To those who remember him in press conferences during his first administration Mr, Roosevelt appears today an older and a wiser man, though he has not aged so noticeably as some recent photographs would suggest His hair has thinned more than would be expected of most men during seven years. Where he parts it on the left side, a line of uncovered scalp runs from the front straight back to the crown and can be peered through when it has been freshly combed. Round the temples the hair has long been white.
Round the eyes specially the President has begun to show his age. There the fatigue shows first, and there his physician, Rear Admiral Ross T. McIntire, finds a sure sign that itis time to get Mr. Roosevelt away from his desk for a week-end or a fortnight occasionally. His face, although more deeply lined, has lost none of its fullness. In fact to those used to seeing him at close range twice a week the change that has come with the years has been so gradual that they have to think back several years to appreciate the difference. It is to those returning to Washington after an absence of several months that the aging process is so noticeable as to be a first impression.
Now more than formerly the President is given to drumming his desk or the arm of his chair and seems less inclined to accommodate questioners at his press conferences. Still, his mannerisms have undergone slight change since 1933. He laughs as readily today as then and still enjoys the racy humour of which he is a master; and if he is inclined to become impatient at what seem to be silly and futile queries from reporters, they are ready enough to attribute it to the added strain imposed by the war.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.