De Pinna Flayed

Sirs:

I wouldn’t like to say what school I go to, because the fellows might kid me. But I go to a very good school; the fellows think it is the best school in America. I think it is, too, and that’s why I am writing you about this. TIME examines everything. Did you see an advertisement in the New York Times last week from a clothing store, De Pinna’s? De Pinna’s published a big advertisement calling themselves “Outfitters to ‘Prep’ School Students. . . .” Then they say “The leading ‘prep’ schools of the East have established standards of dress,” and a lot more guff. Around the advertisement they put the school seals of Andover, Mercersburg, Pomfret, Choate, Groton, Lawrenceville, Exeter, Hill, St. Paul’s, Taft and Hotchkiss. Where does De Pinna’s get that stuff, calling these schools the leading “prep” schools of the East? Most of them are pretty good schools; I know fellows that go there. And how many fellows at Exeter, Andover, Mercersburg and Lawrenceville ever bought a suit at De Pinna’s? But there are other leading schools; where the fellows dress just as well as any clothes from De Pinna’s. How would De Pinna’s like it if I put an advertisement calling Brooks and Rogers Peet the “leading clothing stores” in New York? I guess Brooks and Rogers Peet could quote figures on numbers of suits sold that would make De Pinna look pretty sick. Just as I could quote football scores that wouldn’t read so well as the “leading ‘prep’ schools of the East.”

(Signed) DENNY

TIME does not know Denny’s name, did not bother to find out. Doubtless the fellows would “kid” him. Perhaps Denny’s protest echoes the thoughts of thousands of boys who go to the $1,000 schools. Each one thinks his is the best school in America, and each one has football scores. Among the many leading eastern schools omitted by De Pinna are: St. Mark’s, Kent, St. George’s, Tome, St. Paul’s (Garden City), Hackley, Canterbury, Salisbury, Rumsey Hall, Peddie, Pawling, Fay, Kiskiminetas.