Bliss & Woe

In the middle of one night last week a telephone call was put through to the White House spoiling Franklin Roosevelt's peace of mind. A newspaper was asking what he knew about the plot to kidnap his 15-month-old grandchild, Sara Delano Roosevelt. Not till his son James had assured him by telephone that there was no plot were his fears appeased.

In the middle of the next night he had better news. After 1 a.m. he was sitting up in bed working on his stamp collection (he had been presented that clay with the first of an issue of private stamps issued for the 450th anniversary of Martin Luther's birth) when word was brought to him that Congress had adjourned. Happy, he turned out the light and went to sleep conscious that he had been blessed as few presidents are: he had 1) got Congress to pass most of the laws he wanted, and 2) got rid of Congress--not in time for him to attend Franklin Jr.'s graduation from Groton next day, but at least before Congress got completely out of control.

The third night, healthy* and happy, he entrained for New England. "The Prisoner in the White House" (as Herbert Hoover's newspaper friend, Mark Sullivan, dubbed him) had after four months at last escaped to exchange for two weeks the blisses & woes of official life for the blisses & woes of family life.

Next morning at 8:30 he was breakfasting aboard his private car in Boston's old South Station when his eldest Son James climbed aboard to report on the state of the family. James, 6 ft. 3 in. tall, 25, is already beginning to acquire the manner of a substantial citizen of Boston, as well he may, having been for three years in the insurance business (now a Travelers' agent). Happy is his family life with his Wife Betsey, daughter of Boston's famed Brain Surgeon Harvey Gushing. James had much to detail to his father: How the summer house he had rented at Rye Beach, N. H. had been badly damaged by fire three days before while his wife was out to lunch; how the presence of a secret service man to guard his family in his absence had caused the kidnapping rumor. But James was present not only on family affairs. Before rushing out to buy a suit of oilskins for his father he made a mental note that the President was eating cereal, toast and orange juice, information that he made use of later that day in writing a syndicated press dispatch.

Boston streets were lined with cheering throngs (it was Bunker Hill holiday) as Franklin Roosevelt and his eldest son motored through the streets accompanied by motorcycles and a mounted escort. Followed by Governor Ely of Massachusetts, they drove through Concord to Groton. Too late to see his wife (who had been there the day before but sped off to New York on her own rapid itinerary), the President stopped in his car before the house of Mrs. William F. Horton to greet his benign, white-haired mother who was staying there, then drove on half a mile to the school.

As his car halted before Hundred House the headmaster, Dr. Endicott ("Peabo") Peabody. came out to greet him: an old graduate returning after 33 years to school where two of his sons were students, third Son Franklin D. Jr., 18, and fourth Son John, 17.* With the President. Franklin Jr. exchanged such words as pass between a graduate Grotonian who. having won the first prize of the Senior Debating Society and the Charles Lanier Appleton Memorial Prize, is about to follow his father's footsteps to Harvard, and a proud parent Grotonian who is giving his son a trip to Europe later in the summer as a graduation present.

After lunch, and a few old-grad words to Franklin Jr.'s classmates. Franklin Roosevelt Sr. with Son James set out once more on his vacation tour of family land. One stop they made on the "field" (green) of Quincy where in a downpour of rain, before a multitude of citizens and in sight of the houses of John and John Quincy Adams, the President received from the Mayor a vase -- carved out of Quincy gran ite which had been used as a sleeper in the roadbed of the first U. S. railroad.

That night Franklin Roosevelt slept aboard the 44-ft. schooner, Amberjack If, anchored off Marion in Buzzard's Bay. Next morning he set sail up the coast of Massachusetts. Because of a squall his first day's run carried only 25 miles to Martha's Vineyard. Save for two destroyers which hovered nervously in the offing and a flotilla of Coast Guard, secret service and press vessels, he had put the public behind him. As companions he had only his Son James, and some of the latter's friends. At Portland, he would pick up Sons Franklin Jr. and John coming from Groton.

Only sleek-haired second Son Elliott, 22, was missing. He had left his job managing a Los Angeles-Agua Caliente, Mex. airline to establish a residence at Lake Tahoe, Nev., so that his 17-month bride. Elizabeth Donner Roosevelt, can sue him for divorce. But even prospective divorce could not separate Franklin Roosevelt from the farthing members of his family. The goal of his cruise was his mother's summer home at Campobello Island, New Brunswick (about one-fourth of a mile beyond the Maine line) where Son Elliott's wife is planning soon to go with her seven-months-old son. There the President will spend a day, being joined by Mrs. Roosevelt (whose complex itinerary is timed to set her down there at that moment). Then he will hasten back to Washington and the public, traveling on the new cruiser In dianapolis on a speed test to Norfolk. Last week, the cruiser was being equipped with ramps and an escalator for the President's comfort.

*In Boston a few hours earlier a newshawk asked Mrs. Roosevelt how the President's health held up under strain. "How is my husband? Oh, he's grand."

* Not however the only current Roosevelts at Oroton. The school's prize list this year includes four grandsons of T. R.: Cornelius (Science & Butler prizes) and Quentin (Choir challenge cup) sons of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Also, Archibald Jr. (reading prize for the lower forms, medal for a patriotic essay from the National Society of Colonial Dames). Also Kermit Jr., (Grotonian prize).

Described by Son James in his news dispatch as "a very interesting achievement."

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