The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
NOVEMBER 10, 1936
[This column has emendations. View original version]
CHICAGO, Monday—Just before election I had a letter from the wife of the old man in the Bronx, who though ninety years old and very ill, was trying so hard to keep alive to cast his vote on November third for the President. She told me that this last wish had not been granted as he had passed away before that date.
In the same mail came a letter from another gentleman telling me that he had been touched by the story in my column but he wished me to know that there was another ninety year old gentleman in the Bronx, in very good health, a Democrat and of good democratic antecedents, who had assembled sixty seven of his friends and had them properly registered in order that they might cast their votes for the Republican candidate. Just why he should have taken so much trouble to send me this word, I do not know unless he wished me to realize that the President's one faithful adherent was far out balanced by the number of Democrats who did not share his views.
The only point of interest as far as I am concerned is that the story proves again how good it is to live in a country where you are free to make up your own mind and do as you choose in the privacy of the voting booth, and in the end the will of the majority is carried out peacefully.
Mrs. Scheider and I left Washington yesterday at 3 p.m. and were met in North Philadelphia by Mrs. Donner Roosevelt and our small grandson, Bill. We went home with them for an early supper, Bill showing me with pride his toys and his own drawings of animals which are pinned on the wall over his bed. We had to leave at seven-twenty for Temple University and I think Bill was rather lonely at seeing us depart for he suggested to Mrs. Scheider who had been playing with him that she might remain and let Mummie and Grannie go!
Something peculiar happened to the microphone at Temple University and it went on and off in a manner which must have made the audience more interested in what was going to happen next to my voice than in what that voice was saying! However, they were a most attentive and kindly audience When it was over and the press came up to see me I was much amused to find a young man doing duty for a lady reporter. He asked me rather nervously about my dress, about the gold ornament which I wore and prefaced each remark by saying that this was not in his line. I think it is rather a good thing to have a gentleman occasionally carry a woman's assignment. They may discover that it is not so easy to write in an interesting way about these subjects which are so frequently assigned to women!
We must have been weary last night when we got on the train at eleven p.m. for we did not get up this morning until an unconscionably late hour and since then we have been reading and looking at the landscape which to my great surprise shows patches of snow here and there.
E.R.
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Persons
- Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945 [ index ]
American politician; 32nd President of the United States
[ ERPP bio | LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | ANB ] - Roosevelt, William Donner, 1932-2003 [ index ]
ER grandschild
[ ISNI | VIAF ] - Thompson, Malvina, 1893-1953 [ index ]
ER's secretary
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ] - Winsor, Elizabeth Browning Donner, 1911-1980 [ index ]
Spouse of Elliott Roosevelt
Geographic
- [ index ] Chicago (Ill., United States)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 10, 1936
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.
TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.
XML master last modified on May 2, 2022.
HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.
TMsd, 9 November 1936, AERP, FDRL