19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

I would further like to congratulate Alice Higgins on reporting what she really feels about the horse show sport and what she actually sees in it. Can't say that I have always completely agreed with her, but what the sport needs is someone to criticize when he feels something needs criticizing—that will improve things. We have too much namby-pamby reporting on horse shows by people who say only what they think the riders or owners want to hear and are scared to death to step on somebody's wealthy toes. Such reporting serves no useful purpose whatever except to get someone's name in the paper and fill up space.
ELIZABETH FRIEDLAENDER
Soquel, Calif.

Sirs:
I had thought that the sweet old Walking Horse had escaped the diabolical treatment inflicted on the other breeds of show horses. The American horse shows are a display of cruelty from beginning to end. Had I known of the things to which our horses were often subjected I would never have entered the show ring. I am told that my father's stable was considered one of the most humane in the big league, and even he did not know the tricks of the trade that were being used behind the scene.
MYRENE HOUCHIN HOBBS
Jefferson City, Mo.

BLOODLINES
Sirs:
How to Watch a Rodeo (SI, Dec. 21) was magnificent, and your illustrator Sam Savitt must be commended. The artist's keen insight and knowledge of the animal is manifest since every muscle and sinew ripples in Mr. Savitt's sketches. Incidentally, Sam Savitt (my cousin) is an expert horseman in his own right and that, coupled with his natural drawing ability manifested at the age of 8, accounts for the excellence of his work.

Could you not give us a photograph of the artist as a horseman himself?
JOSEPH J. SAVITZ
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

BRIDGE: COLD COMFORT; HOT HANDS
Sirs:
In bridge, at least, New York is neither second-rate nor second-best (The Decline and Fall of New York, SI, Jan. 11). Despite increasing competition from all over the nation, teams that were predominantly New Yorkers (four members out of six) won the two major team titles in 1959.

The Vanderbilt Championship, played in Seattle last March, was captured by New Yorkers Jay Becker, George Rapee, John R. Crawford and Tobias Stone, assisted by Sidney Silodor of Philadelphia and Norman Kay of Merchantville, N.J.

The Masters Knockout Team Championship, played in Chicago last August, was captured by New Yorkers Sam Stayman, Morton Rubinow, William Grieve and Vic Mitchell, teamed with Oswald Jacoby of Dallas and ex-New Yorker (now of Los Angeles) Ira Rubin.

Further, Stayman and Rubinow captured the national pair championship in Coronado last month.

In addition to the two teams mentioned above, New Yorkers are included on both the other teams which will represent the U.S. in the World Bridge Olympiad to be played in Turin in April. These include Leonard B. Harmon on one team, and Mrs. Helen Sobel, Howard Schenken and Harold Ogust—not to mention SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's own Charles Goren, who is too peripatetic to pin down but maintains one of his home bases in his New York City apartment.
RICHARD L. FREY
American Contract Bridge League
New York City

BRIDGE: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Sirs:
When Charles Goren wrote that his new quiz was a "real test even for experts," he could not have been more correct ( Goren's New Quiz, SI, Dec. 21). I cannot imagine what even such a player as he would have bid with a hand that contained a black deuce of hearts, as do those in problems 10 and 11 of his quiz. The discovery of a black deuce of hearts mixed in among the spades so unnerved me that I missed those questions completely. If that is not a good excuse, you are welcome to offer a better one.
GEORGE MCDOUGALL
Wilmette, Ill.