, 1924-08-20
CO0LIDCES FATHER OVERWHELMED
BY DAILY CALVALCADE MOTORISTS
Throng Visiting Plymouth, Vermont, so Army
Squad is Assigned to Handle Traffic and
Guard Calvin, Jr.'s grave from
Souvenir Pests

COHlinS u mlSnOmeT 10 the cOuTIiys J
s~oft-spoken. solitude-loving Colonel
John C. Coolidge, father of the pres
ident of the United States. It's the
native American curiosity hat al
ready threatens the peace of mind
of the mild hammered New England
farmer and bids fair to turf the
birthplace and boyhood HON of the
nations chief executive into a tour
list resort unrivaled in popularity by
ever the watering places of Maine
or Uncle Sans national parks of
the far west.
Farm work on the Coolidge home
stead is at a s%tandstill. as the day
long shuttle of the visiting hundreds
from almost every point in the ma
ton casts a marring note into the
urban placidness of the little Yer
mont village. But thru it all Col
John Coolidge plays the ante-bellum
lost as he receives with grave and
kindly courtesy a stream of visitors
who make his town a veritable
mecca-the most talked of place in
the country.
Army Men Handle the Traffic
Automobile tourists from east,
west, north and south, include Ply
mouth in their vacation itinerary.
They come by the thousands, espe-
cially since Calvin Coolidge, Jr..
youngest son of the president, was
laid to rest in the village cemetery.
So ceaseless has been the influx
that a detail of regular army men
has been assigned to Plymouth to
h. H. - u: - II
Colonel that at least the roof over
his head will De safe from the in
satiable souvenir hunters. This mil
itary khaki-clad squad has pitched
its tents in front of the village store
and policies the crossroads. Also in
the little cemetery two soldiers
stand guard to ave even the omb
stone from Dissertation by those
keen to take back home a grewsome
remembrance of their visit to the
graveyard where lies a member of
the presidential family.
Colonel John Coolidge, after two
weeks in Washington as a guest of
his son at the White House, is back
home with a longing for the rural
%quietude hat it appears will be
denied him until the bleak winds
of fall put an end to summer out-
ings. But home is a pretty good
place after ALL" he remarked when
he returned from the capital and
resumed his daily receptions to
those who come to gaze upon the
father and the home of a president.
1t was at Plymouth the a reporter
found Colonel Coolidge after his re-
turn from Washington and heard
him talk in his reserved manner
chary of words. of his trip to the
capital and his experiences there.
More Visitors from Plymouth Rock
From his lips the reporter learned
that the president never was in bet
ter health han he is now, and that
abstemiousness in diet and regular
exercise have upset the notion that
the work and worry of the pres
idential office are something that
flesh and blood cannot endure.
A veal ago Plymouth was the
most obscure and ~unregarded ham
let that drowzed amid the green
hills. Today it is a focal point of
popular interest from all eastern
America. 1t attracts more visitors
than Plymouth Rock, more pilgrims
than the Shrine of Ste. Anne de
Beaupre. more tourists than Mount
Vernon.
The astonishing publicity which
the village has drawn to itself is
due to three things.
One is that it is the birthplace
of Calvin Coolidge. and is so closely
identified with the dramatic circum-
stances attending his accession to
the presidency of the United States.
The second is the stimulus given
public curiosity by the recent death
of the younger son of the president
and Mrs. Coolidge and his simple
burial under mounds of flowers in
the primitive little cemetery.
The third is the remarkable per-
sonality of Colonel Coolidge, who
still lives in the plain. single story
and attic house in which his dis
tinguished son spent his boyhood
days; who is the central and DOM
mating. figure of the scene: who
moves serenely amid the hrongs
of visitors, greets them with kindly
courtesy, shakes hands with the
five hundredth as cordially as he
does with the first, and is seemingly
unmoved by the turmoil and COM
motion that every day besets the
neighborhood.
Twelve months ago there was
nothing to distinguish Plymouth from
scores of similar Vermont villages,
except, perhaps, hat it was smaller
than most. Never again will it be
he humdrum little community no