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

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WASHINGTON, April 1—Last evening my daughter, son-in-law and a friend dined with me, after which we spent a few minutes watching the dancing of a young girl in whom I am interested. We then went to a play called, "Love On The Dole", which is based on Walter Greenwood's novel.

Both the novel and the play deal with a situation in England which is, however, so close to us that one cannot help but be stirred by it. It is tragic, of course, and a challenge to our civilization.

The father is remarkably well played and his cry for work still lingers in my ears. How many men have felt as he does! The three old women in the play are familiar sights in the slums of any big industrial city.

All the characters are well done—such as the boy who got married and was put out by his father for marrying; and the girl who lost her lover and, turning reckless, decided to take what she could of the material things, killing her real self and yet giving her dearly bought cash for the happiness of those she loved.

They are all old stories to many of us perhaps, but none the less heart-breaking. I think, when presented with such force and ability, they are a very valuable contribution to social thinking. When we came out I was very glad we had been to the frivolous dancing before the play, as it would have been hard to adjust one's trend of thought without it.

This morning I did a few errands and left on the 11.30 train for Washington. I found the trip much too short for I was hardly able to go through the mail before we were pulling into the Washington Station. My grandchildren met me, and we went directly to the hospital to ask after a friend's little boy who had just had a mastoid operation.

On reaching the White House I found Mrs. Louis Hewe and Mrs. Charles Fayerweather, of New Lebanon, New York, waiting for me. In a few minutes we will all have tea, and then the grandchildren and I will read a while before their bedtime.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Washington (D.C., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 2, 1936

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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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text 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 UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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