Military Secret

Up the grey, placid Hudson, the thin February sun warmed the riverbend known for three centuries as Long Reach. The wind of the thaw, mild and clean-smelling, searched through the ancient maples and the baby spruce over the 1,200 acres.

High above the river the big stone-and-stucco mansion house stood in its park, dignified, comfortable, a little shabby. Trees, paths, lawns and gardens, groomed carefully by five generations of gardeners, looked dull now in the winter tag-end. But inside the spacious mansion at Hyde Park there was warmth and gayety, perhaps in the flowered cretonne drawing-room—where afternoon coffee is a daily ritual.

Last week, throughout the historic period of grinding friction between the President and Congress, the U.S. knew only that the President was “out of the city.” He often rests for days at a time at Hyde Park. He may or may not have been there last week. For much of the time the U.S. doesn’t know where the President is.