BELLES-LETTRES

We are able this month to make a tentative final report on the results of wearying if not exhaustive researches into a lexicographical problem which challenged our every resource. The study had its immediate origins a few weeks ago but the true root of the matter no doubt remains to be found in the mists of rhetorical antiquity when inventive pedagogues first began to talk about that elusive trinity of the written word: Unity, Coherence and Emphasis.

It came about because of recurrent letters in the office "day book" which get under way like this: "We wish to acknowledge receipt of your letter of even date. . ." The phrase carried a splendid ring of authority about it and each of the letters apparently disposed satisfactorily of whatever vexatious problem had come up. It was the element of mystery, however, that lifted the communications out of the drab workaday groove and upward to those shining epistolic heights which the writer of official mail may attain only when, after passing that unnamed Alpine village, he repeats, ten thousand times ten thousand, that thaumaturgic refrain "Excelsior!"

Concealing, their glossological shame under a bushel, our faithful agents combed the office, leaving no tome unlearned, and interviewed a total of (this is the truth) 17 persons. They reported that:

1). No one admitted personally writing of even date;

2). No one was positive what it means;

3). Webster is inconclusive, and

4). A half-dozen English translations were suggested.

Confronted by that tangle of linguistic circumstances, The Review, ever ready to lend a hand to the bootstrap of harassed authors who seek to modernize their style, recommends as an alternative to the introductory sentence already quoted: "Your welcome favour of the 22nd inst. (or ult.) to hand and in reply beg leave to advise . ."

REPEATER

A business-like compliment for Randolph A. Walker came in this month from Camping World, a leading publication of the outdoor field. Its editors praised, and asked permission to reproduce, his excellent article, "How a State Operates Organized Camps," which appeared in the December issue of The Review. Mr. Walker (Randy to friends), is Assistant State Forester in charge of the Division of Parks of the South Carolina State Forestry Commission.

MONUMENTAL

Herbert Kahler is always learning something new about Fort Marion National Monument. For the usual "Please Register" sign the Superintendent substituted: "Your registration and comments will be appreciated. As a result he is accumulating a prodigious store of source materials which, if he chose, might be put together some day as Les Mysteres Inedits et Formidables du Voyageur Americain.

Running about neck and neck in frequency are the comments that (a) Fort Marion "Needs fixing up," and (b) that it "Has too much fixing up." Bedroom slippers and other symbols of fireside felicity are suggested by the concession that the monument is "Homey." Still uninterpreted, however, is the observation that the venerable outpost of Spain's New World is "Just like Brooklyn."