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

      

NEW YORK, Thursday—On Monday night I had the pleasure of seeing "La Boheme." It was a perfectly delightful evening, and Victoria de los Angeles quite evidently was the audience's favorite. She received a real ovation.

Not having been too often to the opera of late, each production that I see gives me great pleasure by the freshness of the acting. The scenery was charming the other night and I have seldom listened to a more perfect blending of the orchestra and the voices.

At noon on Tuesday I went to Brooklyn to speak at the international club of the engineering school of the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. This group is composed of foreign students and of as many American students as they can get to join them. They were particularly interested in the Point 4 program, since most of them, through their work later, are likely to come in contact with many other countries of the world. Some of these students may be connected with United Nations programs or Point 4 programs, so they are most interested to know what is happening all over the world.

I had luncheon after the hour's meeting with Harry S. Rogers, president of the school, and some of the faculty and the student officers of the organization.

Then my young Indian friend, who had called for me in Manhattan, brought me back. He amused me by telling me that the heart of New York was really the Heights in Brooklyn. It was much better, said my young friend, to live where you could look out on the water and the Statue of Liberty and the lights of Manhattan. Since all subways crossed within one or two blocks of the Heights why live on Park Avenue when you could live in Brooklyn, have a fine view and reach any part of New York City in 10 minutes or so.

His enthusiasm was so great that I was almost persuaded to believe him, and instead of searching for an apartment in Manhattan I thought I should try to see what could be found in some of the old houses with a view in Brooklyn. The only one I have been in for years is the home of my old friend, Mrs. William H. Good, and hers is one of the most charming, old-fashioned houses I have ever visited.

In the evening I went to the dinner given by the friends of Brandeis University. It was very encouraging to see how really interested this group, which has come together regularly during the past four years and has followed the growth of the university with care, has become in every new development. Great enthusiasm burst forth when it was announced that this year Brandeis defeated the Army in basketball and that next year the team will play a number of the top universities.

Brandeis has even been accused of overemphasizing athletics, but, judging by the standing of the students, that is a false accusation. Fifty-five of their last year's graduates applied for entrance into ranking graduate schools in the East and all 55 were accepted. This would not have been the case if at any point their academic education had been neglected for athletics.

Brandeis is an exciting adventure in education and I think everyone present was glad to feel they had a part in the development of this new university.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 16, 1953

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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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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