Anabasis

Forth from the White House followed by innumerable attendants, Mr. and Mrs. Warren G. Harding set out on a 1,500 mile journey to Alaska and return. A seven car train, with a specially built car, the Superb, embodying a rear platform rostrum, and a reception room, and a communication department completely equipped for telephone, telegraph and radio communication, carried the President's party.

In the retinue were Secretary Work, Speaker Gillett of the House, General Sawyer (White House physician), secret service men, stenographers, messengers, secretaries, secretaries of Secretaries, 22 journalists, five photographers and others completing a total of 65 or 70. Secretaries Hoover and Wallace were to join the entourage en route to the Pacific.

Although the Presidential Special had no scheduled stop before reaching St. Louis, it halted frequently and the President made extempore speeches from the rear platform and shook hands with all who came near. Mrs. Harding, always by his side, explained that her physicians did not allow her to shake hands, but she wished she might. Little boys, farmers in overalls, railroad workers, all enjoyed the Presidential good will.

At Salem, Ill., (birthplace of W. J. Bryan) the President told the gathering : " You have given a fine, lovable, worthwhile American to his country. . . It is just as much pleasure for the President and Mrs. Harding to see you as it is for you to see them."

At Vincennes he said: " I am a farmer but I do not belong to the farm bloc."

Mrs. Harding gave candy and gum to all the children who came within reach, and seriously depleted the stock on the train. At Seymour, Ind., she said to a woman: " I like your parasol."

At St. Louis 14 seven-passenger automobiles took the Presidential party from the train. Mayor Kiel presented the first lady of the land with a bouquet of orchids, natives of seven tropical countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ceylon, Mexico, China, India, Guatemala. All of them had been grown in the Missouri Botanical Garden. In the afternoon the President spoke to a convention of Rotarians and in the evening addressed an audience of 12,000 on the World Court.

The use of the radio amplifier seemed to hamper the President, and he was much more at home in little extempore speeches in which he did not have to remain stationary before an instrument.

Next day, in sweltering weather, the party crossed Missouri. Every time that the President appeared on the platform it was in the broiling sun, and he became badly sunburned--especially his lips. So in the afternoon at Kansas City he was obliged to stay indoors and cancel engagements for golf, a review of Boy Scouts and a visit to the War Veterans' Hospital. General Sawyer applied ice packs to the President's lip, so that he might speak in the evening, and Mrs. Harding reviewed the Boy Scouts. After dinner the President spoke on the railroad problem.

Next morning the party arrived at Hutchinson, Kans., and drove out six miles to the farm of Chester O'Neal. There, with Senator Arthur Capper (leader of the farm bloc), William Allen White and Governor Davis standing by, the President in white flannel trousers, white doeskin shoes, blue coat and straw hat, shocked sheaves of wheat after the approved methods of Kansas and Ohio.

"Doesn't this let me in the farm bloc, Arthur ?" asked the President of Senator Capper.

The President discussed farm costs with Mr. O'Neal and then drove a tractor binder around a 90-acre wheat field while the cameras clicked.

Returning to Hutchinson for lunch, the President gave a disquisition on the farming situation at the fair grounds at two o'clock. Then on again to Denver went the party on its busy way.

All through the night, as the special train passed across Kansas and Colorado, crowds gathered here and there along the right of way and cheered, but the President slept soundly, getting a much needed rest. Shortly before seven the following morning (Sunday) the train stopped at Colorado Springs and Mr. Harding told a good sized crowd:

" I wish I could preach you a sermon. It is in my heart to do it."

At Denver Governor Sweet, Mayor Stapleton and Senators Phipps and Adams (newly appointed) conducted the President to his hotel. There after a rest he spoke on prohibition enforcement, taking New York to task for repealing its state law.

Next came Cheyenne, Wyo., where the President explained the Administration's treatment of the coal situation. His welcome there was even more spectacular than elsewhere. Five aeroplanes met the train 20 miles from the city and, circling high, sprinkled the moving cars with roses.