Delicacy

Not a word in the Washington Post. Not a line in the Boston Transcript. Reputable dailies steered clear, whether or not they believed that their correspondents believed what they said about this "rumor."

But the gum-chewers' press, the "human interest" sheetlets, did they pass by an opportunity? Certainly not. The New York Evening Bulletin ran a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge and began the story: "An event that is nobody's business and yet is everybody's business is expected at the White House, it is rumored. . . ." The Daily News, Manhattan gum-chewers' sheetlet, ran two pictures of the Coolidges, was careful to say: "Inquiry among attaches of the White House has failed,however, to elicit confirmation of the story." Characteristic of these two journals was their employment, in the headlines, of the delicately definitive word "stork."