Show G family leads quiet simple lite life v v y y y afi r y tia T in those historic halls where lincoln walked vow e UY A g wm 3 A A 1 I Q W 4 a it 7 W 2 if 75 t j 7 E 3 W L ll 11 f alq ay iy by MRS ALVIN T HERT vice vicc chairman republican national committee the most beautiful house in in america is the white house this was the comment of a woman who recently paid her first visit to the house bouse in which the chief executive of this country lives and it was a real visit when the messenger boy brought her ber an invitation to dint dine informally with president and mrs coolidge there came to her mind the same picture which would come to any woman toman who had read stories of official life in washington the brilliant state dining room glittering chandeliers military aides in smart uniforms the trappers trap pery of the white house the marine band playing in the distance but let her tell her own story simplicity everywhere tremendously thrilled I 1 took the arm which president coolidge offered with the quick angular movement so characteristic of the man we entered the quiet softly lighted dining room the table was perfectly set with linen and crystal set off with low bowls of late spring flo flow ers but it was simple and unimposing A black coated butler was using in attendance but a son of the house drew out his mothers chair six of us sat down together four of the name of coolidge and instead of martial strains floating in froni the portico the first sound to meet my ear was the quiet voice of the nations chief executive mr fr S will you say grace the two coolidge boys had just I 1 returned from school even then the face of calvin jr showed the pallor adlor of his approaching illness but I 1 attributed tri buted it to the strain of the I 1 school examinations of which he 1 i spoke in the eyes of the boys shone hope of good home cookery after months of absence recalling the chef in the whitt white house kitchen I 1 I 1 felt a throb of pity for ae expect 1 ant lads but my sympathy y was wasted the main dish of th the dinner was a thick juicy beefsteak perfectly broiled and entirely sor rounded by french fried potatoes and for dessert we had custard pie none of your thin french pastry pies but one whose golden custard was nearly two inches thick and smooth as cream all four of the Coolid displayed a frank interest in this pie i e not because they come from 11 new w england but because the white house cook used the recipe supplied b by y aurora housekeeper f for 0 r grandfather coolidge on his vermont farm it is not yet ss as good as aurora makes eap exp explained bained mrs airs coolidge but ea each ch time it is better we have hopes then with each member of the family contributing an anecdote or a scrap of description I 1 heard the story of aurora who after years cars of service on the coolidge Coolid gc farm had been persuaded by a widower broth er to join him in a distant town he was a busy physician and his home needed a mistress at the end of a year aurora announced her desire to resume farm life on her arrival at the plymouth farm she offered this simple explanation automobiles tearing by all the while tooting their horns telephones ringing every half hour or so made me feel rushed and tired home folks from aurora to vacation on the farm and back to school amusing pictures quickly drawn awn of the clos mg ag hours at 1 ce eburg A hun hum dred boys in a mad scramble of sorting luggage and packing it the youn younger cr boy plied his father with questions about greek fraternities 7 I 1 asked him if he thought this quite fair to a man who had been 0 out ut of college so long without trace of disrespect he gave me to understand that his father never went listening to this family banter I 1 visualized thousands of american homes to which young youn people were returning from s school choa and d I 1 hoped that all of the boys and girls girla could meet such sympathetic understanding such a simple wholesome atmosphere mo sphere as reigned here in the white house dinner over the president c conducted 0 n us to the northern portico from which we planned to start on our tour of the white house grounds those seventeen spreading acres unmarred by artificiality but a light rain was falling so we ve remained under the protection of the lofty roof glancing up at the grinling gibbons carving above the doorway I 1 recalled talk of remodeling of modernizing ern izing the white house and the idea assumed the proportions of sacrilege I 1 talked 1 might almost sa say I 1 thought aloud of the palaces yf I 1 had seen in europe windsor versailles the quirinal those castles built by the mad prince none of them could compare with the white house in its chaste colonial beauty and dignity as a home for our president president Preside rif lisi listened ened gravely he Is a good listener he knows how to draw out his visitors then on a long pause he raised his head looked at a wide open win wm dow above the doorway of the home which his country had supplied for him and spoke quietly where lincoln walked w it would be wrong to destroy that hall in which lincoln walked in the darkest days of the civil war he said As he traced paced that hall lie he looked through this 1 half inch window to the potomac I 1 like to walk there now and think of him his hia words carried me up the great teat right flight of stairs and through it the mist of years into that upper hall where gars lincoln lincoln paced slowly back and forth struggling with the problems which beset his day and his bis people we reentered entered re the white houst house and passed out on the southern veranda which overlooks the potomac and the virginia hills over the iron balustrade a mass of honeysuckle had flung itself its pa palt le yellow blossoms drenching the air air with exquisite perfume just beyond a magnificent monument shone wanly through the mist faint lights afar suggested virginia arlington the resting place of our unknown soldier we talked quietly the two boys their mother and 1 I the president sat apart in the shadows motion less silent his exes fixed on the dim outline of virginia thus had lincoln watched that shore in the perilous the white house is america talk of a newer a more elaborate building to take its place is dese crating I 1 said suddenly and warm ly to president coolidge and then I 1 added added we must preserve for the people for all time this place w ahert rel adams madison lincoln and tha others have hare lived and solved arct lems that have made america rho greatest nation on earth today |