“To reform the system Roosevelt introduced new examinations for policemen. As a result, sixteen hundred qualified men were given jobs as officers. Within two years, about two-fifths of all patrolmen were placed under the revamped civil service, or about four times the previous number of protected jobholders. The qualifying examinations were not onerous. An applicant had to know how to spell, to write a good letter, to do basic arithmetic, and to have some acquaintance with history and geography. To those complaining about the unfairness of the test, Roosevelt made public several examples of failing replies that would-be patrolmen had offered. In answer to the question “What are the five New England states?” a man wrote, “Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cork.” Another applicant who failed wrote the word paper in answer to “Upon what instrument is the government of the United States founded?” One applicant hoped to flatter Roosevelt by replying “President Roosevelt” when asked who would perform the duties of the mayor if he were absent or disabled.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
Tag: Quick Quotes (Page 1 of 6)
“Roosevelt loved new inventions, becoming the first president to travel in a submarine and on an airplane.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
“[Roosevelt] wrote to his sister Coni at the time that Edith “was sweet in many different things … I don’t think even I had known how wonderfully good and unselfish she was; she is naturally reserved and finds it especially hard to express her feelings on paper.” In later years he wrote that Edith had made the “real happiness” in his life.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
After only a few short years of marriage, Roosevelt’s first wife, Alice, died of kidney disease. She had just given birth to their first baby, Alice Lee, who was named for her mother. A year later, Roosevelt wrote this tribute to his dead wife:
“I … loved her as soon as I saw her sweet, fair young face … We spent three years of happiness such as rarely comes to a man or woman … Fair, pure, and joyous as a maiden; loving, tender, and happy as a young wife; when she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be but just begun, and when the years seemed so bright before her – then by a strange and terrible fate, death came to her. And when my heart’s dearest died, the light went from my life forever.”
Theodore Roosevelt, as quoted in Lion in the White house, Aida D. Donald
“For him the bedrock of politics was morality, and business practices that bilked citizens were immoral. Looking back at those times in his autobiography, Roosevelt wrote that ‘honesty … and decency … and administrative efficiency are the prime requisites for a legislator.'”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
“In getting out the vote, Roosevelt was a human steam engine in a pince-nez, and he constantly stressed his distance from party bosses and corrupt interests.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
I love this word picture in the Bible. Egypt is described as “the iron furnace”.
But the LORD hath taken you, and brought your forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
(Deuteronomy 4:20, KVJ)
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and that He inspired every word therein. I also believe He wants us to desire to read His Word. I would like to think that He put this word picture in Deuteronomy for me because He knew that one day I would read this chapter, find this picture, and smile.
What small thing has made you smile today?
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
A Quatrain by Rumi, Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
“He often put frogs under his hat, letting them leap out as he saluted friends on the street, dropped snakes in water glasses at the dinner table, and hid odd creatures in the icebox.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
“Ryan was watching something he had never seen before, men from two different places and two very different cultures trying to find common ground. Both sides were reaching out, seeking similarities of character and experience, building a foundation for understanding. This was more than interesting. It was touching. Ryan wondered how difficult it was for the Soviets. Probably harder than anything he had ever done – their bridges were burned. They had cast themselves away from everything they had known, trusting that what they found would be better. Ryan hoped they would succeed and make their transition from Communism to freedom. In the past two days he had come to realize what courage it took for men to defect. Facing a gun in a missile room was a small matter compared with walking away from one’s whole life. It was strange how easily Americans put on their freedoms. How difficult would it be for these men who had risked their lives to adapt to something that men like Ryan so rarely appreciated? It was people like these who had built the American Dream, and people like these who were needed to maintain it. It was odd that such men should come from the Soviet Union. Or perhaps not so odd, Ryan thought, listening to the conversation going back and forth in front of him.”
Jack Ryan, The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy