The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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WASHINGTON, Monday—I came down alone on the train from New York yesterday and had a busy time with two good fat envelopes of mail which Mrs. Scheider sent on to New York so I should not be unoccupied on my return trip! I had only three interruptions. One little girl asked for an autograph. As I saw no other autograph seekers in sight, I signed her book, telling her that that was not my custom in public places, because ordinarily more books seem to spring out of the ether!

Then a little boy brought a very pretty little girl about four years old to stand beside me. She was so overcome with shyness she could not speak, so our conversation was somewhat one-sided. Finally, just before reaching Washington, a French couple, delegates to the International Textile Conference, introduced themelves and we had a few minutes conversation on the importance of their mission to Washington. I shall hope to see them again when the entire conference is invited to tea at the White House on Thursday.

A very small supper party which Johnny left in time to reach the theatre for the beginning of the Hasty Pudding show. Mr. Freed and Mr. Aubrey Williams were so busy talking to my husband that I did not like to break up the conversation too quickly, and we were a little late in getting over to the Belasco Theatre. However, what we did see was most entertaining, and we enjoyed the gentlemen who were ladies even though their figures and their legs were not entirely convincing!

Today has been a most uninviting day out of doors and perhaps it is just as well that the rain has come down in sheets because I did not begin to finish the mail that I should have done yesterday, and so I have more than enough to do at my desk today.

A press conference at eleven, then two gentlemen to discuss a certain phase of the situation in the coal fields which was really most interesting. One of them will return to dinner to talk to my husband as he seems to have so much that is really new to me to say. Then a group of seventy-odd belonging to a Methodist Church Choir and orchestra brought by Mrs. Eicher, wife of a congressman from Iowa. It seemed a long ways for them to have come by bus, but they certainly are making good use of their time here. The youngest member of the group told me that he played the violin but he looked rather tired, which I gather is probably due to the fact that Mrs. Eicher told me she was a strenuous sightseer and she was evidently seeing that they missed nothing worth seeing in the City. Perhaps the poor boy thought that playing the violin easier than seeing new sights!

The Cabinet Ladies who are in town lunched with me and we decided on our annual picnic to the Senate Ladies in May. From that time on I have devoted myself to a desk which still looks as though it would never be free from papers, though I have filled several good sized baskets and returned them to Mrs. Scheider's desk.

E.R.


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 6, 1937

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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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 June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated April 5, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 5 April 1937, AERP, FDRL