The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-07-06
NOW
Blooms for the
President
SAFETY NOTES
By HELEN ESSARY

flower boxes around the terrace
outside the East Room windows at
the White House. My friend held
out for red nasturtiums.
It seems we were both wrong.
They are a remarkable botanical
species that "bloom-a ALA da
time"
I have this on no less an au-
fhority than the peanut man who
sells his wares just off Pennsyl-
vania Avenue at the corner Of the
White House yard next to the
Treasury.
He said with Latin tolerance for
the Anglo-Saxon dizziness as he
peered at the Haunting red lowell
ness showing through the tree
branches:
ooh, da flowers! Dos are
flowers dat blOOm-a ALA da
time. They are for dance and
party for frien's ola da Presi-
den'."
The White House is fire trap,
says the fire department. 1t has
been so for years. But not until
this summer has anything been
planned to make it safe.
Water served in the White House
to residents and to guests from all
over the world came through pipes
that were a menace to health until
last summer when the old pipes
were replaced by new, sanitary
ones.
When the Coolidges were here
engineers earnestly recommended,
as they had been doing for several
administrations, that weakened
beams be replaced by new supports
for the roof.
It was not until the engineers
told the President they would not
be responsible for the consequences
If this were not done Immediately
that the roof was finally made
sound.
The Secret Service guards a
President when he is outside the
White House so carefully and
infinitely that most Presidents
find such surveillance annoying.
Why do we make the country
side safe for chief executives and
overlook the dangers in the White
House?
We're a funny people.
A total of 422,955 tourists, just
plain ordinary garden variety
ones, visited the White House dur
ing the first six months Of this
year. This number is exclusive
of the 132,159 who held cards ad-
uniting them to the private par
lors. Thus America, in all kinds
of clothes and expressions, trailed
through it's Buckingham Palace.
I wonder what percentage OF
the lot were dressed as the
bobbed-haired, hatless girl I saw
leaving the East entrance. Hold
ing fast to the arm of her boy
friend with one hand and clutch
ing a camera in the other she
strolled nonchalantly along in
purple slacks topped with brown
leather jacket.
New England friends urge me
to write a paragraph about the
restoration of Salem, the famous
seaport of Massachusetts,.
You know, of course, about
Salem. 1t was rich. complacent
and cruel in the early days of
America.
To their women folks waiting
virtuously in it's white cottages
now the delight of tourists, the
towns buccaneering sea captains
brought the wealth of the In
dies. Salem burnt its witches
but it saved it's trade.
The Department of Interior
through it's National Park Service
now has jurisdiction of Salem. It
has taken over the old Custom
House where Nathaniel Haw-
thorne was collector of customs
and the Old Derby Wharf. Build
ings out of keeping with the
wharf and the Custom House will
be torn down.
It is amusing to realize that
the Interior Departments con-
clusion that "the Custom House
is a building possessing eNcep-
tional significance in the history
of the country" may be just an
other proof that ole 81 n S
brighten as they vanish"
Nathaniel Hawthorne in his
preface to '"The Scarlet Letter"
thought the Custom House was
CONTINUE don Page Is, Col. 81
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