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

      

HYDE PARK, Monday—After going to church yesterday I went with my cousin, Mrs. W. Forbes Morgan, and her two children to the library to meet a group of young people from Rockford College in Illinois. This school regularly sends a group for a two-weeks seminar to the United Nations, and having a free day yesterday they came up to go through the house and the library. They had not appeared at the hour I had expected them, so I went on to my own cottage. Just as we were going into the house the telephone rang and I was told that they had just arrived. So, little Barbara Morgan and I turned around and went back again.

Barbara is only eight years old, but when the college youngsters inquired about the Declaration of Human Rights and I launched forth in an explanation of what the work of the commission had been and what the Declaration and the Covenant actually were, she listened as attentively as any of the grownups. I could not help wondering whether at some future time we would hear some very startling facts on the subject of human rights. I often find that what a child understands and retains is a lesson in the way most of us handle the subject we are talking about.

We were all photographed together after our conversation came to an end. Then Barbara and I drove back to greet my luncheon guests who had all dutifully waited for me.

The little dogs, smelling roast beef in the kitchen, met me with glee and told me clearly with persistent barks that at Sunday lunch roast beef was meant for them as well as for those who sat at the table.

A cartoonist has kindly sent me a drawing of Fala and another dog holding a conversation. Underneath he writes, "Aw, come on, Fala, don't take it so hard. Maybe the 'Mrs.' will mention you in 'My Day' sometime real soon when you didn't do something wrong."

Fala nearly always behaves with exemplary dignity and kindness, and it is rare that we have to reprove him. His one fault, I understand, is a characteristic of his nationality. He is at times somewhat stubborn and insistent on going his own way. Even Tamas, who is more amenable than Fala, will sometimes show signs of that characteristic.

As we took our usual early morning walk this morning before breakfast Tamas dashed off into the woods, and I think found some kind of frozen animal. I was not, however, going to follow him into the swamp, and as he paid no attention to my calls, I proceeded down the road, leaving him behind. In a few minutes he appeared panting and with an expression of great self-satisfaction. And I have been wondering all day what really happened while he was being disobedient.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC., REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Morgan, Barbara Livingston, 1941-2010 [ index ]
         Daughter of ER cousin William Forbes Morgan, III
  • Morgan, William Forbes, III, 1907-1945 [ index ]
         American investment banker and soldier; ER cousin (son of ER aunt Edith Livingston Hall Forbes-Morgan)
Organizations
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]
Other Terms and Topics


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 10, 1950

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

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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  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • 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.

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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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