THE PRESIDENCY: Prelude to History

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The President of the U. S. is a big man, huge-shouldered and long-armed, with sausage-size fingers on his freckled, hairy hands. His greying hair is thin, little hollows dwell on his massive temples, brown shadows sit under his deep, narrow-set eyes, and two big seams hook down from his clear-cut nose to make grim parentheses around his mouth.

Last week he looked tired. But weariness sat on him lightly, like a film of ash over a smoldering fire. Powerful, solid, imperturbable, he sat at his desk with an air of utter confidence—the...