# The New York Times/1929/10/24/Topics of the Times

Layout 2
TOPICS OF THE TIMES.
Concerning "Healthy Reactions." Professional explanations of a break in stocks are often surrounded by an atmosphere of curious inconsistency. Mr. Mitchell's dismissal of the late unpleasantness as a "healthy reaction" brings up the time-honored puzzle when reaction ceases to be healthy and why its salubrious character is not recognized while it is going on. The description never under any circumstances appealed greatly to amateur speculators who on such occasions are left on the market's door-step, nursing their financial wounds. But the further and equally familiar moralizing on "reaction" by those whom the sufferers had once regarded as friends and guides does not even spare sensitive feelings.
When Mr. Basson, on Sept. 5, rudely predicted that "sooner or later a crash is coming which will cause a decline of sixty to eighty points in the Dow-Jones barometer," Professor Fisher promptly cheered up the speculators for the rise by retorting that "stock prices are not too high, and Wall Street will not experience anything in the nature of a crash." He added that "none of us is infallible"; which was prudent, for the fall in the Dow-Jones "averages" between Sept. 3 and Oct. 21 was a fraction over sixty points; but the prostrate speculators of the later date might surely have expected that the same apologetic maxim would then be applied to them.
When, therefore, Professor Fisher at the later date described the crash as a "shaking-out of the lunatic fringe," the comment seems to be somewhat heartless. Why had not the lunacy been discovered on Sept. 5?
Leprosy Is Being Checked. Startling as seems the report of Health Commissioner Wynne that the twenty-one lepers at large in New York City are not considered a danger, it is a reminder that notable advances are being made in control of a disease which was long considered hopeless.
Thousands of dollars are spent each year in research and experimentation to improve production of the oil of the chaulmoogra palm. which is now used to check effectively all but very advanced cases of leprosy. Unfortunately, the treatment is extremely painful. The present research is concentrated on making it less so.
Already hundreds of lepers given this treatment have been discharged from the leper colony of Culion in the Philippines and have been permitted to leave other leprosy stations in the Orient. Medical men are satisfied that even if an absolute cure cannot be effected. the disease can be checked and its spread made virtually impossible.
A Famous Foreign Editor. That anonymity which cloaks some of the best forms of journalistic labor would probably have kept the European public from knowing the identity of Sir Valentine Chirol, who died yesterday, had it not been for the World War. But his experience as correspondent of The London Times at Berlin enabled him to take part in a debate with German leaders as to pre-war happenings, and in this way he became known by his name as well as by his work. An foreign editor and as correspondent in many distant lands he had established his right to a place in a brilliant dynasty, and the knighthood which was awarded him for work in the Near and Middle East was warmly approved in Fleet Street.
Of The London Times's foreign editors, who began with Crabb Robinson and numbered Steed, Wallace and Williams in their list, he was among the ablest. Among the correspondents he was considered worthy of mention along with De Blowitz, Dr. Morrison and Russell.
Captain Edward Sterling, that editor whose "explosive" style Carlyle once compared to thunder and on which the name of "The Thunderer" is based, would not have understood the restraint and grace of Chirol's editorial work. But it ranks with the best in modern British journalism.
Make-Up for Frankfurters. Among the more coquettish displays at the recent meeting of the American Institute of Meat Packers in Chicago was a line of cosmetics for "hot dogs." This make-up comes in liquid form, can be obtained in seven shades ranging from blond to brunette, and is said to impart a complexion which no appetite can resist.
By the proper beauty treatment, a sallow sausage from Chicago may be given a high color and a racy air, if it is for Southern trade, while those destined for Northern use receive only a moderate sun tan. To keep a harmonious color scheme, mustard will have to be rationed out in the right shades—the vivid tumeric yellow for the blond-skinned frankfurters and a plain mustard-brown for the darker ones.
Hot dogs vary in form as well as complexion. Generally speaking, New Yorkers favor the large, thick-skinned, juicy type. Only the push-cart men, who dispense their wares with a generous forkful of sauerkraut, favor the long, thin style called "wienies" or "wieners," which are, or used to be, very popular in the Middle West.
A report from Warsaw states that the sausage business there has greatly improved since fashions have prescribed curves to replace straight lines. When American markets report noticeably increased sales, we may be certain that the new mode here has caught on.