THE PRESIDENCY: First Christmas

In the midst of all his other troubles, unhappy Herbert Hoover's White House offices caught fire four Christmases ago. President Roosevelt had better luck last week when a blaze in the wastepaper storage room of the Executive Offices was promptly discovered and extinguished by an alert guard.

Day before Christmas Eve the President gave a holiday to his clerical staff. To each clerk and stenographer he presented a book, with his autograph on the flyleaf. Next day he entertained, first, the families of his chauffeurs and mechanics, then the families of the White...

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