Across from Nahant

One last meeting of the Cabinet, one last conference with newspapermen, and President Coolidge and his wife left the White House to the mercies of repairers and redecorators for two months. At 1.05 p. m. the Bar Harbor Express pulled out of the Union Station, Washington. The first section, comprised of a baggage car, a diner, a compartment car for correspondents, a regular Pullman (the Lake Felicity) for the Coolidges and their immediate retinue, and an observation car, carried the party.

It was an uneventful trip, except that in the evening, the President gave a handful of cigars to policemen guarding the station platform at Norwich, Conn. Next morning at 8:00 a. m. the little train pulled into the station at Salem, Mass. A crowd was waiting. The President and Mrs. Coolidge, "his gracious spouse," as a Washington newspaper described her, appeared on the rear platform. Several office-seekers hurried to them--Senator William M. Butler, who will have to face the Massachusetts electorate against onetime (1919-25) Senator David I. Walsh next year, and Mrs. John Jacob Rogers, widow of the late representative, who is candidate to succeed her husband against former Governor Noble Foss of Massachusetts. There also was Frank W. Stearns, merchant-friend of the President. Cameras clicked. A schoolboy dashed up with a box of flowers for Mrs. Coolidge. The President entered his car, and the party--a procession of 15 automobiles--drove slowly through flag-draped streets, slowing down before schoolhouses where children lined up with flags, singing. Not having breakfasted, the President did not stop for a peek at the House of the Seven Gables.

Fifteen minutes drive, and the autos reached Swampscott--Swam-scut, as the President calls it in the local dialect-- and went out Little's Point. The Marine Guard was drawn up to receive the President. At the entrance of Red Gables, home of Frank W. Stearns, the selectmen of Swampscott greeted the party. Mrs. Stearns, who recently suffered a breakdown on her return from a trip abroad, appeared waving a white shawl to Mrs. Coolidge. Then all went in to breakfast. Afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge crossed into the grounds of their summer residence next door, by way of the formal garden.

White Court, Summer White House, lies on a six and a half acre "estate," with 400 feet of frontage on the bay. It is a great colonial pile, about 20 years old, built by the late Frederick E. Smith of Dayton, and now owned by his children. It numbers 28 rooms, including eleven master bedrooms, a huge reception room, a dining room, sun-parlor, music room and six servants' bedrooms. Across the entire rear of the house, facing the bay, are porches. A lawn slopes down to the water. The view includes Egg Rock, recently converted by the Massachusetts legislature into the Henry Cabot Lodge Memorial Bird Sanctuary, and across the Bay, on the Nahant promontory, the home of the late Senator himself. On the grounds is also a swimming pool which the President examined but expressed no intention of using. Its temperature is 55DEG --a good deal warmer than the bay itself, into which Lieutenant Edgar Allen Poe, commanding the Maine Guard, leads his men early every morning for a plunge. There is a garage-stable for six automobiles and four horses.

It was announced that "a number of the President's friends" had pledged $125,000 to buy White Court for him if he found it acceptable. But all he remarked was: "I might not like it."

At 2:00 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge moved into their new residence. At 4:00 p. m. the photographers came around. An auto was ordered out, and the President and Mrs. Coolidge enacted their "arrival" at White Court. They were photographed on the shore, and finally in the rose garden, where the President called some neighbors' children to join them to enliven the scene. Mrs. Coolidge was pictured smelling a rose which she said had no scent, but the President did not do likewise since he is subject to rose fever. At 4:30 p. m., Justice and Mrs. Sanford of the U. S. Supreme Court called. For dinner Mr. and Mrs. Stearns appeared. At 9:30 the cook reported that the cold water tap was emitting steam. Mr. William Buist, local plumber, was summoned. He arrived en flivver with his tools, but was refused admittance by the Marines until his summoning had been verified. Correspondents said that the Marines were suspicious of him because he arrived with his tools instead of coming empty-handed and going back for his tools.

Mr. Coolidge received an official call from the Democratic National Committeeman of Massachusetts, Mayor Edward W. Quinn of Cambridge, where the President is to speak on July 3. An official letter of "welcome to Massachusetts" came from Governor Fuller. The President accepted an invitation to attend a meeeting of Republican editors at Lake Attitash, and politely suggested that Senator Butler (and Governor Fuller) also be invited--an effort to get Senator Butler into favor with the followers of the late Senator Lodge, who did not like the manner in which the Butler machine ran rough shod over Mr. Lodge at the Republican Convention last summer. Mr. Butler will have a real struggle to retain his seat because of the Lodge group and because of the strength of his Democratic opponent, David I. Walsh. Frederick H. Gillett beat Mr. Walsh last fall by only 25,000 votes although President Coolidge had a 400,000 vote margin in Massachusetts, and Governor Fuller 200,000 votes to spare.

The Presidential mail bag--a great leathern pouch holding two bushels of mail, that has served for nearly 25 years and went to President Taft at Beverly and President Wilson at Shadow Lawn--arrived with its first load of documents.

Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge drove to Marblehead where the Mayflower is anchored. Later Mrs. Coolidge and Mrs. Stearns went to Salem and shopped for dishrags in a 5 & lOc. store, while the President worked over his mail.

The President received his first plumber's bill in two years. (White House bills are paid by the Government.)

Mr. Coolidge called in correspondents and let them know in unusually blunt language, that he did not approve of the suggestion of Sir Josiah Stamp at the Brussels meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce (see Page 5), that the U. S. reduce its tariffs and curtail production in order to facilitate German reparations payments. He regarded such an act as making this country pay reparations and partly cancel debts owing it.

The Vice President, motoring down to Boston to see Owen D. Young (his co-worker in producing the Experts' Reparations settlement) from Manchester, stopped for half an hour to call at White Court. He said the President showed him the place including the lettuce and asparagus, and complained to the newspaper men that his Manchester speech, although it was "the best I ever made," had not received much publicity.

A newspaper statistician, unnamed, reported to Secretary Sanders that exclusive of campaign utterances. President Coolidge had made more speeches during his term of office than any other President in an equal length of time. Besides he had received more callers-- approximately 100,000.

Lieutenant Commander Ruben W. Shrum was appointed chaplain of the Mayflower. A retired chaplain had been temporarily on duty on the yacht because recently, the sailors protested that weekend cruises prevented them from going to church. President Coolidge ordered that a chaplain be installed.

Miss Laura Harlan, daughter of the late Justice John Marshall Harlan of the Supreme Court, Social Secretary to the White House, will retire on August 15, it was announced. Reason: Economy. (She has received a salary of $4,000 or $5,000 a year.) Her duties will be partly taken over by Mrs. Coolidge's private secretary, Miss Mary Randolph of Virginia, and partly by the State Department under the supervision of Third Assistant Secretary of State J. Butler Wright; Charles Lee Cooke having direct charge of sending all official invitations.

The President by letter: 1) endorsed Golden Rule Sunday to be held Dec. 6; 2) encouraged the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People meeting at Denver.

John Coolidge visited with his grandfather at Plymouth, Vermont, where he shingled the roof. His 1925 height was measured off against the doorjamb, and showed a gain of 1/2 inch--to 6 ft. 3/4 in.

The President and Mrs. Coolidge-- with Secretary and Mrs. Sanders, Major Coupal (presidential physician), secret service men, etc.--took a morning's automobile ride through Chelsea, Revere Beach, Everett, Somerville, Aledford, Cambridge, Watertown. In that vicinity they stopped at the Arlington cemetery to inspect the graves of John and Mary "Coolidg" ancestors of the President in the 10th generation who both died in 1891, both aged 88. A stop was made at the Belmont Springs Country Club (of which Governor Coolidge was once a member) where the President bought cigars for his party.

A telephone rang in White Court Attorney General Sargent was on the wire, from Plymouth, Vt. He gave word that he had visited the President's father, found him ill, found that the President's son John had sat up with his grandfather all night. Doctors were summoned. Major Coupal was sent from White Court. Dr. Arthur L. Chute, Professor of Genitourinary Surgery at Tufts College, was called. Colonel Coolidge was found to have an abscess of the prostrate gland and an operation was decided on at once.

Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge left White Court and traveled by train to Ludlow, Vt., where they were met by Attorney General Sargent, Major Coupal and John Coolidge. The operation had been performed before their arrival, in 38 minutes under a local anaesthetic. Colonel Coolidge's condition was pronounced satisfactory. The party motored to Plymouth over roads that had been washed out by heavy storms.

They called on Colonel Coolidge, who was suffering considerable pain, but otherwise in good condition. Later Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge took some flowers to the grave of their younger son Calvin, who died on July 7, one year ago.

A major operation to remove the prostrate gland was planned for Colonel Coolidge as soon as his condition would permit.