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During her twelve years in the White House. Eleanor Roosevelt had enjoyed dozens of small, domestic triumphs. She had vanquished the rats, hardy rodents whose forebears had scuttled through the walls since U.S. Grant's day. Under her supervision rusty drains had been replaced, dumbwaiters installed, glass shower stalls set up in the old-fashioned bathrooms. Last week she wrote for her column: "I always have a pride in the beauty of the rooms. . . . Yesterday I took Mrs. Truman all through the house. It was good to find [her] so appreciative...

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