The Roosevelt Week

"Goodby, pop!'

"Goodby, Sistie ! See you soon!"

A yellow-haired little girl with her milk teeth missing stood on the Button Lumber Co.'s wharf at Poughkeepsie one noon last week and waved frantic farewell to her grandfather on a big white yacht easing out into the Hudson River. At the Nourmahal's rail stood "pop," otherwise the President of the. U. S., waving back to his six-year-old granddaughter, Anna Roosevelt ("Sistie") Dall. Also on the wharf were "Sistie's' flaxen-haired young mother, Anna Roosevelt Dall, "Sistie's" white-haired great-grandmother, Sara Delano Roosevelt who, a few minutes before, had kissed her President-son goodby. ''Sistie's" grandmother, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt, was at that moment motoring toward Newport with Col. Louis McHenry Howe.

His Hyde Park vacation over, President Roosevelt cruised down the Hudson as the guest of Vincent Astor, realtor, banker, backer of the forthcoming weekly Today (see p. 24). With them were half a dozen non-political friends--the same group that fished together off Florida last February just before Chicago's Mayor Cermak was assassinated at Miami. Above the Nourmahal floated the Presidential flag--four white stars on a blue field. President Roosevelt thought it was the first time in U. S. history that that emblem had been used on a private yacht. Heeling the Nourmahal were two naval watchdogs, the destroyers Twiggs and Manley. Newshawks were left far behind.

At dusk the Nourmahal rounded Manhattan Island, shoved its knife-edged nose through Hell Gate and out into Long Island Sound. By morning it was anchored in Fort Pond Bay near Montauk Point. Because the weather was drizzly, the President lazed about all day, reading, resting. The third day, wearing only a pair of duck trousers, he went off fishing on the sloop Orca under the guidance of bronzed, taciturn Captain Herman Gray, who used to take President Hoover out sailfishing in Florida. President Roosevelt & party got only some sea bass and porgies, no swordfish, no bluefish. one tuna. Remarked Captain Gray: "Fish don't bite any faster for a President than they do for a plumber." That night the Nourmahal cruised off down the coast to land the President back in Washington day after Labor Day.

P:. President Roosevelt issued an executive order to permit the export of freshly mined gold for sale at world prices. A second order required gold hoarders to register their holdings with the Treasury. How this order was to be enforced upon hoarders who had so far successfully defied the Government's threat of prosecution was not explained. Presumably hoarders, if caught, would be prosecuted for failing to register rather than for possessing gold (see p. 51).

P:. Before leaving Hyde Park, President Roosevelt motored to Albany, inspected two new bridges, had tea with Governor Lehman. It was his first visit to his old stamping ground since he left it as Governor, Jan. 2.

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