President Hoover last week spent only one full working day at his White House desk. The first three days he was aboard the U. S. S. Sequoia, fishing in Chesapeake Bay. The last three were passed at the Rapidan camp. It was the President's first real fun in months.
At the camp President Hoover put in a hard 90 minutes with newsreel photographers and "still" cameramen. For three years the Hoover retreat has not been violated by the prying eyes of the Press. But this is a campaign year; presidential candidates must be popularized. The President invited a massed attack by film men who were given the run of the camp.
The President became a patient performer in their hands. He put on rubber boots, waded in his favorite pool, cast his fly again & again. The crowd and the photographers' cries for "more action'' scared the trout away but the presidential fly whisked neatly to & fro, caught no trees or brushes. Then the President acted out a homely role on the lawn before his cabin. He propped a book open on his knee, played with his dogs, strolled about. Mrs. Hoover brought out her knitting. Changing to riding breeches, the President had his horse Billy brought up from the Marine Corps corral, rode it at a walk up & down the mountain trails while shutters clucked, cranks whirled.
President Hoover did his best to look easy and informal but it was photographically plain that he got no fun out of his politically necessary antics. An amused onlooker was Mrs. Thomas Alva Edison.