Professor Hamilton's Diary: Sept. 9, 1935

The painters arrive and he prepares for winter; FDR deplores violence in politics

Professor Hamilton continued laboring around the house today. He “worked in cellar, cleaning floors & furnace.” The painter, Mr. Neuroth, arrived mid-morning and began painting the walls. The professor left home for a short time to have his car greased — yet again! — and the oil changed, and in the evening a load of firewood he had ordered was delivered.

He seems to be battening down the hatches for winter, though fall had not yet arrived. The high on Sunday in Reading had been a balmy 78 degrees, but the low was 57, so there was definitely a bit of a nip in the air that would make a fire feel good in the evening.

Newspapers were consumed with the news of Sen. Huey P. Long’s fight for life in Baton Rouge, where he lay unconscious after getting four transfusions for a gunshot wound. President Roosevelt sent a message of condolence to Mrs. Long and issued a brief statement deploring the violence of the assassination attempt, but said nothing else about the troublesome Long, who had been a thorn in his side in some time and was expected to challenge him for the presidency in 1936.

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The photo of Mrs. Long and her daughter, Rose, was clipped from the Sept. 10 Reading Times via newspapers.com. The huge headline read, “HUEY LONG DYING.”