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"A Good Show/' At dusk the files were still tramping by when the President broke off and returned to the White House to find a tea for thousands in progress on the main floor. Even some Republicans attended—Hoover Secretaries Hurley and Doak, "to pay respects," they explained. Avoiding the throng, President Roosevelt went up to the second-floor study where his whole Cabinet, confirmed a few hours before by the Senate, was assembled to be sworn in. Supreme Court Justice Cardozo, a New Yorker, administered oaths while the President sat at a desk and listened to the chorus of "I do's." Then he gave each Secretary a freshly-signed commission and a handshake. Miss Perkins, as head of the Labor Department, was ready to be addressed as "Madame Secretary." "Just a family party—and a good show," chuckled Mr. Roosevelt as he went down to the Red Room to keep an old promise and greet 13 crippled youngsters from Warm Springs.
To Bed. That night 72 Roosevelts & kin dined at the White House. Republican Alice Roosevelt Longworth broke bread with her Democratic fifth cousin. Afterwards the First Lady took five carloads of relatives to the Inaugural Ball. John, her youngest son, escorted Barbara Gushing, sister of his brother James's wife. Around the floor of the Washington Auditorium they shuffled with 6,000 other dancers while 2.000 oldsters watched from boxes. The proceeds went to charity.
The President stayed quietly in his upstairs study, talking over the events of his biggest day with his old crony-Secretary Louis Howe. At 10:30 p.m. he stood up. yawned, went peacefully to bed.