Fun in Antilles

Franklin D. Roosevelt was feeling jolly. As he got into a flag-draped barge at Cap Haitien the boom-boom-boom of saluting guns had no irritating effect upon his nerves. For three days he had had nothing but laughs at the expense of the three sad newshawks who followed in his wake aboard the destroyer Gilmer--laughs at their landlubber language as he read their dispatches before they were sent by the Houston's radio; laughs at their seasickness as their thin little craft rolled like a porpoise. The biggest and best laugh of all came when, in a whaleboat, they followed his fishing gig off Long Island in the Bahamas, got close enough to see the color of his clothes (old trousers, a blue coat), and witnessed his landing of a 35-lb. barracuda.

When the President reached Haiti, he was in his most amiable mood. Entering a car with his friend President Stenio Vincent, he motored through Cap Haitien streets, spent an hour at the Union Club with island notables. U. S. Minister Norman Armour had flown over from Port au Prince but was too ill with dengue fever to appear at the reception. The U. S. President's health was drunk by Senor Vincent. Mr. Roosevelt, with a good glass of West Indian swizzle* in his hand, replied with a toast, "to the health of the President of Haiti, to the Government of Haiti and to the people of Haiti."

All this took place in two hours. President Roosevelt again boarded the Houston to continue his tour of the Antilles. Next morning the cruiser and its convoy anchored at the lace-making town Mayaguez on the West Coast of Puerto Rico. Governor Blanton Winship put the President and his Sons Franklin Jr. and John into automobiles, drove them along the Island's west and south shores to Ponce, then by the military road over the mountains to lunch at the Governor's summer palace at Jajome Alto. At every village on the way the President's car stopped for three minutes to allow the local mayor to make a speech and be thanked. A drizzle which grew heavier as the journey proceeded kept the reception from being as enthusiastic as that staged for President Hoover two years ago. At dusk, two hours late because of skiddy roads and with his white suit bedraggled by the rain, the President and party drove into San Juan through a dense, cheering, flower-throwing crowd.

That night the President dined with Governor Winship at La Fortaleza, conferred on plans for providing the island with an economic New Deal. Next morning he toured the slums of San Juan, shook hands with friends including Jean Springstead Whittemore, who wangled from warm-hearted Postmaster Farley the fat job of Collector of the Customs, and Toste ("Mimi") Lovet, 13-year-old poliomyelitis victim, once at Warm Springs.

"Why, Mimi," cried the President. "I'm so happy to see you! Why, you can walk! Tell me, how are you?"

"I'm very well, Papa Roosevelt."

In parting the President addressed Puerto Rico by radio, telling the Islanders that their problems were like those of the U. S. and would be solved by the Island's Brain Trust, composed of Puerto Rican professors and officials. Said the President: "I am not saying good-by but au revoir."

At noon he boarded the Houston, which bore him away at 18 knots across a rainswept sea. Four hours later he landed in St. Thomas, V. I., was met by Governor Paul Pearson, carried up into the town to be greeted by cheering crowds. Kindly Governor Pearson and his goodhearted lady dined that evening with the President aboard the Houston, watched from its deck a procession of illuminated floats serenading the President, celebrating the Island's industries and beauty.

Next morning the Houston crossed the 40 miles of open sea to St. Croix, where guest and hosts motored across the island, visited abandoned rum distilleries, more subsistence homesteads. Only untoward event was a parade in Christiansted, staged by the local Democratic Club. where marchers carried banners demanding the removal of Governor Pearson, the appointment of a Democrat. His fondness unshaken, the President bade the Governor a cordial farewell. The Houston, with the two destroyers in her wake, streaked away once more over the blue waters, cutting a long diagonal across the Caribbean, toward Cartagena, Colombia.

*A jigger of cocktail rum (on which President Vincent is trying to get a 50% reduction of U. S. duty), a half teaspoonful of Angostura bitters and chopped ice to be spun rapidly with a limewood swizzle stick until the ice has melted and (hen drunk before the ''bead" on the liquor sub-sides.

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