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Show Little White House Made a Shrine & . . Story of Summer Sanctums Of U. S. Presidents Traced By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON. This summer the Warm Springs Infantile Infan-tile Paralysis foundation turned over a little five-room house on the mountainside to the state of Georgia, which will run it as a museum and national shrine. And so another of the "Little "Lit-tle White Houses" goes back to the people. It is the only one in which a president spent his last days. In one of its three bedrooms President Roosevelt died. In its living room he spoke his last words. The Warm Springs house was different from other summer hideaways of presidents because it was really a home. The late President Roosevelt himself built it in 1932 at a cost of S3.700. He willed it to the infantile paralysis foundation. It was a very simple structure in which the architecture archi-tecture of the locality and a few Rooseveltian ideas are blended. There are the two bedrooms, a third guest room, a living room, a kitchen and that's all. But there is a view that would make a Park avenue penthouse owner jealous. Like all of the houses which Pres-? ident Roosevelt occupied, this little cottage is crammed with history, much of it still unwritten. Warm Springs was the symbol of Roosevelt's victory over disease and pain. Since then, largely be- j rv ' 1 cause of his ef- ; . ' s forts, manv hun- ! ; ! i dreds of others V 1 have achieved j N similar victories L in the commu- I ? $ ' .1 nity of which the - -'.'.4 ;! ', j 'Little White l I House" was a i l i- ' .1 part f : ' ' a The simple ; - ' cottage was also f .'.' the scene of his k'.' , ;. . jr t death. He was posing for a por- Baukhage trait when the "terrible headache" came. He had signed his letters for the day and in his last signature, which I have seen, there is evidence that death already was "plucking at his sleeve." Late in the war. when it was difficult diffi-cult to go far from Washington, another an-other "summer White House" in Maryland was established. It was given the name "Shar.gri-la." The President himself named it jokingly ; when, because of security reasons I during the war, its location had to i be concealed. It was discovered, thanks to a slip of the tongue on the j part of Mrs. Roosevelt, and because absurd stories were written about the tremendous amount of money w-hich had been expended on it as a matter of fact it cost very little to convert it was thrown open to the press. One article described its "million dollar pool." I have seen the pool. It is less than 20 feet across. Polly-wogs Polly-wogs wiggle in it, rocks green with years of moss, surround it. It has been there a long time and I doubt if anyone ever had the temerity to bathe in it, although "Shangri-la" was a deserted boys' camp when it was taken over. It sits high on a mountain top beside a splashing trout stream surrounded by thick woods. Today there is one overstuffed chair in the corner of the solarium that somehow always seems to get turned around at a certain angle. Turned that way, a side table is within easy reach, a push button and a hand telephone with an extension ex-tension number on it. Lift it and the answer comes, "White House." It connects directly with the switchboard switch-board at 1600 Pennsylvania aver.ue. It gives me a rather strange feeling to look at that chair-empty chair-empty and realize what messages mes-sages went over the telephone beside it, what words were dictated dic-tated while the long cigarette holder moved nervously to the ash tray on the table at its arm. President Truman has not used "Shangri-la" very often but when he goes there next he and Mrs. Truman will find a retreat which gives them more privacy than probably prob-ably any other spot on earth. Tucked away in the deep woods is a r.t-A". little cabin, just b.g enough fur Iao. No g ies. room, no parlor, just a cozy cottage wi'h a neat, modern kitchen, a dining room-sitting room-sitting room with a fireplace. There two is a corr.i. any. I: ree a crowd. A sanctuary any pres. dent deserves. |