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to wonder why he went off with Astor. One of them thought up the idea that he got a real rest because there was no mental strain. However, he never shared anything that was serious, important, significant, as distinct from ambition, with these people. There were darn few close personal friends.

Al Smith was different. In the first place, he was Irish and he had that instinct for association and intimacy with an awful lot of people that the village Irish have. They don't have any reserves. Alfred had very few reserves. He learned to have them later on in life. I suppose he was stung here and there and learned out of his political judgment of people not to give his heart to everybody who came along. That natural Irish intimacy and friendliness, which seems to me to go to extremes in telling everybody you know, was not offending to him.

Smith's oldest boy married a floozy upstate. Al was good about it. Alfred, the oldest boy, was a kind of weak character. He was very young. I don't remember whether Al was Governor then or not. If he wasn't, it was just after he got through. He was in New York City. The boy had been up at the State Fair or something in Syracuse. At the State Fair in Syracuse he met a girl he'd never met before. They had a bang-up gay time for a couple of days. Then they went to a justice of the peace and got married. The news was