Which Way Leans the Tower of Justice? 

Editor:

With regard to the two Courthouse postcards in your recent article ("Postcard Kings," Feb. 17): I'm certain that if there were ever a contest, our current Courthouse and jail would win hands-down as the ugliest building in Eureka. It looks to me like something a toddler on acid might have pieced together with Lego blocks.

It would be interesting to know what ever became of the statuary and clock on the old Courthouse. (There's a fellow in town, Mr. Ray Hillman, who may know.)

Roger Parshall, Arcata

(A call to Mr. Hillman revealed that the clock face had been removed in the 1950s and was stored locally for years, but he is unaware of its current whereabouts or whether the mechanism still exists. As for the statuary, a picture taken after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 showed the statuary twisted by the force of the earth movement. He thinks the stonework may have been removed as a hazard. "Very strange," he told his inquisitor from the Journal, "I was arranging slides for a speech and my cursor was on that very image when you called.")