Life in the Salt Mine

"HAAALLLOOO DOWN THAR!"

White House newsmen on the South Lawn looked up to the Harry Truman balcony. There was the President of the U.S., with Lynda Bird, Carl Sandburg and Edward Steichen.

"Hey! Here's Carl Sandburg," called the President. "Don't you want to ask some questions?"

The reporters were so flabbergasted at the notion of playing a balcony scene with the President of the U.S., a bewhiskered photographer and a snow-thatched poet that the questions that followed were only desultory. Nevertheless, Lyndon insisted on chatting for a while. He spotted the Washington

Post's Dorothy McArdle, who was one of the reporters at the L.B.J. ranch when Lyndon went zooming around the highways in his Lincoln. The President called to her: "How about going driving with us again?" There was some more give-and-take, and at length Lyndon raised both hands and called: "Well, back to the salt mine."

To the Gate. What a salt mine. In the Cabinet Room next day, the President decided to hold another of his in formal press conferences, the kind that rarely delivers any real news but nevertheless gives the impression of vital communication. Later that same day he played Pied Piper.

It was lunchtime, and Johnson and Aide Bill Moyers were leaving the President's office. Moyers said casually, "Let's take a walk." Lyndon agreed, and the two ambled down the path toward the southeast gate of the White House. Behind the fence were 100 pop-eyed out-of-towners-- many of them, as it turned out, from foreign countries --who were in town to see the cherry blossoms and other notable sights. Lyndon walked up to the gates and said to them: "Would you like to take a walk with me before lunch?" With that, he ordered the gates opened, and onto the lawn poured the excited tourists. "All right," ordered Lyndon. "All you ugly men go up there, and all you pretty girls stay here with me!"

On Tour. With a jovial Johnson ushering them, the whole gang trooped around the South Lawn. One visitor told the President that he was a student from India. Lyndon inquired in the manner of a solicitous relative: "Is Mr. Nehru getting any better?" To a Canadian, the President commented: "I enjoyed my visit with your Prime Minister so much. Matter of fact, I just talked on the phone with him last week." To a Filipina girl, he said: "We've got our Secretary of State out in the Philippines right now."

And so on Johnson seemed as much taken with the whole business as the tourists were. "I know so many people over in Finland, Denmark, the Philippines and India!" he said with a glow. "I feel like I've been on a tour!" One of the last tourists to leave sidled up to a watching newsman, tugged at his sleeve and said: "Excuse me, sir. I just came in on the plane from Denmark a little while ago and came by the gate." Gesturing to his fellow tourists chatting with the President, he asked: "Er . . . does this sort of thing happen very often?"

In a word, yes.

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