the information should not be withheld. In such fields of behavioral science as race relations, politics, and others, this is accepted practice. Serious works constantly refer to the opinions and information culled from "high government officials." It remains for the reader to give such weight to the statements as is possible, in the light of the manner of presentation and other substantiating evidence, as well as the overall impression of the author.

As for the content, which is really what has Evans worried, for he never protested about form when the subject matter pleased him, we have permission to quote the following. which does not repeat exactly what, in our book, was paraphrased from another source, but adds up to the same general picture that we wished to convey: namely, an extremely large number of male hustlers, when compared with female heterosexual prostitutes:

There may be nearly as many males being paid by other males as there are females being paid by males (for sex acts in the United States at this time). The source of the above is Dr. Wardell Pomeroy, and probably no one is better equipped to make such a statement. Again, we do not contend that this is exactly the same as what was written in our book and quoted from another authority; we merely maintain that the innuendo about unnamed sources was a smokescreen to cover what really irks Evans: that we made the contention that hustling is widespread-which it happens to be.

The reason that this bothers Evans will become clear in the latter part of this article.

One of the most curious criticisms of our book that Evans makes involves a letter from a young man

who had contracted syphilis, a letter in which your reviewer could find nothing significant except the man's claim that penicillin might have prevented the infection: certainly the least important point in that letter.

That Evans' irritation with this section of our book is not shared by others is attested by an inquiry from a publisher, requesting that Cory gather together some fifty or hundred such letters from his files, and publish them as a book; and also from comments by several readers of his forthcoming work (The Lesbian in America), that a somewhat similar letter, written by a young heterosexual who discovered that his mother and "aunt" were lesbian lovers, was a highlight of this work. One has opened its pages to letters of this type, usually shorter and, in our opinion, less interesting and less important, and sometimes longer and published in the form of articles.

Now, what is the validity of such a documentation, a form of sociological presentation that was used by Thomas and Znaniecki in their classic, The Polish Peasant in the United States, and by many others? Such letters are not meant to disclose how the world of reality is structured, but how it is structured to the letterwriter and participant. They are invaluable at getting inside the minds of these people, and seeing what they see. Particularly when not written for publication, they perform this task more admirably than could many writers who are describing what they believe these people see.

What is the point of this letter? It depicts the activities and feelings of a young homosexual who contracts VD, and does not have the means or the courage to visit a private physician; it tells what he must go through in order to obtain treatment. It dramatically illustrates the per-

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