A Letter From The Publisher: Jul. 26, 1963

MEWS is often thought to be bad news—and the badder the bigger. Certainly, any well-balanced diet of weekly news will have much to tell of diseases, controversies, unrest, agonies public and private. This week’s cover story, for example, examines the long railroad featherbedding fight as it reached beyond its last mile. But much of the other big news these days deserves to be judged by some other standard than its gloom content. Will there be a nuclear test ban? How will the Sino-Soviet split affect the U.S.? These questions—like those about civil rights or the balance of payments—have their worrisome edges, but they also involve men earnestly trying to cope with unnerving problems, and sometimes scoring a success or two. As all of this suggests, it may not be the moment to whistle Happy Days Are Here Again, but the news isn’t all a dirge either.

Particularly when, along with all the solemn subjects, our reporting examines the impact of summer in gentler fields. In this issue we take up what art is being celebrated (two color pages of a big Delacroix show at the Louvre); where people go (a Modern Living story on Americans trying to live it up in Europe on $5 a day) and what they hear (four color pages and a comprehensive story in Music about summer music festivals around the U.S.). All news, and no disaster.

WHEN an Indian artist, full of patriotic feelings after China’s attack on India, decided to help raise money for his country’s National Defense Fund, he thought of painting a picture of Nehru. And to enhance its value, he resolved to paint it in his own blood.

Hiro Hingorani, who lives in Nehru’s home town of Allahabad, sifted through hundreds of pictures of his hero, finally drew his inspiration from Boris Chaliapin’s TIME cover (Dec. 14, 1959). Having first sketched an outline, Hingorani pricked a finger of his left hand and dipped his brush. After drawing out 30 cc. of his own blood, he decided that this method was too slow, went to his local blood bank, which obligingly drew off another 20 cc. of his blood. It was enough to finish the job, though he decided not to sap his strength further by adding Chaliapin’s background dragon. He sent the painting to Nehru, and last week it was auctioned off along with other objects contributed from all over India. Hingorani’s blood offering fetched the day’s top price of $273.21, outdrawing such items as an elaborately embroidered Kashmir shawl, a sewing machine, a homemade brass flashlight.