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

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WASHINGTON, Thursday—An amusing little incident occurred the other day in New York City. As I came out after visiting my aunt, I entered a taxicab from which a young man was just alighting. At the next red light, the taximan said:

"You are Mrs. Roosevelt, aren't you? I always heard that you went about alone but I never did believe it. I just brought that young gentleman from Wall Street. He says that it is very slow down there and it will be as long as Mr. Roosevelt is in Washington. It's true that I was making more money in '29, just like the Wall Street fellows, I guess, but then things were very bad for a while and there were a lot of breadlines. I am doing better now, though not as well as in '29. But the breadlines are gone, so I'm quite contented because I think more people are doing better."

It seems to me as though people were doing a good deal of thinking these days along social lines, which is, I believe, a good sign.

Yesterday I enjoyed the outdoor sculpture show at Park Avenue and 39th Street very much. It is well worth seeing and the sculptors are quite right that their work should be shown out of doors. As you go in, you face a bear done by Mr. Paul Manship. It is not a very terrifying bear, in fact he looks like a benevolent and playful cub and seems to welcome guests. One other animal appealed to me very much—a delightful pig done by Mrs. Edward Greenbaum.

There are two statues of Lincoln. One of Lincoln as a young man is most appealing and the head is very beautiful. Then there is a smaller one of Lincoln on horseback with his shawl around him—the circuit rider going from court to court, I imagine, and feeling a trifle cold and dejected. Nevertheless, the face is very fine.

The cold weather has kept people from going to this exhibition in as great numbers as last year, but I hope if the sun shines, more and more people will go.

My day has been spent as follows: a press conference at 11:00, a few minutes with Dorothy Ducas beforehand. She has been to Warm Springs, Georgia, for the first time and has come back with enthusiasm for all she has seen. At the end of the press conference, a few minutes talk with a young English newspaper woman who is over here to familiarize herself, I imagine, with the scene which will greet her King and Queen, so that she may write about it more graphically. At noon I went to the Congressional Club breakfast, where Rose Bampton gave a beautiful program. I love to hear her sing. From there I went to the Church Women's League Luncheon and spent a very brief time with them, and now I am preparing to meet the Colonial Dames.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1939, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 5, 1939

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

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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.

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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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