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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Al Smith was the same way. He had the strength of a horse, but he was put to it at times to make more speeches than a man could presumably make in one day. When he got going, he was excited too. I don't mean to say that he was agitated, but there was a certain excitement. He was stimulated. He thought well on his feet. Practically everybody who thinks well on his feet has a very responsive adrenal system.

I didn't go to the Houston convention of 1928. Those were years of personal difficulties, troubles and illness. My mother had a stroke and was living with me. My husband was sick. My child was little. I really don't know why I didn't go, but I think it was just one of those things that was just too much. There was nothing that I felt called upon to do, and I hardly knew where Houston was.

Radio was new in those days - very new. The loudspeaker was even newer on radio. The original radio had earphones that you put on. I never owned a radio in my entire life. To this day I don't own a radio. But in the apartment house in which I lived, there was a narrow passageway between that house and the next apartment house - the way they are in the old New York apartment houses.





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