[originaltext] Lyndon B. Johnson was the 8th Vice president of the United St

Lyndon B. Johnson was the 8th Vice president of the United States to take the place of a President who died in office, and he was surely one of the most colorful.
    Johnson came to Washington in 1930 as a congressional secretary, and he spent the next 38 years in the Nation’s Capital. Despite all this time away from his native Texas, he never lost the speech or manners of his western, rural home. He told his close friends that his happiest times were when he was vacationing at his ranch in Johnson City, Texas, or walking along a dirty road. Much of his behavior seemed more suited for the ranch than for the more formal atmosphere of a cosmopolitan city.
    Johnson kept two dogs at the White House, and he loved to play with them. Once when reporters and photographers asked to be allowed to take pictures of the President playing with his pets, Johnson surprised everyone by picking up one of the animals by its ears. People were shocked. The President of the United States was laughing while a 20-pound dog dangled by the tips of its ears.