Further Exploits

The trout season neared its close in Wisconsin. President Coolidge learned that trout feed by night as hungrily as in the daytime. He took up fishing after dinner and one evening stayed out until nearly midnight. Another day he caused his gear to be assembled and boarded a special train for Lewis, Wis., some 90 miles away, where lives Charles E. Lewis, Minneapolis broker. The Lewis estate on Seven Pines Creek, like the Pierce estate on the Brule, has its own trout hatcheries in spring-fed ponds. The Presidential catch was 137 (in two sessions). While the President fished, Mrs. Coolidge and John Coolidge took a swim in the Lewis swimming pool. Mrs. Coolidge said it was the most fun she had this summer.

On a rainy day at Brule, the President shot a shotgun at sailing clay pigeons and had the satisfaction of seeing 24 out of 25 break in mid-air--a surprising score for one new to trapshooting.* At Lewis, occurred a feat even more surprising. As their fishing boat slipped around a bend in the stream, President Coolidge, Broker Lewis and Secret Service Man Walter Ferguson beheld a tall brown crane standing on one leg in the water, 20 yards away. Cranes eat trout. Broker Lewis pays a bounty of $2 for each crane killed on his acres.

"Ferguson," said the President, "give me your pistol."

There was a crashing report and the crane crumpled into the water, its wing broken. President Coolidge handed back the weapon smiling. Another Secret Service man bashed the wounded bird over the head, carried it home. The President waived the bounty.

P:It was reported that President Coolidge would leave Brule on Sept. 11, go to Washton, then visit New England.

P: John Coolidge, after spending a weekend at Madison, Wis., as guest of President Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin, was asked how he passes the time at Cedar Island Lodge. Said he: "Eat breakfast. Take a little walk. Read. Eat lunch. Walk. Read. Eat dinner. Walk. Read. Go to bed."

P: One O. E. Olund of Fergus Falls, Minn., wrote and offered John Coolidge a position in his National Bank. John Coolidge declined; said he already had accepted a position; did not say what position.

P: President Coolidge summoned and conferred with Major General Charles Pelot Summerall, chief of Staff of the Army.

P: President Coolidge appointed William Fairfield Whiting, Holyoke, Mass., paper manufacturer, to succeed Herbert Clark Hoover as Secretary of Commerce (see THE CABINET).

Accepting Mr. Hoover's resignation the President telegraphed:

"Your resignation as Secretary of Commerce tendered some time ago is hereby accepted. I wish to express to you my appreciation of the character of the service you have rendered in that office. It has been of great benefit to the commercial life of the nation and has given a new impetus to our entire business structure.

"You have gained a knowledge of the mechanics of business and government that is unsurpassed. It will always be a satisfaction to me to have had the benefit of your wise counsel in meeting the problems which have arisen during my administration. My best wishes will always attend you in the broader field to which you have been called."

* Near Cincinnati lately, on the estate of Julius Fleischmann Jr., a Mrs. Rockefeller tried trapshooting for the first time. She was surprised and pleased to see one "bird" after another disintegrate as fast and often as she pulled trigger. Those present kept it a secret from Mrs. Rockefeller that behind her while she was shooting stood a crack shot who, each time she cried, "Pull," took aim at the sailing pigeons, waited, shot when she did. Not even persons long used to shooting shotguns can detect by ear the shooting of another shotgun almost simultaneously with their own.