the Rockefeller Foundation. They politely informed us that publishing ventures did not appeal to them or to other foundations; they were admiring enough to refer us to Joseph J. Thorndike, Oliver Jensen, and James M. Parton, three young men with magazine experience who hoped to advise on badly managed house organs. They were immediately interested in American Heritage and its possibilities. Most important, they had access to money. Jim Parton took over as active publisher and hired Bruce Catton as editor. It was not a cash sale, but our Association was paid by receiving a royalty on sales. (We became the wealthiest historical society in the country.)
I am glad the Forbes family has taken over this responsibility with its continuing potential. I ended up as director of the Clements Library of American History at the University of Michigan and as a writer of history, my vision enlarged by my experience on American Heritage.
Howard Peckham
Hendersonville, N.C.
Enlightenment
My father, George Dudley Vaill, died in April and bequeathed his entire American Heritage collection to my husband and me. It may be one of few that are complete from the beginning. Of all the books, manuscripts, magazines, et cetera, that defined his life, American Heritage was his favorite, and the only set of anything for which he built special bookcases. My family is now rereading the earliest issues and is enjoying what will be years of enlightenment.
I also have a small nit to pick with you about an error in “A Map of Weather History” in your June/July issue. Since moving to the Lexington, Kentucky, area in 1975, we have heard many tales of the day in 1974 when more than one hundred tornadoes terrorized the place. Also, in 1984, the local radio station did a ten-year anniversary broadcast of the April 1974 tornado series, and I’m sure there is no disputing that the tornadoes were in 1974, not 1984.
Susan Vaill Bonner
Lexington, Ky.
The correct date is 1974, as Susan Bonner points out, not 1984, which was a typographical error. George Dudley Vaill was the associate secretary of Yale University and was also a contributor to American Heritage.
Thank You
What impressed me [about the June/July issue] was not only the great variety of subjects but the depth of each article. Rarely do I read a magazine that is both educational and interesting.
