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

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WASHINGTON, Friday—Back in the White House yesterday and after a hurried greeting of my guests, Sir Arthur and Lady Willert, and my son, Franklin, Junior, I dashed over to the hospital to see Ethel du Pont. The poor child has just got over to the worst days and was feeling particularly aggrieved because some really kindly soul had written a letter which she received yesterday morning, demanding to know why she and Franklin spent so much time in the hospital! "As though we really wanted to be ill," said Ethel. I smiled for she will have to learn that there are people in this world who love a chance to say something disagreeable but they are far outbalanced by the number of people who go far out of their way to do and say kind things!

After that I had to bid goodbye to the Cuban Ambassador and his daughter, have one of the regular teas, followed by a reception for the District Bryn Mawr Club and their national council which was meeting here. Then a group of girl scouts arrived amongst them the granddaughter of an old acquaintance of mine in New York City, Mrs. John Marshall Gallagher.

Last night Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Blumenthal dined with us as he was most anxious to tell the President about some of his ideas on housing and feeding for the low income group. Sir Arthur and Lady Willert contributed a great deal of interest to the discussion because of their knowledge of the English and Continental conditions.

I had to do a little real housekeeping this morning because I discovered that my husband did not like the breakfasts and lunches that he has been getting! It therefore behooves Mrs. Nesbitt and myself to scurry around and get some new ideas.

After that I went ridding, dropped in to see Ethel for a while and was happy to find her already looking better. Then I went to a luncheon called by Mrs. John Allan Dougherty to form a woman's auxiliary to assist Major Brown in his work in the Boys Club of the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia. They have over four thousand boys using their three club houses and they have acquired the land and are planning a new club house for colored boys. It has proved a tremendous help in preventing juvenile delinquency and wherever there is a club house the percentage of arrests has fallen greatly. I am heartily in sympathy with the work which they are doing and I think we all realize how important work of this kind is when a man like Mr. Sanford Bates will leave his prison work to take the chairmanship of the Association of Boys Clubs throughout the United States. I asked if the police women were going to organize clubs for girls and was told that of course they did not have quite the same difficulty with girls since they did not hang around corners and form gangs. I can not help feeling, however, that much good could be done by such clubs for girls and hope we can have them before long.

E.R.


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 27, 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.

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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 February 26, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 26 February 1937, AERP, FDRL