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Three Cents' Worth

I do not know what brings this to mind.

President Harry Truman's daughter, Margaret, apparently thought of herself as a singer.  Perhaps because she was the President's daughter, she was accorded a chance to sing at Constitution Hall.

Paul Hume was the music critic for The Washington Post, and he wrote that the concert did not go well.  Her voice, he said, was pleasant, but of little size and fair quality, and that she could not sing very well; that she sang flat a good deal of the time, as she had been doing for years; that she could not sing with anything approaching professional quality.

Mr. Truman, a mean piano player himself, sat down at his desk and wrote to Mr. Hume.

Dec. 6, 1950
Mr. Hume:
I've just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an "eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay."
It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.
Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!
Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.
H.S.T.

Then--and this is what first came to my mind about what happened in 1950-- President Truman addressed the envelope, and took a stamp from his wallet to send the letter.  He did not want the government to pay for his personal business.  As I recall from 1950, Harry Truman, himself, walked his letter to a mail box.

President Truman also wrote to the veterinarian who had treated their dog, scolding him for not having sent a bill.  So the vet sent a bill.  It is reported that when the subsequent president then received a bill from the same chastised vet, that president scolded the vet for having sent a bill.

As I said, initially, I do not know what brings this to mind, unless it could be that our present Leader of the Free World recently scolded Nordstroms for having dropped Ivanka Trump's fashion line.


But I don't suppose it is the same thing, is it?  

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