THE PRESIDENCY: Weekend Mystery

It reminded newsmen of the Roosevelt era, when the President's whereabouts were cloaked for days in a wartime security blackout. White House Secretary Charlie Ross had assured them that Harry Truman was hard at work in his study.

But soon a contingent of Secret Service men slipped out of the White House.

Then the operator reported that Secretary Ross's phone did not answer.

A little later the news ticker chattered out a story from nearby Frederick, Md.

A young marine had just passed through.

He had been picked up along the road by an affable man in a big open car, had chatted with him about the capture of Iwo Jima, where he had been wounded.

Reporters remembered that the Alfalfa Club was having its annual summer picnic at Frederick that day. They called the estate of former Ohio Representative Joseph H. Himes. Sure enough, the President, Charlie Ross and Senate Secretary Les Biffle were all on hand, hobnobbing with their 200 fellow club members (Washington officials, businessmen, newsmen).

Like any other tired executive, Harry Truman had been glad to escape for a few hours. He had spent a monotonous week plowing through his workbaskets and the daily round of presidential chores. After the picnic, he spent the rest of the week end at Franklin Roosevelt's old Shangri-La hideout at Thurmont, Md.