Sia,—I hope I am no carping critic. At least let
me first say that I thought that 90 per cent of Your leading article last week was excellent, but there was a 10 per cent which in my opinion completely spoilt the effect.
Paragraph 1.—This error of Wilson's he will suffer for anyway. Your approach is unfairly tendentious ---'Vulgar and venomous' is too strong.
Paragraph 2.—'Welter of heavy sarcasm'—this phrase is uncalled for. My own impression was that his remarks were mildly amusing and witty. However, you do well on the rest of the paragraph.
End .of paragraph 3.—`The. Concord Decision'— this is mild cheating on your part. The 'decision' as you know was `to postpone the decision.' End of paragraph 4.---(This is not a criticism-- just one of my bright ideas.) Well, why don't you and your staff start 'dragging the trade unions into the light of day'?
But my unkindest cut of all is to have to tell you that the very odd headline (do vicious men 'rattle"?) seems more applicable to the writer of the leading article than to Mr. W. I don't mean to be unkind; this is just• to ask you to be more careful and not to do it again.
Sobbing, I ran home to bury my face in my mother's lap. I had lost my first job, but at least I had my suit, or had I? It seemed a long time coming. No matter how often I pressed my mother, she had an answer. 'They have to make a slight alteration, love, but it won't be long now.'
Then our Brendan made his confirmation. This is a great day for Catholic boys. They are pre- sumed to have reached the use of reason and understanding. Tested on their knowledge of the Faith, they are then confirmed by the Bishop in the ranks of the Most Holy Apostolic Church.
Every family does its best to see that the boy is togged out in the very best they can afford. That morning I watched our Brendan getting dressed with mixed feelings. It seemed to me that the suit he had on looked very much like mine.
I was too shy to say anything to him, but pulled my mother to 'one side and tearfully cross- questioned her. Loudly and long she denied the suit had anything to do with me.
The months passed and I was just forgetting all about it when in the middle of a row with our Seamus he said, 'Brendan got your suit, you
great felt like the bull--helpless. I didn't know which way to turn, so I did nothing.
Yotzdover, Burgess Hill, Sussex
C. J. COOPER
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