Takings & Leavings

Citizen Calvin Coolidge accompanied by Citizeness Coolidge quietly drove from the Inauguration ceremonies at the Capitol to the Union Station a few blocks away. At the station they entered the private car of Edward G. Buckland, Vice President of the New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R., an old friend. Frank W. Stearns, who six years ago rode to Washington with the then new President, likewise joined the party. So did Dr. James F. Coupal, who had been White House physician. At 2:35 the Montrealer steamed out of the station to return to Massachusetts its greatest citizens.

Takings. Mr. Coolidge took away ten pounds more of flesh than he had on going to the White House. He also took: an engraved golden gridiron from the Gridiron (press) Club; the official picture of his Cabinet autographed by each member; a microphone on a stand built to his measure by the National Broadcasting Co. (Mr. Coolidge, surprised by this last minute gift, said he could use the stand to take his breakfast on); and his final monthly pay check from the U. S. Government ($6,250); contracts to write articles for the Cosmopolitan and American magazines, and the Ladies Home Journal.

Mrs. Coolidge took a diamond and platinum brooch 1 1/2 in. by 3 1/2 in. on a 22-in. diamond and platinum chain, the whole containing nearly 400 diamonds (largest stone, five carats) made by Black, Starr & Frost; also a pink leather book containing the names of the lady admirers who presented the brooch (duplicate filed in the secret archives of the State Department) ; a large silver bowl and candlesticks presented by Lady Howard on behalf of the Diplomatic Corps, as wedding gifts for John Coolidge and Florence Trumbull; a check for $100,000 contributed to the endowment of Clarke School for the Deaf (where she used to teach); her ginger-colored chow, Tiny Tim.

Leavings. Mr. Coolidge left stacks of photographs autographed for memento-beggers (he signed 256 at one sitting); 553 handshakes on his last day in office; two last button-pressings (one was supposed to wreck with a blast of dynamite the last standing vestige of old Fort Sackville at Vincennes, Ind. The blast was a dud, so the building had to be burnt. The other button-push opened a new bridge across San Francisco Bay); a signed bill appropriating $48,000 for a presidential weekend retreat;* his achievements, chief of which he mentioned to newsgatherers as follows: 1) "Minding own business"; 2) Prosperity and tax reductions; 3) The Kellogg Peace Treaty ;/- 4) Improved Mexican relations; and a radio "goodbye to all of you . . . hope that you will all enjoy the future as much as I have the last eight years."

Also, of course, Mr. & Mrs. Coolidge left the White House behind. On inauguration eve they had Mr. and Mrs. Hoover, Senator Curtis and Mrs. E. E. Gann, the Senator's sister, to dinner and showed the new President and first lady their new quarters.

*To the St. Louis Globe Democrat which first agitated for the Presidential retreat, President Coolidge telegraphed congratulations and said: ''The Congress has shown an inclination to treat a President with the same kind of consideration it extends to our birds and other wild life."

/-Calvin Coolidge had hoped that the treaty would be in force before he left office. But four of the 15 multilateral ratifications required had not been received by the State Department by noon. March 4. The laggards: France, Poland, Belgium, Japan.