Fussy Frau Albert Einstein manages her fuzzy-crowned husband much as a hen does a bewildered chick. Worrying lately about his health, she wished to have him examined, was able to only by a trick: she got a doctor to show Dr. Einstein a sphygmomanometer. Inquisitive, he fiddled with it to see how it worked, had his blood pressure counted before he knew it. Examination showed Dr. Einstein no more unhealthy than the average sedentary person. But last fortnight, aboard the S. S. Westernland en route to the U. S., he felt unwell, was obliged to keep to his cabin one evening. When he reappeared next morning, visitors approached to ask questions. Dr. Einstein explored an egg, said nothing. Thereafter Frau Einstein had all she could do to shield him from strangers.
So did officials of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N. J., whither the Einsteins were bound. When the Westernland entered New York Harbor it was met by a tugboat chartered by two of the Institute's trustees, Lawyer Herbert Maass and Edgar S. Bamberger, retired vice president of the famed Newark department store. With them they had a customs inspector, to get the Einsteins quietly off the ship. They had forgotten to bring an immigration officer. While they waited, news cameramen managed to snap the Einsteins—the Herr Doktor, bewildered, trying to shield himself by waving his violin case, his wife resolutely crying: "No! No! No! No interviews!" At length the Einsteins climbed into the tug, chuffed off to the Battery where an automobile waited to take them to Princeton. Meanwhile, on the Westernland's pier, orchid-raising Lawyer Samuel Untermyer stood with a bouquet of his blooms as head of a welcoming committee appointed by bumbling Mayor John Patrick O'Brien.
At Princeton a small, brown-shingled house had been leased for the Einsteins, near the homes of the late Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Henry van Dyke and John Grier Hibben. First thing Dr. Einstein did was stroll hatless down Princeton's Nassau (main) St., enter a 5¢-&-10¢ store to buy a comb and scissors. Then he bought two newspapers, listened attentively and smoked his pipe while his associate, Dr. Walther Mayer, translated the news aloud. Next morning the Press assembled, at the invitation of Princeton's publicity department, for photographs. At length it was announced that Dr. Einstein could not be induced to appear. Later he changed his mind, let three cameramen photograph him.