The Alligator & the Squirrels

One rainy afternoon last week, President Eisenhower took over a chore for his wife and came face to face with an angry alligator. Because of the bad weather, Mamie Eisenhower, just recovered from the flu, was unable to make a scheduled appearance at the National Capital Flower and Garden Show. "I've been a lot of places in my life," Ike said as he took her place, "but this is my first jaunt to a flower show. If I make any mistakes, don't hold it against me."

"Shame!" In the National Guard Armory the air was fragrant with thousands of blossoms. Soft music wafted across the dappled, indoor, 1 3/4 acres, and Ike's entrance caused a mob scene. The President's first stop was at a 5O-ft. bower of white tulips, English boxwood, azaleas, dogwood and rhododendron, which had been planted in honor of Mamie and would be transplanted intact to the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg, Pa. Ike was particularly impressed by a shoulder-high serpentine wall that enclosed the garden; he had never seen one before.*

After admiring the garden, the President accepted a dozen long-stemmed roses for Mamie, which he turned over to a Secret Service man. When the man left to put the flowers in the car, an indignant garden clubber let out a yelp. "Where's he going with our flowers?" she demanded.

Inspecting the floral wonders, Ike admired the azaleas ("I love those") and an enormous (3 ft. across) African violet, fingered some rare orchids, tossed seven quarters in a series of wishing ponds, accepted a boutonniere. His progress was difficult, what with the enveloping reporters and photographers, officials and a fluttering brood of dowagers pleading that the flowers be spared. When a photographer slipped ankle-deep into a pond, a glaring garden clubber cried, "Shame!"

"By Gum!" At an exhibit of tropical plants, the President encountered the alligator, a three-footer from Florida. When the attendant said that the grinning reptile would bite, the President backed up. "Well," he said, "he's not going to bite me, by gum."

As he was leaving the armory, the President paused to greet two Catholic Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who told him, "We say a prayer for you every night, Mr. President." Replied Ike: "Thank you very much. I need them."

Last week the President also:

P: Disclosed at his press conference that the U.S. would probably use tactical atomic weapons in a major military action. "In any combat where these things are used on strictly military targets for strictly military purposes," he said, "I see no reason why they shouldn't be used just exactly as you would use a bullet or anything else."

P: Nominated Allen Whitfield, a Des Moines lawyer and a Republican, to be a member of the Atomic Energy Commission, succeeding Joseph Campbell, who has been named head of the General Accounting Office.

P: Asked Congress for $12 million to develop emergency civil-defense plans against H-bomb attacks and fall-outs.

P: Admired Senator George Bender's St. Patrick's Day necktie--a deep green foulard bearing the presidential seal--and promptly traded his own tie (brown, with a trace of green) for Bender's.

P: Gave up in his fight with White House squirrels, which have been digging up the velvet surface of his putting green. An ultrasonic whistle, box traps and a tape recording of dog and cat noises all failed to conquer the animals, and the President admitted that he had at last lost a campaign.

*Also an admirer of the serpentine wall was another President, Thomas Jefferson. After seeing "ribbon walls" in England, Jefferson reproduced them at the University of Virginia because they were 1) esthetically pleasing, and 2) structurally stronger than straight walls of the same width.

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