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of the Southwest--he had said the night before, “I like scenes of the Southwest, but not Indians!”--that we try to get Remingtons and Russells which were not paintings of Indians, as they are the most famous painters of scenes of the Southwest.

Wouldn't Benton also be in that area?

I've never seen any landscapes by him. Oh, yes, I've seen one. I don't think Benton is realistic enough for him in his present stage. Mrs. Johnson told me that as they traveled in the last two years he had bought some pictures in every country that he went to, inexpensive but contemporary, and that he enjoyed doing this very much. Actually, he has no idea of the history of painting, American or any other, but when he came to see me in New York for a cocktail party I gave for him just after he became Vice President, he admired the pictures and the use of them in my house very much. And I think it was this that made him and Mrs. Johnson want me to come down and talk to them about how to make the White House look attractive.

Actually they knew more or less what they wanted, but they wanted suggestions in a kind of concurrence from me about it, or else they weren't sure of what they wanted and they felt maybe I'd suggest something that would be a solution. Now, Mrs. Johnson did want a Mary Cassatt that had been loaned by one of the museums and which had been returned by Mrs. Kennedy--Mrs. Kennedy had returned all the pictures that had been loaned by museums before she moved out of the White House so that Mrs.