Brule

Just when he was supposed to be looking intently in another direction, President Coolidge turned around last week and said he would spend the summer in the northwest corner of Wisconsin, in a log cabin, in a cedar forest, on an island in a trout stream.

Col. Edward W. Starling, official summer White House inspector, had returned to Washington at last with a description that sounded like the land at the end of a rainbow: high altitude, cool nights, few flies, commodious quarters, beautiful trees, abundant game, and trout--500,000 of them, stocked, bred, liver-fed for 30 years --brook trout, lake trout, steelhead trout --yes, even rainbow trout. President Coolidge announced his decision abruptly; said he would hold the Budget meeting early, on June 11 and leave immediately afterwards for Brule, Wis., for Cedar Island Lodge and cool woods, seclusion, trout. Summer White House Inspector Starling sped back to Wisconsin to put all in readiness.

The place, a 4,160-acre estate, belonged to the late Henry Clay Pierce, oilman, business adventurer in Mexico, millionaire. It was tendered to the President by Clay A. Pierce of Manhattan, a son. Clay A. Pierce had never met President Coolidge. The Pierce heirs are anxious to sell the place. The Coolidge occupancy, brought about by onetime (1918-27) Senator Irvine Luther Lenroot, of Wisconsin, will probably not lower the obtainable price.

The late Mr. Pierce fancied troutfishing so keenly that he had the produce of his fish-hatcheries and nurseries graded by size and put into 17 pools or "holes" in the Brule River flowing north through his property. Wire screens which bob up into place again after a boat passes over them, separate the pools. Brush and windfalls are so dense along the river's banks that fishing is impossible except from a boat. A onetime employe of the late Mr. Pierce says the Brule trout used to be so thick and tame (from hand-feeding) that you could take them with only a landing-net. They were so thick that there was not enough natural feed for them. Stinting their artificial diet made them so ravenous that they would strike at anything you dropped overboard--a cigarette butt, a finger. Mr. Pierce was a sportsman and permitted only flyfishing, with barbless hooks.

Last week, idle minds tried to discover a political reason for President Coolidge going to Wisconsin this summer. They recalled that at the 1924 G. O. P. convention the delegates from Wisconsin, which that year gave La Follette to the nation, were the only ones who did not join the joyful demonstration at the first mention of Mr. Coolidge's name.

More practical thinkers finished their scrutiny of Cedar Island Lodge's piscatorial specifications and passed on to other matters. For example, would Mrs. Coolidge find it comfortable?

There are eight bedrooms, four baths, a big circular living room, a study. Oak logs faced with birch bark make the outer walls. Inside are oriental rugs, French wicker furniture, maple piano (inlaid with gold), Italian oak panelling, brass bedsteads.

The dining hall is separate, across the stream, by pine-needle path and rustic footbridge. Small owls and bears, wrought in bronze, light the way. In the dining-room, the furniture is heavy mahogany, carved with a cloverleaf pattern. The 14-foot table seats 30 people.

Mrs. Coolidge decided she would need a staff of 14 house servants. Stationed near will be ten detectives and 60 infantrymen from Fort Snelling.

About 29 miles away (northwest) is Superior, Wis., on Lake Superior. There, in the high school, will be President Coolidge's office. Governor Fred Zimmerman of Wisconsin swiftly promised to mend the red clay roads in the northwestern corner of his State. Six miles from the Lodge is Brule, a five-street village (unpaved) inhabited by 200 Finnish fishermen. Four miles beyond Brule is Lake Nebagamon and the Congregational Church and Rev. John Taylor. Mr. Taylor is blind, uses a Bible printed in Braille. Perhaps Mr. Taylor will be taken for a cruise on the Navy cutter that will attend the President's pleasure in Superior harbor.