Evening star., 1932-04-24

/ lean soldier to help out about that
/ house in Paris where the food admin
| istrator lived. The Army sent Boris.
Within a month he was nursing a
| third of the House through influenza,
and he didn't lose a patient! He has
/ been with the Hoovers ever since,
| guardian of the children, handy man
! factotum of the guests, an indispen-
sable cog in the machinery of the
| household.
Feeds Dogs at Breakfast.
Dressed for the day, the President
deScends to his complete" breakfast,
where Mrs. Hoover usually joins him /;
also the house guests and the dogs.
Mr. Hoover always wanted to feed dogs
at table, but conventionality restrained
/ him. Now that he is President and
| can in some matters do as he likes he
often INDUCES himself and the dogs
with q slice of bacon.
Pat. the big, gay police dog, accepts
! the President a little on sufferance.
| When Pat was a puppy they used to
leave him over the working week at the
Rapidan camp.
And what chance" Mr.. Hoover says,
docs a mere President have in the
affections of dog against a company
of Marines?"
Pat has grown into one of those pub
| lie dog characters which love all men
! in general and none in particular. But
| Weegie, the Norwegian nuSkie, has ac-
! cepted the President as master. I have
among my mental pictures of the
White House these days one of the
President approaching with Weegie
shyly thrusting an affectionate muzzle
| into his swinging hand.
| The President makes by habit hearty
/ American breakfast-fruit, cereal, toast,
/ bacon and eggs. coffee. That benevolent
/ tryant, Capt. Boone, taking into con-
| sideration Mr. Hoover's habits and his
/ energy, permits this indulgence. The
/ President finishes with one Of his long
| Havana cigars.
Then. if Mrs. Herbert Hoover. jr., is
visiting. appear Peter and Peggy-Ann.
/ Peter chooses among the Toolng guests
with little shyness, but Peggy-Ann, be-
! ing a miniature woman, knows what she
wants and goes straight to it. Unin-
vited, she climbs into the President S
lap. They exchange conversation on
equal terms for minute or so, then,
still holding her, Mr.. Hoover goes back
/ to the general talk.
| The shadow of his hard day is begin
ming to settle on him. At the cup OF
coffee after the medicine ball game he
talked anything but shop. Now, if the
guests are old associates, question is
/ likely to start him on the special per-
plexity of the moment
Peggy-Ann stands up in his lap, wrig-
Cling about as she plays with his tie or
reaches for things her little brown head
| is always cutting across such phrases
| nf tho IINPOnni0Vpd ~ ''Ur1t h.
drawn from circulation" uncertain
source of revenue" "budgetary plan OF
armament reduction" or agricultural
prices" She has become a little nuis-
ance by now. but the President doesn't
/ put her down. 1t is suspected that
| Peggy-Ann bullies her grandfather a
| trifle-but the hour has come. He
/ pushes back his chair.
Guests Always Present
! ALWAYS there are guests at this White
House. And if the President has lit
! tie time left before he strolls over to
work, with Mrs. Hoover or the children
or the dogs. the visitors preparing TO
leave on a morning train has part in a
pretty, simple bit of White House cere-
mony. A knock sounds at the door of
the rose room or the Lincoln bed room.
The visitor opens to a hveried colored
attendant.
The President has come to say good
! by," the attendant says. Mr.. Hoover
| is close behind him. A pleasant word
sometimes one OF those pats on the
shoulder by which he expresses regard,
and Mr.. Hoover is off to his job.
AS for the rest of the meals, he and
Mrs. Hoover seldom, if ever, sit down
to table alone There are, of course,
! the luncheons to visiting foreign celebri-
| ties. the dinners of state when as many
as 80 persons sit round the elastic table
of the golden brown dining room, when
the Marine Band plays the procession
in and out, when the White House is
vivid with banked flowers, dress uni
forms. evening toilettes.
More solitary and less sociable Presi-
dents, it is said. used to welcome OFF
Moons and off nights as a chance to be
absolutely alone. But now, as in the
old days of private life, the HooverS
want company at meals. Any Ameri-
can celebrity visiting or working in
Washington is likely to have a surprise
invitation to luncheon.
Mrs. Fiske Lunched There.
In the last months of her life the
lamented Minnie Maddern FiSke, trying
out new show at Washington, lunched
with the HooverS and kept the Presi-
dent chuckling Is minutes with the
story OF her childish adventures as little
Eva in Uncle Toms Cabin"
Leaders in scholarship, business, lit
erature, art, athletics, drift in a pro-
ceSslon OF emlnence through the White
House these days. There is ALWAYS. too,
sprinkling of old friends-Some from
| college days, some from that interest
ing and not inglorious company who
worked with Mr. Hoover in the war.
Dinner at the White House. formal
or informal is sharp at 8. The inter-
val from $50 to dinner belongs more
to the President than any other part of
his day. 1t is not always quite his
| own, however. Sometimes loose ends
remain, late conferences or state papers
which need the solitude and concentra-
ton he cannot get in his office.
Many a visitor to the White House,
passing through that long, welcoming
hall of the second floor, has looked
through an open door to behold the
President expressing himself on paper.
His brows are knotted ana the rubber
end Of his pencil taps the table as he
searches his vocabulary ror the proper
adjective.
But usually he diverts himself ac-
cording to his mood Sometimes, if
his day mas been especially hard, he
| takes a brief nap. Like most men
whose youth saw hard, irregular work
in far places he has the faculty of
falling asleep at will Sometimes he
| reads little. Sometimes he orders out
White House car and goes for drive
with Mrs. Hoover, during which, prob
| ably, he lndulges in the luxury dear to
| every completely married man. of talk
Ing 1t over with his understanding
vile. More often he fials that interval