Mr. Coolidge's Week

P:Early in the week the President rested for two days at his father's house in Plymouth. He napped frequently, strolled about, hiked across the fields, became tanned by sun and wind.

P:Forced by the imperative circumstances to deliberate the Belgian debt matter (see CABINET) at Plymouth with Senator Smoot and Secretary Mellon, the President determined to do so in privacy. Early in the morning he and Mrs. Coolidge slipped downstairs and tacked up bed sheets in such a way as to completely screen the piazza. Later in the day, when the conference took place, the Chief Executive was able to loll in the Gloucester hammock, shielded by the sheets from the curious and the sun. Before Secretary Mellon and Senator Smoot quitted their sturdy porch chairs the irreducible terms to be granted Belgium had been fixed, the all-important interest rate of the Belgian moratorium was settled.

While the debt discussion was in progress Mrs. Coolidge watered the flowers about the house with an ordinary galvanized iron bucket. Later, while the President drove down and dined at Echo Lake with the senator and the secretary, she stayed at home, supped with Colonel John.

P:Next day as Mr. Coolidge sat in the warm sunshine, he was informed that the Debt Funding Commission had closed amicably with Belgium. "His face lighted with pleasure and he let it be known that he had expected the result and was well pleased."

P:Newspaper correspondents discovered that a friend had given Mrs. Coolidge "the first camera which she has used since entering the White House," discovered that the camera was of German make. Crowding at a respectful distance about the President and his wife, they recorded with precision that Mrs. Coolidge took two pictures of the Chief Executive with his hat on, another with his hat off, others near the piazza, near the barn door, near the flower garden. Mrs. Coolidge, having exhausted her first roll of film, tried unsuccessfully to unload the unfamiliar German magazine. The President, appealed to, was unable to aid her. He looked about him, spied one "Dick" Sears, Boston cinema cameraman, standing among the pressmen. Catching the President's eye, up rushed Mr. Sears. He mastered the German mechanism and coached Mrs. Coolidge in its use for a moment. He was permitted to film Mrs. Coolidge as she snapped away her next half dozen negatives.

P:During the visit of his son and daughter-in-law to Plymouth, Colonel Coolidge left them for several hours while he attended a directors' meeting (Ludlow Trust Co.) in nearby Ludlow.. F. H. Robinson, Presidential chauffeur, drove him there and back.

P:Colonel Coolidge otherwise signalized complete recovery from his late illness by climbing out upon the roof of a shed and fitting a pane of glass to the window of the room occupied by President and Mrs. Coolidge.

P:For the first time in Mr. Coolidge's administration, newspaper men forming part of the President's automotive entourage met with physical injury. Traveling in the line of duty between Plymouth and Woodstock, a press car attempted to edge past a preceding car, slipped off the road in the oozy gravel, skidded, struck a tree. Injured were Carter Field of The New 'York Herald-Tribune; George E.Durno, International News Service and Guy B. McKinney, Chicago Tribune. There rushed to their aid the Presidential physician, Major James F. Coupal. Said he, later: "Doing well."-

P:Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge drove to Ludlow, visited the home of Attorney General Sargent, were received by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Pierson (son-in-law and daughter). They departed loaded with fresh vegetables, motored to Woodstock, lunched with Governor and Mrs. Billings of Vermont, returned to Plymouth.

P:Shiny black automobiles, speckled white by the tree-sifted sun, lay the length of Plymouth village, purred.

The President and his wife, Grace Goodhue, said goodbye to Father Coolidge, each with a kiss, each with a "take-good-care-of-yourself." They stepped into the shiniest car. All the shiny black length moved forward, around Florence Cilley's corner, past Cousin "Herb" Moore, past "Uncle Ed" Blanchard.

Then the shiniest car left the procession, swung down the road to a cemetery. There a bit of earth is sacred to the memory of Calvin Coolidge, Jr.

Soon the procession, rejoined by the Presidential limousine, was wheeling at a handsome speed through Tyson. Summer piazza loungers waved and shrilled for one eventful minute.

At Ludlow, a hundred cottagers, gathered in the square, peered at the flying column, cheered.

At Proctorsville the column halted. From a roadside cottage came Mrs. Sarah Pollard, maternal aunt to the -- dressed evidently in her best. -- nephew shook .her outstretched hand. Her niece-in-law whole-souledly embraced her.

Taking again to the road, the official fore-half of the column began to develop speed. The rear half consisting mostly of rear newspapermen in cars of miscellaneous ability kept up with difficulty over picturesque, rough, hilly roads.

Jamaica, Townsend, Newfane, Brattleboro -- the minute receptions became ornate with flags, giant portraits of Mr. Coolidge, horns, cavorting police.

At Northfield, Mass., home of religious conferences, the column was greeted by hundreds of church workers. From there the column raced down the valley of the Connecticut River, found every human habitation alive with the knowledge of it.

After five hours riding, the column crossed the city line of Northampton, Mass. An expectant Mayor Fieker and Committee attempted to organize an escort-phalanx, but the President would have none of it. His cars dashed along, turned sharply through a crowd into massasoit Street, brought up at a duplex frame house.

The President alighted, assisted his wife, tipped his hat to the crowd. Before Mayor Fieker could unlimber his prepared speach, both Mr, and Mrs Coolidge were safely indoors.

And the cause of this cross-mountain trip? The President had come not merely to revisit the glimpses of his early struggle. He had come not merely for a sentimental sleep the half-house the rent of which he had paid as City Councillor, Mayor, State Legislator, Lieutenant-Governor, Governor, Vice President --and which, as President, he owns. He had come that he might see, and that his wife might see a sternly sweet old lady. Elmira, mother of Grace Goodbue. Thin white hair gathered closely about her head, broad white lace neatly pinned about throat, an erect figure in which much strength remains-that is what one would have seen had he steepped indoors with the President.

For the rest, it is only recorded that Mrs. Goodhue, able housewife, had supper ready.

P:Later the President made an attempt to visit his law office in Northampton. Although the door still carries lettering bearing the words "Calvin Coolidge--Ralph Hemenway," Mr. Coolidge found it locked against him and discovered that he possesed no key. Next his again visited the place his former partner, Judge Ralph Hemenway within. Reminiscences occupied 30 minutes.

P:ln a drizzling rain the President and Mrs. Coolidge bid goodby to Mrs. Goodhue and started for White Court. Their route had apparently been kept secret and the dripping White House limousine passed through Holyoke, skirted Springfield, moved through Worcester. The journey of 145 miles to Swampscott was completed a leisurely five and a half hours.

P:At Swampscott a crowded calendar and several week-end guests awaited the President. In one hour he conferred separately with Postmaster General New Senator Wadsworth, Edwin Barclay (Secretary of State from Liberia) and a New Jersey delegation headed by Senator Edge.

P:The President topped off his day by appointing Wayne G. Borah to the Federal Attorneyship of Eastern Louisiana. (Relative of the Idaho Senator?)

P:A letter from one W. A. Aiken, self-styled "92-year old Green Mountain boy," revived the Coolidge"third term" perennial. Mr. Aiken wrote that he had cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, and that he hoped to cast what will probably be his last for Calvin Coolidge, in 1928. The fact that the President thanked Mr. Aiken, and that the Aiken letter was allowed to see the light at all "is "is regarded as significant."

P:While President Coolidge rested at Plymouth the Mayflower anchored at Marblehead, was the scene of children's teaparty. Kind-hearted Captain Adolphus Andrews entertained 40 pupils of a neighboring marine school, tapped the Presideitial ice cream freezer for their degustation.

P:Colonel George Harvey, onetime outspoken ambassador to the Court of St. James's, was a weekend guest at White Court. An habitual flouter of customs, the Colonel was the first guest this summer who has preferred the sun and beach to attending church with the President. He smiled his excuses, said he had some letters to write.

*The accident naturally recalled the several motor smashes that involved correspondents accompanying Presidents Wilson and Harding. On the former's League of Nations swing to the Pacific Coast, three press employes were injured, one killed. During the Harding trip to Alaska, two more were injured, one killed, victims of a skid.