Class 
 
 Book 
 
 Gopyr$itN°. 
 
 COPYKIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
'. 
 
ROOSEVELT 
 
 THE 
 
 HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 BY 
 
 BRADLEY GILMAN 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
 PHOTOGRAPHS i 
 
 "Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport 
 the world affords." 
 
 — Theodobe Roosevelt. 
 
 N ON-REFEFO l 
 
 caWVAO • Q3S 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1921 
 
C-Ol 
 
 Copyright, 1921, 
 By Little, Brown, and Company, 
 
 All rights reserved 
 Published October, 1921 
 
 BCU630287 
 
 V 
 
 OCT 25 1921 
 
 PltlNTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA 
 
 
 
TO 
 M. R. F. G. 
 
 MY FELLOW TRAVELER, WHOSE INTEL- 
 LIGENT SYMPATHY HAS BEEN TO ME 
 THE VERY BREATH OF LIFE, 
 I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 
 
CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he 
 
 That every man in arms should wish to be? 
 
 — It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought 
 
 Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 
 
 Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: 
 
 Whose high endeavours are an inward light 
 
 That makes the path before him always bright: 
 
 Who, with a natural instinct to discern 
 
 What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn; 
 
 Who, doomed to go in company with Pain, 
 And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train! 
 Turns his necessity to glorious gain; 
 
 'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends 
 Upon that law as on the best of friends; 
 
 He labours good on good to fix, and owes 
 To virtue every triumph that he knows: 
 — Who, if he rise to station of command, 
 Rises by open means; and there will stand 
 On honourable terms, or else retire, 
 And in himself possess his own desire; 
 Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
 Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim. 
 
 — He who, though thus endued as with a sense 
 
 And faculty for storm and turbulence, 
 
 Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans 
 
 To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes. 
 
 — William Wordsworth. 
 

PREFACE 
 
 My old-time Professor of English, at Harvard, 
 Francis J. Child, once said to me, "Sonnets are 
 things which everybody writes and nobody reads." 
 Be that as it may, I fear that Prefaces are things 
 which every author writes and few people read. 
 In truth, most authors, I suspect, write two pref- 
 aces. The first one when they square themselves 
 to their task and desire to "sketch in" their plan 
 and purpose. When they have finished their work, 
 they tear up this written preface and write a new 
 one, telling what they believe they have accom- 
 plished. 
 
 This has been my own course of procedure. My 
 preliminary preface is in the wastebasket. And 
 now, surveying my completed work, what do I find ? 
 Yes, and what do I wish my readers to find ? 
 
 I have tried to analyze the character of my col- 
 lege classmate, Theodore Roosevelt, and to inter- 
 pret him by his words and deeds. I have not hesi- 
 tated to go quite beyond the reportorial field of 
 the chronicler. I have not cared to express a coldly 
 judicial attitude. Rather have I sought to set 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 forth that high estimate of him which I have cher- 
 ished through more than three decades. 
 
 I have sought, by my interpretations of his words 
 and deeds, to strengthen in his friends the love 
 which they already feel. And, by laying bare to 
 the noonday light, so far as I have had the power, 
 his innermost springs of action, I have hoped to 
 transform into sincere friends some who once were 
 honest foes. Following the lead of Wordsworth's 
 immortal conception, I picture Theodore Roose- 
 velt to myself and to my readers as "The Happy 
 Warrior." Joy and combat. Elevation of soul 
 through championship of Right and Truth. Those 
 are the two foci of the ellipse which expresses his 
 strenuous life. 
 
 Several biographies of Roosevelt have already 
 been written, with varying values and from various 
 viewpoints. My method, in this book, has been so 
 personal and intimate that I have needed to seek 
 material from many persons who were his friends 
 and mine. They have responded freely, gener- 
 ously. To them all — and especially to my class- 
 mates of Harvard, '80 — I express my warmest 
 thanks. 
 
 I wish, also, to acknowledge, gratefully, the as- 
 sistance I have received from these books: "Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt, An Autobiography", "Theodore 
 Roosevelt and His Time", 2 vols., by Joseph Buck- 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 lin Bishop, "Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His 
 Children", edited by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, pub- 
 lished by Charles Scribner's Sons; "Theodore 
 Roosevelt", by William Roscoe Thayer, "Theodore 
 Roosevelt, the Logic of His Career", by Charles 
 G. Washburn, "Talks with T. R.", by John J. 
 Leary, Jr., published by Houghton Mifflin Co.; 
 "Life of Theodore Roosevelt", by William Draper 
 Lewis, published by John C. Winston Co.; "Im- 
 pressions of Theodore Roosevelt", by Lawrence F. 
 Abbott, published by Doubleday, Page Co.; "Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt the Citizen", by Jacob Riis, pub- 
 lished by Macmillan Co.; "The Boys' Life of 
 Theodore Roosevelt", by Hermann Hagedorn, Jr., 
 "Bill Sewall's Story of T. R.", by William W. 
 Sewall, published by Harper k Brothers; "Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt the Man", by Ferdinand C. Igle- 
 hart, D.D., published by The Christian Herald. 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Preface 1X 
 
 I The Bending of the Twig 1 
 
 II Bulbs and Blossoms 12 
 
 III The Class of '80 24 
 
 IV More College Days 41 
 
 V A Post-graduate Course 62 
 
 VI "In Cowboy Land" 76 
 
 VII Victors and Spoils 97 
 
 VIII "The Finest" Refined 118 
 
 IX The Happy Warrior . . 133 
 
 X Governor of the Empire State . . . . 164 
 
 XI A Reluctant Vice-president 182 
 
 XII The Presidential Plateau — First Half . 201 
 
 XIII Elected President 229 
 
 XIV His Greatest Victory 276 
 
 XV Laurel and Cypress 300 
 
 XVI Valiant for Truth 328 
 
 Index 361 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Photogravure Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 25 
 
 Roosevelt's home while at Harvard, upper floor 
 
 Ell of House at Cambridge where Dining-Club met 
 
 Members of Dining-Club, at Harvard, 1880 
 
 Members of Dining-Club, 1905 . 
 
 The Rough Rider; From Punch, London 
 
 Roosevelt in the White House 
 
 Letter from Roosevelt to the Author . 
 
 Roosevelt Talks with Kaiser Wilhelm 
 
 At the Polling-Place in Oyster Bay . 
 
 Frazier's Bronze Bas-relief of Roosevelt 
 
 25 
 43 
 43 
 144 
 211 
 236 
 292 
 302 
 347 
 
ROOSEVELT: 
 THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 
 
 My earliest recollection of Theodore Roosevelt is 
 still fresh in my memory. I saw him, really to dis- 
 tinguish him for the first time, in the transept of 
 Memorial Hall, Cambridge, in October, Eighteen 
 Hundred Seventy- Six — our Freshman year. 
 
 I had come out of the dining-hall, and, as I 
 walked toward the outer door, I noticed three fellow 
 students engaged in animated discussion. What 
 the topic was I knew not. But I was struck by the 
 earnestness with which one of them was setting 
 forth some point to the other two, in turn. 
 
 The speaker emphasized his points by vigorous 
 movements of his head and by striking his right fist 
 into his left palm. He was a lad of medium height. 
 His slightly curling hair was a light brown color, 
 and he wore side whiskers. Behind his spectacles I 
 could see his keen blue eyes flash, and he seemed 
 
2 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 entirely absorbed in his speaking. His words 
 poured out rapidly, and he fairly stammered in his 
 eagerness to express his ideas. He frowned as he 
 talked, yet at times he paused and smiled. And I 
 noted, for the first time, his singular yet winning 
 expression as his short upper lip bared his teeth. 
 
 "Who is he ?" I asked of the friend with me. And 
 the reply came, with an amused smile, "Oh, that's 
 Teddy Roosevelt, one of our '80 men." 
 
 From that point of time on through forty years 
 Roosevelt became to me more and more a marked 
 personality. And my acquaintance with him, be- 
 ginning slenderly, enlarged and strengthened until 
 I counted myself, through the great rich years of 
 his mature power and world-wide fame, one of his 
 most appreciative and devoted friends. 
 
 Upon the period of his life which lay back of my 
 first sight of him — the period of his childhood 
 and boyhood — I am compelled, of course, to look 
 through eyes other than my own. Indeed, chiefly — 
 like fellow chroniclers of his life — through his own 
 eyes. For to him, in his "Autobiography", are we 
 mainly indebted for such knowledge as we have of 
 his earliest years. 
 
 Lucius Eugene Chittenden, at one time private 
 secretary to Abraham Lincoln, kept a diary and 
 afterward wrote "Memories" of the great man 
 whom he served. And in them he drops the casual, 
 
THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 3 
 
 naive remark, "Had I known, at the time, how great 
 a man Lincoln was, I could have written far more 
 details about him than I did." 
 
 Would that he had better known the great 
 Emancipator. And would that some friend and 
 associate of the boy Roosevelt could have discerned 
 the unfolding greatness in him and set down ten 
 times the number of incidents and anecdotes, say- 
 ings and conversations, which we treasure, in the all 
 too meager Autobiography. 
 
 I have long been interested in comparing him, 
 the mature statesman and reformer, with himself as 
 the child and the schoolboy. I take the woven 
 fabric of his mature character, as it now lies exposed 
 to the gaze of the whole world, and try to trace the 
 threads of that firm fabric as they run back into 
 his boyhood and childhood. They were tremen- 
 dously strong, many of them, at his age of forty and 
 fifty, but were essentially identical with the slen- 
 derer, more fragile threads of his earlier years. 
 
 Take this "thread" as an illustration. I read, not 
 long ago, an account of his excursion with Earl 
 Grey over English fields and meadows, on Roose- 
 velt's journey back from Africa, and about the 
 pleasure of the two men in their observation of the 
 birds. Earl Grey expressed surprise at Roosevelt's 
 interest in them and his knowledge of them. 
 
 Trace that "thread" farther back along the 
 
4 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 fabric of Roosevelt's life. John Burroughs, an 
 authority on such matters, declared that Roosevelt 
 had remarkable familiarity with the birds of this 
 
 country. 
 
 Still farther back, some of us recall a somewhat 
 heated controversy on nature study which ran the 
 rounds of the newspapers. Roosevelt had ques- 
 tioned some of the interpretations of smaller animal 
 life set forth by a well-known naturalist. I forget 
 which of the two disputants was correct — Roose- 
 velt, I think — but the controversy showed that my 
 former classmate had observed very keenly. 
 
 Thus the thread of nature study runs through- 
 out his entire life. In his college course it was 
 very apparent from his choice of studies. It leaps 
 into humorous prominence in that story of his ride 
 from Boston to Cambridge, in the horse car, having 
 beside him several live lobsters for study in a 
 loosely tied package. One of the lobsters crawled 
 out of the package and up into an adjacent woman 
 passenger's lap, to her great alarm. Recapture 
 and apologies followed. But there was the thread 
 of the naturalist running through the incident. 
 
 Back runs the naturalist thread into Roosevelt's 
 childhood. He was, mentally, a good observer, 
 but normal physical sight was denied him. He 
 found out his deficiency when he was about twelve 
 years old. But before that time, handicapped as 
 
THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 5 
 
 he was, he observed insects, fish, animals, flowers, 
 flora and fauna; and there was present in him that 
 genuine scientific spirit which later came into so 
 full a fruition. How amusing, and yet how sig- 
 nificant to the analyst, the psychologist, are the 
 stories told about his "Museum of Natural His- 
 tory!" Other youthful members of the family lent 
 their aid, but he was the leader, and hardly out of 
 pinafores. 
 
 At that stage of his career, he became interested 
 in white mice. And with a resourcefulness and 
 energy which never left him but rather increased 
 as years passed and physical strength increased, 
 he informed the neighborhood that he would pay 
 five cents for each white mouse sent to him, and 
 thirty-five cents for a family of them. Result? 
 The house was swamped by contributions. 
 
 One of his acquisitions was a snapping turtle, 
 which he fastened to the leg of the sink in the 
 laundry. And one of the housemaids gave notice 
 that she would leave unless the turtle was removed. 
 
 A hint of the thoroughness which was always 
 a marked characteristic of him comes out in the 
 recorded incident that he had secured a dead wood- 
 chuck and wished to set up its skeleton. And he 
 told the cook to boil the body "twenty-four hours, 
 so that the bones would all separate out, and not 
 one be lost to science." 
 
6 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 The story of the dead seal, measured by him 
 in front of the store, and the incident of the white 
 mice, put for safe keeping into the ice chest, — a 
 preservative device, surely — those stories hint at 
 the same eager activity, wide range of interest, and 
 vigorous origmality which characterized him in 
 
 mature life. 
 
 Every "live boy" of any age can sympathize 
 with him, as he trudged about, dragging a copy 
 of one of Mayne Reid's adventure books, or Liv- 
 ingstone's "Travels in Africa." That vividly 
 written book of the great African missionary must 
 have sown the seed, in little Theodore's mind, of 
 an eager curiosity to see the land of lions and 
 elephants, giraffes, and "rhinos." 
 
 Jacob Riis is responsible for one little fragment 
 of Rooseveltian biography which illustrates the 
 child Theodore's daring activity. "A woman who 
 lived next door to the Roosevelts in East Twen- 
 tieth Street told me that once, in passing the house, 
 she saw Theodore, a mere child, hanging out of a 
 second-story window. She hurried and told Mrs. 
 Roosevelt, who, as she started anxiously to catch 
 the venturesome youngster, remarked, 'If the Lord 
 hadn't taken care of Theodore he would have been 
 killed long ago.' " 
 
 The most significant of the early incidents of 
 Roosevelt's life, of which we have record, was the 
 
THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 7 
 
 amusing one which tells of his protest against an 
 undeserved — as it seemed to him — reprimand by 
 his mother. There was an abundance of affection 
 in his childish heart for her, as in her heart for him. 
 But one day he felt himself aggrieved at some 
 action of hers toward him. And when came the 
 time for him to say his evening prayers, he be- 
 thought him of her sympathy for the Confederate 
 Cause — she being of Southern birth — and he 
 added a clause to his formal prayer. He prayed for 
 the success of the Union arms. He even particu- 
 larized. He prayed that God "would grind them 
 to powder." As always, no halfway measure. 
 
 Luckily his beloved mother had a strong sense 
 of humor, which he inherited in full measure, and 
 she concealed her smiles and forbade all similar 
 improvisations in the future, under penalty of 
 being reported to his father, — "The only man 
 whom I ever feared," Roosevelt declared in later 
 life. 
 
 That incident held the germ of one of Roose- 
 velt's strongest characteristics. It was his instinc- 
 tive effort to strike back at any one who attacked 
 him. Submission to real or fancied injustice was 
 not in his nature. In his sparring contests at 
 college and in all the contests of his later life, his 
 invariable action was not quiescence or endurance 
 simply; but he "came back." Like a steel spring 
 
8 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 he recoiled upon all who struck at him. Often cir- 
 cumstances did not permit him to express this 
 desire. Wisdom or tact dictated some other course. 
 But the instinct, the strong desire, was always 
 there. In a conversation, during the latter* half of 
 his life, with his friend, John Leary, Junior, he 
 said, with his characteristic vigor, "Jack, a man 
 has no more right to forget an enemy than he has 
 to forget a friend. I've always tried to do 
 something for everybody who ever did any- 
 thing for me." Then a smile, and, "But the 
 regret of my life is that I have been unable to 
 take proper care of all my enemies. I've had 
 a million of them — too many for any man to 
 attend to in an ordinary lifetime." 
 
 This code of morality was more after the Spar- 
 tan or Mosaic order than the Christian. But, in 
 reviewing any man's words or in analyzing his 
 character, we need to remember that his theories 
 and his actions often do not coincide. Sometimes 
 the man's conduct rises far above his theory. This 
 was true of Roosevelt. And in his case we need 
 also to remember that his sense of humor, his 
 brilliant, daring spontaneity of speech often led 
 him to say things which he by no means meant in 
 their full, unmodified form. We know, without 
 being told, that this delightful outburst of his con- 
 
THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 9 
 
 cerning his enemies was followed by a laugh, 
 equally delightful. 
 
 Apropos, in passing, of Roosevelt's keen sense 
 of humor, observable through his mature life, I 
 cite two incidents given by the Reverend F. C. 
 Iglehart, which disclose to us an early section of 
 that thread of humor which was woven so largely 
 into the entire fabric of his life. 
 
 The growing boy, Roosevelt, not only betook 
 himself early to books, but he made easy contacts 
 with "all sorts and conditions" of boys, as far as 
 opportunity offered. There, for instance, was the 
 sturdy, straightforward nephew of the village 
 blacksmith at Dobbs Ferry, where Theodore spent 
 a summer. They were playmates, those two, and 
 friends. The nephew, a year older than Theodore, 
 is still living and recounts some of their operations 
 and cooperations. I suspect that the relationship 
 was, necessarily, a bit more feudal than democratic. 
 But it gave satisfaction to both. 
 
 One of the incidents was this. The two boys 
 were playing together one day, on a pond upon 
 which Theodore had a skiff. He was alone in the 
 skiff at that moment; his companion sat on the 
 bank. Presently two of Theodore's grown-up 
 friends drove by in a carriage. At the opportune 
 instant he sprang up in the frail craft, tumbled 
 about, and contrived to tip the craft over, splashing 
 
10 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 into the water, quite out of sight. He remained 
 under water a considerable time, to the delight of 
 his watchful playmate but to the alarm of the de- 
 ceived grown-ups. 
 
 The other incident, revealing the boy's inherent 
 drollery, is this. It was the custom in the Roose- 
 velt family that summer for the senior Theodore 
 Roosevelt to be driven to the train each morning 
 by a "coachman" in the "depot wagon." Theodore, 
 Junior, frequently accompanied his father. One 
 morning, as the boy returned with the "coachman" 
 to the house, he induced the man to allow him to 
 don the coat and hat which made up his "livery." 
 Well covered up in these, he directed his playmate, 
 the blacksmith's nephew, to sit beside him on the 
 box. The playmate demurred, because he was 
 wearing "only this hickory shirt and this small 
 straw hat, and your mother'll know me." But 
 Theodore insisted, wanting the boy for his "foot- 
 man", he said; and he drove to the front door. 
 Then he called out, in the loudest and most "grown- 
 up" tones he could summon, "Is Mrs. Roosevelt 
 in?" The puzzled housemaid, sweeping the porch, 
 replied confusedly that she was in. "Then tell 
 her," enjoined the rollicking youngster, "to come 
 out for a drive. If she doesn't come now she can't 
 have a drive at all to-day." Whereupon, without 
 waiting, perceiving that the climax had been 
 
THE BENDING OF THE TWIG 11 
 
 reached, the amateur coachman drove away to the 
 stable. 
 
 Only homely little incidents, these two, but 
 prophetic of the exceptionally developed sense of 
 humor which the man Theodore Roosevelt mani- 
 fested. Every man flatters himself that he has a 
 "sense of humor." And most men have. The 
 others we pass over in silent pity. The mature 
 Roosevelt had the humor sense in abundant meas- 
 ure. Indeed, it protected him, on countless occa- 
 sions, from the deeper pains of disappointment, 
 anxiety, and futile wrath. As he stood, a champion 
 of truth and righteousness, before the world 
 through many years, he did not wear the full 
 armor described by the Apostle to the Gentiles — 
 helmet, breastplate, and all the other pieces — but 
 he bore a keen sword in his strong right hand and 
 a polished shield upon his left arm. The sword 
 was his own intrepid, combat-loving spirit, and the 
 shield was his unfailing sense of humor, which 
 "quenched the darts of many an adversary." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 
 
 A few months ago I went down into my cellar 
 and groped about there, in a dim light, gathering 
 several kinds of bulbs. These I planted in a sunny 
 spot of my garden. And I saw them, in due time, 
 push up into stems and stalks, and later flower out 
 in flaming colors. 
 
 That dim cellar, with its undeveloped yet vital 
 bulbs, may serve as an illustration of Roosevelt's 
 life, during the period of his childhood and early 
 boyhood, as it appears to me, from my present 
 viewpoint. It is dim, and our knowledge of its 
 contents is derived largely from Roosevelt's own 
 memories. There are few persons living to-day 
 who can add much to what he recollected. When 
 he came to Harvard, he came out into the light. 
 He began, in 1876, that group-life which was to 
 continue, enlarging continuously, through his en- 
 tire career. Many of his college classmates are 
 living to-day and can build up a considerable body 
 of information about him from their recollections. 
 
 The interesting objective which I set before 
 
BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 13 
 
 myself at this point is — to bring up out of that 
 dim early period, like bulbs from their shadowy 
 seclusion, the germs of those qualities in him which 
 later flowered forth in luxuriance, before the eyes 
 of the world. And I feel inclined, at this stage, 
 to recur to those two striking qualities to which 
 my first chapter adverted, — the quality of humor, 
 or mirthfulness, and the quality of combativeness, 
 typified by a shield and a sword. 
 
 Roosevelt's sense of humor has more psycholog- 
 ical value to the analyst than might casually be 
 supposed. It shows plainly, even in his own auto- 
 biographical narration of certain incidents in his 
 boyhood. For example, there is delightful humor 
 in his reference to his zealous efforts in the field of 
 taxidermy. "Doubtless the family had their mo- 
 ments of anxiety and suffering — especially when 
 a well-meaning maid extracted from my taxi- 
 dermist's outfit the old toothbrush with which I 
 had put on the skins the arsenical soap necessary 
 for their preservation, partially washed it, and then 
 put it back with the rest of my wash-kit, for my 
 personal use." 
 
 Again, during his first journey abroad, he speni, 
 a summer in a German family in Dresden. As in 
 his American home, he was active in his "nature 
 studies." And he records that, "Whenever I could 
 get out into the country, I collected specimens in- 
 
14 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 dustriously, and enlivened the household with 
 hedgehogs and other small beasts and reptiles 
 which persisted in escaping from partially closed 
 bureau drawers." 
 
 During his stay at Dobbs Ferry, he became the 
 possessor of a "breech-loading pin-fire double- 
 barreled gun." "It was an excellent gun for a 
 clumsy and often absent-minded boy," he says. 
 "There was a spring to open it; and, if the mechan- 
 ism became rusty, it could be opened with a brick 
 without serious damage. When the cartridges 
 stuck they could be removed in the same fashion." 
 
 We may be sure that when he wrote that, forty 
 years afterwards, his face wore that same fascinat- 
 ing smile which became famous the world over. 
 And, apropos of that smile, it may be told that he 
 was never seen to laugh more delightedly than 
 when, during a poltical campaign, he read the 
 "story" of a reporter who described him, when he 
 pressed his way to the platform, as "biting his 
 way through the crowd." 
 
 Again I recur to the closing words of the previ- 
 ous chapter and to the sword in his hand, symbol 
 of the valor of his spirit. That actual love of 
 righteous combat, mental or physical, was one of 
 his greatest assets as a reformer and a public offi- 
 cial. That characteristic has been noted by- thou- 
 sands, and it was pointed out by Mr. Taft in his 
 
BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 15 
 
 noble, tender eulogy of Roosevelt, after the latter's 
 death. And a letter which has come to me, as I 
 write, from a classmate, contains this statement: 
 "I met Roosevelt in New York one day, just after 
 he had been appointed to be Assistant Secretary 
 of the Navy. I congratulated him, and suggested 
 that he would now live a quiet, pleasanter life than 
 had been his as Police Commissioner. But he re- 
 plied, shaking his head doubtfully, 'I don't know 
 about that. I like a fight. I do like a fight.' " 
 And he did. But let it be noted that he liked it 
 only when it was rooted in a righteous motive. 
 
 That aggressive quality in Roosevelt first comes 
 to light in the fist-fight which he, as a boy, pre- 
 cipitated with two traveling companions of his own 
 age. He was on his way to Moosehead Lake, in 
 Maine, sent there with the parental hope that its 
 outdoor life would strengthen him and help him 
 throw off the asthma by which he was beset and 
 tortured through several of his earlier years. Not 
 only was he asthmatic, but he was frail and 
 physically below the average of boys of his age. 
 But in spirit he was unsurpassed. And when his 
 youthful fellow travelers made fun of him, he 
 attacked them. "But either of them, singly, could 
 handle me with easy contempt," he records. 
 
 This discomforting experience was a turning 
 point in his life. He faced the fact of his inferiority 
 
16 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 in physical strength, and — true to the rare elastic- 
 ity of his nature — he reacted upon it and set 
 about correcting his defects. His parents and all 
 his older friends had realized his bodily disability 
 before he did. And all the world now looks back 
 upon his weak, suffering childhood with pity and 
 wonder, — pity for him as he seemed so poorly 
 equipped for the struggle of life, and wonder that 
 he so transformed his weakness into strength. 
 
 He accomplished this by the persistent exercise 
 of his most unique gift, — an indomitable will. 
 Other qualities he had which counted in his mastery 
 of life, but his will was marvelous, almost miracu- 
 lous. If he had been born two thousand years or 
 more ago, in Greece, in Sparta, his infant fate 
 would have been to be exposed to lingering death 
 on Mount Tagytus, with other Spartan defectives. 
 His capacity for survival and helpful citizenship 
 would have been considered slender and negligible. 
 But the record of his sheltered early life not only 
 suggests the high distance which the human race 
 has come, as indicated by its care for the weak and 
 helpless members of society, but it proclaims also 
 the miracle which an indomitable human spirit can 
 accomplish, in its mastery of its body. 
 
 His father, always wise and sympathetic, en- 
 couraged the boy to enter into such sports and 
 pastimes as would develop such slender physical 
 
BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 17 
 
 powers as he had. And the walking, sparring, 
 riding, rowing, and other sports which he took up 
 he continued throughout his life. That near- 
 sightedness which was so evident during his entire 
 career became known to him when he was thirteen 
 years of age. Before that time, like most children 
 similarly handicapped, he had not realized — nor 
 had his relatives and friends — his defects of sight. 
 But spectacles for his eyes were promptly pro- 
 vided, and a new world stood revealed before him. 
 
 Many people have expressed surprise that with 
 his poor eyesight he could yet attain such profi- 
 ciency in "nature study." But the spectacles 
 largely remedied his visual defects ; and, mentally, 
 he was keenly observant. Then, too, his hearing 
 was always acute, and this was a great asset in his 
 study of birds; he caught their calls and songs 
 usually before he identified their plumage and 
 movements. 
 
 One point may here be noted, as we recall the 
 several kinds of pastimes which he entered into as 
 a boy. These were the rowing and sailing on the 
 waters of Long Island Sound. Most boys are 
 eager for boats, but most boys pass on from row- 
 boats to sailboats. They soon prefer the latter 
 kind. But Roosevelt was unique in that he always 
 preferred rowing to sailing. And just here, in this 
 preference, we discover one of his striking char- 
 
18 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 acteristics. Evidently he preferred the rowing 
 because it gave him something to do. He was 
 incessantly active. And, naturally, he preferred 
 using his strength on the oars to sitting listlessly 
 at a tiller or a wheel. 
 
 This stage of our survey may properly be the 
 one where attention is called to the fact that Roose- 
 velt was essentially a "self-made" man. That term 
 has been applied to many men, especially in this 
 land of comparatively free development and un- 
 restricted opportunity. But, usually, if those 
 men's careers are closely examined, it will be found 
 that their advance, their "rise," has been brought 
 about more by their alteration of their environment 
 and by their seizing opportunities, than by their 
 conscious alteration of their own characters. 
 
 Thus, strictly speaking, they have not been self- 
 made, or remade, in any marked degree. But, in 
 Roosevelt's case, there was a conscious, determined 
 remaking of his mental qualities. He was by 
 nature shy and self-distrustful, but in his mature 
 and public life — let me say, with a smile — those 
 qualities were never attributed to him. He elimi- 
 nated them. And by nature he was timid. He 
 records this, with all frankness, of himself. But 
 he also records his method of correcting that de- 
 fect. He says, "I read a passage, in one of the 
 novelist Marryat's books, wher.e the hero explains 
 
BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 19 
 
 how to acquire the quality of fearlessness. 'A man 
 should keep such a grip on himself that he can act 
 as if he were unafraid. And, in time, he will be- 
 come unafraid.' " 
 
 This, analyzed, is of course "Will." And this 
 was possessed by Roosevelt in an exceptional meas- 
 ure. He put it forth upon his emotional nature, 
 and he became fearless, — physically, mentally, and 
 morally. This was done consciously. He tells us, 
 "I trained myself painfully and laboriously, not 
 only as regards my body but as regards my soul 
 and spirit." 
 
 Roosevelt's will, recognized by him and de- 
 veloped by him, simply supplemented and directed 
 a natural activity which was his always, even back 
 in those pinafore days when he made a somewhat 
 mordant attack upon his child-sister, and was duly 
 chastised, after pursuit and capture by his inexor- 
 able father. He was easily the leader in all games 
 among his young relatives. He started the family 
 "Museum of Natural History." He was not con- 
 tent to observe and wonder and feel delight at the 
 novel objects which he found about him. He was 
 enterprising, resourceful, original. And the "Mu- 
 seum" resulted. 
 
 Although the boy Theodore's most pronounced 
 intellectual bent was toward natural science, other 
 studies had not been neglected. His feeble 
 
20 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 physique, through his earliest years, made of him 
 a "home boy", and he was not put through the 
 usual public-school course of instruction. But his 
 Aunt Anna, as a member of the household, guided 
 him through the intricacies of "the three ll's", and 
 at one time a French governess lived with the 
 family. This first-hand instruction in French 
 gave the boy a familiarity with the language which 
 he retained throughout his life. 
 
 The earlier of the two trips abroad which he 
 
 made as a boy appears, on his own statement, to 
 
 have given him but little. At ten years of age, a 
 
 boy cannot get much more in Europe than in the 
 
 United States. The charms of its history and art 
 
 elude him. But, four years later, in the winter of 
 
 1872 and 1873, he sailed again, with his family, 
 
 across the Atlantic. And on this trip he went as 
 
 far as Egypt. His general reading had prepared 
 
 him for the picturesque remains of the Nile's 
 
 ancient cities, and he greatly enjoyed what he saw. 
 
 Yet it must be noted that even on this journey, 
 
 as on the first one, the naturalist spirit dominated. 
 
 On the Nile he was above all else a collector of 
 
 birds. Indeed, before the party had set forth from 
 
 their native land, Theodore had provided himself 
 
 with a supply of pink-colored "Roosevelt Museum 
 
 labels" for use on this "adventurous trip", as it 
 
 seemed to him. 
 
BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 21 
 
 As we range about, through this dim pre-col- 
 legiate life of our great American, finding in his 
 recorded words and acts the germs of the great 
 deeds which characterized him later, we ask again 
 and again, "But what was the one dominant quality 
 in him which gave him the greatness which the 
 world now ascribes to him?" 
 
 We can pick out several without which he could 
 not have achieved what he did. Yet, back of all 
 the others, the one factor which most arrests our 
 attention is the dynamic factor, the energy, which 
 seemed never to tire and drove him to express him- 
 self in scores of ways, joining now with one group 
 of faculties and now with another, so that not only 
 was "No human endeavor outside his range of 
 interest", as the ancient phrase put it, but there 
 was hardly one which he did not actually seek and 
 eagerly pursue and in it attain excellence. The 
 driving power in this phenomenal man combined 
 chemically with all his varied faculties and interests 
 and made them function with rare vigor. 
 
 This was the same element which figured in his 
 remaking of himself, physically and spiritually. 
 When Pandora, in the ancient legend, looked into 
 her box of gifts, bestowed by the gods, she found 
 that all the gifts had escaped, save hope only. 
 When the sickly child Theodore examined his gift- 
 
22 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 box he found that almost his only valuable pos- 
 session was his will. Straightway, with that he 
 began to remake his life, corporeal and spiritual. 
 And, as it transpired afterward, he did much to 
 remake, to help reform his beloved country. Dis- 
 covering that dauntless will within his breast, he 
 found what Archimedes vainly sought, — a fulcrum 
 by which his native land and even the entire world 
 might be moved, and moved forward. 
 
 This dynamic element in Roosevelt was what 
 John Morley sensed when he said, in England, 
 after visiting the United States: "I saw there two 
 things which were extraordinary — Niagara Falls 
 and Theodore Roosevelt." Yes, and was it not 
 Power which he saw in both? Was it not what was 
 detected in Napoleon Bonaparte by that member 
 of the Directory, in 1799, who said to a fellow 
 member, as Bonaparte, a new man, entered the 
 assembly hall and looked about him, "I think that 
 in him we have found our master"? 
 
 The dynamic element in both Bonaparte and 
 Roosevelt was strikingly similar. But in other 
 essential qualities they differed widely. The 
 Corsican brigand looked out upon the world as an 
 arena where he might exalt himself by ruthless 
 victories. The American patriot — whose plans 
 rarely ranged beyond the borders of his native 
 
BULBS AND BLOSSOMS 23 
 
 land — looked forth over that beloved land as his 
 "world", and in the words of King Arthur of the 
 Round Table, he "longed for power on that dark 
 world to lighten it, and power on that dead world 
 to make it live/ 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CLASS OF '80 
 
 Almost any graduate of almost any class of 
 almost any college or university in the United 
 States will tell you, in confidence, that his class 
 was "The famous class of ", or "The well- 
 known class of ", and then the year is named. 
 
 Now and then some daring graduate breaks 
 through the commonplace and declares that his 
 class was remarkable for not being remarkable. 
 
 We of the Harvard Class of eighteen hundred 
 and eighty feel, however, that we need not resort 
 to this tour de force, but may say proudly — yet 
 quietly and modestly, as is becoming in those who 
 but reflect glory — that we are indeed of "the fa- 
 mous class of '8.0." And our class is famous 
 largely because Theodore Roosevelt entered it, in 
 1876, and graduated with it. 
 
 When he came to Harvard, and while he re- 
 mained there, his life was of one piece with his 
 previous life. It was no fault of his that he had 
 been born into a family that was characterized by 
 all the conventions and customs of thinking and 
 
LYMAN UNDERWOOD 
 
 ROOSEVELT S HOME WHILE AT HARVARD J UPPER FLOOR. 
 
 AM LYMAN UNDERWOOD 
 
 ELL OF HOUSE AT CAMBRIDGE WHERE DINING-CLUB MET. 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 25 
 
 acting which, the world over, mark what are called 
 "the best people." When he came to Harvard, he 
 continued to live, as far as was possible in his new 
 environment, according to his previous practice. 
 When he drove about over Cambridge in his dog- 
 cart — a unique vehicle and much noticed — he did 
 it as naturally as he had done it previously at home. 
 
 He was exceptionally and intensely individual. 
 Later he became much more consciously com- 
 munal, social. His choice of rooms in a private 
 house at Number 16 (now Number 38) Winthrop 
 Street, Cambridge, instead of rooms in a college 
 dormitory, and his retention of that domicile 
 throughout his college course was an unconscious 
 expression of his instinctive individualism. He 
 wished independence. Then, too, he was much 
 absorbed at that date in the idea of making natural 
 history the pursuit of his life. And he desired 
 greater freedom in his collecting of "specimens" 
 than probably would be allowed him in a college 
 dormitory. 
 
 From the first he was a striking figure among 
 his college mates. I have already mentioned my 
 own first sight of him, as he argued vehemently 
 with two friends in the transept of Memorial Hall. 
 To the casual observer he was noticeable because 
 of his side whiskers — quite uncommon among his 
 fellow collegians — and his quick abrupt ways. To 
 
26 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 those persons who knew him more closely he was 
 always a surprising personality. He was different 
 from most or all other undergraduates, yet there 
 was no pose about him; he was entirely simple and 
 considerably self -absorbed. 
 
 Any one who entered his study at Number 16 
 Winthrop Street found there an apartment differ- 
 ent essentially from all other students' rooms. It 
 reflected his own personality and past. It was 
 decorated not only with the usual pictures and 
 bookcases which would be expected in a lad of his 
 training and background of home life, but it con- 
 tained several stuffed birds and beasts and a few 
 mounted antlers, — fruits of his own prowess in 
 hunting and his skill as a taxidermist. 
 
 Seeking, as I am doing, for indications of his 
 unfolding character, at this college period, as in 
 earlier periods, I find significant testimony to his 
 remarkable self-reliance and independence of the 
 opinions and actions of his companions. This 
 quality was evinced even in his face, as I recall it, 
 and now shows in his photograph. Take that 
 photograph of him as he appeared at his time of 
 graduation. It is easy, and pseudo-scientific, to 
 read into a man's cranial or facial formation, shown 
 by his photograph, his mental characteristics, — ■ 
 after one has become familiar with them. Never- 
 theless, the photograph of Hoosevelt's face when 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 27 
 
 a student at Harvard shows, to any impartial ob- 
 server, at least two qualities. First, his eyes, which 
 are open, frank, and fearless, manifest plainly that 
 sincerity of nature which was always his. Later 
 photographs of him show those frank, ingenuous 
 eyes closing more and more — as do the eyes of 
 most men who go out into the competitions of life 
 — for they are learning, by stern experience, to 
 conceal their own purposes and to discern the pur- 
 poses of some rival or opponent. But, essentially, 
 all through his life, and especially in his college 
 days, he loved what was real and true, and he 
 always declared for it. 
 
 This sometimes made him the butt of waggish 
 friends. For naturally he took men at their own 
 word; and it was easy for a frivolous, facetious 
 companion to start him, by some statement, into 
 a heated discussion. At the meetings of the 
 Hasty Pudding Club, on several occasions, 
 he was lured by some cooler member into 
 debate for exhibition purposes. And his eager 
 contention for his side of the question increased 
 a natural hesitancy of speech in him, and 
 his stumbling, stammering words brought his 
 listeners to laughter. William Roscoe Thayer, in 
 his admirable volume on Roosevelt, testifies to his 
 tumultuous and sometimes inarticulate speech. 
 Mr. Thayer refers to a dinner given in 1879 by 
 
28 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 the Harvard Crimson, to which Roosevelt was in- 
 vited as a representative of the Harvard Advocate. 
 In his brief address on that occasion, Roosevelt 
 showed great shyness and hurried over his sentences 
 "as skaters hurry over thin ice." And he must 
 have been fully aware of these, his defects of public 
 speech, for he told at this dinner the anecdote (Mr. 
 Thayer narrates) about a stammering man recom- 
 mending — with many grimaces and gaspings — 
 the doctor who had cured him. 
 
 All this immaturity of speech was surmounted 
 by Roosevelt later, and he became a most interest- 
 ing and convincing campaign speaker, although 
 never an eloquent speaker, as the word is usually 
 defined. 
 
 Again, as to his college photograph. That 
 strong, defiant chin ought to tell any acute observer 
 the story of Roosevelt's dogged determination, his 
 rare power of concentration, his lifelong surmount- 
 ing of defects within and obstacles without. The 
 chin alone did not bring his success. Other de- 
 termined chins there have been. But his had an 
 exceptional brain behind it. And, in combination, 
 it was a large factor in the achievements of Roose- 
 velt's strenuous life. 
 
 Let us look, now, at two or three of the recorded 
 incidents of his college life. They are not only 
 interesting in themselves, but to me, as I keep in 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 29 
 
 mind my psychological objective, they are dis- 
 tinctly illuminating as to Roosevelt's character. 
 
 Back of his domicile on Winthrop Street was a 
 stable. One night two students, who occupied 
 rooms in the same house with Roosevelt, heard 
 neighs and screams from a horse in that stable. 
 And they conferred sleepily together as to the 
 advisability of looking into the matter. Finally, 
 after several minutes had elapsed and the cries did 
 not cease, they arose reluctantly, threw on some 
 garments, and went out of the house and across the 
 alley, to investigate. 
 
 They found the stable door open. And they 
 found Theodore Roosevelt already on the spot, 
 trying to get the frightened horse out of his trouble. 
 The animal had put his leg through a hole in the 
 side of the stall. Roosevelt had heard the outcries 
 and straightway had climbed down from his sec- 
 ond-story room and had rendered "first aid." The 
 point of real interest is — not only his sympathy 
 with the horse — but his taking hold of the situation 
 promptly and unaided. And that was always his 
 self-reliant, independent way. Little mattered it 
 to him, throughout his life, what others did or 
 thought about a worthy cause or a pressing public 
 need. He went at the matter himself. 
 
 The same instinct for independent self-assertion 
 was evinced when he marched in the Republican 
 
30 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 campaign procession, through Boston streets, one 
 torch-lit evening, soon after we entered college. 
 At one point along the route, sundry ribald fellows, 
 on an adjacent roof, contributed not only defama- 
 tory epithets to the line of ardent young Repub- 
 licans below, but made unpleasant contributions of 
 various noxious articles. Their actions drew 
 angry protests from their helpless victims. But it 
 is told that on that adventurous night, young 
 Roosevelt — "Teddy" then called — became known 
 to many of his classmates by stepping out of the 
 ranks, shaking his fist at the craven crew on the 
 roof, and crying to his companions, "Come, fellows! 
 Let's go up and smash those blackguards. Let's 
 kill 'em!" 
 
 Whether literally true or a trifle apocryphal, 
 this incident offers me so good a suggestion that I 
 risk using it. It shows the reacting spirit of the 
 young Freshman. He was not content to endure, 
 like his companions, without retaliation. He was 
 eager to get back at the rowdies, storm them in 
 their stronghold, and take vengeance on them for 
 their unfair attack. 
 
 When our "Class of '80" entered college, the 
 four classes made a total of about eight hundred 
 students. In some ways so small an undergraduate 
 body offered advantages now impossible. But 
 then as now, the problem regarding each man who 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 31 
 
 entered was, "How much of the two main branches 
 of education will he lay hold of?" There was and 
 is, on the one hand, the education which comes from 
 an accumulation of facts, an acquisition of knowl- 
 edge. On the other hand, there is the education 
 which means development of the man's capacity 
 and powers. 
 
 The striking conviction which is forced upon us, 
 in Roosevelt's case, from our observation of him — ■ 
 and from what he observed in himself, in retrospect 
 ■ — ■ is that he did not alter essentially in character 
 and power in college, and that the chief part of his 
 accumulation of facts came through his own private 
 reading, as often outside his prescribed courses as 
 within them. But that he did good work in his 
 prescribed and elected subjects is shown by his 
 record, which tells us that he graduated in the 
 upper eighth of his class, he was made a member 
 of the Phi Beta Kappa, and he received "honorable 
 mention" in Natural History. 
 
 When he entered college, bringing with him the 
 habits and tastes of his past, he purposed giving 
 himself to a lifelong study of natural history. The 
 "Museum" of his childhood had expressed a vital 
 interest and enthusiasm of his nature. But he was 
 soon deflected from his purpose by the bookish, 
 theoretical, laboratory methods then in vogue at 
 Harvard, — as at most other colleges. He was 
 
32 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 eager to get out among the living birds and beasts, 
 and he was bored by the requirements of micro- 
 scopic and anatomical investigation. 
 
 This eager desire of his to get at the living 
 realities of "natural history" is the more note- 
 worthy when we remember that he was no stranger 
 to the printed page. He was already an omnivor- 
 ous reader. But he saw that while some things 
 could be learned only through books, other things 
 
 — as the best and most real things in natural his- 
 tory — should be learned at first hand. Still this 
 was not so much a defect of the college curriculum 
 as it was a necessary evil. Obviously Harvard 
 could not send all her ardent young naturalists to 
 the four corners of the earth to study birds and 
 beasts in their natural environment. This kind 
 of study Roosevelt really pursued later, by his 
 travels and explorations. 
 
 The new life of college opened up to Roosevelt, 
 as to every college student, social, intellectual and 
 
 — not least, in his case — physical development. 
 "When our class entered in 1876 our men began 
 with zeal to exercise at the chest weights and other 
 apparatus. But in a month many of them flagged 
 and came no more. Not so Roosevelt. Through- 
 out his college life, as through all his later life, he 
 gave constant attention to athletic exercise. And 
 he did it, as he did so many other things, with the 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 33 
 
 deliberate intention of building up his physical 
 strength, which he knew to be the basis of all other 
 efforts which he might wish to put forth. 
 
 Doctor Dudley A. Sargent, at that time in 
 charge of the gymnasium and the physical culture 
 of the students, gave us all a minute scientific ex- 
 amination. I quote briefly from his report, kindly 
 loaned me bv him: 
 
 "Theodore Roosevelt was examined in Cam- 
 bridge in March, 1880, when he was twenty-one 
 years and five months old. At this time, he weighed 
 136 pounds. His total stretch of arms, which 
 would also include the breadth of his shoulders, 
 was less than his total height; which is seldom the 
 case in fully developed men. Notwithstanding his 
 rather small frame and mediocre muscular devel- 
 opment, his total strength test was only surpassed 
 by five per cent, of those in college at this time. 
 His superior strength was largely due to the 
 mechanical advantage he gained by his short arms. 
 But he must have felt himself severely handicapped 
 for boxing, rowing, and other forms of athletics, 
 by his very short arms. In looking over the 
 gymnasium record of this remarkable young man, 
 we find the only physical measurements in which 
 he surpassed his classmates were in the girth of 
 his head and neck. All his muscle measurements 
 were below the average, those of his legs especially 
 
34 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 so. As soon as I pointed out his strong points as 
 well as his physical weaknesses, he got busy. He 
 realized that during the formative period of his 
 youth, when other boys were developing their arms, 
 chest and legs in doing gymnastic stunts and pur- 
 suing athletic exercises, he had been bent over his 
 books, cramming his brain with all sorts of miscel- 
 laneous information. He told me that he did some 
 work in a gymnasium before coming to college, and 
 in this way developed the strength of arms and 
 chest shown in his strength test. 
 
 "Roosevelt seemed to realize the fundamental 
 truth that what one gets out of any physical effort 
 depends largely upon the strength and energy he 
 puts into it — for he threw himself into his body- 
 building work, the short time he remained in col- 
 lege, with the greatest interest and enthusiasm. I 
 regret very much that I never had an opportunity 
 to examine Mr. Roosevelt later in his life. That 
 he should have been able apparently to add so 
 much to his physical vigor and powers of endur- 
 ance, after leaving college, so as to have been re- 
 garded by many people as a 'human dynamo', — is 
 a remarkable occurrence, considering his poor 
 physical foundation in his youth. Roosevelt's life 
 history furnishes one of the best illustrations with 
 which I am acquainted, of what may be done in 
 middle life bv a fixed determination and a resolute 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 35 
 
 will to overcome youthful physical defects and 
 deficiencies." 
 
 When Doctor Sargent gave Roosevelt his 
 physical examination he made some jesting remark 
 about the young man's slight development in the 
 legs. That remark was enough to start Roosevelt 
 on an attempt to remedy the defect. "But what 
 shall I do to develop them?" he asked. And Doc- 
 tor Sargent replied lightly, "Oh, I suppose you 
 might take to skipping rope, like the girls." 
 
 Enough said. Roosevelt straightway procured 
 a skipping rope, and on many an afternoon he 
 might have been seen upon the piazza at Number 
 16 Winthrop Street, vigorously using it as sug- 
 gested. His original method at first caused 
 amused comment on the part of his friends. But 
 that sort of thing never troubled him. Tempera- 
 mentally, he was always indifferent to it, although 
 later in his life he learned — as he learned so many 
 things, out in the competitive world — the value 
 and power of public opinion. The next step came 
 when several of his friends took up the same exer- 
 cise, showing that he already had influence among 
 these friends. 
 
 The same rational purpose lay back of all his 
 sports. He never cared for the usual college 
 games, football, baseball, and the rest. But he 
 continued in Cambridge the interest in boxing 
 
36 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 which had been aroused in him as a boy at Oyster 
 Bay. The boxing undoubtedly gave him, value 
 for* value, more returns of exercise and strength 
 than almost any other form of exercise could have 
 given. Then, too, it gratified that joyous sense 
 of personal combat which was always strong in him 
 from infancy to age. 
 
 Those who boxed or sparred with Roosevelt, in 
 public or in private, have told me warmly of his 
 marked adherence to fair play. This was the 
 "square deal" in its infancy. And there is record 
 of one famous bout in which he took part, where 
 his antagonist struck him and drew blood, after 
 the referee had ordered a halt. The indignant 
 spectators broke into a noisy protest against his 
 antagonist. "Foul blow! Foul blow!" they cried. 
 But Roosevelt, wiping his bleeding nose with one 
 hand, held up the other for silence, and then ex- 
 claimed, "He didn't hear the referee, fellows. I 
 know he didn't hear him." Whereupon cheers 
 went up for sturdy fair-minded "Teddy." 
 
 He took, in all, many lessons in the science of 
 fisticuffs, and his skill stood him in good stead on 
 several occasions in his life. But he had not the 
 physique to put him among the best. He was not 
 over five feet eight inches in height, and his reach 
 was not great. Still, he was extremely quick and 
 experienced, and nobody in college, of his weight 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 37 
 
 and inches, could stand up long against him. His 
 hands were small. I have often, in later years, 
 glanced at his small hands and thought how little 
 adapted they seemed for the boxing-gloves and 
 other rough sports, as also for the vigorous de- 
 mands upon him as a hunter of "big game." 
 
 Whatever Roosevelt happened to be doing at 
 a given moment, that thing he did with enormous 
 energy. Even when he was reading — perhaps in 
 a fellow student's room, and the room full of noisy, 
 rollicking mates, he clutched the book with both 
 hands, generally at the top on the under side, and 
 all his energy, physical as well as mental, seemed 
 to be concentrated on the act. One of our class- 
 mates has told me that on a certain occasion when 
 Roosevelt was in this classmate's room and was 
 discussing some subject, he became so strenuous 
 that he broke a chair with which he was emphasiz- 
 ing some point in the discussion. And I remember 
 distinctly listening to him at an Exchange Club 
 dinner, many years after college, where he was 
 addressing several hundred men on technical points 
 in hunting. The markings and warning signals 
 of rabbits and deer I think was one of his topics. 
 And in listening to his vigorous sentences and in 
 observing his equally vigorous gestures, one might 
 have supposed that the speaker was holding forth 
 on his one special life-theme. Whereas, at that 
 
38 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 period in his public career, he was carrying on 
 effectively scores of projects and was hearing 
 heavy burdens of national policy. 
 
 In those college days of '76-'80, Roosevelt had 
 all his mental and physical energy and less sophis- 
 tication than he acquired, inevitably, afterward. 
 In our classrooms, in our lecture hours, it was not 
 often that any student broke in upon the smoothly 
 flowing current of the professorial address. But 
 Roosevelt did this again and again, naively, with 
 the evident aim of getting at the more detailed 
 truth of the subject. One of my classmates, who 
 was in his section of Political Economy (Pol. Econ., 
 for short) writes me that he recalls Roosevelt's 
 pushing questions at the instructor and even de- 
 bating points with him. This novel action made 
 Roosevelt a subject of wonder and comment. Free 
 Trade was the undergraduate fetich, at Harvard, 
 at that epoch, and probably was the topic most 
 debated. 
 
 Another letter from another classmate goes 
 more into detail. I quote from the letter, literally: 
 "I recall an incident in one of the classes when the 
 
 instructor, Professor D , a much beloved man, 
 
 was discussing differences between curly-haired 
 races and those with straight hair. The opinion 
 was presented by him that straight-haired races 
 
THE CLASS OF '80 39 
 
 greatly excelled. Whereupon Roosevelt — you re- 
 member he had brown curly hair — arose and de- 
 clared, very forcibly, that he did not agree with 
 the instructor. At once the whole section 'Wooded 
 
 up', with much laughter. And Professor D 
 
 joined in it. Roosevelt was by no means dismayed, 
 but, now with his smile, stuck to his point. 'I'm 
 right in my view, just the same.' Then he sat 
 down." 
 
 From a classmate's letter I quote: "I was with 
 Roosevelt in a Rhetoric section. Just who the in- 
 structor was I cannot say. But I remember that it 
 was always difficult to get any definite statement 
 out of him, on any subject. One day Roosevelt 
 tried. I remember distinctly his vain efforts to 
 get a 'Yes' or 'No' in reply to his question. 
 Perhaps so brief a reply could not have been 
 given. At any rate, Roosevelt did not get it. 
 And I recall distinctly his characteristic and un- 
 concealed gesture of impatience and disgust as he 
 settled back in his seat." 
 
 From another source I have an illustration of 
 the same unquenchable spirit. Roosevelt engaged 
 in a public debate at the Harvard Union, then 
 situated on Main Street, near Central Square. 
 What the topic of debate was I do not know. But 
 Roosevelt's side lost, as adjudged by the referee 
 
40 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 committee. He acquiesced cheerfully in their de- 
 cision, and at the close of the meeting, going up to 
 the two opponents and shaking hands cordially, he 
 congratulated them on their good work. Then he 
 added firmly, "But we had the right of the ques- 
 tion, for all that." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MORE COLLEGE DAYS 
 
 During the three or four years after Roosevelt's 
 graduation, his character underwent great changes. 
 But through the four years of his college course 
 he remained substantially the same, except for the 
 steady, normal acquisition of knowledge and de- 
 velopment of character which would be expected of 
 any collegian. 
 
 When he came to college his family forbears 
 and social background were not unknown to va- 
 rious members of the Freshman class, and he was 
 welcomed as a man eligible to all the social advan- 
 tages at Cambridge which his position implied. In 
 Roosevelt's college days there were, roughly speak- 
 ing, some forty societies among the students. How 
 far Roosevelt sought admission to these organiza- 
 tions and how much he was sought for, I cannot 
 say. Not only was he a "desirable", but he cer- 
 tainly would have applied for admission, if he had 
 desired it, at any door where such application was 
 proper. 
 
 Accordingly he became a member of thirteen 
 
42 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 of the forty societies, some of these being the In- 
 stitute, Hasty Pudding, Porcellian, Rifle Club, 
 Glee Club (Associate Member) , Art Club, D. K. 
 Society Finance Club, Athletic Association, and 
 Natural History Society. In addition he was an 
 editor of the Harvard Advocate during his Senior 
 year ; and — as already mentioned — he was made a 
 Phi Beta Kappa man. 
 
 In these various clubs he fulfilled his duties ac- 
 ceptably and often with distinction. Perhaps 
 among them all, the one where he was least ade- 
 quate was the Porcellian. I was not of Porcellian 
 timber myself, and have no first-hand knowledge 
 of the matter. But from a friend, a college mate, 
 I gather that the serious and almost austere young 
 Knickerbocker did not find the aims and methods 
 of that social group very much to his liking. Nor 
 in turn was he felt to be, by his fellow members, 
 an enthusiastic sympathizer in their club life. 
 There was nothing seriously out of joint in his 
 membership, but he did not care much for the 
 frivolities of ordinary group-conversation, and he 
 drew a very strict line of restraint for himself in 
 all matters convivial. 
 
 The group of which he was most vitally a part in 
 college was undoubtedly his dining club. A group 
 of eight men it was, as originally formed in the 
 Freshman year, and later a group of six. The club 
 
MEMBERS OF DINING-CLUB, AT HARVARD, 18S0. 
 
 MEMBERS OF DINING-CLUB, 1905. 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 43 
 
 met at "Mrs. Wilson's", now Number 62 Brat- 
 tle Street, Cambridge. And their daily con- 
 tact brought the men very closely together. Of 
 course all kinds of topics were discussed, and often 
 differences of opinion brought on heated debates. 
 I am told that eager and excited as Roosevelt 
 usually became in discussing a subject, he rarely, 
 if ever, wholly lost his self-control. Some of the 
 others, on the contrary, did at times go beyond 
 their rational poise. And it frequently resulted in 
 Roosevelt's looking up from his plate — to which 
 he usually gave his close, near-sighted attention — 
 and exclaiming, "I say now, fellows, don't let's get 
 too hot over this matter! We can't all see things 
 just alike. Now, let up a little, do!" 
 
 And thus, many a time, he was a veritable peace- 
 maker for that ardent little group. 
 
 He usually ate heartily, I am told. "Two helps" 
 being nearly always called for by him. When he 
 received his portion, he was accustomed to retain 
 his spectacles and prepare it carefully on his plate. 
 When prepared, he took off his glasses and de- 
 voted himself pretty exclusively to eating. He 
 seemed to be keeping up a line of absorbed thought 
 as he ate. As one of this group told me, "He did 
 not seem to enjoy eating very much, but ate as we 
 might stoke a furnace — because it must be done. 
 He did not live to eat, but he ate to live." He 
 
44 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 seems to have had a deliberate purpose in this 
 matter of eating, as he did in nearly all his acts. 
 Many years afterward, when he was starting upon 
 what looked like an exhausting political campaign, 
 he said — in sketching his plans to a former college 
 classmate — "And I'm going to eat. If a man 
 doesn't eat, he can't work." 
 
 At times, in the intimate little dining club, he 
 put on his glasses and joined in some discussion. 
 Not frequently, but always with vigor. Apropos 
 of his offices as peacemaker, I recall the account 
 given of another attempt of his to quiet a noisy 
 group. One evening he and several friends went 
 to a theater in Boston. After the performance 
 they drifted into "Ober's" — a somewhat promiscu- 
 ous restaurant just back of Washington Street, 
 near Winter Street. Here "all sorts and condi- 
 tions" of men — and women — and drink — were 
 to be found. Roosevelt's group became somewhat 
 heated and enthusiastic and demonstrative. There 
 was no saying what the climax might have been. 
 Suddenly Roosevelt leaped upon a table and, ges- 
 turing vigorously, cried out above the din, "I say, 
 fellows, let's not go too far! We mustn't carry 
 this thing too far. We've about reached the limit, 
 fellows. Let's get out!" 
 
 Somebody bigger and stronger than himself 
 promptly pulled him off the table, amid a roar of 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 45 
 
 good-natured laughter. And he and his noisy com- 
 panions soon started for the sequestered, academic 
 groves of Cambridge. 
 
 There was never any danger to his reputation 
 as a vigorous, virile fellow in his doing a thing of 
 that sort. His game qualities in sparring and 
 wrestling and in debate were too well known for 
 that. As one man who had sparred and wrestled 
 with him frequently said to me recently, "He was 
 such a fair-minded fellow. Open, square, generous, 
 an awfully fierce fighter, but always a good sport." 
 
 Altogether Roosevelt, in his college days, took 
 his place as a somewhat unique personality. The 
 normal conventional kind of man could not make 
 him out, but respected and wondered at him. 
 Whether he would turn out a crank or a leader of 
 some new order stood a puzzling question. Wil- 
 liam Roscoe Thayer, Harvard '81, speaks of sitting 
 with Roosevelt on the window seat of a room in 
 Holworthy, and chatting about what they intended 
 to do after their college course. "I'm going to 
 try to help the cause of better government in New 
 York City," declared Roosevelt, "although I don't 
 know exactly how." And Thayer comments, "I 
 looked at him inquiringly and wondered whether 
 he was the real thing or only a bundle of eccentrici- 
 ties." Results have shown that he was indeed "the 
 real thing." 
 
46 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Again and again his classmates have been asked, 
 "Did you see signs in him, in those days, of the 
 greatness which he afterward showed?" I do not 
 find anybody except Charles- G. Washburn, of 
 our class, who quite asserts that he saw greatness 
 in Roosevelt in college. Washburn was one of the 
 original eight members of the dining club previ- 
 ously mentioned and had opportunities to know 
 him well. A few years ago he wrote an excellent 
 and discriminating book about this classmate whom 
 he profoundly admired. In it he says, "It became 
 evident very early that Roosevelt was a person 
 sui generis and not to be judged by ordinary stand- 
 ards. Very early in our college life I came to 
 believe in his star of destiny." 
 
 I have implied, perhaps, in my recital of his 
 outspokenness in the classroom, that he was not 
 unduly sensitive and shy. The whole truth of the 
 matter is that he was really shy, but he persist- 
 ently struggled, in this field as in so many others, 
 to overcome a natural defect which he saw tended 
 to hamper him in whatever work he might engage 
 in. There are several pieces of evidence pointing 
 to this conclusion. To any person who saw and 
 heard him frequently, in his later public life, as he 
 made speeches and gave addresses countless in 
 number, it might have seemed as if he had never 
 known shyness or stage fright. 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 47 
 
 One incident which reveals his undergraduate 
 shyness and sensitiveness has been given me by one 
 of the participants in the scene. It appears that 
 a committee of three students presented themselves 
 before President Eliot, to state some grievance. 
 Roosevelt was to be the spokesman. The Presi- 
 dent entered the room. No American citizen whom 
 I have ever known, and no European royalty 
 whom I have ever seen equaled him in dignity and 
 majesty of mien. And when Roosevelt confronted 
 that dignity and majesty, his "tongue clave to the 
 roof of his mouth", — for a moment only. Then 
 he burst out, "Mr. Eliot, I am President Roose- 
 velt — ," which confused him still more, and for 
 several moments he could say nothing. 
 
 All this timidity he triumphed over, in due time. 
 Doctor Edward Everett Hale, a past master in 
 public speaking, was once asked by an eager but 
 shy young man how he could overcome his extreme 
 shyness in public. "Speak every time anybody 
 asks you to," replied the honored author of "The 
 Man Without a Country." And the advice was 
 sound. Roosevelt's experience in New York 
 politics took away all his shyness. 
 
 In private, he never had any real shyness about 
 talking, although as a child he had always spoken 
 rapidly, and sometimes, in his eagerness, incoher- 
 ently. But his difficulty was one of the tongue 
 
48 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 and larynx, not of the mind and will. He could 
 talk, and at times he could refrain from talking. 
 One of my classmates, a most genial, likeable 
 man, has given me an illustration of this from his 
 own experience. Speaking of hunting and other 
 outdoor sports, my friend said: "That was one of 
 the points I held in common with Roosevelt, at 
 college. I liked shooting. And he went, again 
 and again, up into Maine with 'Bill' Sewall, to 
 camp and hunt. Several times Roosevelt asked 
 me to come to his room to talk about some trip I 
 had taken in the woods or along the shore, in search 
 of game. He would ask the most minute ques- 
 tions about the cries and habits of the birds and 
 animals which I had hunted. He cared far more 
 for that side of the subject than I did. But when 
 I had told him all I knew, I recall that he suddenly 
 ceased his questions, took up a book or magazine, 
 and began to read. 
 
 "What do you think of that?" continued my 
 friend. "You are trying to analyze him. Now, 
 how do you explain him, there?" 
 
 I hesitated over my reply. Then I ventured, 
 "A lack of sympathy, was it?" 
 
 My friend's hearty laugh reassured me. "No!" 
 he replied. "He was just bored with me. That 
 was all. He had drained me of the information 
 he sought; and on other subjects I just bored him. 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 49 
 
 He was interested in more serious questions than 
 I cared for." 
 
 There is one incident of Roosevelt's career at 
 Cambridge which has been told repeatedly, but 
 often it has been told incorrectly. I have the best 
 of reasons for believing that this version which I 
 give is the right one. 
 
 At his home in New York he had grown up in 
 the habit of attending church and Sunday school of 
 the Dutch Reformed faith. When he came to 
 Cambridge there was no church of that kind within 
 reach. But he had been reared in the firm belief 
 that every man ought to connect himself with some 
 church and in some way serve it, and, through it, 
 society. As he examined the several churches near 
 Harvard Square, he found himself in sympathy 
 with Christ Church, Episcopalian, Reverend Mr. 
 Spalding, rector. 
 
 Accordingly, without consulting anybody, he 
 presented himself before Mr. Spalding and ex- 
 pressed a wish to teach a class in the Sunday school. 
 I knew Mr. Spalding personally, and I think he 
 was somewhat surprised at this unsolicited offer of 
 service. But he concealed any surprise he felt and 
 replied calmly that he would be happy to put Mr. 
 Roosevelt in charge of a promising class of boys. 
 This was done, and all went happily for a time. 
 "Teddy" was known by his companions to be 
 
50 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 teaching in a Sunday school, but nothing that he 
 did surprised anybody who was intimate with him. 
 
 All went well in his teaching for several months. 
 The boys admired him, and he loved them. With 
 his characteristic "largeness of nature", he gave 
 presents at Christmas time to his pupils which 
 quite surpassed the presents of other teachers to 
 other boys. And a certain lowering of "morale" 
 became evident in the school as this fact became 
 generally known. A little reconsideration, how- 
 ever, corrected this too expansive Christmasing, 
 and all went on in peace. 
 
 One Sunday, after several months had passed, 
 one of the little boys — "Billy", we will say — came 
 into the class, and was plainly seen to have a sus- 
 piciously "black eye." His companions did not 
 try very hard to ignore it; in fact, they made fre- 
 quent terse inquiries about its cause. At length 
 their teacher himself asked Billy directly but sym- 
 pathetically about the matter. 
 
 For a few moments Billy parried inquiries, but 
 presently burst out, "Well, yer see, Sam — that big 
 feller, Sam — he came along where I was playing 
 marbles with Jimmie. And he swiped some of my 
 marbles. And I told him to give 'em back, and — 
 well, that's how I got my eye blacked." 
 
 It was a frank statement of elemental facts and 
 forces, and the young teacher saw it as such. But 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 51 
 
 he felt leanings in two directions. His natural 
 sympathy was with the boy and his stand for his 
 rights of property. But he remembered that he 
 was a Sunday-school teacher. So, after a moment's 
 deliberation, he said, "Of course you know, Billy, 
 it's wrong to fight — that is, er — generally it is. 
 And I'm sorry about this. I hope it won't happen 
 again." 
 
 This said, he slipped a twenty-five-cent piece 
 into Billy's hand, and the lessons of the class were 
 resumed. It is said that this award of the young 
 teacher's became known to the somewhat rigid rec- 
 tor, and resulted in Roosevelt's being relieved of 
 his duties with the class. And for many days it 
 was a standing jibe with the waggishly inclined 
 among his friends for somebody to inquire of him, 
 "Well, Teddy, teaching Sunday school still?" 
 
 It is only a trifling incident, this, but it has a 
 point in common with larger, later events, even 
 with the Panama Canal incident. In both cases 
 Roosevelt was not content with technical, conven- 
 tional morality. He went below technicalities and 
 got at the equity of the situation, as I will affirm, 
 more minutely, in a later chapter. 
 
 Another characteristic of Roosevelt's is implied 
 in this incident. It is the exceptional way in which 
 he combined in himself qualities mutually antag- 
 onistic, qualities which in most people are not 
 
52 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 found existing together. For example, he was 
 capable of the highest idealism, yet he urged re- 
 course to physical force, to fist, blows, under cer- 
 tain conditions. In all his writings and his ad- 
 dresses, he held up the highest moral conduct as 
 the only worthy aim of individuals and nations. 
 And he exemplified it in his private life and in his 
 public policies. Yet when he was asked what a 
 man should do if — for instance — another man 
 were to spit at him, or threaten him with violence, 
 his prompt reply was, "Strike him and strike him 
 first." 
 
 The exceptional assemblage of opposite quali- 
 ties in his character I have seen exhibited by him 
 as he discussed, for instance, "Greetings and fare- 
 wells among primitive people." He followed the 
 subject down to its minutest details. And a lis- 
 tener might have thought, "This man is meticu- 
 lous. He lives in small things. He has no large 
 range." And then, in an instant, I have seen him 
 swing to a consideration of world-themes and treat 
 them in the largest possible way. 
 
 I was reminded of this significant quality in 
 Roosevelt recently, as a classmate told me that he 
 recollected a meeting at the Hasty Pudding Club, 
 when Roosevelt remained, with a few others, nearly 
 the entire night, in order to frustrate an attempt 
 to vote in a student whom Roosevelt and others 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 53 
 
 considered "undesirable." There are many men — 
 grim, dogged beings — of whom you would natur- 
 ally expect that kind of bulldog tenacity. But how 
 easy to say of Roosevelt, especially in his mer- 
 curial, youthful days, "This brilliant young fellow 
 is quick to lay hold but would never hold on." That 
 would be a natural but mistaken judgment. He 
 could think, feel, and act with remarkable speed, 
 but he could also sustain his thought and feeling 
 and action to the last gasp. 
 
 The psychology of his nature probably was this. 
 That after he had begun promptly, tempera- 
 mentally, upon the mental, physical or emotional 
 act or state, he threw it over into the domain of his 
 enlightened will. And his dogged resolution, like 
 a vise, held him to his chosen path. 
 
 It pleases me to add that the classmate who told 
 me this incident of the undesirable Hasty Pudding 
 applicant closed his remarks with a moment's 
 meditation, and then added, with tenderness and 
 yet firmness, "Oh, Theodore was such a clean- 
 minded fellow." 
 
 Following this incident of the Pudding meeting, 
 I may properly explain that Roosevelt was no 
 "dog in the manger", glad to keep somebody out 
 of what he himself was enjoying. There was the 
 
 case of R . He was shy, inexpressive, and not 
 
 very attractive at first sight. But he had excellent 
 
54 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 qualities underneath, as Roosevelt happened to 
 
 know. Accordingly, when R came up as a 
 
 candidate for the Pudding, and seemed likely to 
 be black-balled, Roosevelt put in a very earnest 
 and successful plea for him. 
 
 No, it was not blind, brute, bulldog tenacity in 
 Roosevelt, nor was it conceit of leadership. It was 
 simply his inherent love of "the square deal." 
 
 Frederick Mather Stone, Harvard '82, has 
 given me an incident which serves my purpose 
 excellently, as I try to elucidate my classmate's 
 qualities and characteristics from such anecdotes 
 and reminiscences as I can gather. Stone was 
 "running" for the "Dickey." In the yard one day, 
 as he came near Gray's, he saw Roosevelt — al- 
 ready a member of the Dickey — sitting on the 
 front steps. 
 
 It might be interpolated here that when Roose- 
 velt was "running" for the "Dickey", one of his 
 stunts was to attend a performance of the Medea, 
 then playing in Boston, and applaud all the somber 
 situations in that extremely somber drama. 
 
 Roosevelt beckoned Stone to come near; then 
 he asked, with all the license of interrogation al- 
 lowed him at such a time, "What's your name?" 
 
 Stone's reply was "Rocks, by God — " then 
 trailing on into some language so reprehensible 
 that he would not repeat it to me. 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 55 
 
 Roosevelt listened to the full statement; then he 
 asked, "You don't like to say that vile stuff, do 
 you, Stone?" 
 
 And Stone replied, "I certainly don't." 
 
 At this point in the story, if Roosevelt had been 
 an ordinary, average man, he would have said, 
 "I'm sorry that you have to say it," and the inter- 
 view would have ended. But, being the excep- 
 tional young fellow he was, predestined by his just 
 and generous nature to take up every grievance 
 he came across, he exclaimed, "Then, Stone, don't 
 you say that dirty stuff. Say the first three words 
 when you're asked, and no more. And, Stone, if 
 anybody makes a fuss, you refer him to me. I'll 
 back you." 
 
 Roosevelt always rebelled at vague ethical gen- 
 eralities and the dry husks of righteousness and 
 sought out and acted upon the kernel of right, 
 truth, justice, — in the one particular situation 
 which confronted him. In his Autobiography he 
 mentions Professor A. S. Hill by name, and with 
 evident gratitude and appreciation. A feeling 
 which I also share, as a pupil of Professor Hill. 
 But when I seek for an explanation of my class- 
 mate's evident preference for that somewhat 
 caustic teacher of Rhetoric and English, I am 
 puzzled. 
 
 Further, I have this incident from one of my 
 
56 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 classmates. He tells me, "One day, at Cambridge, 
 in our Sophomore year, I met Roosevelt just out- 
 side University Hall — the building where most of 
 the college departments had their offices. He was 
 considerably excited. When I asked the cause of 
 the excitement, he burst out angrily, 'I'm going 
 straight up to the President and tell him that 
 Professor Hill has insulted me. He said this morn- 
 ing, before the whole session, that I could never 
 learn to write good English.' I tried to pacify 
 him," continued my classmate, "and I think I did. 
 For when I left him he did not go up into Uni- 
 versity as he had intended." 
 
 That must have been merely a passing outburst 
 of youthful indignation. And, years after, as 
 Roosevelt looked more calmly back over his college 
 course, there seems to have been something ad- 
 mirable in Professor Hill's character or methods 
 which made Roosevelt single him out for especial 
 mention in his Autobiography. What that quality 
 in the professor was I cannot say, with confidence. 
 Rut, knowing the two men, their temperaments and 
 their attitude toward life, I fancy that Professor 
 Hill's insistence upon linguistic and rhetorical 
 realities, beneath the academic, cumbersome rules 
 handed down from Whately and other erudite 
 writers upon rhetoric, — this cutting of red tape 
 appealed to reality-loving Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 57 
 
 The story has been told that it was in the Rhet- 
 oric section, during his Sophomore year, that 
 Roosevelt's romantic interest in Miss Lee — later 
 his wife — became generally known. William 
 Draper Lewis, in his interesting "Life of Theodore 
 Roosevelt", has given an account of this matter in 
 some detail. "During all this time he had become 
 more and more interested in Miss Alice Hathaway 
 Lee, who lived in Chestnut Hill, a pleasant suburb 
 of Boston. During his Sophomore year he was a 
 student in Rhetoric under Professor Adams Sher- 
 win Hill. One day the professor was reading to 
 his class a theme, which he objected to because it 
 was over-romantic. In the middle of his reading, 
 he paused and asked Roosevelt to criticize the 
 theme. The young man hesitated, and the profes- 
 sor then asked him specifically, 'Mr. Roosevelt, 
 what do you think of a young man falling in love ?' 
 Roosevelt, blushing furiously, made no answer. 
 And so his secret was out. The culmination of the 
 affair was his engagement to Miss Lee, and their 
 marriage, on his twenty-second birthday, a few 
 months after he had graduated from college." 
 
 I have visited Cambridge recently to refresh my 
 memory upon Roosevelt's college life. There is 
 the old wooden dwelling-house on Winthrop 
 Street, where he lived during practically all his 
 four years. And there is the well-preserved, dig- 
 
58 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 nified house at Number 62 Brattle Street (corner 
 of Hilliard) where his dining club met. Also I 
 noted the substantial iron fence, with its impressive 
 gates, which now surrounds the college grounds. 
 And I give a letter from one of my classmates 
 which tells how that encompassing fence came to 
 
 be erected: 
 
 "I served with Roosevelt and John Woodbury 
 (our faithful class secretary) on the Class Day 
 Committee. And I recall that Roosevelt suggested 
 that the Committee should use a material portion 
 of the class fund to construct a picket fence around 
 the grounds, to protect the Class Day ceremonies 
 from invasion by the uninvited public. Class Day, 
 79, the previous year, had been spoiled by an in- 
 cursion of a mob, and it was our wish to prevent a 
 recurrence of such an incident. Roosevelt sug- 
 gested the fence. But before we committed our- 
 selves to so large an expenditure, we secured an 
 assurance from '81 that they would take it off our 
 hands — as a 'second-hand' fence, of course, at a 
 reduced price. I have always understood that this 
 arrangement was carried out. That picket fence 
 was the origin of the dignified iron structure, a 
 splendid gift of '81, which now encompasses the 
 yard; and I think that these facts are worthy of 
 record in a biography of Roosevelt." 
 
 It might seem, from the space given to the social 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 59 
 
 side of Roosevelt's life in college, that his work in 
 his courses of study was of little moment. His own 
 autobiographical survey of his four years as an 
 undergraduate might also lead the casual reader to 
 the same conclusion. But Roosevelt, in his Auto- 
 biography, is too modest about his academic 
 achievements. I have already adverted to them, 
 but not in sufficient detail. 
 
 Bearing in mind the number of clubs and so- 
 cieties of which he was a member, and the time he 
 gave to athletics, the hasty critic might expect to 
 find that not much time and interest remained for 
 study. But here again we find him combining in 
 himself unrelated and almost mutually opposing 
 qualities and aptitudes which in most people are 
 widely separated from each other. Roosevelt loved 
 his sparring and boxing and driving and shooting 
 and all active outdoor sports, but he could put his 
 feet under a desk and "toil terribly." He could 
 withdraw his trained and harnessed will from all 
 physical action and put it into intellectual fields, 
 for sustained effort of many kinds, and with ex- 
 cellent results. 
 
 I will use, in closing this chapter, some of the 
 material gathered by my classmate, F. J. Ranlett, 
 and printed in an article by him in the Harvard 
 Graduates' Magazine of June, 1907. 
 
 In his article, among many useful facts, he has 
 
60 
 
 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 prepared the table which shows how Roosevelt used 
 the privileges of the new elective system: 
 
 Hours Taken in 
 Sophomore Year 
 
 3 hours a week 
 
 German 
 1 hour in French 
 
 m 
 
 Hours Taken in 
 Junior Year 
 
 1 hour a week in Ger- 
 man 
 3 hours in Italian 
 
 Natural 
 
 6 hours in Natural 5 hours in 
 History History 
 
 3 hours in Political 
 Economy 
 
 Hours Taken in 
 Senior Year 
 
 3 hours in Italian 
 
 6 hours in Natural 
 
 History 
 3 hours in Political 
 
 Economy 
 
 Mr. Ranlett points out that one third of Roose- 
 velt's elected courses were in modern languages, no 
 Latin or Greek. Also, that the table contains no 
 courses in English Composition and none in His- 
 tory, "An omission very noticeable in a man who, 
 in after life, wrote so much and so well, on so many 
 subjects — even in historical fields. 
 
 "In Sophomore History, and in the other pre- 
 scribed coursed — Rhetoric, Logic, and Meta- 
 physics — Roosevelt took high stand. And in all 
 his electives (save perhaps a one-hour course in 
 French), he is found upon the rank-list. In Phil- 
 osophy VI (Political Economy) he led the class. 
 In all his Natural History courses his rank was so 
 high that Final Honors would have been easy for 
 him. But he cared not enough for this outward 
 distinction to try for it." 
 
 The table given by my classmate Ranlett is 
 
MORE COLLEGE DAYS 61 
 
 provocative of surmise and conjecture, in the light 
 of Roosevelt's later career. It will be interpreted 
 in various ways by various people. He entered 
 college poorly equipped in Latin and Greek and 
 well equipped in mathematics. He elected Nat- 
 ural History at the earliest opportunity and held 
 to it throughout his three elective years. He gave 
 no attention to electives in Philosophy, History, 
 the Fine Arts, and Music. He gave considerable 
 attention to Political Economy. This last field lay 
 close to what proved to be his life work. 
 
 In our time at Harvard — as at the present time 
 — the custom prevailed of having the group photo- 
 graph of the entire class taken at graduation. And 
 often, as I have glanced over that picture, at that 
 group of hopeful young men, I have noted with a 
 certain satisfaction, with a sentiment indeed not 
 wholly rational, that my face comes next to his, be- 
 side him. And that accidental collocation I like to 
 take "as an outward and visible sign", — and the 
 rest of it. All his public life I was close to him in 
 spirit, in sympathy, in eager support. "Beside 
 him", with him, whole-heartedly so, yielding place 
 to no man in my admiration and devotion. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 
 
 In October, 1880, Roosevelt was united in mar- 
 riage to Miss Alice Hathaway Lee, of Brookline, 
 Massachusetts. She was a lovely and charming 
 girl, and Roosevelt gave to her that romantic pas- 
 sion which would have been expected from a man 
 of his ardent idealistic nature. 
 
 Soon after their marriage, the two went on a 
 trip over Europe. In Switzerland he made the 
 ascent of the Matterhorn. One of my classmates 
 writes me, "I met Roosevelt at Zermatt, and his 
 wife asked me to remonstrate with him about climb- 
 ing the Matterhorn. At this time he had had no 
 experience in mountain climbing. I did urge him 
 not to attempt the ascent. But his only reply was, 
 'I shall climb the mountain.' And he did it, with 
 success." 
 
 The mountain climbing was not quite what the 
 physician, who had given him a careful physical 
 examination as he was ending his Senior year, 
 would have prescribed for him. Said that physi- 
 cian to him, "You have some trouble with vour 
 
A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 63 
 
 heart. You must choose a profession which will 
 not demand of you violent exertion." Roosevelt 
 listened to him — and a few months later was toil- 
 ing up the Matterhorn. But he was right and the 
 physician was wrong, or at least was overcautious. 
 It is well to note that. 
 
 A biographer or a historian is tempted to build 
 his narrative in periods, as a nautilus builds its shell, 
 in sections, perhaps condensing and crowding too 
 much into one part and subordinating or ignoring 
 some other part. But a biography or a history is 
 like a vine, — enlarging or shrinking, but always 
 continuous. 
 
 Yet the years 1881 to 1884 do comprise such 
 radical experiences in my classmate's life that I 
 look upon them as forming a rounded and quite 
 crucial period, which more shaped his future than 
 did any other three years of his life. 
 
 On his return from Europe with his wife, they 
 took up their abode in New York City. And three 
 possible vocations invited him. His old-time pre- 
 dilection for natural history was now laid aside. 
 He was already well along in his writing of his 
 "History of the Naval War of 1812"; that work 
 unquestionably had direct bearing upon his official 
 duties at Washington later in life. There was 
 now the attractive possibility of his giving his 
 whole attention to historical or biographical work. 
 
64 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Again, there was the field of political life, with re- 
 form aims, as he had intimated to friends in col- 
 lege. And last but nearest lay the law office of 
 his uncle, with a cordial welcome. 
 
 This office he now entered and began the study 
 of law. But he did not long continue it. Like 
 James Russell Lowell in a similar situation, he 
 found the ends sought and the means used distaste- 
 ful to him. In Lowell's case there was little except 
 a general lack of interest in the subject. But in 
 Roosevelt there recurred the same extreme ethical 
 sensitiveness which had led him to protest at Har- 
 vard, in his theme and forensic courses, against 
 taking either side of a question, irrespective of his 
 personal convictions. He tells us in his Autobiog- 
 raphy that if he had come under the broad influence 
 of Professor Thayer, of the Harvard Law School, 
 he might have looked at the matter differently. 
 But as he faced the profession of the law in his 
 uncle's office, it revolted his intense love of truth 
 and sincerity. And he would have none of it. 
 
 Although in later life he modified his extreme 
 antipathy to legal methods, I believe that he 
 never quite lost it. He was almost fanatical on 
 questions of morals. And although he afterward 
 numbered dear friends among members of the 
 legal profession, I think he never quite acquiesced 
 in the legal doctrinaire convention that every ac- 
 
A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 65 
 
 rased person has a right to the best possible pr< 
 
 entation of his ease. 
 
 This subconscious bias J believe was a factor in 
 his later advocacy of the recall of judicial decisions. 
 Not only did he hold to the will and SOY< reignty 
 of the People, as the foundation of our democracy, 
 
 but lie never lost his ethical distrust of the infalli- 
 bility of a group of men trained in the legal schools. 
 Apropos of his "recall of judicial decisions'"' - ad- 
 vocated by him at Columbus, Ohio, in 1012 — I 
 wrote him him a letter in whieh J pointed out that 
 although the people were the ultimate power, t! 
 were often hasty and fitful, as a whole, and should 
 be checked in any sudden outburst of feeling, — in 
 short, should be 'protected from themselv< In 
 
 reply earne this letter, dated April 0, 1912: 
 
 My dear Oilman — 
 
 1 thank you for your letter and I appreciate it. 
 I agree with you that the voters should be : 'pro- 
 tected from themselves," but that means only that 
 they should be protected to t! tent of giv 
 
 them v full time to form a deliberate judgment. 
 
 My proposal gives them a minimum time of I 
 years. Surely that is enough. 
 
 With many thanks, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 T. Roosevelt. 
 
 This letter brings out a breadth as well as pene- 
 tration of view which, at the time of the "recall" 
 
66 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPrY WARRIOR 
 
 incident, was generally overlooked. More than 
 that, I believe that Roosevelt's action in this mat- 
 ter, his daring to raise even the slightest shade of 
 doubt regarding the infallibility of our courts, 
 brought upon him that opposition of the legal fra- 
 ternity which continued throughout his life. Judges 
 and lawyers, like the members of any class or pro- 
 fession, resent criticism from a layman. 
 
 Another recrudescence of this deep-down and 
 perhaps morbid antagonism toward legal proced- 
 ure came out in his address before Harvard grad- 
 uates, in Memorial Hall, on Commencement Day, 
 1905. The hall was full to overflowing. The Hon- 
 orable Joseph H. Choate presided. Many of the 
 nation's most eminent citizens were present, and 
 a large proportion of them were lawyers. At a 
 certain points in his address — which he had written 
 out and was reading, as he often did on important 
 occasions, where he was fearful about saying ex- 
 cited and regrettable things — he uttered these 
 words: "Is it not lamentable that so large a num- 
 ber of our ablest young men, having finished their 
 undergraduate course, go on through the law 
 schools and thence into the world, there to steer 
 individuals and corporations as near the edge of 
 illegality as they can go without allowing them to 
 get over the edge?" 
 
 This was uttered in the hearing of hundreds of 
 
A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 67 
 
 eminent members of the American Bar. Up to 
 this point in his address applause had been fre- 
 quent and unreserved. But on the instant a silence 
 fell on that august assembly, and lips compressed 
 and faces frowned. The speaker felt at once the 
 opposition aroused. But it did not frighten him. 
 On the contrary, it roused his superb combative 
 spirit. He paused, looked out over the hall, smiled 
 his unique dental smile, and remarked, "The ap- 
 plause seems somewhat lukewarm at this point. I 
 will repeat what I said." And repeat it he did, 
 with additional vigor. And that great assemblage, 
 won by his intrepidity — though perhaps uncon- 
 vinced as to the soundness of his position — broke 
 into thunders of applause. 
 
 The essential aim of this volume being an inter- 
 pretation of the character and greatness of my 
 classmate, the interesting point in his career, to 
 my thinking, in the period of 1881-1884, is that 
 during it he underwent, socially, that change of 
 heart, of perception, of conviction, which my old- 
 time Professor, Doctor William James, termed in 
 the religious field being "twice-born." 
 
 Doctor James expounded this view fully in his 
 book, "Varieties of Religious Experience." He 
 maintained that most people possessed a certain 
 moderate measure of religious conviction and senti- 
 ment by their birth and early training, almost by 
 
68 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 absorption. But a certain number of these people, 
 somewhere in their careers, passed through some 
 kind of special experience, or conversion, which in- 
 tensified their previous experience and gave to 
 them quite new religious convictions and senti- 
 ments. These people were the "twice-born", said 
 Doctor James, "in the field of religion." Similarly, 
 but in the social field, Theodore Roosevelt became 
 "twice-born" during these years 1881-1884. As a 
 child, he had been born into and trained in one class 
 of society — the "Best", so called — but one class 
 only of our nation. He was in that degree provin- 
 cial, limited, as essentially and surely as was 
 the humblest citizen dwelling in the purlieus of a 
 congested city. But his life during those eventful 
 years named — 'his intense passion for his beloved 
 wife, his continuous close contact with stern, bare, 
 human realities in political life through three years, 
 his profound grief at the death of his wife and 
 his mother (the two occurring in February, 1884) 
 
 — these experiences made of him, observant, sensi- 
 tive nature that he was, a "twice-born" man. From 
 the refined yet provincial social life of his childhood 
 and youth he developed and became truly demo- 
 cratic, truly cosmopolitan. This "postgraduate" 
 education of his was continued in the next period, 
 
 — the ranch or "cowboy" period. But it was ac- 
 
A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 69 
 
 complished, essentially, during the three years 
 named. 
 
 This larger life he referred to once, in an inti- 
 mate group where I was present, in this way: "I 
 tell you, fellows, we must get into touch with all 
 kinds of people. We must be able to see life from 
 other viewpoints than the one to which we were 
 born." Then he paused and added, "But we must 
 keep, through it all, our own inner standards." And 
 he did this. I know of no more dramatic yet now 
 amusing scenes in his life than those situations 
 where he had started upon a political canvas, in 
 New York City, under the guidance of friendly 
 yet anxious "Joe" Murray, and was taken to in- 
 terview the grog-shop bosses of Sixth Avenue. 
 Much as he desired their approval and support, he 
 would not cringe, he would not relax those "inner 
 standards" which he had set for himself. Not only 
 did he tell a frowning saloonkeeper that instead of 
 getting lower taxes for liquor sellers, he would 
 try to have the taxes increased, but he maintained 
 his standards of dress and speech in situations 
 where most men would have tried to conform to 
 the manners and customs about them. Those were 
 essentially opera-bouffe scenes — that well-bred, 
 refined young fellow from Fifth Avenue holding 
 himself ever a gentleman, as he sought the votes of 
 Sixth Avenue habitues. Similar situations were 
 
70 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 met by him later in a similar, sincere, courageous 
 way, when he fraternized with ranchmen and cow- 
 boys in the West. 
 
 With the assistance of "Joe" Murray, "Jake" 
 Hess, and other perspicacious friends, Roosevelt 
 gained the approval of men who had never before 
 met a man like him. They saw and responded to 
 his genuineness as he did to theirs. And the "Mor- 
 ton Hall crowd" sent him to the Assembly, at Al- 
 bany, where he maintained his moral, social, lin- 
 guistic, and sartorial standards, yet gathered grad- 
 ually about him men of antipodal manners and 
 customs, fighting always for reform — "playing the 
 honesty game", as his corrupt fellow legislators 
 dully and anxiously expressed it. 
 
 "Keep in touch with all kinds of people, get their 
 viewpoint, but maintain your own inner stand- 
 ards," urged my classmate, in my hearing. And 
 he exemplified this dictum at the Progressive Con- 
 vention in Chicago. In the hot, sultry atmosphere 
 of the hall, nearly every man had put off his coat 
 and even his waistcoat, Roosevelt among the num- 
 ber. When the deciding vote was cast and he was 
 declared the nominee of the convention, he must 
 needs go up to the rostrum to accept, formally and 
 solemnly, the honor accorded him. At once he 
 began putting on his coat. Friends near him ad- 
 vised, "Go along just as you are, Roosevelt ! Don't 
 
A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 71 
 
 bother about the coat!" But with a nicety of feel- 
 ing which delights me as I recall it, he made no 
 reply but insisted upon putting on the coat. And 
 thus properly clad, he ascended the platform and 
 accepted the nomination. 
 
 This insistence on the second half of his dictum — 
 the inner standards — is not the half which most in- 
 terests me as I study his crucial three years, 1881- 
 1884. Rather it is the half about "getting the view- 
 point of all kinds of people." Therein lay his "sec- 
 ond birth." Even as the politicians about him were 
 taking his measure, he was taking theirs. Step by 
 step he gained knowledge of their motives, out- 
 wardly so different from his own, yet singularly 
 alike in many respects. Consciously or uncon- 
 sciously he was following the method of Robert 
 Louis Stevenson — "Friendship without capitula- 
 tion." He was looking — not for differences, but 
 for resemblances, for points held by him in common 
 with the bosses and "heelers", and keenly enjoying 
 
 them. 
 
 Gazing back through the years over that period 
 of Roosevelt's "conversion", its strongest dramatic 
 scene, its "high light", is the one at Albany where 
 he denounced the corrupt judge, member of the 
 highest court in the State. Like an intrepid young 
 paladin of righteousness, this idealistic stripling at- 
 tacked not only the august judicial luminary him- 
 
72 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 self, but the whole bodyguard of Purse, Privilege, 
 and Power by which he was upheld. 
 
 The young college graduate apparently did not 
 differ much from hundreds of other young aca- 
 demic idealists, as he entered the arena; but only 
 the Roosevelt concentration, tenacity, and fear- 
 lessness enabled him to fight to a finish a battle 
 where he defied precedent, alienated friends, and — 
 as he once said to me — "took his very life in his 
 hands." 
 
 His public life, his political future, of course he 
 meant. And the "old family friend", a more ex- 
 perienced man, thought the same — that one who 
 held an interview with him, praised him and pres- 
 ently bestowed upon him the eminently worldly 
 advice, "Don't go too far, Theodore. You've made 
 a real impression. Now let the matter drop. You'll 
 be put down and out if you go on any longer 
 against those big men." But Roosevelt was never 
 a quitter and he fought the battle through, ob- 
 tained the investigation committees which he had 
 sought, and although they returned a "whitewash- 
 ing" report, the public was convinced that his 
 charges had been sound. 
 
 Mr. Thayer, speaking of Roosevelt's keen, re- 
 lentless cross-examination of the opposing counsel, 
 says in his volume: "Even in those days, Roose- 
 velt, when in deadly earnest, had a way of fixing 
 
A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 73 
 
 his under jaw and pointing a forefinger which 
 menaced like a seven-shooter." That vivid descrip- 
 tion appeals to me because years afterward I saw 
 a somewhat similar situation, where for a moment 
 my distinguished classmate — then President of the 
 United States — must have looked much as he did 
 in that Assembly Hall at Albany. It was at a 
 class dinner. A hundred and more men were pres- 
 ent, and Roosevelt had been asked to do all the 
 after-dinner speaking. He did it admirably, tell- 
 ing us in confidence inside facts about several of 
 his "policies." At one point a member of the 
 class, presuming upon the speaker's friendliness, 
 interrupted with an irrelevant question. Roosevelt 
 gave a concise reply, then continued. A second 
 time did that incautious person interject a remark. 
 And a second time did Roosevelt reply, but with 
 significant brevity. Then he resumed his talk. A 
 third time that infatuated man arose and offered a 
 suggestion. And I can never forget the tone, look, 
 and gesture with which Roosevelt, annoyed beyond 
 endurance, replied to him. His jaw was set, his 
 blue eyes flashed, his arm and forefinger were 
 leveled like a gun barrel, and his voice crackled 
 like a machine gun: "When-I'm-through-you-can- 
 
 talk." 
 
 We all had felt chills of apprehension at the in- 
 terruptions, and all had lamented our inter jectory 
 
74 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 classmate's folly. But his collapse, upon receiving 
 that rapid-fire volley, made us sorry for him, even 
 as we realized that he deserved it. 
 
 I am struck, as I read about Roosevelt's Albany 
 experiences, with the way in which he blended the 
 idealistic, the academic, if you will, with a prac- 
 tical attention to the prosaic and athletic demands 
 of any situation. When he took that leg of the 
 broken chair into the arena-like committee room, he 
 showed that he grasped the elemental, brute-force 
 possibilities of the time and place. He had sized up 
 the quality of the "Black Horse Cavalry." He 
 may have recalled that dastardly recourse to brute 
 force in the United States Senate, when Preston 
 Brooks struck down unarmed Charles Sumner. 
 
 At any rate, physical violence was not attempted 
 by his enemies — not at that time and place. But 
 at the Delevan House entrance, later, lurked 
 "Stubby" Collins — hireling of the corrupt legisla- 
 tive ring — and planned to knock Roosevelt down. 
 But the alert young reformer got in his lightning 
 blow first. With that skillful arm and small but 
 well-hardened fist he stretched the ruffian upon the 
 floor and passed on. 
 
 The really essential and lasting interest which 
 this period of 1881-1884 has for me is not the 
 iniquitous ring, nor the "unjust judge", nor the re- 
 volting dwelling-house sweatshops, but the unfold- 
 
A POSTGRADUATE COURSE 75 
 
 ing of Theodore Roosevelt's character. In the light 
 of his subsequent national leadership, this was the 
 important factor. And again I affirm that he was 
 more truly a self-made man than any character — 
 not excepting even that Abraham Lincoln whom he 
 so admired — in American history. As he passed 
 through the years, he laid them under tribute. He 
 impressed himself nobly upon them, but he gathered 
 from them. He had been born to "privilege", but 
 he constantly added to the number of his contacts 
 with the great, real world ; and he retained through 
 all, not only his Sir Galahad idealism, but that 
 phenomenal will, that power of concentration upon 
 any given point of his expanding horizon, which 
 made him unique in our national annals. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 "in cowboy land" 
 
 "In cowboy land" is the title of the chapter in 
 Roosevelt's Autobiography in which he describes 
 his experiences on the Little Missouri River, Da- 
 kota. The influences which led him to go out 
 into that frontier life are quite evident. He had 
 always loved camping and hunting, and while in 
 college had made trips into the Maine forests. His 
 brother Elliot had written him from Texas about 
 the fascinations of the free, wild life of the border. 
 And now were added two forces which quite turned 
 him from the high-pressure life of New York and 
 the complexity and corruptness of political life. 
 
 One of these forces was his discovery and dis- 
 appointment that he had come to the end of what 
 he, alone, as an individual, could accomplish in re- 
 form work. He had done wonders at Albany by 
 his personal might. He had yet to learn — as he 
 afterward saw and said — that teamwork only, with 
 that concession of individual preferences which 
 goes with it, could carry to permanent success the 
 kind of reform work upon which he had started. 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 77 
 
 Without self-excuse he stated the case to his 
 trusted friend, Jacob Riis, years afterward. "I 
 suppose that my head was swelled. I let my in- 
 dividual judgment and conscience decide every- 
 thing. So I soon found myself alone. There were 
 other honest, excellent people, only we differed in 
 certain matters. I know now that if you want to 
 get things done you must pull together as far as is 
 possible." 
 
 Another influence which decided his conduct at 
 this point was the sorrow which overwhelmed him 
 at the death of his wife and his mother. And, quite 
 as we might expect, he desired to go away from 
 those scenes which constantly reminded him of his 
 loss and loneliness and to seek solace from the 
 soothing hand of Nature. There had always been 
 for him a "call of the wild", and now that call was 
 one of help and healing. 
 
 A minor cause for his going to Dakota at this 
 time, yet one not to be ignored, was that his old- 
 time foe, asthma, threatened him afresh. His 
 physical strength had been impaired by his pro- 
 found grief, and he knew that the sure remedy was 
 such an open life as a western ranch offered. So 
 behold him, in the picturesque garb of a cowboy 
 of an extreme type, settled upon his newly acquired 
 property on the Little Missouri and throwing his 
 
78 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 whole being into the manners and customs of that 
 border life. 
 
 His own description of his surroundings reads 
 thus : "My house was a long, low building of hewn 
 logs, which I helped to build myself. It had a 
 broad veranda and rocking-chairs and a big fire- 
 place and elk-skins and wolf-skins scattered about. 
 It was on the brink of the Little Missouri, right in 
 a clump of cottonwoods. I have shot deer from my 
 veranda. I kept my books near me and did a deal 
 of writing, being, the rest of the time, out all day 
 in all kinds of weather." 
 
 In the building of this house Roosevelt assisted 
 his two old-time friends of the Maine woods, Sewall 
 and Dow. About his own skill with an ax he was 
 perfectly frank, as about all other matters, when he 
 spoke calmly and reflectively: "I could chop fairly 
 well for an amateur, but I could not do one third 
 the work they could do." And he was vastly 
 amused when he overheard somebody ask Dow 
 about his efficiency and this reply was given: "Well, 
 Bill cut down fifty-three, I cut down forty-nine, 
 and the boss — well, he beavered down seventeen." 
 
 But the saddened, lonely young man was not 
 much concerned with the outer results of his exer- 
 tions. The inner, subjective results were what he 
 aimed at, and this vigorous output of muscular 
 force was the very corrective which he sought for 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 79 
 
 his grief. The broad wild spaces, of which he has 
 written with warmth and poetic feeling, were lay- 
 ing their charm upon him; and always he had 
 dearly loved action and effort of the most strenu- 
 ous kind. Rowing a boat he had found more en- 
 joyable in boyhood than sailing. And now, in his 
 ranch life, he shared all the hardest, roughest work 
 of his companions. 
 
 This has a bearing on any analysis of Roosevelt's 
 character. There are two general classes or fields of 
 human pleasures — those where a man sits passive 
 and receives, and those where he puts himself into 
 vigorous action. The pleasure which comes from 
 the arts — to the listener in the musical world, and 
 to the spectator in the plastic and the pictorial fields 
 — ■ never held an important place in Roosevelt's life. 
 His father had played the piano for his children 
 and evinced a moderate taste for music; but my 
 classmate never possessed much keen interest in it. 
 At college he had been a member of the Glee 
 Club, but only an associate member. 
 
 Then, although his rare, intelligent activity made 
 him conversant with the conventional discrimina- 
 tions concerning pictures and statues, I believe that 
 he never got much joy from these things. It is 
 said that he held a high opinion of Remington, the 
 vivid, vigorous painter of men and animals of the 
 Western plains. But this opinion must have rested 
 
80 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 chiefly upon Roosevelt's special knowledge and 
 happy associations with that virile frontier life. 
 
 Roosevelt's duties and pleasures, during the 
 period of his ranch life, took him far and wide over 
 the surrounding country. And he bore his share of 
 the tasks and hardships so willingly and with such 
 persistent endurance that he soon made friends 
 everywhere among the cowboys, even among those 
 who had looked with distrust and contempt at this 
 bespectacled "dude" from the East. 
 
 Roosevelt had very little lasting difficulty with 
 the better class of cowboys. They held their ele- 
 mental moral virtues, as did he, and the two types 
 soon recognized and approved each other. But 
 there were many "bad men" scattered over the 
 new country, and with one or another of these he 
 came into collision. One evening the young East- 
 erner entered a "hotel", fatigued after a hard day's 
 riding. The barroom was the living room of the 
 resort, and it was well filled with cowboys and 
 cattlemen. He took a seat in a corner, out of the 
 way. But a local bully, the worse for drink, caught 
 sight of his unusual face and figure and made ad- 
 vances. Roosevelt's account of the scene is vivid 
 and very readable. "As soon as he saw me he 
 hailed me as Tour Eyes' and said I was going to 
 treat. I joined in the laughter but made no re- 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 81 
 
 sponse. He then came over near me and with a 
 gun in each hand used foul language." 
 
 Here comes to the rescue — as several times in 
 Roosevelt's life — his experience in boxing. "He 
 was foolish to stand so near and foolish to stand 
 with his heels together, in a very unstable position. 
 He ordered me to get up and treat. 
 
 "I rose slowly, remarking, 'Well, if I've got to, 
 I've got to.' Then, looking past him casually, I 
 suddenly struck, quick and hard, with my right on 
 his jaw, then with my left, and again with my 
 right. Down he went, his head hit the corner of 
 the bar, and he lay senseless. Whereupon the 
 crowd approved heartily my action, disarmed him, 
 hustled him out, and put him in a shed." 
 
 Only a trained boxer would have noted the "heels 
 too close together." And the "first the right, then 
 the left, and again the right" was the ripe fruit of 
 those athletic days in "the Gym" at Cambridge. 
 
 Thus he lived through the robust experiences of 
 his ranch life. He was an exotic in this land of 
 elemental force, yet there was such a wide reach 
 in his nature that he took the vigorous, rigorous ex- 
 periences as if born to them. And throughout 
 them all, underneath the outer, exacting routine of 
 the day, he carried on an interior life of which his 
 hardy companions knew little. He wrote and read 
 much, somewhat to their perplexity. If he had 
 
82 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 done nothing but hold a book and a pen he would 
 have stood contemned in their eyes. But he shared 
 the zest and strain of the hunt and the round-up 
 with them so joyously and efficiently that he com- 
 manded their respect. And his frank, warm nature 
 won their affection. 
 
 And who of that group on the Little Missouri 
 saw and consciously felt the appeal of wild rugged 
 Nature as did this "exotic" from the "effete East!" 
 In his "Wilderness Hunter" he writes sentences of 
 description which are as rich in color and as tense 
 in feeling as ever fervid John Ruskin wrote about 
 pictures. "The visitor to these scenes shall carry 
 forever in his mind the meaning of endless prairies 
 shimmering in the bright sunlight; of vast snow- 
 clad wastes, lying desolate under gray skies; of the 
 melancholy marshes ; of the rush of mighty rivers ; 
 of the breath of the evergreen forest in summer; 
 of the crooning of ice-armored pines at the touch of 
 the winds of winter; of cataracts roaring between 
 hoary mountain passes; of all the innumerable 
 sights and sounds of the wilderness, and of the 
 silences that brood in its still depths." 
 
 That sounds like John Muir at his best. And 
 what passages can you point out in Homer of 
 keener, closer feeling for Nature than that? 
 
 The life of the ranch, by its contrast with the life 
 of New York and Albany, and especially by its 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 83 
 
 subjective remoteness from his grief and loss ac- 
 complished what he had desperately hoped it would 
 accomplish. It diverted his brooding memories, it 
 summoned him from his sorrowful reflections to 
 action, observation, and physical achievement. Like 
 Antaeus of old, the touch of Mother Earth renewed 
 his strength and vital forces. Thus his elastic 
 nature gradually regained something of its normal 
 poise. 
 
 Yet there were times when sad memories of his 
 happy past clouded his sky. Faithful Bill Sewall 
 says, "He was melancholy at times. And, the first 
 year on the ranch, much down in spirits. He told 
 me, one day, that he felt as if it did not make any 
 difference what became of him — he had nothing to 
 live for." Those men were very different indeed 
 from each other in temperament and training; but 
 the human bond was strong between them. We 
 smile indulgently as Sewall writes, "We were very 
 close together, in those days, and he talked over 
 about everything with me. His ideas and mine al- 
 ways seemed to run about the same." 
 
 Yet the days were not all clouded. The robust 
 young exile from Manhattan varied in his moods. 
 Real life thrilled him always, and laughter was not 
 wholly estranged from him. We do not think of 
 Roosevelt as a humorous writer, yet he wrote with 
 piquant abandon when he described that experience 
 
84, ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 in the crowded "hotel" of a little "cow town" of 
 the prairie. He stopped his horse and was shown 
 to his room. It contained two beds. In one were 
 two men, fast asleep. In the other a man also 
 asleep. His name was Bill Jones. The narrative 
 continued, "I turned in and I slept. A couple of 
 hours later I was awakened by the door being 
 thrown open and a lantern flashed in my face, the 
 lantern gleaming on the muzzle of a cocked .45. 
 Another man said to the lantern-bearer, 'It ain't 
 him.' The next moment my bedfellow was covered 
 by two guns and addressed, 'Now, Bill, don't make 
 a fuss, but come along quiet!' 'I'm not thinking 
 of making a fuss,' said Bill. And Bill pulled on 
 his trousers and boots and went out with them. Up 
 to this time there had been not a sound from the 
 other bed. Now one of its two occupants lighted 
 a candle and gazed around in silence. At this 
 point I committed the breach of etiquette of ask- 
 ing questions. 'I wonder why they took Bill,' I 
 said. No answer, and I repeated, 'I wonder why 
 they took Bill?' 'Well,' said the man with the 
 candle, 'I reckon they wanted him.' And with that 
 he blew out the candle and conversation ceased. 
 Later I learned that Bill, in a fit of playfulness, had 
 held up the Northern Pacific train at a station by 
 shooting at the feet of the conductor to make him 
 dance. This was purely a joke on Bill's part; but 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 85 
 
 the Northern Pacific people possessed a less 
 robust sense of humor, and a United States Mar- 
 shal was sent to arrest Bill for delaying the mails." 
 
 This picturesque period of Roosevelt's life was 
 much drawn upon, through several successive years, 
 by the cartoonists of the press and magazines. And 
 he was represented humorously in all the real and 
 fancied positions incidental to life on a cattle ranch. 
 But in that actual experience, while he appreciated 
 the comic elements, he was aware that he was dwell- 
 ing amid elemental and savage forces where a 
 mistake might bring him to his death or into hope- 
 less disgrace. 
 
 Take that incident — in two parts — which his 
 friend Bill Sewall recounts with artless brevity. It 
 reads like a tale from Plutarch. "While Roose- 
 velt was away on this hunting trip, we heard that a 
 bad man on a nearby ranch had said he would shoot 
 Roosevelt at sight. I told Theodore about it, when 
 he came back. He said, 'Is that so?' Then he 
 rode straight over to the shack where the man lived 
 and told him he had heard that a man intended to 
 shoot him. 'And,' said Theodore, T want to know 
 why.' The man was flabbergasted and denied that 
 he had ever said anything of the sort. He said he 
 had been misquoted. The affair passed off pleas- 
 antly, and he and Roosevelt were good friends 
 after that." 
 
86 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 That is the first half of the story. Here is the 
 second. That same "bad man" lived on the ranch 
 of a Marquis de Mores. And the Marquis, irri- 
 tated by some fancied slight, sent Roosevelt a letter 
 which hinted at a challenge to a duel. "The chal- 
 lenge did not actually come," explains Sewall, "but 
 Roosevelt expected it. And he said that although 
 he did not believe in duelling, he would accept it if 
 it came; he would not be bullied. As the person 
 challenged, he said, he had the right to choose 
 the weapons. And he would choose Winchester 
 rifles, at a distance of twelve paces. 'I'm not a very 
 good shot,' he said, 'and I want to be near enough to 
 hit.' The two principals were to 'shoot and keep 
 on advancing — until one or the other was satis- 
 fied.' " 
 
 It would seem that with Winchesters, at twelve 
 paces, "satisfaction" would soOn be reached. 
 
 Always Roosevelt had believed in "the square 
 deal", long before he had so formulated the idea, 
 even back in the days of his Sunday-school class 
 when he had rewarded the small boy who had re- 
 sented the stealing of his marbles. And now, at 
 Medora, when three lawless tramps stole his boat 
 on the river, promptly and tirelessly he set about 
 retribution and recovery. Although his fellow 
 ranchmen advised him not to undertake a well-nigh 
 hopeless chase, he persisted. With two other men 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 87 
 
 he went down the river a hundred and fifty miles, 
 dangerous in places; and after three days of swift 
 pursuit he overtook the thieves, recovered his prop- 
 erty, and brought back the men to serve a term in 
 jail. 
 
 There was always a tenacity of purpose in Roose- 
 velt which surprised observers who saw for the first 
 time his brilliancy and alertness. He had an unsus- 
 pected capacity for "following through", as the 
 golf phrase is. He combined the quick, eager snap 
 of the terrier with the hold-on grip of the bulldog. 
 
 When Roosevelt was in Paris many years after- 
 ward, he made an address before the Sorbonne. 
 And with a shrewd sense of what would be novel 
 and picturesque to his listeners, he gave this bit of 
 reminiscence of his ranch life. "In the cattle coun- 
 try a 'maverick' was an unbranded yearling. The 
 custom was for mavericks to be branded with the 
 brand of the man on whose range they were found. 
 I had recently hired a new cowboy and we were 
 out looking up our cattle. We found a maverick, 
 roped it, threw it, and my new cowboy started to 
 brand it. Then I noticed that he was putting on 
 my brand; and I said, 'That animal should not 
 
 have my brand; we are on J 's range. The 
 
 man replied, 'I know my business. I always put 
 on my boss's brand.' I replied, 'Is that so? Well, 
 you stop that and go back to our ranch-house and 
 
88 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 get your pay up to now. I don't need you any 
 longer.' The man was astonished, and exclaimed, 
 'Why, what's the matter? I'm putting on your 
 brand.' At that I answered, 'Yes, my friend, and 
 if you would steal for me, you would steal from 
 
 me. 
 
 That was not idealism in ethics; but it prob- 
 ably appealed to the elemental nature of the man 
 with convincing force. Roosevelt knew his man. 
 He was remarkably quick at getting the unwritten 
 standards of the new country clearly into his mind. 
 
 One would scarcely think of him as needing to 
 learn tact, in this raw and apparently unconven- 
 tional life of the cattle ranges, but he recognized 
 that need and learned his lesson. He found that 
 among cowboys and "wranglers" and ranchers 
 there were social conventions, although these dif- 
 fered somewhat from the code of Fifth Avenue, 
 New York. He says, in his "Autobiography", "My 
 experience was that if a new man did not talk until 
 his associates knew him and liked him, and if he did 
 his work, he would get on. . . . When I went 
 among strangers I always had to spend twenty- 
 four hours in living down the fact that I wore spec- 
 tacles, remaining judiciously deaf to any side re- 
 marks about 'Four Eyes' and the like. ... I made 
 use of that diplomacy, among new men, which con- 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 89 
 
 sisted in not uttering one word that could be 
 avoided." 
 
 Not very easy, that, for a young man of Roose- 
 velt's free, facile tongue and eager expression. As 
 a student at Harvard he was not noted for his tact, 
 quite as we would expect from a young fellow of 
 his sincere, enthusiastic nature. I like him the 
 better for that. A college student who is con- 
 spicuously tactful at the age of — say, twenty, is 
 tactful probably because he lacks the warm im- 
 pulses which characterize normal youth, or he has 
 been overtrained already. 
 
 One of the most delightful revelations of Roose- 
 velt's tact and humor blended is given in the words 
 of Sewall. "Theodore was out riding one day and 
 stopped for luncheon at the house of a woman who 
 was a good deal of a character. She was living 
 with the man who had shot her husband. Theodore 
 sat down in a corner to read a book. He always 
 carried one with him. His legs were stretched out, 
 and the woman, getting his dinner, stumbled over 
 them. Then she exclaimed that he'd better move 
 his damned feet. He complied, and remarked that 
 he thought it was a perfectly proper thing for a 
 lady to ask a gentleman to move, but that he had 
 never happened to hear it put that way before." 
 
 In his mature life, Roosevelt evinced a reason- 
 able amount of tact, but it was an acquired taste. 
 
90 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 What he did have naturally was that kernel of 
 which tact is the outer husk, namely, sympathy. 
 Walt Whitman said the truest word that I have 
 ever heard about sympathy. Recalling his serv- 
 ice in the hospital during the Civil War, he said, "I 
 did not pity the wounded soldier, I became the 
 wounded soldier." And by that high standard 
 Theodore Roosevelt was sympathetic. That was 
 why he was loved, in his time, as no other man in 
 the United States ever was loved. That was the 
 significant, subtle explanation of the humorous 
 story, often told, regarding the "Cow-Puncher 
 Rough Rider's" explanation of the way in which 
 he had shot a man. "Why, Colonel, I had a diffi- 
 culty with a gentleman, and — er — well, I killed 
 the gentleman." "But how did it happen? How 
 did you do it?" The ex-puncher mistook the mean- 
 ing of the question and replied, "With a .38 on a .45 
 frame, Colonel." So intimately had Roosevelt 
 shared that turbulent border life, so sympatheti- 
 cally had he entered into and maintained the stan- 
 dards of his ranch friends, that this culprit thought 
 of him as being interested solely in the weapon, the 
 physical means by which the criminal deed had 
 been accomplished. 
 
 One of Roosevelt's partners in the ranching en- 
 terprise on the Little Missouri was a man named 
 Merrifield. He has given us several interesting 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 91 
 
 reminiscences — quite "inside information" — of 
 the stern, rugged, daily ranch life. 
 
 "The first night of the round-up Roosevelt said 
 to me, 'Now, Merrifield, I've learned to night-herd, 
 and you and I will take the trick from ten to twelve 
 o'clock.' I had never night-herded myself, so that 
 night Roosevelt taught me, and every night after, 
 for three weeks, he and I stood night-herd together, 
 riding round and round the herd under the stars, 
 humming some monotonous old song to the cattle, 
 to sort of settle their minds for the night. 
 
 "Roosevelt showed up for the man that he was 
 on that round-up. It was hard work, even for 
 seasoned hands. You never get enough sleep on a 
 round-up for one thing, and I remember men who 
 had lived in the saddle for years getting so fagged 
 that they were ready to drop. But Roosevelt was 
 always among the last to go to bed at night and 
 the first to get up in the morning. He asked no 
 favors. When he joined the round-up, bringing 
 his own string of ten horses, he told Three-Seven 
 Bill Jones that he expected to be treated just like 
 the other cow-punchers. 
 
 " T want to work with the wagon as a rider,' he 
 said, 'and I want no favors shown me. For the 
 time being I am the same as any of the men, and I 
 want to do the same work as any of them.' He 
 wanted 'no favors', he said, and I can say that he 
 
92 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 got none. Favors were not being handed about on 
 a round-up those days." 
 
 Merrifield gives one incident which reveals 
 Roosevelt's stoical self-control under pain. "In his 
 string of ten horses he had one mean brute named 
 Ben Butler. Several of his horses bucked on occa- 
 sion, but Ben Butler had the trick of falling over 
 backwards. One afternoon as Roosevelt was start- 
 ing out on 'the circle', the horse fell over with him, 
 and Roosevelt broke the point of his shoulder. 
 There was no doctor within a hundred miles and 
 Roosevelt knew it. The break must have hurt him 
 badly, but he didn't say a word about it, but just 
 got on another horse and went on with the day's 
 work. He didn't speak of it again and the rest of 
 us forgot about it. The break healed up itself. It 
 wasn't until about a year after that I realized what 
 he must have suffered. 
 
 "It happened that I broke my ankle that winter 
 and was unable to ride for five or six months. Then, 
 having bought some cattle, and Sylvane and the 
 other cowmen being away on a round-up, I had to 
 take them out to ranch. The river was up and I 
 had to do a good deal of riding. The second morn- 
 ing it was pretty hard; the third morning it was 
 something terrible. No human being who hasn't 
 gone through it can imagine what it is. I was en- 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 93 
 
 tirely used up. That time Roosevelt got hurt I 
 didn't realize what he was up against. 
 
 "And he wasn't the one to tell me. He was grit 
 clear through. I was used to rough living and it 
 never occurred to me that I might be putting a 
 strain on him which took all the grit he had to carry. 
 When we got back from the round-up that spring, 
 with his shoulder scarcely healed, I didn't think 
 anything of putting him on a horse for forty to 
 sixty miles a day. We'd ride up to the ranch of a 
 man named Gregor Lang, some fifty miles up the 
 river, up one day and back again the next. Then 
 when we'd had our supper I'd say to him, 'How 
 about going out and getting a deer?' 
 
 "He'd say, 'All right!' So we'd get fresh horses 
 and start out to kill a deer. 
 
 "After I had broken my ankle and had my les- 
 son, I apologized to him for putting him up against 
 such a foolish proposition. He laughed. 'Merri- 
 fleld,' he said, 'when you'd bring out that fresh 
 horse for me to ride, if I'd had my preference in the 
 matter I'd rather have ridden a red-hot stove than 
 one of those horses.' " 
 
 In college, Roosevelt always had a great deal of 
 that something which we call "influence." His 
 opinion or wish counted. On the plains it was the 
 same, even among men who naturally and at firsl 
 viewed him with surprise and distrust. 
 
94 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 "One night," says Merrifield, "we were camped 
 at Andrew's Creek, just across the Little Missouri 
 from Medora, and all the boys of our outfit and 
 most of the other cow-punchers in the round-up 
 rode into town and got to drinking. Roosevelt rode 
 to town himself later in the evening and about 
 eleven o'clock stepped into Tom Slack's saloon. 
 The place was crowded with the boys and they 
 were pretty noisy, having had about all they could 
 carry, and beginning to get careless with their 
 guns. Roosevelt greeted them and said, 'One more 
 drink, boys,' and going to the bar set up the 
 drinks for the crowd, though he never drank him- 
 self. Then when the men had their drinks he says, 
 'Come on, now, let's go,' and went out, and the 
 boys trooped out after him like so many children." 
 
 The ranching enterprise at Medora did not yield 
 financial success. A cold winter came on and Sew- 
 all estimated that fifty per cent, of the stock per- 
 ished. But the outdoor life, the entire change of 
 scene, had done what Roosevelt had hoped for. It 
 had blunted the sharp edges of his grief and made 
 life tolerable and even desirable. 
 
 At about this time — the early autumn of 1886 — 
 Roosevelt was one day chatting intimately with his 
 friend, Sewall. And he told Sewall that he was 
 going back East "to see about a job that had been 
 
"IN COWBOY LAND" 95 
 
 offered him. He said it was a job he did not want. 
 It would keep him in a row all the time." 
 
 And Sewall adds, "I heard, afterward, that 
 what he referred to was the nomination for mayor 
 of New York." 
 
 Roosevelt had made several short visits to New 
 York during this ranching period. On one of these 
 brief visits he wrote the characteristic letter which 
 I here give, taking it from Mr. Joseph B. Bishop's 
 exhaustive and authoritative "Theodore Roosevelt 
 and His Time." 
 
 First, a sharp querulous letter to Roosevelt from 
 Jefferson Davis, whilom president of the Southern 
 Confederacy. 
 
 Beauvain, Miss. 
 Sept. 29, 1885. 
 Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, 
 
 New York, New York. 
 Sir: 
 
 You have recently chosen publicly to associate 
 the name of Benedict Arnold with that of Jeffer- 
 son Davis, as the only American with whom the 
 traitor Arnold need not fear comparison. You 
 must be ignorant indeed of American history if 
 you do not know that the career of those characters 
 might be aptly chosen for contrast, but not for 
 similitude; and if so ignorant, the instinct of a 
 gentleman, had you possessed it, must have caused 
 you to make inquiry before uttering an accusation 
 so libelous and false. I write to you directly to 
 repel the unproved outrage, but with too low an 
 
 r~ 
 
96 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 estimate of you to expect an honorable retraction 
 of your slander. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 (Signed) Jefferson Davis. 
 
 The letter was the choleric outburst, useless and 
 ill-advised, of a disappointed, nerve-worn old man; 
 Mr. Davis was then seventy-seven years old. 
 Doubtless Roosevelt should not have said what he 
 had evidently been reported as saying. But, on re- 
 ceiving Mr. Davis's letter, he sent this reply, char- 
 acteristic of his instinct to strike back at any man 
 who struck or tried to strike him. 
 
 New York, October 8, 1885. 
 Mr. Theodore Roosevelt is .in receipt of a letter 
 purporting to come from Mr. Jefferson Davis, 
 and denying that the character of Mr. Davis com- 
 pares unfavorably with that of Benedict Arnold. 
 Assuming the letter to be genuine, Mr. Roosevelt 
 has only to say that he would be surprised to find 
 that his views of the character of Mr. Davis did 
 not differ from that apparently entertained in 
 relation thereto by Mr. Davis himself. Mr. Roose- 
 velt begs leave to add that he does not deem it 
 necessary that there should be any further com- 
 munication whatever between himself and Mr. 
 Davis. 
 
 I note the delightful third person in which my 
 angry young classmate's reply was couched. But 
 if Roosevelt had been older and Mr. Davis had 
 been younger, neither would have written. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 VICTORS AND SPOILS 
 
 William Sewall was correct in his surmise that 
 his beloved "Boss" was returning to New York to 
 accept a nomination for the mayoralty. That was 
 early in the autumn of 1886. When Roosevelt told 
 Sewall that the job which awaited him would keep 
 him in a row all the time and that he did not 
 like it, I think that he told only half of what he felt. 
 In a sense he may have dreaded the strife and 
 struggle of the impending campaign, but in a 
 larger, more lasting sense he enjoyed the prospect 
 of entering it. 
 
 The quality in him which I find most difficult of 
 analysis — both by my own study and by consulta- 
 tion with my friends and his friends — is his aston- 
 ishing energy, expressed both physically and men- 
 tally. I cannot account for it fully, either by known 
 laws of heredity or by the fact that he persistently 
 and intelligently built up and repaired and rebuilt 
 his physical as well as his intellectual equipment 
 all through his life. The fact that he was a very 
 sound sleeper — as he has assured me — will ac- 
 
98 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 count, at least in part, for his wonderful resources 
 of nervous strength. But these explanations do 
 not fully explain. He was exceptional in his eager, 
 tireless vigor, mental and physical. 
 
 Therefore, when the call to righteous, patriotic 
 combat in the municipal arena of New York came 
 to him, I know that he welcomed it. Here was 
 his opportunity for action, and for action which 
 would be on the side of reform and righteousness. 
 He welcomed it confidently, out of the full 
 stores of his strength, as the thoroughly trained 
 pugilist welcomes his adversary in the ring, or the 
 well-equipped legal advocate welcomes the district 
 attorney. For the pugilist "in the pink of condi- 
 tion" and the court advocate armed at all legal 
 points are more fully themselves than at any other 
 time in their lives. And contest, combat, becomes a 
 
 joy. 
 
 A story told by Mrs. Corinne Roosevelt Robin- 
 son regarding her brother illustrates the joy in 
 combat of this "Happy Warrior." She recalls his 
 "first public speech in New York." It was a form 
 of debate at the Union Club. Roosevelt spoke 
 first, and upon Americanism. He was followed by 
 St. Clair McKelway, who sought to play with this 
 new unknown young man, cat-and-mouse fashion. 
 He spoke jeeringly yet skillfully of Roosevelt's 
 "isms." Applause from the audience punctuated 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 99 
 
 his sentences. Mrs. Robinson — then in her teens 
 — grew anxious, because her brother was expected 
 to reply. For a short time, as she glanced at him, 
 his countenance was grave and even anxious. Then 
 she saw his unique smile come to his face and a 
 gleam to his eyes, and she knew that he was eager 
 to get to his feet. This he did in due time, and 
 began vigorously, confidently, joyously, "I do not 
 need ten minutes for my reply. I need no more 
 than one. I call to the gentleman's attention one 
 'ism' very dear to me and much overlooked, here 
 and elsewhere, by him. I mean patriot-ism." And 
 he poured out a flood of impassioned and even per- 
 sonal arraignment which brought a storm of ap- 
 plause from the company present and considerably 
 disconcerted the indiscreet journalist who had in- 
 advertently brought this onslaught upon his own 
 head. 
 
 In an hour like that, Roosevelt was* most truly 
 himself intellectually, morally; quite as he was 
 most truly himself physically, when he faced and 
 killed that savage grizzly bear, in 1889, on the west- 
 ern side of the Yellowstone Park, Idaho. 
 
 So I feel sure that Roosevelt went back to the 
 complexity of New York life and to its relentless 
 rivalries and deadly conflicts with a glad smile and 
 an eager spirit. But, as it happened, the strife 
 upon which he entered was brief, abortive. 
 
100 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 The political group which had nominated him 
 was composed of independents and Republicans 
 who sought to defeat the Democratic party, locally 
 known as "Tammany", and portrayed in popular 
 cartoons as a tiger. Tammany, made anxious by 
 the opposition, had nominated an excellent man, 
 Abram Hewitt. And this man's popularity was so 
 great that struggle against him was doomed to 
 failure. Nevertheless Roosevelt went into the con- 
 test with zeal and doubtless enjoyed the strenuous 
 days and nights, even though he failed of election. 
 
 He was not seriously discouraged, however, and 
 he had recovered, in the main, his full vigor of 
 body and normal poise of mind and spirit, so im- 
 paired by his great sorrow. And he now gave his 
 attention to his literary work. Also he went across 
 the ocean to England, where, on December second, 
 at St. George's, London, he was married to Miss 
 Edith Kermit Carow, who had been his playmate in 
 childhood. 
 
 The two had been firm friends through the years. 
 She and Theodore and Corinne Roosevelt had 
 joined in games and excursions many times; and 
 when in Europe, at the age of eleven, he had written 
 to her — with slightly defective orthography — 
 telling her that she was his most faithful corre- 
 spondent. In his diary of that juvenile period he 
 records, "In the evening Mamma showed me a pic- 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 101 
 
 ture of Edith Carow and it stirred up in me home- 
 sickness and longings for the past." 
 
 This marriage was a happy union of hearts and 
 harmony of temperaments which bore nobly, richly, 
 through all the years, the tests that come to all 
 married lives. Most happy marriages are based 
 upon a divergence of temperaments and a com- 
 munity of character. Throughout their united life 
 Mrs. Roosevelt was the calming, steadying force 
 and he was the originating, resourceful leader. She 
 gave a ready and sympathetic ear to his numberless 
 plans and helped him to a wise selection among 
 them. 
 
 After remaining several months in Europe, the 
 two returned to the United States and settled in 
 the house which he had built at Sagamore Hill, 
 Oyster Bay, Long Island. This was destined to 
 be their home, the scene of their happy family life, 
 throughout their length of united days. It was 
 within an hour's railroad journey of New York 
 City, and it afforded all the opportunities for that 
 outdoor life, on land and water, which Roosevelt 
 and all his family loved so well. 
 
 Here he now set about literary work. Through 
 pen and paper he gained that expression of his 
 nature which he craved, in a remarkable degree. 
 It was inevitable that he should put into writing 
 the experiences and reflections which had been his 
 
102 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 on the wide plains of. the West. He had already 
 published his "History of the Naval War of 1812", 
 a purely academic work, yet more than a rearrange- 
 ment of facts already printed by other writers. In 
 it his eager demand for truth asserted itself, and 
 the book was a real contribution to the impartial 
 estimate of values in that contest between the too 
 dominating mother-country and her assertive, sen- 
 sitive daughter. 
 
 Roosevelt's "Winning of the West" grew di- 
 rectly out of his personal acquaintance with fron- 
 tier life, its lack of the embroideries of highly civil- 
 ized life, and its possession of the elemental, human 
 virtues. His books of travel and adventure were 
 simple, vivid narratives of what he had personally 
 seen and experienced. And his public addresses, 
 put into book form, are really in the same class, 
 psychologically, as these. For they were records 
 of what he had observed in that human world which 
 often becomes a jungle of warring animals, so 
 fierce are its competitions. Records of warfare, 
 attack and defense, with comments upon them, de- 
 ductions from them with advice and guidance for 
 future, similar conditions. Righteous struggle, 
 moral warfare, Roosevelt always welcomed. 
 
 When I look over the long list of his published 
 books, two points strike me. First I wonder that 
 he could so curb his physical activity as to 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 103 
 
 sit still at a desk and write them all. Yet 
 they were but a manifestation of his energy, of 
 his "self-expression", as the phrase now runs. And 
 second, looking at the titles alone, a discerning 
 critic can see that they are not the product of a 
 purely literary man, but the by-product of a man 
 of affairs. Action, action, action was the keynote 
 of his life. He wrote little or no fiction. He 
 never strayed far from facts, with inferences 
 from those facts. His biographical and historical 
 work was his least characteristic literary output. 
 It was academic and it could have been written 
 by any one of hundreds of people about him. But 
 his "action-literature" in field and forest and in 
 the arena of human affairs — this distinctive and 
 perspicacious, quite beyond the ordinary. 
 
 Then, back of all that he wrote was his person- 
 ality. We glimpse it in his written words, but it 
 found full expression only in personal intercourse 
 and public addresses. It is this dynamic person- 
 ality which will be the perplexing problem of his- 
 torians and biographers yet unborn. 
 
 This personality he threw into the great burden- 
 some, discouraging work which President Harri- 
 son laid upon him, in 1889. He was made one of 
 three Civil Service Commissioners. He had learned 
 by his experience in the Assembly at Albany that a 
 reformer cannot reform — alone. He must work 
 
104 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 with and through other people. Accordingly, 
 young in years yet with the tried temper of a 
 veteran, he went into the arduous, unpopular field 
 of Civil Service Reform. If President Harrison 
 had desired to "shelve" him, as Thomas Piatt did 
 later, he could have hit upon no field for him which 
 would appear to bring him more enemies and more 
 shut him off from political preferment. But this 
 was not Harrison's intent. Roosevelt had stood for 
 him in his campaign, and the President simply gave 
 him difficult work because he believed that he could 
 do that work. 
 
 President Harrison probably had some qualms 
 of distrust and anxiety as his zealous young ap- 
 pointee pushed his reforming personality into un- 
 expected strongholds of privilege. Many years 
 later, at a meeting in New York, he facetiously 
 introduced Roosevelt — then governor of the State 
 — as a man who had seemed, at times, "somewhat 
 impatient for righteousness." 
 
 So Roosevelt, in the spring of 1889, opened an 
 office at Washington and laid his plans for an 
 arduous campaign of most unpopular reform. Then 
 in September he went West to "take a hack at the 
 bears in the Rockies", as he wrote his sister. It 
 was one of those avocations, a hunting trip, which 
 he intelligently and regularly prescribed for him- 
 self as a physical and mental tonic. It was an in- 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 105 
 
 terlude in his political routine which, because of 
 two extreme perils which he incurred, nearly 
 became his postlude. 
 
 His guide, on this trip into Idaho, was a skillful 
 but lawless old hunter named Hank Griffin. He 
 could scent game afar but the odor of whisky more 
 appealed to him. Roosevelt carried, for an emer- 
 gency, a flask of whisky. Griffin got possession 
 of this flask secretly, and became cross and unruly. 
 And one day the situation was this : Roosevelt had 
 said that he would take one of the horses and go 
 on the hunt without Griffin. Then Griffin, seated 
 with his cocked rifle across his knees, and grinning 
 derisively, declared that he would shoot his boss if 
 the horse were taken. And he probably would 
 have done it. 
 
 The situation had reached an acute stage. But 
 Roosevelt met it with sagacity and efficiency. He 
 pretended to acquiesce in his guide's ruling and 
 moved about the camp, gathering materials for his 
 departure on foot. Presently he got within reach 
 of his own rifle, seized it, pointed it at the drunken 
 ruffian and told him to put up his hands. This was 
 done, the guide, however, protesting that he had 
 only been joking. But the young Commissioner 
 took no chances and made Griffin separate himself 
 from his gun. The rest was easy. Roosevelt, with 
 
106 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 a horse, got away from the camp and returned to 
 the settlement. 
 
 On that journey back came the second deadly 
 peril, this time from an enraged grizzly bear. He 
 said of it, long afterward, that it was the most 
 imminent of all the perils of his hunting life. The 
 bear, after being wounded, charged him. Roose- 
 velt shot again, at extremely close range, and killed 
 him. But the animal, in his charge, passed him as 
 he sprang aside, and the big forepaw swept within 
 a few inches of the young hunter's face. 
 
 This was the kind of diversion which Commis- 
 sioner Roosevelt enjoyed in that autumn of 1889. 
 And he was now back in another kind of conflict, 
 almost as perilous. In seeking to establish the 
 merit system of appointments to Federal offices, the 
 Commission — of which John R. Proctor was the 
 nominal head — was daring to stem a tide of prece- 
 dent and custom which had come down, in all politi- 
 cal parties, since the days of Andrew Jackson. "To 
 the victors belong the spoils" was an axiom at 
 Washington. It was the same vicious "putting of 
 the cart before the horse" which can be seen to- 
 day in the school appointments of most of our 
 towns and cities. "Give the residents of our own 
 town the positions as teachers!" demand the voters, 
 and the school committees follow that suggestion. 
 No thought of the capacity of the teacher or of the 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 107 
 
 needs of the pupils. The teacherships are regarded 
 as rewards. 
 
 That was the almost universal rule of political 
 appointment, when Roosevelt, like another Her- 
 cules, set himself to clean out the Augean stables 
 of Federal officialdom. Vice-president Hendricks, 
 in 1884, put the patronage principle in a pic- 
 turesque form. "We must take the boys in out of 
 the cold, to warm their toes." The Cleveland and 
 Hendricks administration being a Democratic af- 
 fair, and the first for twenty-four years, there was 
 doubtless considerable eagerness on the part of 
 "workers" to get close to the fire. Although he 
 was not the nominal head of the much-hated Com- 
 mission, Roosevelt speedily became its leading 
 member. Later in life, when asked about the fac- 
 tor of luck in his career, he said that some things 
 did happen and some did not. "For my own part," 
 he added, "I have tried to put myself where things 
 were likely to happen." And in that bit of com- 
 mon-sense philosopy he gave the only practical 
 solution I have ever heard given to the academic 
 problem of free will. 
 
 In no period of his stormy career did Roosevelt 
 have as mountainous a wall of opposition to sur- 
 mount as in his Civil Service days, and with much 
 less background of prestige than in later reforms. 
 As we survey his Titanic efforts of that period, we 
 
108 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 feel a momentary thrill of pity. But that thrill is 
 quenched speedily as we remember — and must al- 
 ways keep in mind, in any analysis of his character 
 and successes and failures — that he dearly loved 
 combat. Be it with a grizzly bear or a border ruf- 
 fian or entrenched political power, he was happy 
 when fighting, and always, without exception, his 
 fighting was for right and truth as it was given him 
 to see them. 
 
 Scores of times, in this Civil Service crusade, he 
 forced committees, bearded officials in their dens, 
 and dominated mass meetings, and then, at each 
 day's close, slept the full, deep sleep of a child 
 with unclouded heart, and rose refreshed on the 
 morrow to renew the conflict. 
 
 Not only did he evince unconquerable courage, 
 but he was eminently sane and, practical, and he 
 was fast becoming astute. He knew that he was 
 right in urging the merit system of appointments, 
 but he could understand the surprise and opposi- 
 tion as such "Old-timers" as his faithful friend Joe 
 Murray, to whom the maxim "To the victors be- 
 long the spoils" was as fundamental as any com- 
 mand of the decalogue. With a sad smile but a 
 firm pen Roosevelt must have written, many years 
 afterward, "There was a certain thinness, morally, 
 in some of the Civil Service advocates. This made 
 them distrusted by vigorous human men like my 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 109 
 
 friend Joe Murray. He always felt that my Civil 
 Service Reform work was the one blot on my 
 otherwise excellent public record." 
 
 One incident out of scores which might be cited 
 shows the sanity and then the consistent moral tone 
 in Roosevelt's character. I refer to the well-known 
 Shidy case. It came in 1890. Hundreds of offices 
 had been set apart to be filled under the merit sys- 
 tem. Roosevelt learned that appointments con- 
 trary to the new merit system had been made in 
 Milwaukee. He at once investigated, found that a 
 member of the local Civil Service board was the 
 center of the plot, had a personal interview with 
 him, and agreed to keep him in office on the board 
 if he would tell the whole story. 
 
 This looks like compounding a felony. But 
 Roosevelt never was frightened by big words. He 
 saw that the only means at hand for laying bare 
 the fraud was to promise immunity to Shidy. In 
 a choice of evils he chose the lesser and went ahead. 
 Shidy confessed, the Milwaukee postmaster was 
 dismissed, and Shidy remained in office. 
 
 Comes the second half of the story. A Washing- 
 ton newspaper played up the incident, roused some 
 public feeling, and soon afterward Shidy was dis- 
 missed from office. Roosevelt, failing to have him 
 reestablished, went to the trouble of procuring for 
 him a clerkship in the Census Bureau which had 
 
110 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 not been brought under the merit rule. Thus he 
 solved a complicated problem and solved it on the 
 "square deal" plan, with a dash of human sym- 
 pathy thrown in. 
 
 Opponents of the merit system had much to say, 
 in those days of 1888 to 1894 — and have to-day 
 also — and with partial truth on their side: that 
 examinations which must be carried on in writing 
 could not express the worth and capacity of the 
 candidate. Roosevelt saw the reasonableness of 
 this claim, but he could see more than one side of 
 almost any question. And he simply took the 
 ground that imperfect as written and "theoretical" 
 tests were, they were better than the "reward" 
 method, the "spoils" system. 
 
 He even advocated that practical tests should 
 be applied where possible, as in the case of appli- 
 cants for appointments as custom inspectors in 
 Texas, where the men should be tested, he thought, 
 in marksmanship and horsemanship. Such a plan 
 seemed visionary to most people at that time, but 
 he had foresight years ahead of his contemporaries, 
 as usual. Such tests afterward were actually ap- 
 plied. 
 
 This was perhaps the most contentious period 
 of reformer Roosevelt's contentious life. Uphill 
 work against time-honored prejudice and misty 
 public opinion all the way. One of the incidents — 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS HI 
 
 that tilt of his with Republican Congressman Gros- 
 venor, of Ohio — brings out in a clear light the 
 tenacity of Roosevelt, his way of "fighting a fight 
 to the finish." Grosvenor looked after the wool in- 
 terests of a few thousand sheep-owners in his State. 
 This got him the sobriquet of "The Gentle Shep- 
 herd of Ohio." He now attacked the Civil Service 
 reform. Roosevelt asked that he, Grosvenor, be 
 summoned to testify at the hearing. But "The 
 Gentle Shepherd" did not like to come to close 
 quarters with the young reformer. He thereupon 
 stated that he would be "unavoidably absent." But 
 he heard soon after that Roosevelt was to be away 
 on his ranch in the West. Accordingly he sent a 
 message that he found he could be present, after 
 
 all. 
 
 Then Roosevelt went to the extreme. He gave 
 up his trip, attended the hearing, and tied up the 
 astonished Congressman in his own strained logic 
 as completely as ever a public official was tied up 
 in red tape. 
 
 It was just one fight after another, that Civil 
 Service term. And making enemies for himself 
 all the time, yes, and alienating sincere but shallow 
 friends. Yet he rejoiced in it. It was very life to 
 him. He had truth and right on his side, and this 
 nerved him to incessant action. "His strength was 
 as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure." 
 
112 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 I know, too, that his sunny sense of humor, so 
 rich and unfailing, helped him through many 
 cloudy days. Take the case of Senator Gorman of 
 Maryland. Roosevelt must have enjoyed fight- 
 ing it through and enjoyed writing about it in his 
 biography, many years afterward. As I read his 
 account of the case, lighted by humorous touches 
 throughout, I can see, in my fancy, the twinkle in 
 his eyes and the unique smile which punctuated his 
 sentences. 
 
 Mr. Gorman had attacked the Civil Service re- 
 form. And, to illustrate its weakness, he cited the 
 case of "A bright young man from Baltimore, a 
 Sunday-school scholar, recommended by his pas- 
 tor, and an applicant for a position as letter car- 
 rier. They asked him questions," said Gorman, 
 "about the shortest route to China, and about 
 steamship lines to Europe. And the young man re- 
 sponded that he had not desired to go to China or 
 Europe. Then came questions," continued the 
 Maryland senator, "about chemistry, and branched 
 into geology, and they finally turned him down." 
 
 Roosevelt, recalling the controversy, writes, 
 "Apparently Mr. Gorman did not know that we 
 kept full records of our examinations. I wrote him 
 that I could find record of no such questions and 
 then asked for the name of 'The bright young man 
 from Baltimore.' But that 'bright young man' re- 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 113 
 
 mained permanently without a name. I wrote to 
 the senator that perhaps the young applicant had 
 deceived him. But Mr. Gorman — not hitherto 
 known as a sensitive soul — said he was 'shocked' at 
 my doubts of his young friend's veracity. So I 
 made a public statement of the whole case. Then 
 Mr. Gorman declared in the Senate that he had re- 
 ceived an 'impudent' letter from me, and had been 
 'cruelly' called to account when he was trying to 
 right a great wrong. But he never made public 
 any clew to the identity of that child of his fond- 
 est fancy — 'the bright young man' without a 
 
 name." 
 
 Those of us who have exchanged letters with 
 Roosevelt know his rapid and somewhat illegible 
 handwriting. At a Civil Service investigation, one 
 of the insolent defenders of the spoils system criti- 
 cized sharply his chirography. "You yourself, Mr. 
 Roosevelt, could not pass an examination in hand- 
 writing, such as you require of candidates. Your 
 writing is a pinched-up sort, like a lady's hand." 
 
 The young Commissioner came back at him 
 sharply: "That is true. I would not be qualified 
 for a position as a clerk in a department, but I am 
 not applying for one. But I am qualified to be a 
 commissioner of Civil Service and to maintain its 
 principles against the efforts of such men as you 
 
114 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 who are doing so much to injure our governmental 
 efficiency." 
 
 In this connection, the reader may be interested 
 to look at a specimen of Roosevelt's handwriting; 
 and I introduce a brief letter — one of many — 
 which I received from him. There is little that 
 need be said about it except that it was evidently 
 the work of a writer who did not consume more 
 time than was necessary over the details of his 
 voluminous correspondence. 
 
 Most men who have reached the age of fifty, 
 looking back over their lives, can point to a few 
 situations where they were in danger of personal 
 physical encounter with other men. With the 
 great majority of us, such strained moments are 
 few. But, in Roosevelt's case, there were many. 
 He never consciously insulted or "dared" or of- 
 fended any man; but he was naturally impulsive 
 and frank, and also he knew not fear. So that 
 some of us can recall several occasions when he was 
 close to physical encounter, indeed several where he 
 actually was engaged in it. 
 
 His drastic application of the merit-system rules, 
 as fast as they were framed, fairly maddened some 
 of the veterans statesmen and politicians. As one 
 of his friends said to him, "He was always an ag- 
 gressive knight, with lance always ready." An 
 occasion where a fist-fight was narrowly averted 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 115 
 
 is thus recalled by Colonel E. W. Halford, for a 
 time private secretary to President Harrison. "A 
 prominent Congressman was in my room at the 
 White House one day, and was repeating some of 
 the bitter cheap charges against Roosevelt and 
 Civil Service reform, which he had made, in a 
 speech in the House, the day before. At that 
 moment the Commissioner came in. Immediately 
 the fireworks began; and in a moment or two the 
 lie was passed. I got between the two, and the 
 Congressman left the room. Mr. Roosevelt then 
 apologized to me and said that he realized that any 
 man who struck another, in the President's house, 
 could not remain his appointee; and if he had ex- 
 changed blows with the other man he would at 
 once have written out his resignation." 
 
 That was a fine touch on Roosevelt's part, but 
 not surprising to any who knew him intimately. 
 The story has a cheering sequel, however, as here 
 given by Colonel Halford. "In the same room, sev- 
 eral years afterward, the same Congressman sat 
 one day talking with President McKinley. Roose- 
 velt entered, saw his former opponent, took a seat 
 modestly, and waited. Presently the Congress- 
 man, still addressing the President, but fully aware 
 of Roosevelt's presence, remarked, 'McKinley, you 
 remember a fellow named Roosevelt, who was 
 Harrison's Civil Service Commissioner. He was 
 
116 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 the most impracticable man I ever saw. I notice 
 that you have, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
 a man of the same name. But it can't be the same 
 man for your man is about the most efficient officer 
 I have ever known.' 
 
 "That was handsome of him. So Roosevelt, al- 
 ways chivalrous, magnanimous, thought also. And 
 he strode across the room, grasped his ancient foe's 
 hand heartily, and exclaimed, 'Put it there! It's all 
 right, hereafter.' And the two were friends from 
 that moment." 
 
 In all this reform work and in later fields of re- 
 form, Theodore Roosevelt was an Idealist. But 
 that word is so stretched and strained in our day 
 that it has lost most of its definite meaning. Apart 
 from its strictly metaphysical signification and in 
 its popular denotation, the word Idealist means 
 "one who believes in larger ethical aims than the 
 world at present has realized." But a man may 
 believe in these larger guiding ideas and yet not 
 lift a finger to get them realized. Or a man may 
 believe in the larger ideals and use them solely to 
 advance his own interests. Such a man is a slave of 
 "ambition, that last infirmity of noble minds." But 
 the true type of idealist is the ethical, working 
 idealist, the man who not only sees the better way 
 but pursues it for the good of his country or the 
 world. 
 
VICTORS AND SPOILS 1H 
 
 Such a man was Theodore Roosevelt, eager for 
 the advance of his country into ever nobler paths 
 and ready always to sacrifice his personal ease and 
 self-interest for that end. 
 
 He had ideals in many fields — scholarship, 
 friendship, as husband and father, and wherever 
 his active, eager spirit led. But apparently his 
 ideal of his native land had special authority over 
 him. He loved his country profoundly, and he 
 seemed to see it glorified, radiant before and above 
 him like a heavenly constellation. And by it, 
 through all his strenuous career, his path was de- 
 termined and his footsteps guided. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "the finest" refined 
 
 We read in the ancient Greek myths and legends 
 about the "Labors of Hercules", but we are not 
 told whether that hero saw them in series ahead of 
 him, or took them one at a time, seeing and accom- 
 plishing each for itself alone. The entire series, 
 taken as a whole, might have daunted him. If 
 Theodore Roosevelt, at twenty-two, standing on 
 the threshold of his mature life, could have known 
 the series of arduous tasks of public service in which 
 his life would be summed up at the age of sixty- 
 two — even he of iron will and unflagging enthu- 
 siasm might have been dismayed. 
 
 Other men have held public office, have done 
 good routine work, and have thriven on it; they 
 have made of their name scarcely more than a rub- 
 ber stamp, and have left a fairly good record for 
 efficiency. But he was never content with this per- 
 functory method. He sought to bring every pub- 
 lic work upon which he entered as close as possible 
 to perfection. That is idealism in a working man. 
 And when the man holds his idealism in one hand 
 
"THE FINEST" REFINED 119 
 
 and with the other hand lays hold of the realities 
 of human nature and the facts of human life, in- 
 dividual and group — that is sane, practical ideal- 
 ism. 
 
 After his reformative career in the New York 
 legislature, Roosevelt was rather expected to re- 
 form whatever department he was put into. And 
 most of them needed reform. So when William 
 D. Strong, himself "Reform Mayor" of New York, 
 offered the position of Police Commissioner to him, 
 the mayor expected a certain amount of disturb- 
 ance and protest throughout the dives and saloons 
 of the city and among the blackmailers at City 
 Hall. And he was not disappointed. The smaller 
 liquor dealers and retailers without a "pull" had 
 been forced to pay to the police any sums de- 
 manded. But the larger dealers got immunity by 
 reason of the political support they gave to Tam- 
 many. Even policemen were appointed to the force 
 only after their payment of money to the "men 
 higher up." Three hundred dollars was the 
 amount required from a man seeking the position 
 of patrolman. 
 
 The old Knickerbocker municipality had become 
 a sink of iniquity, a cesspool of corruption. Good 
 men had tried to improve conditions, but had given 
 up the task. They sadly prophesied the same out- 
 come for Roosevelt. Following Lowell's couplet, 
 
120 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 it might be said that "Wrong was on the throne" 
 and was sardonically awaiting a gagged and blind- 
 folded victim "on the scaffold." But the young 
 veteran from the Civil Service reform arena en- 
 tered smilingly, yet sternly, upon his "job", put 
 two iron years of effort into it, and when in 1897 
 he left it, the judge who charged the Grand Jury 
 of New York County congratulated that jury and 
 the public at large "upon the phenomenal decrease 
 in crime, especially of the violent sort." 
 
 It has been said of Roosevelt, now that his eager, 
 strenuous life is over, that great though he was, he 
 lacked the ability to, delegate his work to under 
 officials. There are two sides to that method. If 
 those delegated under officials are faithful, well 
 and good; their superior is left free to cover more 
 territory, and thus accomplish more. But fully 
 half the inefficiencies and corruptions in govern- 
 ments arise from the failure of weak or wicked 
 "under officials" to carry out measures which were 
 born in purity and high intent in the hearts of their 
 superior officers. 
 
 Well did Theodore Roosevelt know this. And 
 throughout his victorious career he owed much of 
 his strength and efficiency to the fact that he in- 
 sisted on basing his actions upon facts which he had 
 at first hand. Therefore, in his transformation of 
 the corrupt police of New York, in his refining of 
 
"THE FINEST" REFINED 121 
 
 "The Finest" — for thus that executive municipal 
 body was often called — he dug down to bottom 
 facts of fraud and tyranny; he even patrolled the 
 streets by day and night, to know for himself where 
 the blame lay. These diurnal and nocturnal tours 
 of investigation gained for him among the initiate 
 the not inappropriate name of Haroun-al-Roose- 
 velt ; and thus East and West did meet. 
 
 The story of his adventurous two years as 
 Police Commissioner would be imperfect without 
 grateful reference to Jacob Riis, at that time a 
 man whose vocation was newspaper reportorial 
 work, but whose avocation was the uplifting of 
 New York City out of fraud, tyranny, and corrup- 
 tion to justice and self-respect. Rudyard Kipling 
 is reported to have said of New York that "It had 
 a government by the worst elements of its popula- 
 tion, tempered by occasional insurrections of re- 
 spectable citizens." But Jacob Riis's struggle for 
 the redemption of the city was not occasional. It 
 was continuous. Alone and unaided he would have 
 fought the good fight. But when Theodore Roose- 
 velt stepped into Police Headquarters at Mul- 
 berry Street, these two men entered into one of 
 the noblest, purest coalitions in all history. They 
 worked together for municipal reforms, and inci- 
 dentally they formed a friendship — men of ex- 
 tremely divergent antecedents though they were — 
 
122 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 which was not outshone by the friendship of 
 Damon and Pythias or that of David and Jona- 
 than. 
 
 The respect and affection between the two 
 clear-minded idealists was mutual. Roosevelt 
 said of Riis, after his death, "Next to my own 
 father he was the best man I have ever known." 
 And when we read Riis's vivid description of 
 Roosevelt's earnest deeds, we feel the beat of the 
 loyal Danish heart which inspired the fiery, elo- 
 quent descriptions. You will rarely read more 
 terse, intense English than you can find on the 
 pages of his books. Take his summing up of city 
 police conditions, after the new Commissioner had 
 put in a year's work. "Amazing as it was, 'pull' 
 was dead. Politics or religion cut no figure. No 
 one asked about them. But did a policeman, 
 pursuing a burglar through the night, dive, run- 
 ning, into the Park Avenue railroad tunnel, risking 
 a horrible death to catch his man, he was promptly 
 promoted. Did a bicycle-policeman lie with broken 
 bones, after a struggle with a dangerous runaway 
 horse, he rose from his bed with a medal for 
 bravery on his breast. Did a gray-haired veteran 
 rescue a drowning woman from among grinding 
 ice floes, he was called to headquarters and made 
 a sergeant." 
 
 The list of such cases, still on record, is almost 
 
"THE FINEST" REFINED 123 
 
 endless. Efficiency in the service was rewarded 
 and inefficiency was firmly eliminated. And the 
 policemen, after they recovered from their first 
 panic under the new regime, knew that a firm, just 
 hand held the reins; and they trusted that leader- 
 ship and were proud of it. 
 
 Doubtless that association with Jacob Riis, the 
 trained newspaper man, quickened Roosevelt's in- 
 clination to place his reform purposes as much 
 as possible before the public eye. All his later life 
 he did that very thing. He knew how the turgid 
 incumbents of fat offices would oppose and mis- 
 represent him. And he sought to appeal every 
 case, as far as he could, from their biased, in- 
 triguing councils to the tribunals of the People. 
 
 So the newspapers were full of the doings of the 
 new Police Commissioner. Other public depart- 
 ments sank into obscurity. Roosevelt got the ear 
 and eye of the "plain people", so called. "Where 
 McGregor sat was the head of the table." 
 
 Roosevelt's record as Police Commissioner, his 
 persistent, fearless fight for justice and high 
 standards, reads like a dime novel, so filled it is with 
 sensational situations and daring deeds; yet it is 
 all true and verifiable. To him, with his berserker 
 blood running freely in his veins, it became almost 
 commonplace, so continuous it was. 
 
 Out of the scores of incidents which might be 
 
124 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 adduced to throw light upon his many-sided char- 
 acter, I select three. The first of these is the well- 
 known episode of the anti-Semitic demagogue, 
 Ahlwardt. This rahid hater of the Jewish race 
 announced a public meeting on a certain date. 
 Several of the members of that race asked Roose- 
 velt to deny the man a license for his meeting. 
 But Roosevelt did not wish to forcibly repress 
 public speaking if such repression could be avoided. 
 Therefore — with what I am sure was a mirthful 
 twinkle of his eyes and a widening of his unique 
 smile — he detailed a Jewish sergeant and forty 
 Jewish policemen to station themselves in the hall 
 during the meeting, and suppress, if necessary, 
 that violence and uproar which Ahlwardt un- 
 doubtedly courted. 
 
 The meeting went through peaceably, laughably 
 so, and gained no notoriety for the disappointed 
 demagogue. And the incident stands on record 
 as one which exemplified most delightfully the 
 blend of humor and sagacity in Theodore Roose- 
 velt's nature. 
 
 Two other incidents which I present raise a 
 question regarding Roosevelt's qualities which I 
 find it hard to answer. 
 
 First, there was the case of the disloyal fellow- 
 member of the Police Commission. There were 
 four members of the Commission. This particular 
 
"THE FINEST" REFINED 125 
 
 man, P , professed great sympathy for Roose- 
 velt and his reform work. But Joseph Bishop, 
 who details the narrative, was convinced of this 
 man's falsity, and warned his friend Roosevelt. 
 In vain. As Bishop tells it in his biography, "In 
 accordance with his invariable and incurable tend- 
 ency, he persisted in placing full confidence in 
 this man simply because the man professed full 
 devotion to him." 
 
 Thus matters ran on for months, Bishop sus- 
 picious, anxious, and Roosevelt trustful. Then 
 
 came the denouement. P gave to Roosevelt 
 
 a garbled account of Bishop's estimate of Roose- 
 velt; an account partly true but conveying an 
 utterly false impression as a whole. A sharp sum- 
 mons from Roosevelt brought Bishop to an ex- 
 planation. And that explanation made clear to 
 the Police Commissioner that P was treach- 
 erous and should not be relied upon. Bishop's 
 surmises were confirmed by the subsequent conduct 
 
 of P . He went over openly to Roosevelt's 
 
 enemies and brought a deadlock into the proceed- 
 ings of the Board. 
 
 The point which interests in this episode is that 
 it raises the question as to how skilled Roosevelt 
 was in reading human nature. I have heard inti- 
 mate friends of his speak admiringly and unre- 
 servedly of his astuteness and his knowledge of 
 
126 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 men. But was he really skillful and penetrating 
 in this field? 
 
 The other incident which I recall, as bearing 
 upon this point of my classmate's character, is 
 given by Riis. A certain policeman, who had 
 neglected his duties on several occasions, at last 
 received from Mulberry Street his notice of dis- 
 missal. But the man had "piped off" (as Riis 
 says) the kindly nature of the President of the 
 Board. And one day he presented himself at 
 headquarters with eleven youngsters trailing after 
 him, some of them wailing dismally. The Presi- 
 dent had just come to the office, fresh from a romp 
 with his own youngsters. And here stood this for- 
 lorn, discharged patrolman, with his unhappy little 
 ones around him. The policeman waved a hand 
 dejectedly over the group and then toward his 
 tender-hearted chief. "Motherless they are," he 
 said; and waited humblv. 
 
 The inevitable result followed. Roosevelt rein- 
 stated him; and the doleful little group filed out. 
 
 Very good, that, so far as heart was concerned. 
 But how about head? For only two of the eleven 
 children were the policeman's own. The other 
 nine were borrowed for the occasion. 
 
 The fact is that Roosevelt had keen knowledge 
 of human nature when his emotions were not 
 stirred. Also, his discernment deepened as his 
 
"THE FINEST" REFINED 127 
 
 experience of men widened. But, essentially, he 
 was a man of many and strong emotions. And 
 these, many times in his life, impaired his judg- 
 ment. 
 
 In a conversation with Miss Josephine Strieker, 
 for a dozen and more years his efficient secretary 
 and his intensely loyal friend, I laid before her 
 this question of Roosevelt's reading of human 
 nature. And her opinion was clear and firm and 
 in accord with Mr. Bishop's opinion. "Mr. Roose- 
 velt," she said, "was not of a suspicious but a 
 trustful nature. He trusted too much. He be- 
 lieved every man innocent until the man proved 
 himself guilty." 
 
 So there is the interesting psychological prob- 
 lem in any analysis of Roosevelt's character. My 
 own solution is that he had a great and increasing 
 penetration of mind into the character and motives 
 of men. But his judgment was frequently clouded 
 and deflected by his strong emotions. And, second, 
 in the coldly intellectual field he was handicapped, 
 in any judicial intentions, by his fertile self-expres- 
 sion, which he constantly strove to moderate and 
 revise, but not always with success. 
 
 If we push this reading of human nature out 
 beyond its bearing upon individuals to its bearing 
 upon groups — political parties and nations, for 
 example — we find that he was perspicacious in a 
 
128 ROOSEVELT THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 wonderful degree and sometimes almost supernat- 
 urally prophetic. Everybody knows this, at this 
 late day, even those who in former days honestly 
 thought him a "time-server" or "firebrand." Yet 
 in one field, at least, his perceptions miscarried, — 
 his optimistic confidence in the American people, 
 his fellow citizens, that they were as much interested 
 in bettering public service as he was. Further, 
 that they would go, cheerfully, as many times to 
 the voting booths as he would go. Hence his 
 projects of the Initiative and the Referendum. 
 But facts prove the contrary. The voters of the 
 nation will go to the polls once a year, weather 
 permitting, in goodly numbers. In an emergency, 
 twice a year. But no more. Roosevelt measured 
 the patriotism of the people by his own unflagging 
 devotion to the country he loved, and he misjudged 
 the situation. His own noble emotions deflected 
 his judicial opinion. 
 
 However, "the people" were much on his mind 
 and heart. Little wonder that he credited them 
 with more than they deserved. In New York, 
 during his service at Mulberry Street, his repeated 
 appeals for support in his vigorous reforms were 
 to the public, the people. And, temporarily, they 
 backed him. All through his public career his 
 hope of support lay in the "plain people" behind 
 self-interested officials, factions, and cabals. He 
 
"THE FINEST" REFINED 129 
 
 said to a friend, in reply to a leading question, 
 "The people at large disappoint me again and 
 again, and then when I am almost discouraged and 
 hopeless, they rise up and do something so mag- 
 nificent that it restores all my confidence in them." 
 
 The days and weeks succeeded one another, in 
 his work as Police Commissioner, and each day 
 and week brought its conflicts and contests. Ordi- 
 nary attacks by corrupt opponents did not much 
 trouble him. He "scented battle from afar" and 
 rejoiced in it when the clash came. But some kinds 
 of attacks upon himself were harder to bear than 
 others. To be called a liar or a thief did not dis- 
 turb him. Those plain Saxon words were often 
 upon his own lips. But to be called hard-hearted, 
 cruel, heedless of the downtrodden and oppressed, 
 — that stirred him with indignation and righteous 
 wrath. Take the case of the pernicious, evil-breed- 
 ing lodging rooms of the police stations. They 
 were barren of uplifting aid to the tramps and they 
 were harmful to the community. And Roosevelt 
 closed them. 
 
 Then arose revilings from various kinds of 
 people, — both those vicious, slothful persons who 
 were now thrown out upon their own resources and 
 also from substantial philanthropists. The vener- 
 able chairman of the Charter Revision Committee 
 asked him sternly if he "had no pity for the poor." 
 
130 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 And that attitude toward the tender-hearted Com- 
 missioner really wounded him. But he was right; 
 and he persisted. And every worker among the 
 needy classes, among the "down and outs", knows 
 that Roosevelt simply anticipated by a few years 
 the enlightened policy, under similar conditions, 
 of our charitable societies. 
 
 The tourist at the Roman Forum is shown that 
 there are several forums, one beneath another, 
 modern, medieval, and ancient, with minor epochs 
 identifiable among these larger ones. Similarly, 
 in Roosevelt's character, as in most men, there 
 are various layers, or personalities, one under an- 
 other. And the warm-hearted, tender Roosevelt 
 was as real as the stern official Commissioner. 
 When I asked Oscar Straus to tell me, from his 
 intimate association with President Roosevelt 
 during Roosevelt's presidency, what quality most 
 impressed him, his reply was: "His tenderness. 
 He had other remarkable qualities, but his kind- 
 ness of heart, his consideration of the feelings of 
 his associates in the Cabinet — that was what struck 
 me." And Mr. Straus continued, "There were 
 times when something was needed to be done by 
 some member of the Cabinet which was likely to 
 bring to that man public disapproval. And I have 
 known President Roosevelt to say, 'I won't ask 
 
"THE FINEST" REFINED 131 
 
 you to do that. I'll do it myself. I'm tough and 
 I can bear it.' " 
 
 His range of interests, continually added to 
 and enlarged through his entire life, often sur- 
 prises me anew. At one moment I see him grasp- 
 ing great problems, in his several official stations, 
 and I see him a rising statesman of increasing 
 eminence. Then I read in his Autobiography about 
 Otto Raphael, the stalwart young Jew, who was 
 well-fitted for police duty but had not possessed 
 the requisite "pull." Roosevelt urged him to take 
 the examination; he passed, was appointed to the 
 force, and acquitted himself most creditably, in- 
 cidentally supporting several members of his 
 family still in Russia. 
 
 Thus Roosevelt writes the narrative. And then 
 comes a touch characteristically Rooseveltian; it 
 could have come from no other of the long and 
 variegated list of statesmen and high officers in 
 this country. He closes his narration thus: 
 
 "I will mention that Otto and I were almost the 
 only men in the Police Department who picked 
 Fitzsimmons as a winner against Corbett." 
 
 These are some of the exterior phases of Roose- 
 velt's regime, in his police reform work in Xew 
 York City. But, inside all this accumulation of 
 exciting facts and repeated successes, the rebuild- 
 ing of his own character went on. For he was, I 
 
132 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 repeat, the most truly self-made man whom I 
 know, in American annals. And to remake himself 
 he must first know himself. He did know himself. 
 He was honest with himself ; and he was unflinch- 
 ing in his self-arraignments over failures or de- 
 ficiencies. 
 
 As one of the many illustrations which might be 
 given of Roosevelt's phenomenal power of proph- 
 ecy, I recall that it was at this time that he wrote 
 his "History of New York City." And noteworthy 
 it is, as illustrating also his farsightedness, that 
 in that book, published in 1903, he declares that 
 we must cut out all hyphens from American names. 
 And he urges an undivided American citizenship. 
 That cry is uttered far and wide in our land to-day, 
 but when he uttered it, his solitary voice was like 
 that of "one crying in the wilderness." 
 
 This chapter may well close with a quotation 
 from Jacob Riis, himself a true man and a loyal 
 citizen. "We rarely realize, in these days, how 
 much of our ability to fight for good government 
 is due to the campaign of honesty waged by Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt, in Mulberry Street." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Who is the Happy Warrior? Who is he 
 That every man in arms should wish to be? 
 ... It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought 
 Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 
 Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: 
 Whose high endeavors are an inward light 
 That makes the path before him always bright: 
 Who, with a natural instinct to discern 
 What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn ; 
 
 • . • • • 
 
 Who, doomed to go in company with Pain, 
 And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train! 
 Turns his necessity to glorious gain. 
 
 Having reached this point in my survey of 
 Theodore Roosevelt's character and career, I have 
 been brought to pause by a conversation which I 
 
 held, recently, with Doctor L , faithful 
 
 friend of many years to the unique household at 
 Sagamore Hill. When I urged that my classmate 
 was essentially a fighting man, that he really loved 
 
 combat, physical and intellectual, Dr. L 
 
 demurred. And we debated earnestly the question. 
 But now, after several weeks of reading and re- 
 reading and reflection, I hold to my position. My 
 classmate loved combat, — attack and defense, 
 
134 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 struggle for moral principles, warfare on palaces 
 of privilege and dens of degradation. Thank God 
 he did. Thus he was able to "fight the good fight" 
 through all his days, indomitable to the end. And, 
 as he said repeatedly to friends, life was a joy to 
 him. He was indeed a "Happy Warrior." 
 
 Said my beloved professor, William James, "If 
 this life is not a real fight, in which something is 
 eternally gained for the universe by success, it is 
 no better than a game of private theatricals. But 
 it feels like a real fight." 
 
 To my former college mate as to my former 
 college instructor, it "felt like a fight." And in 
 the case of both those splendid men, there was also 
 this divine overtone — as the musicians say — to 
 the clash of arms and the din of battle, that the 
 very stars in their courses were fighting with them 
 for truth and right. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt loved struggle, combat, con- 
 quest, in all their varied forms. That point I still 
 maintain, as in previous chapters of this book. 
 And, if I may add one anecdotal confirmation of 
 my judgment, I will quote our classmate, Charles 
 Washburn, who says that once, in his later life, 
 he asked Roosevelt what act or experience of his 
 past had been most joyous. And Roosevelt, after a 
 moment's reflection, replied, "The charge up San 
 Juan Hill." 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 135 
 
 He had achieved unprecedented success. But, 
 "The blood more stirs to rouse a lion than to start 
 a hare." And Roosevelt, "ever a fighter", like Rob- 
 ert Browning, was now called to a larger field of 
 reform. His hand-to-hand struggle with saloon 
 keepers, dive owners, thieves, and corrupt ward 
 politicians had been a trampling under foot of 
 vermin, — rats and snakes, shall we say ? Now, 
 through the unsought agency of his friend, Henry 
 Cabot Lodge, he was called by President McKin- 
 ley, in 1897, to serve the nation as Assistant 
 Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 His studies for his "History of the Naval War 
 of 1812", published in 1882, had given him sound, 
 wide views of this branch of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment. But, knowing his "Chief" as I did, 
 Secretary John D. Long, efficient, patriotic but 
 circumspect — very — I have always smiled as I 
 have pictured Governor Long's face of furrowed 
 anxiety when this dynamic young reformer entered 
 the calm atmosphere of the Navy Department. 
 Lodge wrote to Roosevelt, March 8, 1897, a letter 
 which hits off so admirably one of Secretary 
 Long's characteristics that I quote from it. "I 
 have seen Long. ... He spoke in the highest 
 terms of you. . . . He expects to be consulted 
 about your appointment." Then this: "Long 
 says, 'Roosevelt has the character, standing, and 
 
136 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 ability to enable him to be a Cabinet Minister. Is 
 not this appointment in the Navy Department too 
 small for him?' " 
 
 That was Governor Long's way. Wise, cau- 
 tious, never hasty, never losing his head through 
 enthusiasm. Hardly. But efficient, and on the 
 whole disposed to advance Roosevelt, yet sorry 
 that Roosevelt was not to be somewhere else, — 
 even in a full Cabinet office, rather than under his 
 Secretarial roof. 
 
 So Theodore Roosevelt, "increasing in years and 
 wisdom", took up his abode, with his family, at 
 Washington, and turned his current of energy into 
 the rusty machinery of the Navy Department. 
 Long, believing in him, yet dreading his tireless, 
 fearless, reforming spirit, looked on, smiling ap- 
 proval but keeping his cautious hand always near 
 the brake. 
 
 With his swift, penetrating survey, the new 
 Assistant Secretary grasped the unpreparedness 
 of our navy. And most of his effort while in office 
 was put forth to remedy that defect. He desired 
 peace with all other nations as earnestly as did 
 any member of the American Peace Society; but 
 he blended that desire with more intelligence, with 
 more insight into the cold facts about men and 
 nations than was evinced by most of those well- 
 intentioned people. I myself was an accredited, 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 137 
 
 unpaid lecturer of that typical peace organization 
 through several years; and I know how fiercely 
 many of those "peace-loving" people fought Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt. They preferred, most of them — 
 like William Jennings Bryan, with his sterile 
 treaties falling from his fertile pen like the leaves in 
 the Vale of Vallombrosa — "scraps of paper." 
 
 How angry I became at the fatuous, short- 
 sighted oracles of our peace societies! And how 
 admirably my classmate summed them up in a 
 sentence or two! "There are high-minded, earnest 
 people who in a genuine fashion strive for peace; 
 and then there are those foolish fanatics, always to 
 be found in such a cause and discrediting it, — the 
 men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform 
 movements." 
 
 "Preparedness" became his watchword as soon 
 as he had gained knowledge of his new official sur- 
 roundings. And going, as usual, to the root of 
 the matter, he saw that good marksmanship on 
 warships was as important as the warships them- 
 selves. But the administration was reluctant to 
 expend money on either of these. Nevertheless, 
 by persistence and personal appeal, he did get ap- 
 propriations from Congress, and new ships were 
 built, old ones were repaired, and other vessels 
 were acquired by purchase. 
 
 Through all the indifference of Congress and 
 
138 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 the opposition of the bureaus, he plowed his cheer- 
 ful, intelligent way. His cheerfulness amid his 
 perplexing duties is hinted at by a young fellow- 
 worker, who narrates, "Late one afternoon, in 
 Washington, we were ending a business round 
 through the city. We started to take a street car. 
 'Have you the price of a ride about you?' inquired 
 Mr. Roosevelt, smiling and feeling in his pockets. 
 I replied, as I went through my own pockets, that 
 I had not. My delightful companion rejoined, 
 with a smile, 'Then, let's walk. Anyhow, it speaks 
 well for the honesty of our government's officials 
 when two of them, having just spent a million or 
 two dollars, haven't kept enough in their own 
 pockets to pay for carfares.' " 
 
 The young secretary was not only efficient in 
 his affairs, but he was a delightful asset for any 
 host at a dinner table. I have heard that the 
 President received a call from some foreign dig- 
 nitary and felt constrained to ask his visitor to 
 dine. Then, feeling a little burdened at the pros- 
 pect of entertaining this alien guest, he invited the 
 young Assistant Naval Secretary to the dinner and 
 seated him next the foreign visitor. The dinner 
 passed off smoothly. Roosevelt and the decorated 
 dignitary seemed to have plenty of talk between 
 them. At one point in the conversation the Presi- 
 dent caught the drift of their conversation, and was 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 139 
 
 somewhat astonished — though not greatly, know- 
 ing Roosevelt's versatility — to hear him expound- 
 ing a theory of athletics and illustrating it by 
 naming and describing a half-dozen of the leading 
 American athletes, — college football players, pro- 
 fessional pugilists, and the like — and maintaining 
 broadly that race ancestry was but a slight factor 
 in athletic eminence. 
 
 There were two leading ideas in Assistant Sec- 
 retary Roosevelt's mind during his brief occupancy 
 of his desk in the Navy Department. One was 
 the idea — or better, the sound practical idea — of 
 raising the fighting efficiency of our nation's naval 
 equipment to a point commensurate with the re- 
 sources and the need of the nation. The other idea 
 was a certain prescience regarding the logic of 
 current events. Mr. Bishop in his biography says, 
 "Roosevelt saw clearly what men would do, be- 
 cause he had accurate knowledge of and calm judg- 
 ment upon what men had done." This, however, 
 was only half the truth. Roosevelt's knowledge 
 of men was increasing each year ; but beyond that 
 he had wonderful insight, a power to forecast 
 events — when he put aside his emotions — which is 
 more than mere accumulated knowledge can give. 
 Some minds are cisterns, and others are fountains. 
 Roosevelt's was of the latter kind. No cistern- 
 mind can prophesy. It can only hold facts. The 
 
% 
 140 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 fountain-mind gives forth what we never saw it 
 take in. It is creative, inspired. 
 
 Admiral Dewey, in his Autobiography, speaks 
 of Roosevelt's "singular understanding both of the 
 importance of preparedness for war and of striking 
 quick blows, in rapid succession, once war was 
 begun." This "singular understanding" comes 
 close to the truth of Roosevelt's mental processes, 
 in any field where he was occupied. In the then 
 situation he scented war with Spain. Affairs in 
 Cuba, Spain's dependency, were becoming unbear- 
 ably inhuman. And Roosevelt, always contemptu- 
 ous of ostrich methods, faced them at their full 
 value. 
 
 Admiral Dewey might easily have been preju- 
 diced in Roosevelt's favor by the fact that it was the 
 Assistant Secretary of the Navy who had assigned 
 to him that strategic position in the Far East 
 which made possible the prompt and decisive blow 
 dealt by Dewey at Manila. The equipping and 
 preparing of Dewey's ships at Hong Kong was 
 ordered by Roosevelt quite without authority from 
 his chief, Secretary Long, and was really a ven- 
 turesome act on the Assistant's part. But he 
 foresaw events and anticipated needs. And later 
 his chief was by no means regretful that this early 
 initiative had been taken. 
 
 Then came the sinking of the United States 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 141 
 
 battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. And in the 
 twinkling of an eye the gates of the Temple of 
 Janus flew open. We are not told, in Greek tra- 
 dition, much about the architecture of that martial 
 structure, but — so far as this country and Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt were concerned — it had a porch. 
 The office of the Secretary of the Navy was that 
 porch; and only a step was needed to carry the 
 young Assistant into the interior of the Temple. 
 Even if he had been president of the American 
 Peace Society or had been taking a vacation in 
 Kamtchatka, he would have heard that explosion of 
 the Maine and would have flung his hat into the ring. 
 As he was situated, enlistment was easy and 
 inevitable. Friends advised against it, but in vain. 
 Doubtless most of them afterward concurred in 
 John Hay's opinion. In 1898 Hay wrote to 
 Roosevelt, from London, "I am afraid I am the 
 last of your friends to congratulate you on the 
 brilliant campaign which now seems drawing to 
 a close. When the war began, I deplored your 
 leaving your place in the Navy where you were 
 so useful. But you followed your own daemon, 
 and we older fellows must confess that you were 
 in the right. As Sir Walter wrote, 
 
 'One crowded hour of glorious life 
 Is worth an age without a name.' " 
 
142 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 One of the last acts of Roosevelt as Assistant 
 Secretary of the Navy appeals to me because it 
 carries with it that little atmosphere of humor 
 which he himself always breathed with delight. It 
 seems that two prominent members of Congress, 
 representing a certain Atlantic State, became 
 nervous about the exposure of that seaboard State 
 to possible attacks from Spanish warships. They 
 had been worse than lukewarm about building up 
 the navy, as Roosevelt had desired, but now they 
 demanded a warship for their State's protection. 
 They asked for that ship from the Assistant Sec- 
 retary, and getting no response, they "became a 
 permanent committee", Roosevelt writes, "in at- 
 tendance upon the President. President McKin- 
 ley, considerate and kindly always, told Roosevelt 
 to send a warship. And Roosevelt did so. He 
 says that he sent one of the old Civil War monitors 
 to the city named. Ancient, useless, even dan- 
 gerous to all on board. He had it towed by a tug 
 to the proper station. A hazardous trip, he says, 
 for the twenty-one naval militiamen on board. 
 "Joy and peace settled upon the senator and con- 
 gressman. Nobody seemed to grasp the fact that 
 the worn-out, obsolete old craft would have been 
 no more effective, for protecting the city, than one 
 of the ancient galleys of Alcibiades." 
 
 Roosevelt's friendship with Leonard Wood had 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 143 
 
 already begun. The two young men had met 
 socially at a dinner party given by the Lowndes 
 family. They had walked home together that 
 evening, and they learned that they were fitted to 
 be friends. Roosevelt had first heard about Wood 
 ten years before, because of Wood's astonishing 
 and successful campaign against the Apache chief- 
 tain, Geronimo. Now the two young men, magnif- 
 icent types of American manhood, came intimately 
 together. Together they walked and talked, day 
 after day. And their views about the impending 
 war were as one. So openly did they express 
 themselves about the duty of the United States 
 toward harassed Cuba that kindly, cautious Presi- 
 dent McKinley and others spoke of them humor- 
 ously as "The War Party." And when the 
 President met Wood — his family physician at 
 that time — he sometimes asked, "Have you and 
 Roosevelt declared war yet," and the prompt reply 
 came, "No, but we think you ought to." 
 
 When the declaration of war came, the joint 
 purpose of these two friends was furthered greatly 
 by the fact that Wood was the family physician 
 of General Alger, Secretary of War. This inti- 
 mate relationship gave him easy access to that 
 Cabinet official and gained for himself and Roose- 
 velt that prompt attention to their plans which 
 cleared their path into the Cuban campaign. 
 
144 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 When Roosevelt was offered by the War Secretary 
 a colonelcy in one of the cavalry regiments then 
 being raised, he declined it, saying frankly that he 
 was not fitted for it, but would be glad to serve as 
 a lieutenant colonel under Wood. Then he added, 
 with a continuation of the same frank speech, that 
 he believed he could fit himself for a full command 
 in a few weeks. And subsequent events justified 
 his estimate of his own powers. 
 
 The "Rough Riders." Never in history was 
 such a company of men gathered together. Drawn 
 by the fame of the two leaders, men from all the 
 divers walks of American life eagerly applied for 
 membership. Every live young man who had ever 
 been associated with Wood or Roosevelt longed to 
 be enrolled in the unique First United States Vol- 
 unteer Cavalry. But that was a long name; and 
 a shorter one, one that would flow lightly from the 
 tongue, must be provided. I have heard Roosevelt 
 express his growing anxiety, at that point of time, 
 as the fertile quill-drivers of the press put forward 
 suggestions. "All kinds of names broke out in 
 the newspapers. I knew that some kind of a nick- 
 name would eventually supplant our long official 
 title. But which one? I remember 'Teddy's Ter- 
 rors' and 'Teddy's Terriers', and there were many 
 others. But when somebody started 'Rough Rid- 
 ers', that struck me as being pretty good. We 
 
JU^Tr.JLje 
 
 \ * 
 
 *<c 
 
 THE ROUGH RIDER: FROM PUNCH. LONDON. 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 145 
 
 could hardly hope for a better." Then, in accord 
 with his inborn tendency to "do something about 
 it", he started telegraphing and telephoning. "I 
 made the wires hot, for an hour or two, in various 
 newspaper offices. And the result was that 'Rough 
 Riders' stuck, and will be permanent and ade- 
 quate." 
 
 When Leonard Wood and Theodore Roosevelt 
 got into teamwork together, results were assured. 
 The two men trusted each other profoundly. They 
 were equally sincere and determined. Tempera- 
 mentally they complemented each other, Wood 
 being rather reserved, not talkative, but an ap- 
 preciative listener to eager, resourceful, expressive 
 Roosevelt. In the cutting of the red tape of official 
 formality they wielded the shears in turn. Both 
 of them hated shams and empty, gilded appear- 
 ances and pushed promptly for realities. Most 
 people are now familiar with the chain of events 
 which led from the mustering-in, at San Antonio, 
 to Tampa, Daiquiri, El Caney, Las Guasimas, 
 and San Juan Hill. To my mind the deeper in- 
 terest which pertains to these exciting events is the 
 informing light which they throw on Theodore 
 Roosevelt's character. First of all stands out his 
 inexhaustible energy as he strove for equipment 
 and necessaries of life — the military life — in time 
 of war. Roosevelt had served three years in the 
 
146 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 New York National Guard, and that experience 
 was invaluable to him. He knew what he wanted, 
 what his command needed. And he and Leonard 
 Wood strove, in season and out of season, against 
 official inertia and incompetence, to get their won- 
 derful, conglomerate organization of cowboys, 
 ex-policemen, college graduates, and veteran In- 
 dian fighters into the center of the conflict. They 
 broke a few musty old rules and regulations, but 
 they "arrived." 
 
 In the record of Abraham Lincoln's life the 
 points over which the reader lingers with most 
 interest are those where strength blends with ten- 
 derness in that great man. Similarity, in Roose- 
 velt's record, we now take for granted the causal 
 connection of events which runs like a skeleton- 
 frame through the rich body of events in Cuba, and 
 dwell delightedly upon the touches of tenderness 
 and humor which overlay his inner, stern intention 
 and highly wrought purpose. 
 
 One of the best of these very "human" incidents 
 has been somewhat garbled by reporters and 
 authors, but, condensed from Roosevelt's own na- 
 rative, it reads thus: 
 
 "One of my men, an ex-cow-puncher, did not 
 grasp the military principle that he must obey not 
 only his own officers but officers of other regiments. 
 One of the transport officers gave him some order 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 147 
 
 and he did not obey. Then the officer told him he 
 was under arrest. Whereupon my man offered to 
 fight him for a trifling consideration. Brought 
 before a court-martial, he was given a year at hard 
 labor and a dishonorable discharge. The Major 
 General in command approved the sentence. 
 There was no guard-house to put him into, so a 
 fellow soldier, also an ex-cow-puncher, was put 
 over him as guard. 
 
 "This all happened on the transport, going over 
 from Tampa. When we landed and he was told 
 that he would be kept back with the baggage and 
 not allowed to get into the fight, he came to me in 
 great distress. 'Colonel,' he exclaimed, 'I can't 
 stay out. Only let me go to the front and I'll obey 
 anybody you tell me to.' 
 
 "So I said to him, 'Shields, there is nobody in 
 the regiment more entitled to be shot than you are; 
 and you shall go to the front.' 
 
 "His gratitude was great. 'I'll never forget 
 this,' he declared. Nor did he. When we got very 
 hard up, he would get hold of some flour and sugar 
 and would cook a doughnut and bring it to me and 
 watch me with delight as I ate it. He behaved 
 extremely well on the fighting line. So I had him 
 brought before me, formally, and I remitted his 
 sentence, which I had no real authority for doing, 
 but it seemed natural and proper. 
 
148 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 "When the mustering out came, the Command- 
 ing Officer asked where my prisoner was. 'What 
 prisoner?' I asked. 'The man who was sentenced 
 to hard labor and a dishonorable discharge', he! 
 replied. I said, 'I pardoned him.' 'Oh, you did!' 
 was his sarcastic exclamation. Then I realized 
 that I had exceeded my authority. But I answered, 
 'Well, I pardoned him, anyhow; and he's gone 
 with the rest.' Whereupon the officer sank back 
 in his chair and remarked, 'He was sentenced by 
 court-martial, the sentence was approved by the 
 Major General, and you — a Lieutenant Colonel 
 — pardoned him. Well, that was nervy. That's 
 all I've got to say.' " 
 
 Regarding Roosevelt's courage, during those 
 fighting days along the heights in Cuba, there 
 could be only one thing said. Indeed, it goes with- 
 out saying that he knew no fear; indeed, let it be 
 always remembered that he loved the fray, he re- 
 joiced in the conflict, he lived more exultantly than 
 during any other hours of his eventful life. He 
 fought, like the "Happy Warrior" that he was, 
 because of the righteousness of his cause. Always, 
 to his mind's eye, there was present to him the 
 memory of Spanish atrocities which he was fighting 
 to annihilate. The cruel oppression of General 
 Weyler must be put down. A helpless, outraged 
 people in towns and "concentration camps" must 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 149 
 
 be rescued. And that purpose nerved his arm, 
 making him the human champion of divine right 
 and truth. 
 
 He was a brave man. Note also that he had not 
 only physical courage, but that other kind, moral 
 courage, which sometimes has been lacking in men 
 who have defied death in battle. When the need 
 came for a remonstrance to be sent to lethargic 
 officialdom at Washington, when somebody there 
 in that victorious but fever-smitten and dying army 
 was looked for by General Shafter to dare to write 
 plain words to the red-tape-bound bureau at Wash- 
 ington, the man selected by Shafter was Colonel 
 Roosevelt. And he dared it. The letter was writ- 
 ten, and also the famous "Round Robin" was sent. 
 Orders for debarkation soon came, and thousands 
 of soldiers' lives were saved largely because Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt dared. 
 
 Another situation where a feebler man would 
 have hesitated and done nothing, but where Roose- 
 velt dared, was that where he was leading his eager 
 men up toward the San Juan Ridge. He wished 
 to force the fighting, of course. And he came up 
 behind a line of Regulars who were waiting for 
 orders. '"Why don't you charge?' I asked. The 
 reply came from the Regular Commanding Officer, 
 'No orders, yet.' Then I said, 'I'll give the orders.' 
 But he was cautious and reluctant. Then I said, 
 
150 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 'You open up and let my men through.' Which 
 was done. And the younger officers and enlisted 
 men of the regulars sprang up and followed us, 
 and we went up the hills with a rush." 
 
 His influence with his men, as a body and as 
 individuals, was tremendous. The late Judge 
 Knowlton, Chief Justi-ce of the Massachusetts Su- 
 preme Judicial Court, said to me soon after Mr. 
 Woodrow Wilson's election to the presidency, 
 "He is a man of ability and determination; but I 
 think we must not expect the highest things of him." 
 But Theodore Roosevelt's regiment and the whole 
 nation were learning "to expect the highest things 
 of him." And he never failed them. The high and 
 heroic duties he always welcomed. He shared the 
 hardships of the march, he led his men into the 
 thickest of the fight, he gave them himself, in abso- 
 lute sympathy and devotion. And the many 
 anecdotes which came out after the war of his 
 affection for those then mustered-out veterans of 
 the Cuban campaign — humorous, indeed, some of 
 them — simply revealed how the hearts of the men 
 and their commander had been welded indissolubly 
 together in that furnace of privations and perils 
 at Guasimas and San Juan. 
 
 The man's frankness shines out clearly in his 
 own plain words, as he wrote them. He says, "I 
 was not satisfied with that Guasimas fight. I had 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 151 
 
 moved my men this way and that, as best I could, 
 but I could get no clear knowledge of the exact 
 conditions and needs of the situation. After it 
 was over, seated with Generals Wheeler, Lawton, 
 and Chaffee, they expressed appreciation of my 
 leadership. I was really expecting disapproval; 
 but I took their approval as coolly as I could, and 
 concealed the relief I really felt." 
 
 We heard many commendatory things said, in 
 the recent World War, about the unique, effective 
 "morale" of the French armies. Officers and men 
 fraternized, yet discipline was maintained. That 
 problem of morale was solved in a similar way by 
 Colonel Roosevelt in the Spanish War. His per- 
 sonality was such that he was on close terms with 
 his enlisted men, yet his word was law. Respect 
 for his courage, intelligence and sympathy was 
 what did this, — the sympathy not least of the three. 
 Afterward, when Roosevelt was Governor of New 
 York, he took a trip through the West, and at 
 one of the stations, a big v , bronzed cowboy boarded 
 the train. Roosevelt recollected him, shook hands, 
 and said to a friend beside him, "This is the very 
 man I was just telling you about." The smiling 
 cowboy asked, "Telling him about Santiago?" 
 "Yes." Then the man turned to the interested 
 friend and said, "Well, maybe he didn't tell you 
 about that night when we was lying out in the 
 
152 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 trenches, soaked through with rain, and he came out 
 of his tent and gave me his blanket? And maybe 
 he didn't tell you how he took off his poncho and 
 gave it to another fellow?" Roosevelt tried to 
 recall it. "Did I really?" he rejoined. "Did I do 
 that? I'd quite forgotten it." 
 
 But the enlisted man had not forgotten it. Few 
 of those men did. Their leader became their ideal 
 and idol; and intense was the worship which they 
 — even to this dav — offer him and his memory. I 
 have received several communications, during the 
 writing of this book, from veterans of the Rough 
 Riders. One of these is so delightful, so distinctly 
 an "original contribution", that I gave it verbatim. 
 Not alone what the writer says, clearly and with 
 affection, but what he implies, often unconsciously, 
 is of interest. Reading between the lines brings 
 out subtle meanings. 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y., Sept. 28th. 
 My dear Mr. Gilman: 
 
 I am sure I would be pleased to comply with 
 your request of saying something big and good of 
 the man that is gone, but not forgotten by any of 
 the "Boys of his Regiment," as he used to call us. 
 In speaking of us in Camp, or on the march it was 
 his saying, "Bully, my boys!" He always spoke 
 of us as his "Boys," and he certainly was proud 
 of his Regiment, and on those charging drills of 
 which he loved to see good horsemanship, and if 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 153 
 
 any of the troopers got unhorsed he would smile, 
 and remark, "That was a Bully throw, are you 
 hurt any?" and then pass it off with a thorough 
 Roosevelt laugh, for he loved the serious part, as 
 well as the test of man, with beast. He loved the 
 rough and ready, and how he loved to see the Cow- 
 boys straddle bucking horses. After drills, the 
 Boys of the Regiment would start those stunts, and 
 he certainly was a first grand-stander for all that 
 sort of horse sport, our Regiment against any other 
 outfit, as he knew he could rely on his "Boys" to 
 turn the trick on any horse living. When he would 
 pass us, while we were at mess or play, we would 
 hail him with, "Colonel, won't you have a bite with 
 us?" He would stand for a second, meditating 
 what to say, and with a big broad grin, say, "Cer- 
 tainly, my Boys." And then and there we would 
 fix him some of our good solid 1898 Grub, and on 
 a tin plate. He would stand and certainly eat and 
 enjoy it with us, and then say, "It tasted fine, 
 Boys," and walk off as pleased as a school-boy, 
 for he knew we all loved him. 
 
 Just before being mustered out of service of the 
 Rough Riders, and the boys feeling good and in 
 prime condition, thinking of Home, there came 
 to camp a lot of those smarty gentry from the city, 
 called Jewelry Fakers of the smallest and lowest 
 types, to foist off phoney two-dollar watches on the 
 boys, ready to leave for their homes in the West. 
 The biggest part of our Troopers were Cow-boys, 
 and wished to bring home some souvenir, and es- 
 pecially a gold watch and chain, as they thought, 
 at a bargain — from five to ten dollars a piece, 
 when they actually were only worth one dollar, 
 
154 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 price cut. I sauntered over to see wheat was going 
 on, and one of these chaps was doing a land office 
 business with his cheap and phoney snide jewelry. 
 I spoke up and said, "Boys, you all have bought 
 watches, and got fooled badly. Now to prove it. 
 He is under arrest and in my charge. We will 
 proceed to give him a general camp court-martial, 
 under the rules of Roosevelt's Rough Riders, at 
 this present day and hour." So we placed him on 
 a soap-box. The boys all around camp nocked 
 over to see what the rumpus was about, for Roose- 
 velt's boys were ever on the alert for any fun. 
 Well, after telling the man of what he was charged, 
 of course I made it as strong as I could. He was 
 quickly found guilty of defrauding the Rough 
 Riders, and separating them from their hard- 
 earned U. S. dollars, and he was to be "tossed up 
 skyward in a real horse blanket by those basely 
 defrauded boys of the West." I gave the word 
 and the Cowboy yell to let him have his medicine. 
 He got down on his knees, with hands uplifted as 
 though he was going to his death. A blanket was 
 brought in, and every inch of it was held by them 
 for the toss. He was grabbed no gentle way, and 
 heaved into the blanket, and such hollering! He 
 went up in the air like a rocket, time and time 
 again, with the delight of the boys, and you can 
 imagine every time he went up, out came things 
 from his clothing, such as phoney watches, rings, 
 and the cheapest kind of jewelry, and the boys' 
 hard-earned money. 
 
 When nearly through with him, Col. Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt happened to look over to see what 
 all the yelling was about, and I suppose he thought 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 155 
 
 of fighting and started over. I said, "Hold fast, 
 boys. I will tell and explain all to him when he 
 comes." So we still kept it up. One — two — 
 three — and up he flew again. "Attention!" I said 
 to the boys, and as they stood, all laughing and smil- 
 ing, our dear beloved man of all men, Colonel Roose- 
 velt, said: "Who tried him?" And they stood pat 
 and said, "Tony Gavin." "And was he tried fair?" 
 "Yes, sir." "that's fine. Bully for you, Tony!" 
 He had a big grin on his face, when he sauntered 
 away, and we could see him afterwards, telling the 
 other officers what we did to the jewelry shark. 
 
 So you see he loved to see the witty side, and 
 fun of everything. Of course the boys got back 
 all of their money, and forgot to return any of the 
 loot. The man certainly was glad to get out of 
 camp as lucky as he did. And on another occasion 
 I had the same task to perform, only that case was 
 of selling jewelry to the boys, for their mothers 
 and sweethearts, of the rankest sort of snide jew- 
 elry and jewels. Those boys, after being away 
 from home and to Cuba, wished to bring home some 
 little token for them to remember. Well, this 
 jewelry fake I ordered to be thrown up skyward 
 in a Rough Riders' blanket, and then to be carried 
 and flung from the blanket into a horse trough, and 
 then escorted to and out of our camp lines with 
 machetes behind him never to return. 
 
 That kept those gentry from visiting the Rough 
 Riders' domains. And how Colonel Roosevelt did 
 laugh when he found out what I did to this indi- 
 vidual. "Tony treats them sort of rough, but he 
 is right. But the next chap that shows up, of that 
 stamp, bring him before me," he said, "and I will 
 
156 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 place him in the guard house for invading govern- 
 ment property, and have him drummed out of 
 camp, as an example." 
 
 But we could not see it that way, for I would 
 rather court-martial them and have the sport, and 
 then have our dear beloved Colonel Theodore 
 Roosevelt have a good big hearty laugh over it. 
 
 At Montauk Point, where we were mustered out 
 of service, President McKinley came to see our 
 Regiment of Rough Riders, and for his edification 
 Colonel Roosevelt had his regiment mount and pass 
 in review, and the bugler sounded halt. Then 
 Roosevelt gave the order to charge as if in battle, 
 and you know how those boys could ride a horse, 
 and those Indian yells, and shooting as if in actual 
 battle towards the Spaniards. He wheeled to- 
 wards President McKinley, and said, "Now, Presi- 
 dent, what do you think of mv Bovs and my 
 regiment?" "Splendid! Grand, Colonel!" And 
 indeed Roosevelt was pleased, and the troopers put 
 life and vim into that last reviewing charge of the 
 famous 1st U. S. V. Cavalry, Roosevelt's Rough 
 Riders, at Montauk Point. 
 
 There was something strange about Roosevelt. 
 He never forgot a face once he saw it. If he liked 
 you, you was his friend. If he disliked you, you 
 had better steer clear of him. He abhorred a 
 cringeing man. One that would stand up squarely 
 and talk right out, he admired, and would pat you 
 on the back and say, "Glad to see you." He knew 
 every member of his Regiment by name, and their 
 occupations, and he would give them good advice. 
 We presented him with a large bronze bucking 
 broncho, made by Fred Remington, on his leave- 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 157 
 
 taking. We made a circle and he certainly made 
 a fine speech to us, and hoped the boys would lead 
 a clean, upright life, as good American citizens, 
 and he certainly did cry, for his big manly heart 
 was full at his leave-taking of his old Regiment 
 of Rough Riders, 1898. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 Tony Gavin, 
 Formerly of Troop C, 1st U. S. V. Cav. 
 Roosevelt Rough Riders. 
 
 Gavin speaks of the sound advice given by his 
 beloved Colonel in his farewell speech. Which 
 leads me to offer this bit of analysis of Roosevelt's 
 character. He did give a great deal of ethical ad- 
 vice. And it was sound, pure, noble advice. He 
 really did a great deal of what might be called 
 "preaching", if we were ironically disposed so to 
 express it. And I venture this point of interpre- 
 tation of his character: That he, knowing that he 
 did this and knowing that the world usually as- 
 sociates such "preaching", such enunciations of 
 "Sunday-school talk", with milk-and-water men, 
 mollycoddles, and realizing this, deliberately cul- 
 tivated, often conspicuously, the rough, vigorous, 
 almost pugilistic manner and speech which is popu- 
 larly associated with virile, unsentimental manhood. 
 Indeed, he avows practically this purpose in two 
 or three places in his Autobiography. His ex- 
 plosive "Bully" and some other expressions were 
 
158 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 more or less camouflage to protect his fine, sensi- 
 tive idealism. 
 
 Something similar might be said of his full, 
 whole-hearted laughter. There was a bit of "pro- 
 tective coloration" in it. But a real point of char- 
 acter interpretation I raise when I say that in all 
 his relations with all kinds of men, his sense of 
 humor and his expression of it, by witticism or 
 laughter, helped him greatly to form friendly ties 
 with associates. This was especially true in the 
 critical, exciting days of the Cuban campaign. If 
 you can get a man to laugh with you, you have 
 won him. And, if you laugh with him, you prob- 
 ably are close to a handshake with him. 
 
 Roosevelt had keen humor perceptions, intel- 
 lectually, and had also that sensitive nerve system 
 which easily explodes in laughter. In fact, grop- 
 ing, as I have done, for the secret of his phenome- 
 nal nerve-recuperative power, I am inclined to see 
 in Roosevelt's free and frequent relaxing laughter 
 a partial explanation of his conservation of cor- 
 poreal nerve-tone. The records of the campaign 
 in Cuba abound in humorous incidents. In his 
 volume, "The Rough Riders", he quite corroborates 
 what some of his soldier-associates have told me. 
 He shared everything he could with them, even 
 the humor. But some of the most ludicrous things 
 came to him — socially trained as he had been — 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 159 
 
 only by his reading between the lines of their words 
 and actions. For example, speaking of the infrac- 
 tions of military etiquette which were inevitable 
 among such wild, untrammeled spirits as were 
 most of the enlisted men, he says: "The lapses into 
 which they fell, at times, were merely those of 
 inexperience. When Holderman, in announcing 
 dinner to the Colonel and three Majors, genially 
 remarked, 'If you fellers don't come soon, every- 
 thing'll get cold', he had the best of kindly inten- 
 tions; and he was glad to modify his form of ad- 
 dress when told that it was not strictly in line with 
 the best military code." 
 
 Broad-minded cosmopolitan that he already was, 
 Roosevelt saw clearly the comparative values of the 
 human qualities around him. It really "delighted" 
 him when one of the new recruits came up to him 
 and poured out the following honest statement. 
 "Colonel, I want to shake hands and say we're with 
 you. We didn't know, at first, how we'd like you 
 fellers; but you're all right, and we're with you. 
 You can count on us." 
 
 Perhaps the best of all the little "touches of 
 human nature" that "make the whole world kin" 
 is the one which Roosevelt records: 
 
 "The Colonel and I strolled out, near midnight, 
 to get the air. The sentinel near our tent was 
 fighting the vicious mosquitoes. I saw him pitch 
 
160 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 his gun ten feet off and sit down to get at such 
 pests as had swarmed up his trouser-legs. Glanc- 
 ing in our direction, he discovered us, nodded 
 pleasantly, and with unabashed and friendly feel- 
 ing, remarked, 'Ain't they badl" Nothing more 
 delightfully intime than that in French Army 
 annals. 
 
 The sympathy which the Spanish War devel- 
 oped between the Rough Riders and their devoted 
 "Colonel" never died out during Roosevelt's life, 
 and it led to many touching incidents, grave and 
 gay, in later years, which may be properly termed, 
 in medical nomenclature, sequelce. Often during 
 his occupancy of the White House, veterans of 
 that splendid organization appealed to him as 
 confidently as to their own brother. It is said that 
 Congressman Grosvenor sought an audience one 
 day at the White House and was denied admis- 
 sion. "The President is engaged," said the page. 
 "Who is in there?" demanded Congressman Gros- 
 venor impatiently. "Oh, one of his old Rough 
 Riders, I think." And the angry Congressman, 
 blending his vexation with a saving sense of humor, 
 exclaimed, as he turned away, "Then there's no 
 hope for me. A mere Congressman doesn't stand 
 any chance at all against a Rough Rider." 
 
 There is another of these unique appeals which 
 
THE HAPPY WARRIOR 161 
 
 is already — and will perhaps remain for all time 
 — a "classic." In Roosevelt's own words, thus: 
 
 "Among the many letters which I received from 
 men of my old regiment came this: 'Dear Colonel: 
 I write you because I am in trouble. I have shot 
 a lady in the eye. But, Colonel, I was not aiming 
 at the lady. I was aiming at my wife.' That 
 excuse he evidently regarded as a sufficient one, 
 between 'men of the world.' But I wrote him that 
 I drew the line altogether at shooting at ladies." 
 
 One incident, which I have seen in garbled form 
 in print, has been given me correctly by an eye- 
 witness, my classmate and Roosevelt's classmate, 
 the late Vanderlyn Stow, of San Francisco. 
 Roosevelt, during his presidency, visited California 
 in company with his Secretary of the Navy, Wil- 
 liam Moody. The Bohemian Club of San Fran- 
 cisco hoped to get him to come to San Francisco and 
 address the club. Mr. Stow saw that this was 
 asking too much, for it would establish a bad 
 precedent. But he yielded — being president of the 
 club — to his fellow members' urging. He went 
 down and met Roosevelt at Monterey. The three 
 men lunched together. Stow preferred his request, 
 in a perfunctory way, with the expected result. 
 The general conversation was resumed. Roose- 
 velt was in exuberant spirits. Presently he said, 
 eyes twinkling mischievously, "Secretary Moody 
 
162 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 has just accused me of a grave offense. He has 
 said that I show favoritism to my old Rough 
 Riders, that I put them all into offices." 
 
 He paused; and Moody replied, in that delib- 
 erate way which always gave weight to his humor, 
 "I think you mistook me, Mr. President. I believe 
 I did not say that you put them all into offices, but 
 that you put in all who were not already in jail." 
 And Stow declared that Roosevelt laughed so 
 heartily at the keen rejoinder that he nearly fell 
 off his chair. 
 
 Thus comes to an end this chapter on Theodore 
 Roosevelt's career at Washington, in the Navy 
 Department, and in Cuba as a soldier, on a real 
 field of battle. And again I assert that Theodore 
 Roosevelt loved fighting in the cause of Right. 
 He was the happiest of warriors, as he intimated to 
 his intimate friend, Charles Washburn. The 
 charge up that San Juan Ridge was the most en- 
 joyable episode of his life. 
 
 In closing, I look up at a beautiful bronze bas- 
 relief over my desk, portraying in silhouette the 
 face of my honored and beloved classmate. And 
 across the base of that plate, below the head, I 
 read these words quoted from Roosevelt's writings 
 and molded lastingly into the metal fabric, — "Ag- 
 gressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport 
 the world affords." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 
 
 When Roosevelt returned from Cuba, and the 
 transport steamer was off Montauk Point, some- 
 body shouted to him from another vessel, "How 
 are you feeling, Colonel?" And the reply went 
 back promptly, "Disgracefully well." In that 
 impulsive reply the sincerity and sympathy of the 
 man found spontaneous expression. His saddened 
 thought was of his "Boys" — some killed, many 
 wounded, and many stricken by fever. And he — 
 well and strong. It was a characteristic exclama- 
 tion from a tender, generous heart. 
 
 He needed, however, all that health and strength, 
 during the struggle before him in his native State. 
 The Republican Party of New York needed him 
 to prevent its defeat in the approaching guberna- 
 torial election. For he, by force of circumstances 
 and by his own splendid military record, was "The 
 Man on Horseback." In France, after the Franco- 
 Prussian War of 1870, George Ernest Boulanger, 
 loaded with military honors, returned to Paris. 
 And the title of "The Man on Horseback" was 
 
161 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 given him. It expressed his prestige and power 
 gained on the battle field. A far nobler type was 
 Colonel Theodore Roosevelt; but the two men re- 
 sembled each other for that hour in their popularity 
 and influence. 
 
 The Republican Party needed Roosevelt. But 
 Senator Thomas C. Piatt, "boss" of the party, was 
 "in a strait betwixt two." He desired victory for 
 his party, but he dreaded admitting this bold young 
 reformer into the inner political circles. Piatt at 
 this time was sixty-seven years old, and quite in- 
 firm physically; and Roosevelt was thirty years 
 old, and physically at his maximum of strength. 
 Of him intellectually it must be said that he was a 
 growing man, and had not then attained all the 
 wisdom and power of his later years. But he was 
 practically the most striking personality in the 
 country and seemed to Piatt the most promising 
 gubernatorial Republican candidate. Regarding 
 Mr. Piatt's mental equipment at this period, we 
 might use Roosevelt's own caustic words of later 
 date: "I could not find that he had a taste for 
 anything except politics, and, on rare occasions, 
 for a dry theology quite divorced from moral 
 implications." 
 
 As soon as Colonel Roosevelt landed, he was 
 met by Lemuel Quigg, discreet agent of Senator 
 Piatt. Together with Douglas Robinson the two 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 165 
 
 men conversed, sitting in Roosevelt's tent. Of 
 course the errand upon which Mr. Quigg had come 
 was apparent to the three men. Senator Piatt had 
 sent him to sound this young Lochinvar, and to 
 judge whether he could be trusted, after he got 
 the election — which seemed quite sure — to "work 
 harmoniously" with "Boss" Piatt, which meant 
 giving Piatt his own way in everything he cared 
 about and taking what he left. 
 
 During two hours they talked. Quigg clothed 
 his anxious inquiries in the usual political cant, and 
 Roosevelt gave the plain, unyielding reply that if 
 elected he would confer with Piatt and with others 
 on the various questions as they arose and then 
 would himself decide. Further, he declared that 
 he sincerely desired harmony of policy and the 
 good of both the party and the State. 
 
 With that message — the best he could extract 
 from Roosevelt — Quigg went back to Piatt, the 
 campaign was soon on, and the young reformer, 
 fresh from Cuban victories, went up and down 
 the State in a whirlwind campaign, enjoying it all 
 to the full, and gaining supporters every time he 
 spoke. Jacob Riis and other admirers shared in 
 the toil and the delights of the campaign. Riis 
 records that one ardent cowboy Rough Rider, 
 "Buck" Taylor, speaking at a rally, exhorted his 
 hearers to "Poller ma Colonel! Foller ma Colonel! 
 
166 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 An' he'll lead you, as he led us, like lambs to the 
 slaughter." Cautious, anxious Thomas C. Piatt, 
 professional politician, gave him a half-hearted, 
 hopeful support. He said afterward, "Roosevelt 
 made a dramatic campaign. He fairly pranced up 
 and down the State. And he called a spade 'a 
 spade' and a crook 'a crook.' : 
 
 Early in the campaign Roosevelt showed 
 strategic acumen. The Democratic candidate, 
 Judge Van Wyck, was a man of good character 
 and capacity, and he was not much open to attack 
 personally. But his political lieutenant, Croker, 
 "Boss" of Tammany, was a man of inferior grade; 
 "a powerful and truculent man" Roosevelt calls 
 him. The young reformer attacked Croker, drew 
 him into the open, and there made his fight, show- 
 ing the "Boss" up as the real and corrupt leader 
 of the Democratic forces. It was an easier, more 
 definite contest, thus, than it could have been 
 against Van Wyck. 
 
 The result of the campaign was that Roosevelt 
 was elected, but by only the narrow margin of 
 eighteen thousand plurality. One reason for the 
 narrowness of this margin was that the more ex- 
 treme "Independents", so called, stood out against 
 Roosevelt. They were men of the academic type, 
 with high, vague aims and a narrow range of per- 
 ceptions and sympathies. The trenchant — and 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 16T 
 
 somewhat heated — description of them given by 
 Roosevelt was that "their 'Independence' con- 
 sisted of one part moral obliquity and two parts 
 mental infirmity." They demanded of him that he 
 defy Piatt in good, old-fashioned, stage-drama 
 fashion. They had not the breadth of mind to see 
 that he was trying to get all the help he could from 
 Piatt and the professional politicians of the party, 
 corrupt though they might be. This was his wise, 
 fruitful policy throughout his term of office. As 
 a discerning friend wrote about him, "He did not 
 intend to pose on the solitary gubernatorial peak 
 of abortive righteousness." 
 
 After his election, one of our classmates asked 
 Roosevelt jocosely, "Now, Theodore, what kind 
 of a governor are you going to be?" And the reply 
 was ready. "I'm going to be just as good a kind 
 as the politicians will let me be." That reply re- 
 vealed the two factors in his public career which 
 now were becoming fixed in his mind and will. He 
 determined to push his methods and reforms as 
 close up to perfection as he could push them, — and 
 still keep the support of the more or less imperfect 
 party that elected him. His purpose might be 
 described not as a vacuous circle, like that of the 
 theoretical, easily shelved "Independents", but as 
 a productive ellipse, with two centers, the one 
 idealistic and the other practical. 
 
168 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 A brief description of him I here cite, as given 
 by Charles G. Washburn in the course of an elo- 
 quent memorial address made in Boston by him on 
 October 27, 1920. "What manner of man was 
 this whom we honor to-night? A man unlike any 
 other man whom we have ever known or read about, 
 a character as transparent as a child's, tender in 
 his family relations, a faithful friend, — but, when 
 roused, in conflict terrible; and, when fighting for 
 a great cause, he loved to ride on the whirlwind 
 and direct the storm." 
 
 That was the mature man — he was already that, 
 at the age of thirty — who was entering the arena 
 of New York politics. No wonder that Croker 
 raged and Piatt trembled. Coming events were 
 "casting their shadows before" — for corrupt poli- 
 ticians in both the great parties. 
 
 When once entered upon his duties as Governor, 
 Roosevelt put the same energy and industry into 
 his work that he had always put into whatever work 
 lay before him. In scores of ways he went beyond 
 the routine duties of his office and improved and 
 reformed existing conditions. That was his fixed 
 attitude toward public affairs. lie found time — 
 resting himself, perhaps — to write his "Rough 
 Riders" and "Oliver Cromwell." Looking back 
 now at his two years as Governor, we may say that 
 his greatest work was shown in four important 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 169 
 
 measures which he pushed through. They were, 
 first, through the suggestion of Riis, the creation 
 of the Tenement House Commission Bill. It was, 
 in large measure, a following up and enforcing 
 of the sweatshop reform which he had taken up 
 when an assemblyman. Second, the office of Su- 
 perintendent of Public Works, involving control 
 of the State canals, needed revision; and Roosevelt 
 revised it. Third, the big corporations who had 
 obtained franchises to use public thoroughfares for 
 street railways had never shared their profits with 
 the People, the Public, who really owned those 
 thoroughfares and from whom the corporations 
 had obtained the right of way. Roosevelt made 
 those companies pay for value received. Then, 
 fourth, there was the office of Superintendent of 
 Insurance. The man who held that governmental 
 position was engaged in various business enter- 
 prises which prevented him from being wholly free 
 and disinterested in carrying out the duties of his 
 office. Roosevelt replaced him with a less involved 
 official. 
 
 In all these acts Roosevelt met intense opposi- 
 tion, on the part of Piatt and other "bosses", and 
 on the part of the corporations and individuals 
 whose incomes and honors and peace of mind he 
 disturbed. He was clearly aware of the compli- 
 cated conditions under which he worked. Mr. 
 
170 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Hagerdorn, in his excellent "Boy's Life of Roose- 
 velt", has put this situation into a succinct para- 
 graph. "Roosevelt's struggle was not a simple 
 one. He could repudiate Piatt and his confed- 
 erates, and win popular applause by doing it. Or, 
 he could accept Piatt's dictation and thus secure 
 the support of the powerful 'Machine' in his future 
 career. If he took the former course, he would be 
 unable to execute real reforms in any direction. If 
 he took the second course, he would forfeit his own 
 self-respect. Seeing this dilemma he took neither 
 horn of it. He neither accepted Piatt as 'Boss', 
 nor did he repudiate him, wholly. He cooperated 
 with him whenever that was possible, and he fought 
 him only on fundamental issues of right and 
 wrong." 
 
 Thus was made manifest Roosevelt's growth in 
 wisdom since the days when as an assemblyman he 
 aimed at similar reforms, but aimed at accomplish- 
 ing them single-handed and alone. 
 
 The four measures which I have named — re- 
 form, essentially — gave him opportunity to put 
 forth all that vigor and unyielding determination 
 which was in him; in the case of the Ford Fran- 
 chise Bill, approved by Roosevelt and disapproved 
 by Piatt, the young Governor fought the aged Boss 
 and his minions to a finish. He sent an urgent 
 message with the Bill into the Legislature; but 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 171 
 
 the Speaker, in a rage, tore it up. Again looking 
 carefully over the merits of the Bill, Roosevelt 
 sent to the Legislature another message, urging 
 the passage of this important Bill, and intimated 
 that if it were not properly read, he himself in 
 person would go to the Assembly Hall and present 
 it. That bold stand carried a panic into the op- 
 position and they passed the Bill with a rush. 
 
 As I try to analyze and even catalogue Roose- 
 velt's extraordinary qualities, the Insurance Bill 
 especially draws my attention. In this way. 
 Piatt wished the then Superintendent of Insurance 
 to be retained. Roosevelt believed that a change 
 was needed in that office, and resolved to fight the 
 matter through. He went over a little toward the 
 Boss by suggesting a man who was Piatt's friend. 
 Then he stood squarely on that position. Letters 
 passed between Piatt and Roosevelt, each man 
 unyielding. It was a deadlock. 
 
 Then came a situation, unique in itself and il- 
 luminating as to Roosevelt's character. When I 
 was in college, I was indulgently given two hours' 
 instruction in the murky, strabismic game of 
 poker. The lesson cost me two dollars and sixty 
 cents. All the knowledge I now retain concerning 
 that unfriendly pastime is a sense of the singular 
 factitious power of "bluff." This "bluff" was 
 
172 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 never better exemplified than in that case of the 
 Insurance appointee. 
 
 Roosevelt had determined upon a certain can- 
 didate, a reasonably efficient, desirable man, really 
 one of Piatt's friends. Piatt demurred and 
 warned Roosevelt in so many spoken words that 
 it was now "war to the knife." Soon afterward 
 a message came from one of Piatt's henchmen, 
 asking where he could meet Roosevelt. Roosevelt 
 named the Union League Club. Accordingly the 
 two met there. The authorized agent of Piatt's 
 went over all the ground afresh, trying to persuade 
 Roosevelt to put in Piatt's chosen man. The 
 dramatic scene might be put into dramatic form, 
 thus: 
 
 Platfs Agent: "This is your last chance, Gov- 
 ernor Roosevelt. Ruin is ahead of you if you 
 continue to disregard Senator Piatt's wishes." 
 
 Roosevelt (shaking his head negatively) : "There 
 is nothing to be added to what I have already said." 
 Platfs Agent: "You have made up your mind?" 
 Roosevelt (firmly) : "I have." 
 Agent: "You know it means your ruin?" 
 Roosevelt: "Well, we'll see about that." 
 Agent: "The fight will begin to-morrow and 
 will go to the bitter end. You understand?" 
 Roosevelt: "Yes, I understand." (He opens 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 173 
 
 the door to go out. As he does this, Piatt's agent 
 suddenly calls to him.) 
 
 Agent: "Hold on! We accept. Senator Piatt 
 will withdraw his opposition." 
 
 That ended the game. And that it was a real 
 game of Poker, with the "bluff" feature strong 
 on the agent's part, Roosevelt indicates when he 
 says of the interview, with his sense of humor show- 
 ing through : "His face, throughout the interview, 
 was as impassive and inscrutable as that of Mr. 
 John Hamlin, in a poker game." 
 
 This situation was a vital and typical one, in 
 Roosevelt's career. He once said to a group of us 
 college friends, as he looked back over his public 
 career, "Two or three times in my life I have stood 
 as with my back to a wall, facing impending and 
 probable defeat and ruin, so far as my public career 
 was concerned. But in those two or three cases 
 the scales of good fortune turned my way. Per- 
 haps that is what they sometimes call 'Roosevelt 
 Luck.' But it was 'Luck' only in part, at least." 
 And he said one day to our Class Secretary, Mr. 
 John Woodbury, as the two walked down Park 
 Street, Boston, together, "There are some things 
 I can do, some I can't do, and some I simply 
 won't do." 
 
 That yielding to Piatt, that continuing an in- 
 competent henchman of Piatt's in an important 
 
174 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 office was one of the things "I won't do." And the 
 point which I enjoy most, in that temporary break 
 with the powerful New York Boss, is the tenacity 
 of purpose which Roosevelt evinced. If you had 
 seen Roosevelt at a dinner party, or in a group of 
 friends, you might have said readily, "A brilliant 
 man. But has he got stability and persistence in 
 a long fight?" That Insurance controversy with 
 Piatt is a sufficient reply. And we are confirmed 
 in our affirmation that an important element in 
 Roosevelt's greatness was his possession, in a re- 
 markable degree, of diverse qualities usually found 
 only singly in men. The old saying has it that 
 "Take Hold is a good dog, but Hold Fast is a 
 better." In Roosevelt's fighting equipment both 
 qualities were combined. 
 
 During those joyous two years of his governor- 
 ship, the glamor of a growing popular support did 
 not blind him to the inherent fickleness of popular 
 favor. He looked facts and conditions straight in 
 the face and did not delude himself. In a letter 
 to his sister at this period, he said, "Just at this 
 moment I am on the crest of the wave. But I 
 know that after a crest comes a hollow." This 
 same figure of speech he used years later, on his 
 return from Africa, as he talked at a complimen- 
 tary dinner given him at Sherry's in New York 
 City. But, even as he did in the gubernatorial days, 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 175 
 
 he was earnestly and persistently using every 
 means to remain on the "crest" as long as possible. 
 
 He was also steadily pursuing the same method 
 of getting through the cordon of inimical poli- 
 ticians which hemmed him in and of reaching the 
 masses of the people outside, which he followed 
 afterward in his Presidency. He called press re- 
 porters regularly to his office and explained his aims 
 and plans, and counted upon their aid in putting 
 him clearly and honestly before the reading public. 
 Always his hope of support in his stern reform 
 methods lay in the intelligence and morality of the 
 body of the American people as against the wiles 
 and thrusts of the self-seeking, habitual politicians. 
 
 There is one other significant feature of his 
 official life as Governor of New York which should 
 not be overlooked. It is his attitude toward the 
 enforcement of the statutes for capital punishment. 
 Setting aside my knowledge of the facts, I would 
 know, from my knowledge of his character, that he 
 would believe in punishing by death the commission 
 of an act of deliberate, willful murder. Quite as I 
 would dare assert — without asking his opinion — 
 that he believed in "freedom of the will." Such 
 a belief was a component part of his nature, force- 
 ful, self-reliant, never self-excusing, but conscious 
 of responsibility. Similarly, of capital punishment. 
 Such a nature as his — strong in its sense of jus- 
 
176 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 tice, facing fearlessly the whole gamut of human 
 motives, low as well as high — such a nature would 
 never submerge memories of a dead victim in the 
 scented waters of a sentimental clemency toward 
 a craven criminal who begged for that boon which 
 he had coldly denied another. So, when tender- 
 hearted Jacob Riis went to him and besought him 
 to commute the death sentence of a certain relent- 
 less murderer, he suspended judgment for a few 
 hours, went over the case anew, then wrote a kind 
 but stern letter to Riis, declining to pardon. 
 "Whatever I do," he wrote in that letter, "I do 
 because, after painful groping, I see my path of 
 duty." 
 
 His was a tender heart. As Oscar Straus 
 earnestly assured me, "There never was one more 
 tender" — but his sense of right was deep-rooted, 
 and his perceptions of the need of law-enforcement 
 he never lost. He abhorred the graveyard charac- 
 ter of our statute books. He believed only in laws 
 which "had teeth"; perhaps his own smile — some- 
 times cheery, yet again grim and threatening — 
 might be said to symbolize this, his strong con- 
 viction. 
 
 The term of Roosevelt's governorship now drew 
 to a close. Although it had been an almost con- 
 tinuous campaign of strategy and strife, he had 
 enjoyed it. He said so, in a letter of February 1, 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 177 
 
 1900, to Senator Piatt: "In spite of all the work 
 and all the worry, I have thoroughly enjoyed being 
 Governor." 
 
 One source of his happiness during those two 
 strenuous years was the rich, beautiful home life 
 that was his at Oyster Bay. In the Executive 
 Chamber at Albany he stood : always watchful, 
 challenging, like a soldier on guard. Threats 
 hovered in the air about him, and snares were 
 spread for his feet. He loved that kind of life, 
 but it was one of extreme tension. At Oyster Bay, 
 on the contrary, love and sympathy encompassed 
 him, and- he returned it in kind to wife and children. 
 
 There is a period in the continuity of even the 
 happiest and most ideal homes when the forces of 
 mutual service and good will are at their maximum. 
 In the earlier years of home life, with children 
 immature, these forces are less balanced, less 
 reciprocal. Loving parents lavish attention on 
 little ones with but little intelligent, commensurate 
 response. Then, as the children reach the ages of 
 four and five years, and thence on to the ages of 
 fifteen and sixteen, there is an increasing unity of 
 affection, which fades somewhat after those ages, 
 as boys and girls seek more and more the compan- 
 ionship of their own generation. During that 
 flowering period, the mother and father can give 
 companionship that is wholly satisfying to the 
 
178 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 young people. After it they must be content to 
 step gradually aside, and — still near at hand, not 
 afar off — see those young people seek sympathy 
 from friends of their own age. 
 
 This is the inevitable course of evolution in the 
 normal happy family. And this period came to 
 the group at Oyster Bay at about the time when 
 the father of the family was also the Governor of 
 the State. It lasted through the days of his 
 Presidency, and it evolved normally, happily, into 
 the period following it, when the father and mother 
 gradually gave over their authority and control 
 into the hands of the children themselves, now fitted 
 by wise training for a self-reliant and self-con- 
 tained manhood and womanhood. 
 
 This is the law in all true homes. And at Oyster 
 Bay it was really beautifully exemplified. The 
 father shared fully and poignantly the interests 
 and aims of his children. He shared their laughter 
 and their tears. For him, when with them, the 
 cares of governorships and presidencies ceased to 
 exist. No American home ever was sweeter, truer, 
 and nobler than that at Oyster Bay. When 
 political enemies searched far and wide, high and 
 low, for missiles which they might hurl against 
 Roosevelt, they never had a defamatory word to 
 offer about his home life. 
 
 Both the mother and the father of that loving 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 179 
 
 group were exceptional people. The whole world 
 knows now the exalted character of that father, 
 but not so many people know the wise, tender 
 motherhood which was enshrined beneath that roof. 
 With her delicate, reserved nature, she comple- 
 mented the impetuous, originative nature of her 
 husband. Intelligent, with cultivated tastes, she 
 could give the intellectual sympathy as well as the 
 warm human affection which he craved, — and 
 gave in return. 
 
 That restful heart-satisfying companionship 
 which they bestowed, without effort, on each other 
 was made evident in many ways; for example, by 
 the way in which they sought, again and again, 
 each other's society in walks and drives and boat- 
 ing. There was between them the same absolute 
 trust and deep content which Mrs. Custer, wife 
 of General George Custer, describes in a homely 
 and humorous but meaning-full line of her book 
 of reminiscences. She shared a considerable part 
 of her husband's adventurous military life on the 
 Western frontier. And she says in her book, "The 
 General declared that he was sure that he really 
 loved me because 'he liked so much to have me 
 around.' " 
 
 A classmate has said to me again and again, as 
 we have recalled and discussed our eminent class- 
 mate, "Roosevelt will stand as an example and 
 
180 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 model before the young and old of this nation in 
 more ways, on more sides of his character, than any 
 American that we yet know, — without exception." 
 I heartily agree, and I point out, apropos of his 
 home life, how wisely, how sanely he directed the 
 molding of his children's characters. No senti- 
 mentality but quick, keen sympathy. No airy, 
 unsubstantial fads in education, but intelligent 
 observation and the firm application of the psycho- 
 logical laws of character building. In the earliest 
 years he exacted unhesitating obedience to his own 
 wish and word. Then, gradually, as their powers 
 of judgment and ratiocination unfolded, he turned 
 over to them decision as to their conduct. He 
 became, in time, their counsellor, only leaving to 
 them the casting vote. He pointed them, more 
 and more, to obedience to that truth and right to 
 which they saw him obedient. And splendid re- 
 sults justified his wise, loving — although some- 
 times almost Spartan — code. 
 
 This period — perhaps from 1900 to 1C10 — was 
 approximately the one in which he wrote his 
 "Letters to His Children", that revealing volume 
 edited by Mr. Bishop. The book softened the 
 hearts and modified the distrustful attitude of 
 thousands of people throughout the world. They 
 had followed too blindly the lead of Roosevelt's 
 enemies, writing and speaking, and had thought 
 
GOVERNOR OF THE EMPIRE STATE 181 
 
 of him as a fierce metallic war-fanatic. And now, 
 as they read those touching revelations of fatherly 
 sympathy, they felt assured that they came at the 
 real man, affectionate and tender; and they gave 
 him — fathers, mothers, friends, readers, the wide 
 world over — their approval and regard. 
 
 Those fascinating letters run through a period 
 of several years. His intimate interest in the 
 affairs of the little people, his sharing of the child- 
 ish aims and interests, even his charming, amusing 
 pet names, little loving diminutives, give "the 
 touch of nature which makes the whole world kin," 
 and do reveal, not a new Roosevelt, but a new 
 character facet of that many-sided man. 
 
 Much as he enjoyed the pastimes and picnics at 
 that ideal home at Oyster Bay, he had enjoyed 
 no less the continuous fighting that went with his 
 reform work as Governor. For he was not only 
 the loving father, the tender husband, the faithful 
 friend, — he was also and always "The Happy 
 Warrior." 
 
 "Who is the Happy Warrior? — 
 He who though thus endued as with a sense 
 And faculty for storm and turbulence, 
 Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans 
 To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 
 
 When that devout monk and eloquent preacher, 
 Peter the Hermit, called upon Christendom, in the 
 year 1096, to rescue the Holy Sepulcher at 
 Jerusalem from infidel hands, he declared in his 
 passionate, persuasive exhortation, "God wills it, 
 God wills it!" Many critical historians to-day, as 
 they survey the highways of the past, may doubt 
 the truth of that asseveration. Yet even among 
 the least sympathetic of these critics might be 
 found those who would hold that "There's a 
 divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how 
 we will." 
 
 We come now to a point in Theodore Roose- 
 velt's career where — if we anywhere see direct 
 divine agency in hman affairs — we must recognize 
 its presence. For, at the close of his second year 
 as Governor of New York, with a splendid record 
 of duty done and reforms accomplished, he and 
 his immediate friends desired a certain thing for 
 him, and struggled for it — and then events, or an 
 overruling providence, blocked the path which he 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE -PRESIDENT 183 
 
 had chosen and set his feet in a path which he did 
 not desire, but a path which opened out, in the 
 unseen future, into a field of national service 
 worthy of his extraordinary powers. It was a field 
 which very likely would not have opened to him 
 had he not arrived at it through the undesired 
 path. 
 
 This was the logic of events, humanly speaking, 
 as we now look back. Roosevelt desired another 
 term as Governor. He wished to continue his un- 
 precedented fight for a clear, righteous administra- 
 tion of the machinery of government in his native 
 State. But Senator Piatt did not wish this; and 
 Piatt's official henchmen and the fat corporations 
 whom Roosevelt had seriously disturbed likewise 
 longed for relief from his keen scrutiny and ir- 
 resistible domination. It had been only an armed 
 truce between Piatt and Roosevelt through the two 
 years of the governorship. Yet the veteran poli- 
 tician secretly and within limits was fascinated by 
 the gallant young crusader who ever and anon had 
 fought him to a standstill in the State arena. 
 Roosevelt probably was correct when he wrote to 
 Senator Lodge at this period, "I believe that Piatt 
 rather likes me, although I render him uncomfort- 
 able by some of the things I do." 
 
 For months Piatt had been quietly planning 
 what he now, early in 1900, openly expressed. He 
 
184 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 and his machine declared that for the good of the 
 State and the nation, Roosevelt should be put into 
 the Vice-presidency. They planned to put this 
 active reformer into the most inactive position in 
 the Federal Government; in terse, popular par- 
 lance, they intended to "shelve him." Or, as one 
 facetious observer said, "Piatt wished to be rid of 
 him. But he could not 'kick him downstairs', so 
 he had to 'kick him upstairs/ '' 
 
 Roosevelt distrusted the Greeks, even when they 
 brought him gifts. He saw at once the peril which 
 this move — this plausible promotion — involved for 
 him ; and he struggled against it. He wrote letters, 
 sent telegrams, and interviewed powerful political 
 friends. He recognized the insidious danger which 
 threatened his future usefulness more clearly than 
 did Secretarv Hav, who wrote thus humorouslv 
 but superficially to Henry White, in London. 
 "Teddy has been here at Washington. Have you 
 heard of it? It was more fun than a goat. He 
 came here with somber resolution on his strenuous 
 brow to let McKinley and Hanna know, once for 
 all, that he would not be Vice-president. And he 
 found, to his stupefaction, that nobody in Wash- 
 ington, except Piatt, had ever dreamed of such a 
 thing. He did not even have a chance to launch 
 his nolo episcopari at the Major, who said that he 
 did not want him on his ticket, and that he would 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 185 
 
 be far more useful in New York. And Root said 
 — with his frank and murderous smile — 'Of 
 course not — you're not fit for it.' So he went 
 back to New York, quite eased in mind, but con- 
 siderably bruised in his amour propre." 
 
 That free-hand letter — written quite in igno- 
 rance and somewhat out of sympathy — was a 
 literary enunciation from the mind of the author 
 of "Little Breeches" rather than a judicial opinion 
 from the Honorable John Hay, efficient Secretary 
 of State. Roosevelt had scented a real danger afar 
 off and was struggling blindly to meet it. On his 
 return to New York he made his wishes known 
 very plainly to Senator Piatt. He even declared 
 vehemently that if he could not go before the voters 
 of the State as gubernatorial candidate, on his 
 record, for another term, he would rather retire to 
 private life. Piatt, the wily fox, affected to 
 acquiesce in this decision. But his plans had been 
 laid and he did not intend to relinquish them. He 
 had suffered too severely at Roosevelt's hands to 
 allow that ardent young man any open door, or 
 half-open door, for a return into the field of State 
 politics, now that he was moving out of it by the 
 completion of his term of service. 
 
 The Republican National Convention, for nomi- 
 nation of candidates, was now close at hand. And 
 Piatt, somewhat nervous, intimated that if Roose- 
 
186 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 velt would not accept the Vice-presidential nomi- 
 nation, he, Piatt, would block him in his campaign 
 for another term as Governor of New York. That 
 was a mistaken move on the senator's part. Roose- 
 velt took up the threat and declared to his astute 
 foe that if the New York delegation were not in- 
 structed to vote for Woodruff as Vice-president, 
 he, Roosevelt, would lay bare Piatt's threat before 
 the voters of New York. 
 
 But — "the best laid schemes o' mice and men" 
 went wrong, as often before. When the Conven- 
 tion got "under weigh", and Roosevelt delivered 
 the nomination speech for McKinley, the delegates 
 made their wishes known by applause, cheers, and 
 demands that "Teddy" stand as candidate for the 
 Vice-presidency. Roosevelt protested, pled with 
 them, and did all he could to push back the over- 
 whelming wave of enthusiasm which surged up 
 toward him. But his efforts were only Parting- 
 tonian in their ineffective results. Almost to a 
 man that assembly rose and thundered its lavish 
 admiration and its insistent demands. Speeches 
 followed and the demands became even more 
 inexorable. One man summed up the need. "We 
 want a ticket made up of McKinley — a Western 
 man with Eastern sympathies — and Roosevelt — 
 an Eastern man with Western sympathies." One 
 of the delegates expressed the popular emotional 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 187 
 
 demand when he declared, "We want a candidate 
 we can yell for." It went unsaid that nobody ex- 
 pected to "yell" for McKinley, even though he 
 might vote for that genial gentleman. 
 
 So Roosevelt yielded and accepted. What else 
 could he do? And he was "shelved", as he and 
 Piatt thought, although not so directly by Piatt's 
 agency as that old plotter had anticipated. But 
 "shelved" he felt himself to be. And he was dis- 
 appointed and depressed. As he said grimly to a 
 friend, "I see no attractive outlook. I shall prob- 
 ably end my life as a professor in some small 
 college." That was the cloud-shadowed future to 
 which this eager young knight-errant looked. But, 
 like a Sybilline prophecy, stand the words of one 
 of my classmates on record to this day, words 
 uttered by him soon after the Philadelphia Conven- 
 tion in 1900, "I would not like to stand in Mc- 
 Kinley's shoes. He has a man of destiny behind 
 him." 
 
 Historic facts justified the implications of this 
 forecast. Four times in national history had vice- 
 presidents been conducted to the presidential chair 
 by that grim usher, Death. Tyler, Fillmore, 
 Johnson, and Arthur had been thus advanced, as 
 their nominating conventions had not anticipated. 
 The last two of these changes had come through 
 
188 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 the acts of assassins. And on this point history 
 was to repeat itself. 
 
 Roosevelt, when once fairly embarked upon the 
 national campaign, threw himself into it with all 
 his wonted energy. He traveled through twenty- 
 four States and made about seven hundred 
 speeches. He wrote to a friend, "The National 
 Committee have worked me nearly to death." Yet, 
 exhausted as he was, he enjoyed it. We are sure 
 of that. And what a transformation had come to 
 the timid, embarrassed young man of college days 
 — gasping after words, inaudible in his articulation 
 — now standing before vast audiences and driving 
 home his clear ideas and lofty ideals with freedom 
 and force! His mental equipment had developed 
 through the years; and his exceptional moral and 
 emotional qualities needed no augmentation. His 
 voice, however, remained throughout his life, as it 
 was in his youth, comparatively weak and ineffec- 
 tive. In this campaign of 1900 he was accompanied 
 by Curtis Guild, later honored Governor of the 
 Old Bay State. He of the generous heart and 
 diapason voice went as an understudy for Roose- 
 velt, who often quite wore his fragile voice to a 
 hoarse thread and was compelled to stop speaking. 
 
 There was power in Roosevelt's manner as a 
 public speaker, to command and hold attention, 
 even when his weak voice and the great size of the 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 189 
 
 crowd made him inaudible. A classmate has told 
 me that he once stood in a crowd in Pittsburgh, 
 Pennsylvania, and saw Roosevelt in the open air, 
 with wagons and trolley cars rattling and clanging, 
 hold the attention of fully five thousand people, 
 during an address of an hour. 
 
 If they could hear his words, any audience would 
 sit or stand spellbound. And even when conditions 
 prevented their hearing him clearly, there was such 
 fascination and suggestion of power in his face 
 and gestures that people stayed and stayed, hoping 
 to catch something of the brilliant yet rational ap- 
 peals he was making for some upright man or just 
 and humane cause. 
 
 In this tour through the country with Curtis 
 Guild, men and women everywhere were eager to 
 look upon and listen to the "Rough Rider" and 
 "Reform Governor of New York." His pictur- 
 esque past and his fearless spirit were well known 
 in every section of the country. When people first 
 heard him, they were often disappointed during 
 the opening sentences. But they soon forgot their 
 disappointment in their growing interest in the 
 ideas he was urging. He had but few of the 
 physical assets and rhetorical arts of the orators. 
 Like another great man, Phillips Brooks, he broke 
 most of the rules of elocution; it was his earnest- 
 ness and sincerity, his courage and also his humor 
 
190 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 that drew his listeners to him. The speech and not 
 the speaker was what held his audience. Yet his 
 personality had its charm. It grew upon people 
 after they had gone away and recalled him. They 
 said to one another that they had never before 
 listened to anybody who spoke so simply, forcibly, 
 and sincerely as he spoke. 
 
 From time to time incidents occurred, flashes 
 of temperament leaped out through the formal 
 routine of the schedule and program, which re- 
 vealed the intrepidity of the Rough Rider and the 
 unflinching defiance of "Boss" Piatt's rival. One 
 of the chief issues of the campaign was that of a 
 silver or a gold basis for the nation's monetary 
 affairs. Denver, Colorado, was a strong "silver" 
 center. Roosevelt arrived there, went to the hotel, 
 then to the hall, then to the platform, and then was 
 introduced. The introduction was not a necessity, 
 but largely a formality. Everybody knew him 
 from his pictures. lie had figured in cartoons, 
 favorable or unfavorable, throughout the land. 
 The hall was crowded with a curious, eager audi- 
 ence, which cheered him heartily. Then came his 
 first sentence, clear, succinct, "I am for gold as 
 our money basis." At once an uproar broke out in 
 that audience, strongly predisposed as it was to 
 silver. The confusion increased. The noise grew 
 in volume and intensity, — catcalls, fists shaken, 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 191 
 
 threats shouted out. The attitude of the crowd 
 had altered completely in a moment. 
 
 Through it all Roosevelt stood silent, motion- 
 less, upon the platform. His characteristic smile 
 irradiated his face. The opposition rolled up 
 against him like waves against a rock, and like a 
 rock he stood undaunted, immovable. 
 
 He waited until the hostile attack had quieted 
 down and his not powerful voice could be heard. 
 Then he sent out again his challenge, brief, uncom- 
 promising, unafraid, "I'm for gold, just the same." 
 
 It was a splendid assertion of courage and con- 
 viction. And that audience recoiled under it as 
 under a swift, hard blow. Then their sense of fair 
 play, their recognition of his bravery prevailed; 
 and their threats turned to applause, their hostility 
 to admiration. 
 
 Thus, throughout that tour of campaigning, 
 incident followed incident, and the days, although 
 exhausting, were joyous days. For when once 
 Roosevelt had committed himself to the trip, his 
 inordinate love of action was gratified; and he 
 forgot for a time his apprehensions about the 
 stagnant eddy of the Vice-presidency which he 
 was soon to occupy, while the strong currents of 
 governmental administration coursed swiftly 
 around and outside him. In that unique volume, 
 "The Education of Henry Adams", the author 
 
192 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 wrote, "Roosevelt, more than any other living man, 
 showed the singular primitive quality that belongs 
 to ultimate matter — the quality that medieval 
 theology assigned to God — he was pure act." And 
 the reluctant young candidate for the Vice-presi- 
 dency forgot his reluctance in the joys of the chase, 
 or the game, whichever you call it, and although by 
 his earnest, persuasive address he might have been 
 said to be weaving the very bonds which were to 
 tie him later, yet he wove joyously — as it was his 
 nature to — he being, as Henry Adams declared, 
 "pure act." 
 
 In every audience, throughout the tour, were to 
 be found scores of persons who had read about his 
 great public service, or had read his books, or — as 
 happened many times — had served under him in 
 the Rough Riders. In one city a bucolic-looking 
 man, with long, straggling beard, and trousers in 
 boot-tops, came up after the meeting and took 
 Roosevelt's small hand in his big bony fist. "I'm 
 a-goin' to vote fer yer", he announced, with a genial 
 smile, "not only because I like yer and what yer 
 said, but, yer see, I've got a boy out on the farm 
 an' he's read everything you've written. An' he 
 sets gre't store by yer; an' I wouldn't jest dass to 
 face him if I didn't vote fer yer." 
 
 Always it was true that the nearer people came 
 to Roosevelt, or had come to him, the more they 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 193 
 
 admired him. At one large town a timid, worn, 
 little gray-haired woman crept up at the end of 
 the meeting and stood near, looking wistfully at 
 him, but not daring to speak to him. Of course, 
 seeing her, he went to her and put out his hand. 
 She took it and then piped up, in a quavering voice, 
 "I used to see you in New York, Mr. Roosevelt. 
 
 In the L H offices. I was scrubwoman 
 
 there when you were Police Commissioner." 
 Roosevelt pondered a moment; then he recalled 
 
 her. "Oh, yes, I remember, Mrs. B . I'm 
 
 so glad to see you. And how is little Jack?" The 
 proud woman replied, "Oh, he's fine. He's grown 
 up now, gets good pay, and supports his old 
 mother." Then Roosevelt turned to a friend at 
 his side and exclaimed, "Look at her, the noble 
 little mother ! I remember her well, and the faith- 
 ful work and her well-brought-up boy. That's 
 the kind of stuff our American fabric is woven 
 from." 
 
 This tour through more than twenty States 
 augmented the public favor which Roosevelt al- 
 ready possessed in a large measure. And he was 
 not unconscious of this. Perhaps a word may here 
 be interpolated as to that ambition which was 
 charged against him, at various points in his career, 
 by rivals and enemies. Was he ambitious? How 
 ambitious was he? 
 
194 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Several writers, students and critics of this great 
 American, have declared that he was extremely 
 ambitious. Others have declared that he was not. 
 The real truth about him seems to lie between the 
 two extreme statements. In his college days, after 
 his plans for studying Natural History had been 
 balked, and after he had found Blackstone and 
 Company dry and distasteful, he tried what we 
 call vulgarly "Politics." And he went into that 
 field with his heart as wholly and disinterestedly 
 devoted to correcting abuses as it was in those 
 earlier undergraduate days when he talked with 
 friends about reforms in public service. Then, 
 when he accomplished so much, almost unaided, at 
 Albany, he felt his power. Next, he tempered and 
 modified and pooled that power as he fought the 
 hard fight in the Civil Service field. Then came 
 advancement, step by step, with the people backing 
 him. And possibilities of higher and higher pub- 
 lic honor — and enhanced public responsibility — 
 brightened the horizon before him. His untarnished 
 record and his inexhaustible energy were evident 
 to others. Recall that prophecy of Baron Speck 
 von Sternberg, German attache at Washington. 
 Roosevelt and the Baron were good friends. When 
 Roosevelt was appointed Police Commissioner of 
 New York, the Baron wrote him, "I congratulate 
 you on this appointment. When I write you 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 195 
 
 again, to congratulate you, you will be one step 
 nearer the White House." When Roosevelt 
 became Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Stern- 
 berg wrote him from Pekin, "I congratulate 
 you on being one step nearer the Presidency." 
 When Roosevelt became Governor of New York, 
 the Baron telegraphed him, "The next time I offer 
 congratulations, it will be to President Roosevelt." 
 
 I cite that story, taken from William Draper 
 Lewis's very readable volume, for what it is worth. 
 It argues at least this much; Roosevelt's friends 
 anticipated a career of eminence for him. And he 
 himself certainly could not be blind to this nor 
 dull to the thrill of a normal desire to attain all, 
 in the loyal service of his beloved country, which 
 he was worthy to attain. 
 
 All normally constituted human beings have 
 ambition in a greater or less degree. Ambition 
 is simply one expression of the compelling evolu- 
 tionary process which has pushed the human race 
 up above the cave-man level. It is essentially 
 meritorious. The only debatable issue regarding 
 it, is what and how much will an ambitious man 
 sacrifice for his ambition. He can creditably 
 sacrifice time, effort, wealth, and the like to it. 
 But if he sacrifices morality, friendship, honor and 
 the like, then and then only is it reprehensible. 
 
196 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 And all the world knows how Theodore Roosevelt 
 stood, in respect to those two paths. 
 
 I sat one day with Doctor Edward Everett Hale 
 in his study in Boston. I had come to return some 
 autograph letters of Doctor Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, loaned me by Doctor Hale. Believing 
 then, as now, in the greatness of my host and friend, 
 I put the leading question, "Doctor Holmes was, of 
 course, a great man, was he not, judged by even 
 the broadest and longest world-standards?" Doc- 
 tor Hale replied casually to this banal inquiry with 
 a "Yes, oh, yes, he was." Then I asked, "And he 
 knew he was a great man, didn't he?" Doctor 
 Hale bit at once at my bait, whirled impulsively 
 around and ejaculated vigorously, "Of course he 
 knew he was a great man. Holmes wasn't a fool, I 
 can tell you that." My question about both those 
 eminent men was thus answered. And concerning 
 Theodore Roosevelt's ambition I have only this to 
 say, — that he was not a fool ; he knew himself and 
 his unfolding power; and he was ready to accept 
 any duty which the American people desired to 
 confer upon him, but anxious also was he — as, 
 doubtless, ambitious Caesar was not — tremendously 
 anxious to fulfill his duties, great and small, with 
 earnest, conscientious, patriotic industry and zeal; 
 "as in the Great Taskmaster's eve", said Milton. 
 
 The two friends and fellow campaigners, Roose- 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 197 
 
 velt and Guild, rounded out their circuit of meet- 
 ings in due time and with great success. When 
 they returned to the Republican Headquarters at 
 Washington, appreciative President McKinley 
 invited them to dinner; and in the course of the 
 interview, he thanked Roosevelt — who had been 
 the chief speaker — for his excellent work and its 
 probable results. To which Roosevelt replied in his 
 characteristic, generous way, "You can thank 
 Curtis Guild, also, Mr. President, for he worked 
 shoulder to shoulder with me, and he deserves 
 exactly as much credit as I do." 
 
 In the election which came in November, 1900, 
 the Republicans swept the whole country. And 
 Theodore Roosevelt was slated for a full term as 
 Vice-president, beginning with March 4, 1901. 
 
 Certainly, at this point in Roosevelt's career, 
 James Bryce's observation did not seem likely to 
 see fulfillment. Mr. Bryce had said in 1899, 
 "Theodore Roosevelt is the hope of American 
 Politics." And the year 1900 saw Roosevelt con- 
 signed to that cul-de-sac in American officialdom, 
 the Vice-presidency. 
 
 His term as Governor of New York ended on 
 January 1, 1901. Soon after that date he went 
 on a hunting trip in Colorado. And there, I have 
 no doubt, between perils and among hardships, he 
 
198 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 looked forward, with more reluctance than ever, 
 to the dull four years impending. 
 
 One of Roosevelt's athletic trainers said of him 
 in later years, surveying his public career, "He's 
 just like a punching-bag. You hit it and it comes 
 straight back at you. The harder you hit it, the 
 quicker it comes back." And here we note another 
 illustration of the resilient "come back" there was 
 in him, either against a foe or against an unfavor- 
 able environment. Soon after he took up his Vice- 
 presidential duties, he called upon Mr. Justice, 
 later Chief Justice White and asked his advice 
 about the propriety of his attending law lectures in 
 Washington, with a view to being admitted to the 
 bar after his term as Vice-president had ended. 
 
 Chief Justice White had a delightful sense of 
 humor, as keen as Roosevelt's; and I know that 
 he must have smiled — at least inwardly — when 
 Roosevelt, earnest, unconventional, and threatened 
 with boredom, asked his advice on this point. But 
 the Chief Justice reciprocated, in spirit if not in 
 letter; and generously offered to supply Roosevelt 
 with books and to give him a "quiz" every Saturday 
 evening. 
 
 However, the plan did not mature. The tragedy 
 element which looms behind all our lives here broke 
 through, in the lives of President McKinley, Vice- 
 president Roosevelt, and indeed the life of the 
 
A RELUCTANT VICE-PRESIDENT 199 
 
 nation as well. The bullet of the assassin Czolgosz 
 changed all, even altered the course of the world's 
 history. 
 
 I once sat in an audience at a theater where two 
 plays made up the evening's program. The cur- 
 tain rang down at the end of the first play. And 
 we sat awaiting the announced second play. But 
 unusual noise and clatter behind the scenes puzzled 
 us. After unexpected minutes of delay the curtain 
 rose, and we saw the stage set for an entirely dif- 
 ferent play from the one announced. Later we 
 learned that the illness of one of the principal 
 actors had necessitated the change and the scenes 
 had been shifted in haste and excitement. As I 
 look back upon that brief period between Sep- 
 tember sixth and September fourteenth, 1901, the 
 fancy strikes me that a similar emergency and a 
 similar transformation, though vaster in signifi- 
 cance, took place. The Vice-president was sum- 
 moned from Isle La Motte, Vermont, where he 
 had just made an address. He sped to Buffalo, 
 where his stricken chief lay helpless. The nation, 
 by bulletins, followed the thrilling events. The 
 physicians, two days later, gave most encouraging 
 reports. Roosevelt went to Mt. Marcy, in the 
 Adirondacks. Favorable reports from Buffalo 
 came to him daily. Then, on the thirteenth, came 
 the unexpected message from Secretary Cortelyou, 
 
200 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 "The President's condition has changed for the 
 worse." Roosevelt was thirty-five miles from the 
 nearest railroad station. But he secured a buck- 
 board and, with a driver as daring as himself, 
 traveled through the darkness of night, with fog 
 enveloping, over rough roads, dangerous even in 
 full daylight, traveled with speed, changed horses 
 several times, and reached the railroad at dawn. 
 There he learned from his own secretary, Mr. 
 Loeb, that the worst had come. President Mc- 
 Kinley had died. Then by train he sped across the 
 State to Buffalo. And with but little delay, by 
 the expressed desire of the Cabinet, he took the 
 oath of office as President. 
 
 Thus the scenes were shifted. Thus the stage of 
 the great drama was reset in a fashion not 
 dreamed of. 
 
 The "Power not ourselves" was "making for 
 righteousness", but in an unexpected way. The 
 various prophecies, dimly outlined by admiring 
 friends, came to pass. Theodore Roosevelt was 
 now President of the United States. 
 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU FIRST HALF 
 
 "The President is dead — may the President 
 live!" That is the American democratic transla- 
 tion of the familiar Gallic slogan. Genial, wise, 
 well-intentioned President William McKinley was 
 dead, but the high office continued in the person of 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 The office of President of the United States is, 
 presumably, the highest honor which this nation 
 offers. I figure it as a plateau. The distance 
 across it is the period of four years. Sometimes 
 the plateau is a double formation, with eight years 
 the distance ; then halfway across it stands an inn, 
 for a brief night and a relay of horses; then on 
 through the remaining four years. 
 
 To reach the various heights in the world, Alpine 
 and others, some men toil up long, steep, rocky 
 pathways; others climb comfortably up an easy 
 grade in cogged-wheel cars, and still others seem 
 to be shot suddenly, rapidly upward, to the aston- 
 ishment of everybody, including themselves. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln and many others ascended 
 
202 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 by the first and most toilsome route. General 
 Ulysses S. Grant, a military hero, a "man on horse- 
 back", was carried up rapidly, yet comfortably, 
 by the funicular of popular enthusiasm. While 
 Chester Arthur and Theodore Roosevelt were 
 hurled to the plateau's summit unexpectedly, 
 violently, as volleyed there by an explosion. 
 
 All the wiseacres who, for ten years and more, 
 had been pointing out defects in Roosevelt's na- 
 ture, now awaited eagerly the full, dark revelation 
 of rashness and inefficiency at which they had been 
 craftily hinting. And the first shock to their vanity 
 came when the new incumbent of the White House, 
 with a wisdom worthy of his great forerunner, 
 model, and ideal, Abraham Lincoln, at once sent 
 forth this message to an anxious nation: 
 
 "In this hour of deep national grief, I wish to 
 state that it is my aim to continue, absolutely un- 
 broken, the policy of William McKinley, for the 
 peace, prosperity, and honor of our beloved coun- 
 try." 
 
 The owlish wiseacres and acrid prophets of 
 gloom were aghast; and even stanch admiring 
 friends admired the more the self-restraint, the 
 sagacity of this brilliant young statesman, here 
 evincing, as always, his singular blending of diverse 
 qualities, his intellectual grasp so broad that he 
 held at unity in his breast forces, tendencies, which 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 203 
 
 commonly are mutually antagonistic and inhibitive. 
 
 Roosevelt had learned much in his post-col- 
 legiate course in worldly wisdom, but much re- 
 mained to be learned. He knew his Albany and 
 his New York, but he did not know the "Solid 
 South." Although his mother was a Georgia 
 woman, and two of his uncles had been active in 
 the Confederate Cause, he had not realized how 
 deeply the roots of racial antipathy extended into 
 the soil of the Southland. Now he was to learn 
 it, and by harsh experience. The incident which 
 illustrates this educative experience of his is not 
 given in his Autobiography. 
 
 He continued the plan in the White House 
 which he had followed effectively in his previous 
 official duties. He consulted experts. He has told 
 us that he consulted Senator Lodge, his valued 
 friend, on all kinds of questions. On questions 
 concerning Panama, Algeciras, Alaska, labor leg- 
 islation, "big business", railway matters, — on each 
 of these and many others he was accustomed to 
 confer with special, competent men. Naturally 
 then, as the Negro Problem, sectional yet national, 
 thrust itself upon his attention, he wished to confer 
 with some man of experience in this field. And 
 Booker T. Washington, a negro, Principal of the 
 Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, was 
 unquestionably the leader of his race, a man keen 
 
204 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 in mind, rich in experience, and with wide and deep 
 influence throughout both white and black races, 
 North and South. 
 
 Knowing Theodore Roosevelt as we now do, we 
 can see that he was certain in 1901, with his strong 
 sense of justice, to become a champion of equal 
 rights in the South. But he needed to know more 
 fully the situation. And he invited Booker T. 
 Washington to dine with him at the White House. 
 Doctor Washington, more sensitive than President 
 Roosevelt to the inflamed feelings of Southern men 
 and women, wrote him a letter and pointed out the 
 danger of arousing bitter animosity by such an in- 
 terview. Roosevelt, in his large, generous way, 
 was disregardful of such minor forces and insisted 
 upon the dinner. 
 
 The invitation was accepted, the two dined to- 
 gether; discreet Francis Leupp tried to keep the 
 dinner a secret, but newspaper reporters ferreted 
 it out, and the Southern Press blazed forth in fierce 
 denunciation. The President had recently ap- 
 pointed two Southern democrats to important 
 offices, thus giving evidence of an impartial attitude 
 toward the South and the Southern Democracy. 
 But this "insult to the white race" made everybody 
 south of Mason and Dixon's Line forget all 
 equitable office appointments. They seemed to be 
 quite unaware that English Victoria — that queenly 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 205 
 
 woman and womanly queen — a year before had 
 invited Doctor Washington and his wife to tea at 
 Windsor Castle. Probably, if they remembered it, 
 it caused no lessening of their rancor. 
 
 The excitement died down and quite rapidly. 
 Only two years later, in October, 1903, Roosevelt 
 received at the White House a deputation of 
 Episcopal bishops and clergymen of eminence; 
 among them were two colored clergymen. All 
 these, white and black, were received and enter- 
 tained by President and Mrs. Roosevelt, with no 
 distinction of persons. The usual afternoon tea 
 concomitants were shared by all. And no news- 
 paper raised a protest. The world had moved on 
 apace. A fickle, feverish world to be sure, in some 
 ways inconsistent and factitious in its loves and 
 hates, but it had moved, and forward. 
 
 There was an amusing "Addendum" to the 
 Booker Washington incident which is not com- 
 monly known. It has been given me by my friend, 
 Matthew Hale, who at that date was a member of 
 the family, acting as tutor for Theodore, Junior, 
 fitting him for college. I quote Mr. Hale's own 
 
 words : 
 
 "Soon after the Booker Washington affair, 
 early one morning, John Morley arrived from 
 England to visit the Roosevelt family, and was 
 brought into the dining room just as all were sitting 
 
206 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 down at table. The negro butler was standing 
 immediately behind Mr. Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt 
 was seated opposite, and the children were scat- 
 tered around the table. I was at the end of the 
 table opposite the door through which Mr. Morley 
 entered. The President introduced him to Mrs. 
 Roosevelt and to the children, and then said, 'I 
 want you to meet Matt Hale.' Morley, who 
 seemed at the moment a trifle confused, did not 
 notice me among the children at the farther end of 
 the table, but did see the negro butler and started 
 to shake hands with him, much to the confusion 
 and embarrassment of the President. It is the 
 only time I have ever been mistaken for a negro 
 butler." 
 
 The lesson of his unwise invitation to Booker 
 Washington sank deeply into Roosevelt's heart. 
 It did not alter in any degree his keen sympathy 
 with negroes, but it made him more cautious and 
 discreet in his support of them. 
 
 This change in his attitude is shown by his treat- 
 ment of a post office at Indianola, Mississippi, in 
 1902. A colored woman was postmistress, and 
 was efficient. A wave of race hatred sprang up in 
 that region, and a mob of white men drove the 
 postmistress from the town. This was technically 
 a defiance of Federal authority and might have 
 been punished severely. Roosevelt did nothing of 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 207 
 
 this sort. As in many other difficult situations, he 
 showed originality and resourcefulness, and he 
 simply closed the post office, thus compelling the 
 citizens of Indianola to travel five miles for their 
 mail. 
 
 This episode of Booker Washington's dining at 
 the White House, although picturesque, was not 
 so vital and immediately fruitful as were many 
 other details of my classmate's career, yet to be 
 cited. Still, it came to him with a shock, at the 
 very threshold of his Presidential term. And it 
 appeals to me peculiarly, because I knew Booker 
 T. Washington intimately during thirty years. I 
 rendered him and his people some little measure 
 of service, including aid in three ten-day tours 
 through the South, when I acted as unpaid pub- 
 licity agent for Northern newspapers. I know, 
 therefore, somewhat about the difficulties on both 
 sides of the troublous, complex "Negro Problem." 
 And I wish to point out, apropos of the "dinner 
 episode", that my classmate, roused to the exigen- 
 cies of the problem — then new to him — went at 
 once to the heart of the matter. For, in a letter 
 written in November, 1901, he included this state- 
 ment: 
 
 "The only wise, honorable and Christian thing 
 to do is to treat each white man and each black man 
 strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more 
 
208 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 and no less than he shows himself worthy to have." 
 That is a deep, illuminating statement. It is 
 adequate and fundamental. It holds as true 
 to-day as when Roosevelt wrote it. And it is 
 gradually taking precedence, North and South, of 
 those vacuous, sterile generalizations about "the 
 Black Race" and "the White Race", which seem 
 ultimate and definitive to shallow minds, yet take 
 us nowhere and shed no light on a difficult national 
 problem, yearly growing more exacting and in- 
 volved. 
 
 From my intimacy with Doctor Washington, I 
 know how close and sympathetic was my class- 
 mate's relation to that great leader throughout 
 both their lives. When Roosevelt took the Presi- 
 dency — and perhaps at that ill-fated dinner in the 
 White House — he said to Doctor Washington: 
 "Whatever I can do to help your people on their 
 upward path, that I will do. Feel entirely free 
 to consult me at any time." And they did confer 
 together, I know. Once, as I sat at table with 
 Doctor Washington in his pleasant home at Tuske- 
 gee, I remarked, "As I came down on the train 
 from the North, I read a report of a speech of 
 Roosevelt's at the Union League Club, in New 
 York City. I wish I had brought along a copy 
 of the paper. You would have been interested in 
 his speech. He touched upon the 'Negro Prob- 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 209 
 
 lem', and, as it seemed to me, wisely, sympathet- 
 ically." 
 
 Doctor Washington looked at me with a smile, 
 then replied in his quiet way, "I went over that 
 speech — the part touching the interests of my peo- 
 ple — with the President in New York last week." 
 Evidently Roosevelt had consulted "original 
 sources" before putting forth his views. 
 
 This problem of the negro race in the United 
 States was comparatively new to the busy occupant 
 of the White House, but he had quickly reached 
 the just and sympathetic position, and his action 
 ever afterward was taken from this viewpoint. 
 
 The problems of "Labor and Capital", com- 
 monly and obscurely so called, were not new to 
 him. He had faced them in the Assembly Hall 
 at Albany and many times afterward. He was 
 too keen a thinker to be satisfied with the old 
 academic adage that "The interests of labor and 
 capital were identical." They are not. They have 
 the one end and aim in common which the employ- 
 ers and employed of a factory have, that they shall 
 continue operating and making money. But they 
 diverge at once when the question arises as to how 
 the profits shall be distributed among shareholders, 
 managers, running expenses, and hand workers. 
 Labor and capital both desire profits in any given 
 enterprise. But they differ and are ceaselessly con- 
 
210 ROOSEVELT: THE HAITY WARRIOR 
 
 tending with each other as to the equable division 
 of these profits. 
 
 This rivalry is back of strikes and revisions and 
 arbitration conferences. And for many years 
 labor and capital, watching Roosevelt's rulings, 
 could not satisfy themselves as to how his sympa- 
 thies ran. In truth he allowed no sympathies and 
 predilections to govern his decisions. He fought 
 down the impulsive nature with which he was born, 
 and he learned to maintain a wonderful impartial- 
 ity in the face of insistent divergent appeals. The 
 story is told of a labor leader who had been invited 
 to dine at the White House. Seated at the table 
 he remarked expansively, "I'm glad that the doors 
 of the White House can swing open to a labor 
 union man." Instantly Roosevelt made reply, 
 "Yes, but they can swing open just as easily to 
 the capitalist." 
 
 Thus he maintained his intellectual and moral 
 poise. His one aim in all cases, was — putting it in 
 trite, homely phrase — to do what was right. And 
 his elemental sincerity and honesty puzzled the 
 worldlings of the legislatures and the counting- 
 houses for many years. 
 
 His official duties ranged from high to low and 
 from great to small. One of the most serious 
 questions which arose during his seven and a half 
 years in the Presidency was that of the Pennsyl- 
 
COPYRIGHT 1908, BY FREDERIC BULKELEYHYDE 
 
 KOOSEYET.T TX THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 211 
 
 vania coal strike. In a letter to Senator Lodge, 
 after the strike had been settled, he wrote, "We 
 are coming out of a situation as dangerous as any 
 I ever dealt with." 
 
 I had the great pleasure of hearing him describe 
 in detail this complicated experience, at one of our 
 class dinners, only a few months after it happened. 
 After the dinner was over, in place of the usual 
 short speeches, Roosevelt was given the entire time 
 and was asked to tell us whatever was on his mind 
 and nearest the top in his memory, or what would 
 be good for us to hear. So, after a few general 
 remarks, he started upon the Pennsylvania coal 
 strike. And his earnest, unreserved words made a 
 deep impression upon us all. 
 
 First remarking that of course all that he said 
 was to be regarded as confidential, he went rapidly 
 through that eventful story, telling it with vivacity 
 and even gaiety, his humorous vein coming to the 
 surface again and again. 
 
 The miners struck, throughout all the anthracite 
 tracts of the State, early in the spring of 1902. 
 The usual strained relations between miners and 
 owners or operators ensued. Little violence oc- 
 curred while the warm weather lasted. But, as 
 winter came on, alarm increased throughout the 
 entire Atlantic seaboard. The need of coal was 
 pressing, and still operators and miners would 
 
212 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 make no concessions to each other. The Mayor 
 of Boston, the Governor of New York, and other 
 leaders wrote to Roosevelt, setting forth the disas- 
 ter that impended, with this deadlock maintained 
 in the great coal State. 
 
 Nothing in the Constitution provided for the 
 duty of the President in such an emergency. But 
 Roosevelt took the position that if the governor 
 or the legislature of Pennsylvania appealed to 
 him, he could send Federal troops into the State, 
 to keep order. But no such request came, the 
 deadlock did not loosen, and lawlessness and vio- 
 lence increased. A commission, a board of arbi- 
 tration, seemed to be the only possible hope, and 
 the President urged that. John Mitchell, labor 
 leader, agreed to it, but stipulated that the Presi- 
 dent should name the members of that board, — a 
 marked tribute to the high esteem in which Roose- 
 velt was held by the miners. 
 
 The two points in my classmate's graphic nar- 
 rative which most impressed me were his angry 
 protest against the unyielding arrogance of the 
 operators as negotiations for the conference went 
 on, and his naive joy at his discovery of the solu- 
 tion of the problem. The delegation from the 
 owners, or operators, were insolent, no less, and 
 offensive in their attitude to both labor leaders and 
 the President. For a time no agreement was 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 213 
 
 reached. Several meetings were held, but no ad- 
 vance was made. At length, however, the opera- 
 tors, rejecting all suggestions from the miners, 
 suggested that the President name a commission 
 of five men. And they specified the qualifications 
 of those men. They would listen to no suggestion 
 of Roosevelt's that ex-President Grover Cleveland 
 should serve on that commission. They demanded 
 that the board should be made up of "One officer 
 of the Engineer Corps of the Army or Navy, one 
 man of experience in mining, one man of promi- 
 nence in sociology, one Federal judge, and one 
 
 mining engineer." 
 
 This was holding a very tight rein over the labor 
 unions, who insisted that some distinctly "labor 
 man" should be on that board. There the matter 
 hung. For a short time only. Then, suddenly it 
 dawned upon Roosevelt's mind that those obstinate 
 operators were holding back from a mere word. 
 He saw that they did not much mind whom he 
 named provided only that the man was not tech- 
 nically a "labor man." I recall the characteristic 
 smile on my classmate's face as he reached this 
 point. "I suddenly discovered," said he, "that they 
 would accept any man I might name if he could 
 be squeezed in under one or another of the classes 
 they had specified. Without further delay I 
 named the man whom I had all along held in mind, 
 
214 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 a first-class man, Mr. E. E. Clark. He was the 
 'Head of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors.' 
 But I called him 'an eminent sociologist' — a term 
 which probably was quite new to him." 
 
 This was the beginning of the end of the porten- 
 tous Anthracite Coal Strike in 1902. Adjustments 
 were made and a disastrous coal famine was 
 averted. 
 
 I am convinced that in the strenuous career of 
 Roosevelt, as in that of Lincoln, his exceptional 
 humor-sense was a great corrective and alleviation 
 of disappointments and anxieties. I myself had 
 listened to his witty setting forth of the details of 
 the coal strike, so serious in their present reality, 
 yet so amusing in their recalling. A letter to "Mr. 
 Dooley" a few days after the strike's settlement 
 exhibited the fully play of his humor. Friends 
 have told me that when "Mr. Dooley" began to 
 "write up" Roosevelt, the President was somewhat 
 concerned about that witty journalistic pen. And 
 he managed to get into close friendly touch with 
 Mr. Dunne and afterward took chances as to what 
 humorous thrusts might be made by him. In the 
 letter to Mr. Dunne at this time, Roosevelt wrote, 
 "I have not had the heart to write you until this 
 coal strike was out of the way. Now I feel like 
 throwing up my hands and going to the circus. 
 Perhaps I'll try a turkey shoot or a bear hunt in- 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 215 
 
 stead. Nothing that you have ever written can 
 surpass, in screaming comedy, the last few confer- 
 ences of that Commission." 
 
 There is really a further chapter in that coal- 
 strike drama, unwritten and merely potential. As 
 I listened to Roosevelt, at that class reunion, noting 
 his indomitable spirit, I asked myself what he 
 would have done had his intercessory offices failed. 
 I knew that he was not a man to sit idle, bound 
 by the red tape of rule and precedent, if worst came 
 to worst in disorderly, anarchic Pennsylvania. 
 And he has told us what more he held in reserve; 
 unknown to most of the parties and factions in- 
 volved in the peaceful settlement of the strike by 
 commission, Roosevelt had a secret understanding 
 with Senator Quay, a leader in Pennsylvania 
 affairs, and was prepared, if the need came, to send 
 Federal troops under General Schofleld, at a half 
 hour's notice, declare martial law in the mining 
 regions, and compel peace by force of arms. 
 
 The harmonious relations between Matthew 
 Quay and Theodore Roosevelt, as intimated by 
 this incident, were singular .and surprising, yet real 
 and revelatory. They were certainly very widely 
 different types of men. Yet there was a strain of 
 nobility common to them which helped to unite 
 them. Roosevelt says in his Autobiography that 
 soon after he became President, Senator Quay 
 
216 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 called upon him, and with characteristic frankness 
 said, "Most men who claim to be reformers are 
 hypocrites. But I believe that you are sincere. 
 And I will support you in your administration to 
 the best of my ability." "This he did," Roosevelt 
 adds. There was always a tacit respect and ad- 
 miration between those two fighters. And one of 
 my classmates has told me — a slight addition to 
 what Roosevelt has modestly written in his Auto- 
 biography — that when Roosevelt went to call upon 
 Quay, Quay then being near his end and having 
 sent for Roosevelt, the veteran politician of Penn- 
 sylvania among other things said, "I have asked 
 you to come and see me that I might again tell 
 you, as I once before told you, how much I respect 
 
 you." 
 
 Recalling this account of the coal strike as given 
 us in detail by Roosevelt at our class dinner, I am 
 reminded of other incidents of that dinner. I was 
 standing near Roosevelt just before we sat down 
 to dinner, and one of the members of our class came 
 up to him and in a modest, hesitating way, asked, 
 "Well, Roosevelt, what shall we call you now?" 
 My eminent classmate, friendly and smiling, pre- 
 tended not to understand the man's question, and 
 replied, "Call me — why, what do you mean?" And 
 the man explained. "Why — of course you are 
 President of the United States now; and what 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 217 
 
 ought we to call you?" Roosevelt's reply was 
 prompt and hearty: "Why, call me just what you 
 always called me. If you used to call me 'Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt,' you can call me that now. But 
 if you used to call me 'Roosevelt,' call me 'Roose- 
 velt' now." 
 
 And I recall that as Roosevelt ended his long 
 narration of official struggles and perplexities, 
 that night at our class dinner, it suddenly occurred 
 to him that we might feel that he had simply been 
 unloading upon us a long, doleful tale of woe. 
 And his face lighted up more than ever and he 
 exclaimed joyously, "But I don't want you fellows 
 to think I'm sick of my job. I'm not. I like it. 
 Yes, and I think I'm equal to it." 
 
 That last sentence was a characteristic burst of 
 confidence. He knew that he was indeed equal to 
 it. And he said so, with the same boyish frankness 
 with which he would have confessed failure, if 
 failure it had been. He was quite unspoiled by his 
 honors. To be sure, in any colloquy, at the White 
 House or elsewhere, he was apt to take the lead. 
 But why not? It belonged to him. Doctor Alex- 
 ander Lambert, speaking to me on this point, said, 
 "At dinner parties, at the White House or at 
 Oyster Bay, he did most of the talking. But his 
 guests expected him to do it. They went there 
 to hear him, to get as much of him as they could. 
 
218 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 And, apropos of his unspoiled nature, even after 
 he had returned from his trip to Africa and had 
 been feasted and feted in all the European capitals, 
 he remained the same impulsive, outspoken Roose- 
 velt as of old." Doctor Lambert took him and a 
 few friends, directly after Roosevelt's return, to a 
 camp in Maine for a few days. And there Roose- 
 velt bore his share of the usual camp duties, chat- 
 ting and laughing through it all, and always 
 solicitous for the comfort of the other members of 
 the party. 
 
 Through the observation of his official routine 
 work and his definite reforms, a deep, broad con- 
 fidence in their President was growing up in the 
 hearts of the people of the country. They were 
 more and more confident of two of his qualities. 
 First, that he desired supremely, in an old-fash- 
 ioned, ingenuous way, to do what was right, and 
 to do it because it was right. And second, not 
 only the people of the United States, but the 
 nations of the world saw that he kept his word, 
 that he did what he said he would do. This con- 
 viction of his intensity and tenacity of purpose 
 was what caused the German Ambassador Hol- 
 leben to bestir himself, in 1902, when Venezuelan 
 affairs were disturbing Great Britain and Ger- 
 many and, incidentally, the United States and its 
 Monroe Doctrine. Roosevelt told the German 
 
j 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 219 
 
 ambassador that unless Germany consented to arbi- 
 trate regarding Venezuela, the American squadron, 
 fiftv vessels, then mobilized at Porto Rico under 
 Admiral Dewey, would go to the Venezuelan coast 
 and check German aggressions there. Holleben 
 haggled over the matter. He thought that Roose- 
 velt was merely bluffing. He did not know him. 
 A week of idle talk ensued. Then Holleben called 
 on the President upon an entirely different 
 matter and did not mention Venezuela. Roosevelt 
 reminded him of it and asked if he had taken any 
 steps toward arbitration. Holleben replied that 
 he had not. "Then," the President rejoined 
 sharply, "I shall send Dewey and his ships a day 
 sooner than I had planned." 
 
 That brought the elusive German official to his 
 senses. For he knew that if Roosevelt said he 
 would strike, he would certainly do so. And a 
 message came from Germany within thirty-six 
 hours, agreeing to the arbitration. 
 
 I myself saw, at close quarters, another illus- 
 tration of the established reputation of President 
 Roosevelt as a man of his word. I was at Tangier 
 soon after the Perdicaris-Raisuli affair. Raisuli, 
 a Moroccan bandit, abducted the American, 
 Perdicaris, from Tangier, carried him back into 
 the wild interior, and from there negotiated for 
 an enormous ransom. The Moor had known 
 
220 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Perdicaris in a friendly way, and now gave him 
 considerate treatment, but held him close and 
 awaited a ransom. Negotiations began and con- 
 tinued. The government of picturesque, half- 
 savage Tangier was shared among representatives 
 of several European governments. They now 
 made a show of threatening Raisuli, but he was 
 unyielding. He held his valuable captive for sev- 
 eral weeks. 
 
 Then the matter, the outrage, came to Roose- 
 velt's attention. He promptly sent word to Tangier 
 that if Mr. Perdicaris was not set free within forty- 
 eight hours, an American warship would shell the 
 town. That brought life into the somnolent ne- 
 gotiations. And, somehow, the "impossible" was 
 accomplished. At once Raisuli was led speedily to 
 surrender his captive friend, and Tangier breathed 
 more freely. I met Mr. and Mrs. Perdicaris. 
 And, further, I heard the comments of the people, 
 Levantines, Moors, and others, in the market place. 
 Said one, with staring eyes, "That Roosevelt say 
 he do — and he do." Another exclaimed, "What 
 President ! What President ! He always do — 
 what he talk." 
 
 Gradually the world was learning that President 
 Roosevelt really loved what was right and true 
 and was earnestly trying to act in accord with his 
 ideals. This elemental ethical fact American poli- 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 221 
 
 ticians were almost slower to learn than were the 
 high officials of foreign lands. The usual hordes 
 of office-seekers and place-hunters besieged the 
 White House. Miss Ellen Hale, daughter of the 
 late Edward Everett Hale, told me a tale which 
 lays bare selfishness and the blighted hopes of 
 certain of these gentry. Miss Hale, an artist, 
 greatly desired to make a drawing of President 
 Roosevelt. But he told her that he could not pos- 
 sibly spare time for the sittings. "Nevertheless," 
 added he, "if you care to set up your easel in my 
 office in the White House, and try to do your work 
 while I am doing mine, I would be most willing to 
 give you that privilege." 
 
 So Miss Hale set up her easel in one corner, and 
 started upon her task. And this was the point of 
 the story, as she told it to me. "Men came and 
 went," she said. "I was free to listen or not. 
 Often this situation came about. A man would 
 come in and greet the President; then — 'I would 
 
 be glad, Mr. President, if you could ' Here, 
 
 perhaps, he discovered poor little me over in the 
 corner, painting away for dear life. And his tone 
 altered at once. In a lowered tone he went on, 
 'But this is a private matter, Mr. President. Quite 
 confidential between us, I assure you.' And his 
 distrustful glance was directed toward my corner. 
 
 "Then, what fun it was — and the incident was 
 
222 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 oft-repeated — to see Mr. Roosevelt's peculiar and 
 mischievous smile, as he reassured the man, 'My 
 dear Mr. Smith, you can go right ahead. You can 
 say anything to me here which you could say any- 
 where.' 
 
 "Sometimes the uneasy man went on and stated 
 his wishes. But often his face clouded and he 
 strode out abruptly, and with manifest wrath." 
 
 When Roosevelt became Vice-president, Doctor 
 John M. Schick, pastor of Grace Reformed 
 Church, Washington, D. C, wrote him, inviting 
 him to attend services in Grace Church. Roosevelt 
 accepted the invitation, and, during his terms as 
 Vice-president and President, while in Washing- 
 ton was very regularly in his place at the morning 
 service. When he could not come, his rule was to 
 send a note to Doctor Schick, expressing his regret. 
 
 Roosevelt invariably walked to and from church. 
 Members of his family and White House visitors 
 were often with him. He came into the sanctuary 
 a minute before service began, with such prompt- 
 ness that it was a common saying in the neighbor- 
 hood that people could set their watches by the 
 minute of his entrance into the church. 
 
 In the early period of his attendance, he was 
 once late, due to the incorrectness of the White 
 House clock. He was much embarrassed, profuse 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 223 
 
 in his apologies to the church usher, and promised 
 "it will never happen again." It never did. 
 
 He was a devout worshiper, participating in the 
 service and most heartily in the singing. He was 
 a keen listener and often took notes of things said 
 and announced. Whenever there was a call to aid 
 the poor, he responded next day with a generous 
 check. He regularly participated in the quarterly 
 celebration of the Holy Communion. 
 
 Doctor Schick was a straightforward, sterling 
 character, and Roosevelt was very fond of him, — 
 always met him and had time for him when he 
 called, however pressing the duties of the presiden- 
 tial office. Roosevelt participated in a number of 
 special services at Grace Church, and gave the 
 congregation a fine portrait of himself, painted 
 just before he became Vice-president. 
 
 As we look back now, over the completed life 
 work of Theodore Roosevelt, our opinions might 
 differ as to what was the greatest contribution of 
 his career to the world. But he himself, looking 
 backward from the year 1920, reviewing his own 
 efforts and weighing his many reforms, fixed upon 
 the Panama Canal as his most noteworthy achieve- 
 ment, and so stated in his Autobiography. 
 
 After his term of office at the White House was 
 ended, I read in several newspapers, which had 
 been extreme in their opposition to him, that "The 
 
224 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 most important contribution he has made to the 
 well-beino- of the country has been his raising the 
 moral standards of the youth of the land." What 
 he would have said on that point I do not know. 
 Certainly he had thought of such a matter, though 
 briefly, for he thought of most sides of most mat- 
 ters, and always with acumen. But more interest- 
 ing to him, because more definite and more fought 
 for, was the great waterway between the two 
 Americas, vainly dreamed of for centuries and by 
 him created. 
 
 My own interest in the Canal had been sketchy 
 indeed, but real. In 1881 I met the then aged 
 Count De Lesseps in Paris, and I looked at his 
 huge frame and blond, benign countenance with 
 memories in my mind of the Suez Canal which had 
 brought him, its projector, deserved renown. At 
 that very time he was planning to cut a waterway 
 across the Isthmus of Panama. But the Suez Canal, 
 with its level territory and sandy soil, was mere 
 play compared with the projected cut across that 
 almost impossible Central American isthmus. 
 
 So the millions of francs poured by France into 
 the Isthmian scheme were swallowed up, the work 
 slackened, difficulties overwhelmed, and the canal 
 was pushed only a few miles on its way across the 
 obdurate country. I was reminded of De Lesseps 
 and his failure a few years later, when in Palestine. 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 225 
 
 As we sought to travel from Jaffa up to Jerusalem, 
 we were shown into a train of tiny cars, driven by 
 a dwarf-like locomotive, on a narrow-gauge track. 
 And when I inquired about this singular train, I 
 was told that it had been sent from the Panama 
 Canal region. Several of these cars and engines 
 seemed the sole remnants of that unhappy Gallic 
 enterprise. 
 
 The Panama Canal project, as taken up by 
 President Roosevelt and pushed to a successful 
 end, dragged its serpentine length through several 
 years of Roosevelt's administration and beyond it. 
 Also we may say that it had roots, antecedents, a 
 history running back, at least in fancy, to Balboa's 
 day. Treaties and revolutions had succeeded one 
 another, and if Roosevelt had not been the genius 
 of energy that he was, treaties would still be pend- 
 ing in Washington and revolutions would still be 
 existent and tyrannous in Colombia. There was 
 the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, and the Hay- 
 Pauncefote Treaty, and the Hay-Herran Treaty 
 and sundry other little tentative inquiries and un- 
 derstandings and questionings, stretching down 
 over the decades like vines over a trellis. There 
 was a steadily increasing conviction, evident among 
 all the leading governments of the world, that some 
 kind of canal could and should be constructed. 
 
226 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 But there the matter hung, jealously watched by 
 several interested nations. 
 
 Then Roosevelt, very soon after the untimely 
 death of President McKinley, put into action ideas 
 which had been germinating in his mind for several 
 years past. In a characteristic address which he 
 made in 1911, at the University of California, he 
 gave a summary of his action, which was as clear 
 and humorous as Lincoln's communications often 
 
 were. He said: 
 
 "I am interested in the Panama Canal because 
 I started it. If I had followed traditional, con- 
 servative methods, I should have submitted a 
 dignified state paper of probably two hundred 
 pages to Congress, and the debate would probably 
 be going on now. But I took the Canal Zone and 
 let Congress debate. And while the debate goes 
 on, the Canal goes on also." 
 
 That was Roosevelt's way. He preferred, 
 always, to move in harmony with established laws 
 and precedents. But when these merely impeded 
 him, when they were even thrown across the path 
 of his plans by his enemies, like logs across a railroad 
 track, he simply removed them and went ahead. 
 As we look back at the childish, refractory conduct 
 of elementary Colombia and its feather-brained 
 revolutionists, we can face the problem in its large 
 world-outlines. The industrial, commercial world 
 
THE PRESIDENTIAL PLATEAU 227 
 
 needed a canal cut through the isthmus. And all 
 plans were being juggled and the world's needs 
 were being disregarded by the unscrupulous, half- 
 civilized demagogues of that Central American 
 country. It was, as happened before in Roosevelt's 
 career, a Gordian knot. And he cut it. I believe 
 that his action was entirely justifiable in the Court 
 of Equity. 
 
 In his Autobiography he takes pains to say 
 pleasant, approving things about certain superior 
 social types and groups in Colombia; but in con- 
 versation, even in after-dinner speaking, he said 
 — at least on one occasion — things which were not 
 so complimentary. When I was at Trinidad, West 
 Indies, in 1920, friends there told me about Roose- 
 velt's brief visit to the island and about a formal 
 dinner given him. In his address after the dinner, 
 he spoke of local affairs and mentioned their neigh- 
 bor, Colombia, saying casually that the Colombians 
 were of light weight, scarcely capable of self- 
 government. But the Colombian consul happened, 
 alas, to be among the guests ; and naturally he re- 
 sented any such opinion. He even sent to Mr. 
 Roosevelt a challenge to mortal combat. But the 
 veteran of San Juan gave no attention to it and 
 departed, as he had planned, on the early morning 
 
 steamer. 
 
 Any one who knew Roosevelt's fine courtesy 
 
228 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 knew that his words at that dinner were uttered 
 without the slightest suspicion of the consul's being 
 present. But the speech must have made many of 
 the guests extremely uneasy. 
 
 So the work on the canal went forward steadily, 
 although amid very grave obstacles in that mos- 
 quito-ridden, fever-smitten tropical region. The 
 President always gave most hearty praise to the 
 skill and patience of Colonel Goethals, the efficient 
 engineer and director of the work. And when 
 Congress insisted upon putting the direction of 
 the work under a commission, Roosevelt, who felt 
 that he ought to make some show of compliance 
 with their stupid demand, appointed Colonel 
 Goethals chairman of that body and gave him such 
 full power that he remained practically the con- 
 trolling spirit. 
 
 Thus through days of work, and controversy, 
 and self-control, and high devotion, Roosevelt went 
 forward across the lofty plateau of the Presidency. 
 Puzzling thickets there were on that broad expanse, 
 and many barriers and unexpected gullies. But 
 joyously tire untiring traveler went on his way, 
 the wonder, the hope, the trust of the people. In 
 the midst of the plateau, halfway across the broad 
 plain, came the pause, the inn, the semblance of 
 brief respite. Then forward, across the beckoning 
 expanse, which men called his Second Term. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ELECTED PRESIDENT 
 
 Who is the Happy Warrior? 
 
 'Tis he whose law is reason, who depends 
 Upon that law as on the best of friends; 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 He labors good on good to fix, and owes 
 To virtue every triumph that he knows: 
 . . . Who, if he rise to station of command, 
 Rises by open means ; and there will stand 
 On honorable terms, or else retire, 
 And in himself possess his own desire; 
 Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
 Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim." 
 
 It may seem a self-contradictory question to 
 ask — "Can anything be higher than the highest?" 
 But, in Roosevelt's case, at this point in his career, 
 the question might be answered forcefully in the 
 affirmative. "There can be a higher than the 
 highest." He had been President, to all intents 
 and purposes, for more than three years. He had 
 borne all the presidential responsibilities and exer- 
 cised all the presidential prerogatives. But his 
 position and power had come as an accident. Xone 
 knew this better than himself. 
 
 His wise, firm administration through the three 
 
230 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 years had added to his prestige. And now, as the 
 presidential election of 1904 drew near, there was 
 hardly a question in the mind of any intelligent 
 citizen as to his continuance — now by election — 
 in the presidential office. He himself was perfectly 
 well aware that he had met the wishes of a very 
 large majority of the voters of the country. Yet 
 his experience had taught him, as experience had 
 taught sadly many of us, that the people as a whole 
 might desire a man for President and yet not get 
 him, because that man was not acceptable to the 
 party managers, — sometimes called "The Old 
 Guard", or again, "The Gang." 
 
 Roosevelt said openly, frankly, with that in- 
 genuous, childlike quality in him, that he "would 
 be glad to be elected, really elected, this time, to 
 the high presidential office, in his own right, be- 
 cause he had served his country well." Indeed he 
 had, and incidentally he had enjoyed the work 
 immensely. Several times, in public as in private, 
 he had declared — ■ protecting his idealism with a 
 plain garment of homespun humor — that he "liked 
 his job." 
 
 "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" did 
 not apply to this man. His love of action was so 
 great that the gratification of that love offset all 
 accompanying cares and anxieties and pangs of 
 failures. He felt the cares and disappointments 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 231 
 
 keenly, but his resilient nature threw them off : he 
 reacted immediately against them, and with that 
 reaction came instantly a state of joy. In fact, 
 following this lead, I venture to repeat that he 
 did not much enjoy — as do most normal persons 
 — the theater, the lecture, the concert, the opera, 
 and the picture gallery. The reason for it is this, as 
 I interpret his nature. The pleasure from all these 
 high arts is a pleasure that assumes passivity in the 
 listener or observer. And Roosevelt .got but little 
 joy from passive mental states. Further, in the 
 case of the theater, I think that its simulations, 
 artistic though they might be, were distrusted by 
 him. He was fiercely eager for what is genuine, 
 without any pretence. And he could not, or would 
 not, enough subordinate this craving for reality 
 and sincerity to allow him to enjoy the simulations 
 
 of the stage. 
 
 In the revealing Trevelyan letters, Roose- 
 velt's unofficial personal life is laid before us with 
 unreserve. It is the inner man, the reader, scholar, 
 observer of life, that is shown us. And, in a letter 
 written in Africa in 1909, he frees his mind about 
 Carlyle in a way which greatly pleases me. Un- 
 reality, whether in a stage drama or on a page of 
 history or biography, is equally abhorrent to him. 
 He says, writing intimately, "The more I read 
 Carlyle the more I feel contempt for his shrieking 
 
232 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 deification of shams. I can't stand his hypocrisy, 
 his everlasting praise of veracity joined with Ais 
 mendacity in giving a false color to history and a 
 false twist to ethics. With sanctimonious piety 
 he condemns as wrong-doing in the French that 
 which he imputes to Frederick the Great for 
 righteousness. With Carlyle morality is used as 
 a synonym for ruthless efficiency." 
 
 Directly following a full, long page of this kind 
 of fierce indictment comes, like a commonplace 
 cold compress on one's heated brow, the lines, "The 
 porters are just bringing into camp the skin and 
 tusks of a bull elephant which I killed, three days 
 ago; and Kermit got another, yesterday. Between 
 us, we have killed seventeen lions." 
 
 Two points about that letter. First, the rapidity 
 with which very diverse moods followed one an- 
 other in Roosevelt's mobile mind, and, second, it 
 occurs to me that in denouncing Carlyle's insin- 
 cerity he is condemning a man who almost 
 worshiped the Roosevelt type of man. And I 
 wonder what the Sage of Chelsea — to me largely 
 a brilliant poseur — would have said and written 
 about Theodore Roosevelt, a phenomenon of 
 initiative, self-reliance, and power, had he lived 
 after Roosevelt, instead of before him. 
 
 Roosevelt "liked his job." He was indeed, as 
 Acting President, "The Happy Warrior." He 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 233 
 
 hoped to continue his battling for right and justice 
 and progress through another four years. The 
 lofty plateau of national official honors and duties 
 already had been half-crossed by him and the re- 
 maining half now beckoned. It was "the call of 
 the Presidency" to him, attractive and rich in 
 promise of high, brave service. 
 
 For his reelection — or, better, his real election 
 — Roosevelt trusted to "the plain people." He had 
 a graphic cartoon fastened on one of the walls of 
 the White House during several months. It was 
 the picture of a plain, bucolic, shrewd-looking in- 
 dividual seated, in shirt sleeves and stocking feet, 
 before the fireplace, reading his daily newspaper. 
 "That is the man," Roosevelt frequently explained, 
 "who is my hope. If I can meet that old fellow's 
 ideas of right and justice I shall be satisfied. For 
 he is The American People." 
 
 Roosevelt, through skillful use of the newspaper 
 reporters and by square dealing with them — at 
 Washington as in New York — had got his real 
 aims and purposes, uncorrupted, undistorted by 
 the bosses of Labor and Capital, to the ear, eye, 
 and will of "the plain people." There was his 
 strength and his hope. He had distrust concern- 
 ing Mark Hanna, who had been practically the 
 "power behind the throne" throughout gentle, 
 peace-loving McKinley's administration. And 
 
234 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Mark Hanna, sounding Roosevelt, sent him a sig- 
 nificant telegram in 1903, in which he hinted at 
 the advisability of Roosevelt's "keeping in" with 
 him as the probable arbiter of the young candi- 
 date's future fate and fortune. 
 
 To this subtle communication Roosevelt replied 
 scornfully, "I have had nothing to do with the state 
 issue which you refer to, and I have asked no man 
 for his vote." So he "played his hand alone", 
 trusting to the intelligence and probity of the 
 bucolic gentleman reading his newspaper by the 
 open fire. 
 
 Roosevelt's straightforward letter at this time 
 to a straightforward man, Baron d'Estournelles de 
 Constant, of France, — for I knew him, and he was 
 that — sets this forth so simply and effectively that 
 I quote a few passages of it. 
 
 "Of course I would like to be reelected Presi- 
 dent. ... so far as I can I shall give heed to 
 considerations of political expediency; I would be 
 unfit for the position or for any leadership if I did 
 not do this. But when questions of deep principles 
 arise, real expediency is to be found in unflinching 
 adherence to those principles, no matter what the 
 temporary effect. When matters of elementary 
 justice arise there can be no compromise. Murder 
 is murder and theft is theft, and there can be no 
 halfway measures in dealing with criminality. 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 235 
 
 There are good men and bad men under all creeds, 
 colors, and nationalities. If this world is to im- 
 prove, it must be by the recognition that a man's 
 heart and soul, his worth and action, determine 
 his standing. ... I would rather lose the Presi- 
 dency than gain it by failing in any way to put a 
 stop, so far as I am able, to lynching and brutality 
 and wrong of all kinds." 
 
 He goes on, in this same letter, to speak of his 
 pressing problems regarding Labor and Capital. 
 But he puts the same ideas more simply in a letter 
 to his old-time friend, Bill Sewall. 
 
 "I am a little melancholy because it is so hard 
 to persuade different kinds of people to accept 
 equal justice for all. I believe in rich people who 
 act squarely and in labor unions which are man- 
 aged with wisdom and justice. But when either 
 employer or employee, capitalist or laboring man 
 goes wrong, I have to cinch him. And that is all 
 there is to it." 
 
 In truth he felt that with Capital on the one side 
 and Labor on the other, both threatening him, he 
 was as one between the upper and nether mill- 
 stones. Yet any "melancholy" which he felt was 
 but momentary and did not undermine his habitual 
 confidence in right and the conscience and intelli- 
 gence of the American people. 
 
 John Hay, in his diary, records an incident that 
 
236 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 occurred at this time, which is sweet and distinctly 
 revealing as to Roosevelt's real sincerity with 
 himself. Hay happened to come upon him as he 
 was reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem, 
 "Days." And Roosevelt read aloud the last line, 
 — ■ "I, too late, under her solemn fillet saw the 
 scorn." Said Hay, his close friend, "I fancy you 
 do not know what that means?" And the Presi- 
 dent exclaimed quickly, "Oh, but I do. Perhaps 
 the 'greatest men do not; but I, in my soul, know 
 I am but the average man, and that only marvelous 
 good fortune has brought me where I am." 
 
 To me a touching scene, that: a soul-searching, 
 sincere confessional, as between two trusting 
 friends. Theodore Roosevelt meant what he said. 
 I have heard the same declaration from his in- 
 genuous lips. Nevertheless, he was more, much 
 more than an average man; he was a great man, 
 and his very simplicity was one of the marks of his 
 greatness. 
 
 The presidential election was held on November 
 8, 1904, and Roosevelt's overwhelming majority 
 was about two millions and a half out of a total of 
 thirteen and a half million votes cast. The people 
 approved him and desired more of him. 
 
 The inauguration took place on March 4, 1905, 
 and Washington was a brilliant and happy city on 
 that day. The usual formalities were observed, and 
 
SAGAMORE HILL. 
 
 y^c ***/ /?fc 
 
 LETTER FROM ROOSEVELT TO THE AUTHOR. 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 237 
 
 in addition sundry exceptional details may be here 
 mentioned. One is that on that eventful day 
 Roosevelt wore the ring which had been given him 
 by John Hay. It was a gold ring with a lock of 
 Abraham Lincoln's hair in it. How much it meant 
 to Roosevelt they alone can realize who realize how 
 deeply he reverenced Lincoln. 
 
 In passing, I suggest that this ring is the one 
 that put the tiny dents, many in number, into the 
 surface of Roosevelt's desk at the White House. 
 A friend assures me that he has seen them. They 
 were caused by my classmate's vigorous and re- 
 peated manual emphasis of his mental moods and 
 tenses, as he conferred with visitors. 
 
 A unique item on the program was that fifty 
 cowboys, or Rough Riders, in full frontier regalia, 
 with lassoes, and riding Indian ponies, formed a 
 part of the procession. To add variety to the 
 march they several times lassoed pedestrians who 
 happened to stray too near their line. 
 
 A letter of Matthew Hale's, from which I take 
 these bits of information, says that on the exciting 
 morning of the inauguration, when the White 
 House was under some pressure, "Mrs. Roosevelt 
 alone seemed perfectly natural. First she did a 
 little knitting in the library; then she poured some 
 'eye-drops' into Mrs. Cowles' eyes." The incident 
 confirms my own admiring judgment about Mrs. 
 
238 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Roosevelt; and I recall a scrap from my school- 
 book, "Ex uno disce omnes." 
 
 In these post-bellum days we hear much parrot- 
 talk about "Internationalism" uttered by men and 
 women — phrase-fed people — who are satisfied 
 with mere words. And they fail to see that "Na- 
 tionalism" and "Internationalism" are ideals that 
 are mutually interactive. Roosevelt was a "Na- 
 tionalist", yet he was also "International" in his 
 sympathies. And when he saw, at this period, 
 1904, two great nations, Russia and Japan, grap- 
 pling each other, feeling murderously for each 
 other's throats, and inevitably thereby disturbing 
 the welfare of the world, he held one hand firm on 
 the helm of the Ship of State, and he stretched out 
 his other hand to render aid to his neighbor nations. 
 We all remember that Russo-Japanese War. The 
 Russian fleet stealing cautiously down through the 
 North Sea and, misled by their inflamed nerves, 
 firing upon the craft of innocent British fishermen 
 on the Dogger Bank and sending them to the bot- 
 tom. Then the great fleet, ill-fated from the first, 
 made its apologies to Great Britain and passed on 
 its half-hearted way across the seas until it crept 
 up the Chinese coast and met its end at the hands 
 of the Little Brown Men in Japanese waters. 
 
 But victory costs so much, often, that it seems 
 no better than defeat. And the war was not over. 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 230 
 
 President Roosevelt looked on and saw the two 
 antagonists, breathless and well-nigh exhausted, in 
 their death grapple. They reminded him of what 
 he had seen on the wilds of Dakota and Colorado, 
 — two noble stags fighting furiously, with horns 
 interlocked, and the strength of both at lowest ebb. 
 And he stretched out a hand of help to those 
 grappling nations. He put an end to the hopeless 
 struggle. He who was markedly a lover of conflict, 
 of battle — in a righteous cause — brought peace 
 to those two combatants. 
 
 Viscount Kaneko told me much about it, one 
 sunny day, as I sat with him in his charming home 
 at Tokio. I had gone to him to confer upon a quite 
 different matter, and our interview, somewhat 
 formal, drew to an end. But, as I arose to go, I 
 remarked, "I am glad to see that you have a picture 
 of my college classmate Roosevelt on your wall." 
 At once Kaneko — who was himself a "Harvard 
 man" — became interested and asked, "Were you 
 really in the famous class of '80?" Then as I re- 
 plied that I was and that I was a devoted friend 
 and admirer of my eminent classmate, his formality 
 vanished, his immobile face softened into a smile, 
 and he said, "Sit down, please. Let's talk about 
 him. For I too am his friend and admirer." So 
 our interview lengthened out into a half -hour and 
 more. And he told me about Roosevelt's generous, 
 
240 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 intelligent activity in bringing about the "Peace 
 of Portsmouth." 
 
 He recalled his own agreeable though anxious 
 visit to Oyster Bay and went considerably into de- 
 tails. "He has been stupidly considered a hasty 
 man", commented Viscount Kaneko. "But such an 
 estimate is not correct. He is brilliant and some- 
 times audacious, in his lighter moods; but, when 
 any serious measure is before him, he ponders it, 
 seeks to learn about all sides of it, listens open- 
 mindedly to good counsel, and when he reaches his 
 decision, he is always right. I can never forget how 
 we talked and talked about our terrible war prob- 
 lem, there at his beautiful home by the sea." 
 
 Roosevelt held the situation in his hands because 
 both of the contending and now exhausted nations 
 trusted his intellectual and moral character. And 
 the world knows now what a great work he did for 
 Russia and Japan and the world, in helping to end 
 that war. Baron Rosen, Russian representative 
 at the Portsmouth Conference, has written, "Both 
 our nations owed a debt of profound gratitude to 
 President Roosevelt. ... In the eyes of history 
 his success in bringing about peace will be re- 
 garded as his crowning achievement." 
 
 Important it is to remember that great peace 
 achievement of Roosevelt's, sane, practical, imme- 
 diate, as we recall the abuse that has been heaped 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 241 
 
 upon him by "Professional Peace Reformers", 
 whose aims were lofty indeed, but whose minds 
 were muddy and whose observations and estimates 
 of human nature were worthy of five-year-old 
 children in the nursery. 
 
 As always, the ludicrous phases of his several 
 peace interviews lightened the strain of his intense 
 responsibility. Lawrence Abbott, in his vivid, de- 
 lightful "Impressions", has recalled two of these 
 humorous situations. Roosevelt had consulted the 
 Japanese envoys and was assured that they were 
 quite ready to accede to any reasonable terms. 
 Then he went to the Russian envoys and asked if 
 they would join in a conference if he could arrange 
 with the Japanese to hold one. They replied 
 readily that they would be glad to do so. "But," 
 they added, "we fear that the Japanese representa- 
 tives will not consent." Roosevelt told them that 
 he would see what he could do. "And all the time," 
 said Roosevelt to Lawrence Abbott, "I had the 
 Japanese request in my pocket." 
 
 I must not bore my readers with too many ref- 
 erences to the knot tied by Gordius, first King of 
 
 > 
 
 Phrygia; but in my survey of my classmate's 
 career I am reminded, again and again, that 
 whereas the great Alexander cut only one "Gor- 
 dian knot", our modern conqueror cut many, great 
 and small. Roosevelt told friends that when he 
 
242 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 had the envoys of Japan and Russia with him one 
 day on board the presidential yacht, May flower, in 
 Oyster Bay, luncheon was announced. Instantly 
 Roosevelt bethought himself as to what delicate 
 questions of precedence needed to be considered, 
 as he invited his distinguished guests to the lunch- 
 eon table. He had not the slightest idea as to the 
 established code suitable for the occasion. So he 
 promptly cut the petty Gordian knot. "Gentle- 
 men," he said, "shall we now all go in to luncheon?" 
 And all together they went in ; there was no Alpha 
 or Omega about it. "Doubtless they were all some- 
 what surprised," Roosevelt smilingly added, "but 
 they probably put it down to my American inexpe- 
 rience in social matters." 
 
 And just here note the blending of two very 
 diverse strains in Roosevelt's nature. In a certain 
 sense — as in this situation — he thought of himself 
 as merely a man among men, and the trifling prob- 
 lems of social precedence made him smile. But 
 there was that other occasion, when Prince Henry 
 of Prussia was a guest at the White House, and 
 dull-witted, devoted Holleben suggested to Roose- 
 velt that "Prince Henry, a Hohenzollern," should 
 precede the President in going out to dinner. With 
 what result? I would give much to have seen 
 Theodore Roosevelt's tense countenance and to 
 have heard his incisive tones, as he replied defini- 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 243 
 
 tively, "No person living precedes the President of 
 the United States in the White House." I respond 
 even now, in the writing, to the exalted, patriotic 
 sentiment that was in my eminent classmate's heart 
 as he uttered that proud finality. 
 
 The highly successful diplomatic work of Roose- 
 velt in ending the Russo-Japanese War naturally 
 drew upon him the plaudits of the civilized world. 
 And this approving world-opinion was fittingly 
 symbolized in the Nobel prize of a medal and forty 
 thousand dollars in gold. The medal he of course 
 could not "put from him." But with the money 
 he did as did that ancient Hebrew warrior in 
 Adullam's cave. David poured out the precious 
 cup of water from Bethlehem's gate, as an offering 
 to his God. He consecrated it; he dedicated it to 
 the Highest. Similarly did Roosevelt. Practical 
 idealist that he was, he could not use that money 
 for his own purposes. He could not accept pay- 
 ment for doing what his righteous soul, throughout 
 his life, pledged him to do, — the Right. So he 
 "consecrated" that gold by making it a fund to be 
 used in conference and arbitration between the two 
 great warring classes, — Labor and Capital. 
 
 Roosevelt's close touch with newspaper men is 
 illustrated by this letter sent me by Robert L. 
 O'Brien, now editor of the Boston Herald: 
 
 "In 1906 I was correspondent of the Boston 
 
24-4 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Transcript at Washington, and I came into touch 
 with President Roosevelt frequently. I was par- 
 ticularly impressed with his universality of infor- 
 mation. Mr. J. K. Ohl, then correspondent of 
 the Atlanta Constitution and afterwards Manag- 
 ing Editor of the New York Herald, once said 
 that he never dropped into President Roosevelt's 
 office without finding him familiar to the minute 
 with what the Atlanta Constitution was saying on 
 all public questions. 
 
 "Xor was this experience unusual. Every 
 newspaper man found that out. My first acquaint- 
 ance with him came as a result of his sending for 
 me because of something I had written in the 
 Transcript with which he did not altogether agree. 
 After that I visited him frequently. I noticed 
 that there was no book or current writing in fiction, 
 in biography, in history, in biology, in applied 
 science of any form, with which he did not seem 
 absolutely familiar, up to the minute. 
 
 "Mr. Bok, in his recent autobiography, has al- 
 luded to the relations that I had with President 
 Roosevelt on his account. My recollection of the 
 story is a little more detailed than Mr. Bok's. It 
 came about when William Loeb, Secretary to the 
 President, called me by telephone to say that Mr. 
 Bok was there in the hope of inducing the Presi- 
 dent to run a regular department in the Ladies' 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 245 
 
 Home Journal. Mr. Loeb properly observed, 
 'Of course the President of the United States can't 
 do that.' I agreed with him and said so. I told 
 Mr. Bok what the White House had told me. This 
 led to the slight modification of the plan by which 
 I became introduced into it, and instead of Mr. 
 Roosevelt's running the department himself, he 
 talked with me, at regular periods, during the time 
 he was being shaved, and I wrote out an interpre- 
 tation, or elaboration, of his point of view, and it 
 appeared, regularly, in Mr. Bok's magazine, in 
 the department which I think he headed 'What 
 the President Thinks.' 
 
 "We discussed all sorts of questions. I remem- 
 ber one on which President Roosevelt balked, and 
 that was woman suffrage. He said that he had 
 voted for woman suffrage in the New York legis- 
 lature, and that he supposed he was a woman 
 suffragist; had always so regarded himself, but 
 that there were certain phases of feminine public 
 activity which had considerably disquieted him, 
 and that his interest in the anti-race suicide cam- 
 paign had led him to place less emphasis upon the 
 direct participation of women in politics than he 
 had formerlv done. At all events, he refused to 
 give me information for an article on woman 
 suffrage. It is fair to record that he afterwards 
 publicly spoke with enthusiasm for the cause, and 
 
246 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 the Progressive party, of which he was the great 
 founder, made it a cornerstone. 
 
 "Mr. Roosevelt had a wonderful faculty of 
 coming straight to the point. He would not let 
 any one tell him a long story. He saw what his 
 caller was driving at and jumped into the conver- 
 sation with the conclusion, long before the narrator 
 reached the point of expressing it. I noticed this 
 mannerism many times. I will give an illustration. 
 
 "Somebody introduced a bill in Congress to con- 
 solidate the offices of Receiver and Registrar of 
 certain land offices in the West. It is fair to Con- 
 gress to say that it permits the introduction of such 
 bills, but so far as I have observed, never passes 
 them. But there was a man in Montana, of a 
 polysyllabic Teutonic name, who held one of these 
 offices, and, seeing the introduction of a bill for 
 their consolidation, took fright lest he might lose 
 his job. He accordingly got a neighbor, who was 
 coming to Washington, to see the President, to 
 argue against it. I imagine that the neighbor lay 
 awake nights on the sleeping car, thinking of the 
 arguments that he would present. I was present 
 when he arrived, and the conversation took place. 
 He got about as far in the story as to give the 
 polysyllabic name of his friend, the registrar of 
 the land office, and to state something of the fear 
 under which he was laboring. 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 247 
 
 "Then Roosevelt cut the whole dialogue off with 
 these words : 'You go back and tell him that if that 
 is all he's got to worry about, to possess his soul 
 in patience.' The two-hour address was at an end. 
 
 "In spite of his very friendly relations with the 
 newspapermen and with the world as a whole, 
 President Roosevelt was always thoroughly con- 
 scious of the dignity of the presidential office. I 
 remember that at a Gridiron Club dinner, just 
 after his election in 1904, somebody asked 
 facetiously why the country had reelected Mr. 
 Roosevelt after having had one term of him; and 
 the jocular reply given was the classic phrase, — 
 taken, I think, from Disraeli in alluding to the man 
 who had married again after an unfortunate early 
 matrimonial experience, — ■ 'Because they consulted 
 hope, rather than experience.' Mr. Roosevelt told 
 me the next day that that line should not have been 
 said at a Gridiron Club dinner ; that he thought that 
 was going a little further than the fitness of the 
 office and occasion justified. Of course he was 
 right." 
 
 It is pleasant, in this chronicle of the salient 
 events of my classmate's life, to put on record, at 
 this point, a few reminders of the friendly rela- 
 tions which existed between him and Richard 
 Olney. Both of these men were my friends. They 
 were of rival political parties. And both of them 
 
248 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 were cast in that gladiatorial mold which did not 
 easily brook opposition. Both were ardent de- 
 votees of wholesome athletic sports. I myself have 
 faced, on several occasions, Mr. Olney's minatory 
 countenance across the tennis court. 
 
 Yet these men were essentially large men, and 
 even though formally opponents at times, they 
 maintained a mutual respect which was creditable 
 to them, and now is pleasant to contemplate. 
 
 When Roosevelt was Commissioner of Police, 
 in New York, he wrote Mr. Olney, congratulating 
 him on his appointment as Secretary of State. 
 And his letter closes with a line of characteristic 
 buoyancy, "I suppose you still play tennis. I 
 have been so busy here that I have not had time 
 to play anything except Hades with the police." 
 This last eschatological allusion does not imply any 
 sudden leaning toward studies in divinity. 
 
 In 1901, when Roosevelt's accession to the presi- 
 dential chair had come, Mr. Olney wrote with in- 
 formality and warmth: 
 
 "My dear Roosevelt: I am writing you, not as 
 you are, President, but as a friend, whom I value 
 and in whose fortunes I am much interested. I 
 congratulate you. . . . You come to the Presi- 
 dency with health and strength which few can 
 boast, with talents of a high order, disciplined and 
 developed, and with a prestige and hold upon the 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 219 
 
 admiration and affection of the people at large, 
 without regard to party lines, such as no other man 
 in public life to-day enjoys. . . . That your aims 
 are of the highest I need no assurance. The 
 highest measure of success, therefore, should attend 
 your efforts. And that the event may justify 
 the fortunate beginnings is my cordial wish." 
 
 To this friendly letter Roosevelt replied, "I am 
 tempted to say that no letter has pleased me more 
 than yours. It gratified me exactly as President 
 Cleveland's cordial greetings did. I thank you for 
 it and I appreciate it. I need not tell you that I 
 realize fully the burdens placed upon me. All that 
 in me lies to do will be done. I want you to know 
 that my purpose is entirely single. I want to make 
 a good President, and follow those policies which 
 shall be for the good of the whole people ; all party 
 considerations will be absolutely secondary." 
 
 Out of the many struggles and contests of Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt's vigorous four years in the White 
 House the "Brownsville Affair" of 1906 draws my 
 attention, not so much because of any vital impor- 
 tance attaching to it, but because I have been so 
 long and so deeply interested in the "Negro 
 Problem" of our country and have been intimate 
 with the great leaders of that race. The bare facts 
 are these. During the night of August 13, ten 
 or twenty negro soldiers, regulars, of the 25th 
 
250 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 U. S. Infantry, stationed near Brownsville, Texas, 
 stole out from their barracks and terrorized the 
 town, shooting into houses and shops, and killing 
 at least one man and wounding several. 
 
 The affair was grossly a violation of military 
 rules and civil law. The negro companies had been 
 treated with much contempt and insult by many 
 inhabitants of the town. But the outbreak was 
 inexcusable, deplorable, and criminal. And the 
 whole nation was roused to an excited interest in 
 the bare little frontier town. 
 
 At once the officers of the garrison took up the 
 matter and the War Department at Washington 
 backed them zealously. Investigation began. 
 Proof was conclusive that the "shooting up" had 
 been done by regular soldiers with United States 
 rifles. But not one of the culprits could be dis- 
 covered or led to confess. The examination of a 
 large number of suspects was most thorough, but 
 vain. A prominent negro of the South, an edu- 
 cated and admirable man, afterward pointed out to 
 me the futility of the methods used in that trial 
 and examination. Said he, "Picture to yourself 
 a negro soldier, summoned before a board of white 
 officers, the chairman of that board being a South- 
 ern Major or Colonel, and picture the countenance 
 of that terrified and perhaps guilty soldier, as he 
 meets the stern questions shot at him like bullets." 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 251 
 
 I could easily picture what he suggested. For 
 I knew well the stolid, impervious, self -protective 
 stupidity with which the average negro in the 
 South can mask his naturally mobile features 
 under such conditions. The clam, with tightly 
 closed lids, is vivacious and voluble in comparison 
 with him. And that armor of stolidity worn by 
 the Brownsville soldiers could not be broken 
 through by the protracted attacks of the South-led 
 military board. The examination proved futile. 
 
 I asked my negro friend — who was as regretful 
 and angry at the lawless revolt as was I — what 
 would have been the wiser course of investigation, 
 and he replied with a smile, "An unknown negro 
 detective, say from New York, thrown into that 
 camp and mingling with the soldiers, would have 
 had the secret out of them in twenty-four hours." 
 
 So the investigation was blocked and it failed. 
 But Theodore Roosevelt, immensely concerned 
 always for obedience to rightful laws, civil or mili- 
 tary, was not the man to confess defeat as the 
 chagrined official board confessed defeat. Some- 
 thing must be done. And he did it. He imposed 
 dishonorable discharges from the service upon 
 nearly the whole three companies involved. Some 
 individuals had committed the nefarious crime and 
 all had connived at it and concealed it. So he im- 
 
252 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 posed a "blanket" discharge on a large, inclusive 
 group. 
 
 Vast excitement ensued. The matter was 
 warmly discussed in Congress and throughout the 
 entire country, among whites and blacks. All 
 kinds of motives were discerned in the President's 
 peremptory action by friends and foes, both of 
 the President and of the negro race. I myself 
 knew, within a month after the event, that negro 
 soldiers were the guilty men. Yet the opposite 
 opinion was held by both white and black men 
 until more than a year afterward, so involved was 
 the tangle and so complete was the conspiracy of 
 silence among the men under suspicion. 
 
 It was not a colored problem, that Brownsville 
 affair; it was a military problem of morale, and 
 it was exceedingly perplexing. And only Roose- 
 velt's instinctive, phenomenal self-reliance, courage 
 — yes, and faith — carried him through it with suc- 
 cess. Looking back through the misty past, I do 
 not see, among our honored Chief Executives, any 
 who would have "carried on" as did Roosevelt, 
 until I reach back to our great Abraham Lincoln; 
 and even he might not have solved so peculiar a 
 problem so creditably. 
 
 Here is a delightful little incident, as reported 
 by Joseph Bishop. "I was stationed in Washing- 
 ton at this time," he narrates, "and when talking 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 253 
 
 with the President one morning, I made reference 
 to the Brownsville debate in the Senate. 'Oh, that 
 is merely the latest log going down the stream,' 
 was his amused comment. When, a little later, 
 there appeared in the Century Magazine, an ex- 
 cellent article by Roosevelt on 'The Ancient Irish 
 Sagas', I asked the President how he found time 
 for such research as this article showed. His char- 
 acteristic reply was, 'I have always been interested 
 in that subject. And when this Brownsville row 
 started in the Senate, I knew it would be long and 
 might be irritating to me if I followed it. So I 
 shut myself up, paid no heed to the row, and 
 wrote this article on the Sagas.' ; 
 
 Such a sane, sensible thing for a man to do, that 
 was. Peculiarly so for a man who knew his own 
 natural excitability and impatience over slow, red- 
 tape methods. Then, beyond that, Mr. Bishop's 
 incident reminds me of what that intimate member 
 of the Roosevelt family, Doctor Lambert, said to 
 me one day, in the New York Harvard Club. 
 "Roosevelt was a tremendously and continuously 
 active man. He was always doing some definite 
 thing. Most men can lounge, at times, and pipe- 
 dream, in a comfortable half-asleep way. But 
 Roosevelt never had such moods, probably did not 
 allow himself to have them. He was either fully 
 
254 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOK 
 
 awake, at work or recreation, or he was fully 
 asleep. No time was wasted by him." 
 
 And Arthur Woods has told me about a hurried 
 visit which he made to the White House, when he 
 was Police Commissioner of New York. Some- 
 thing in the restless metropolis needed a strong 
 hand of control, and that hand was in the White 
 House. Mr. Woods telegraphed ahead, made an 
 appointment, and in due time took a seat in the 
 waiting line before the President's closed door. 
 Soon the President came to the door and beckoned 
 to him. As he did this he was reading from some 
 sheets of writing paper. "And," said Mr. Woods, 
 "after hastily greeting me, he read busily all the 
 way along the hall and to his desk, evidently com- 
 pleting his examination, as he seated himself." 
 There was little time wasted by him, when at work 
 or at play. But how he recuperated from this in- 
 cessant expenditure of energy, — that is the mys- 
 tery of his remarkable personality. 
 
 The sophisticated world does not much care to 
 hear or read a man's estimate of his own record. 
 Yet, in Roosevelt's case, such was his stern, 
 equitable appraisal of himself, when in his calm 
 moods, that we may really listen to him, as he re- 
 views his achievements somewhat in his gradation 
 of their value, in a letter of December, 1908, to a 
 friend in London. In condensed form his resume 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 255 
 
 reads thus: "During my term as President I have 
 more than doubled the navy of the United States, 
 and our battle-fleet is to-day doing what no other 
 fleet of a similar size has ever done, — circumnavi- 
 gating the globe." From my own experience as a 
 traveler who has visited ports in nearly all the 
 leading countries of the world, I see the wisdom 
 of that enterprise. Roosevelt knew, as every 
 traveler knows, that our standing as a nation, in 
 the eyes of other nations, is largely determined by 
 impressions caused by our naval equipment, as seen 
 in foreign ports. That tour of the world by our 
 fleet was good strategy, a kind of bloodless frontal 
 attack, a peaceful preparedness, which I believe 
 was extremely effective. 
 
 Next, Roosevelt named to his London friend, in 
 that list of pleasant memories, the Panama Canal. 
 Then the Peace Conference at Portsmouth, prac- 
 tically ending the Russian-Japanese War. Then 
 the Pennsylvania coal strike. Next, he mentioned 
 the Forest Reserves, saying simply, "I have dou- 
 bled or quadrupled them, throughout the country." 
 This was a policy which grew inevitably out of his 
 love of the fields and woods and the beautiful wild 
 creatures that found shelter there. After naming 
 these, he touches briefly upon his irrigation of the 
 vast arid tracts of the Far West, then mentions 
 the pacifying of the Philippines, the Santo Do- 
 
256 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 mingo Treaty, the Employers' Liability Law, and 
 a score more. It is not only the long list of a man 
 who was tireless in his endeavors to correct errors, 
 crush evils, and make the country he loved a better 
 place to dwell in, but it is an extremely varied list ; 
 the record of a far wider range of interests and 
 activities than is shown by any previous occupant 
 of the White House. Personally, I rate high one 
 item not set down in my classmate's list — one to 
 which I have previously referred — the moral quick- 
 ening which he imparted to the young men of this 
 country. By his words and deeds he made public, 
 official service more respectable and desirable than 
 it ever had been in our country's history. And that 
 morale created by him is still with us. 
 
 These records are but the cold, bare framework 
 of the nation's vast, throbbing body, vigorous 
 during the years from 1901 to 1908. And behind 
 them I seek the warm personality of the man. It 
 was there, — that unique, tense, brilliant personal- 
 ity, that phenomenal character, with as many 
 gleaming facets as a rose-diamond. Indeed, the 
 explanation of the secret of his greatness lies in his 
 many-sidedness coupled with tireless energy. He 
 had the hundred eager hands of ancient Eriareus 
 with a heart of energy like a modern hundred- 
 horse-power engine. 
 
 His official life is serious, stern, as preserved in 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 257 
 
 the official records. But his buoyant, lovable, un- 
 official life comes to us in the recitals and letters 
 of his friends and fellow workers. It was an easy 
 prognostication, as he and Mrs. Roosevelt entered 
 the White House, — that they would transform it — 
 gradually or abruptly — from the national hostelry, 
 which it had too often resembled, into a habitation 
 of refinement and a center of friendliness and sym- 
 pathy, yet of cultivation and the highest American 
 social standards. And it may be tersely and 
 graphically added that during the Roosevelt re- 
 gime the hospitality of the White House, while 
 cordial, genuine, was not of the "shirt-sleeve" 
 variety. Mistakes were frequently made by vis- 
 itors to the Executive Mansion, similar to those 
 frequently made by boisterous, rough-handed 
 strangers as they met Roosevelt for the first time. 
 They mistook social freedom for social anarchy. 
 Roosevelt's rule for his home was the same as for 
 himself, outside it: "Keep in touch with all kinds 
 of people, but maintain inner standards for your- 
 self." 
 
 All qualities and strains of men and women were 
 received by the President and his charming, dis- 
 cerning wife. Senators and Congressmen, cattle- 
 men and ex-policemen, college mates and prize 
 fio-hters. On one occasion, two members of the 
 
 Class of '80" dined at the White House for the 
 
 
258 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 first time. And they were surprised and alarmed 
 at the freedom of speech which their eminent class- 
 mate allowed himself. When a certain high official 
 was mentioned, Roosevelt dismissed him with the 
 abrupt declaration — and in no subdued voice, be- 
 fore the table attendants — "He's a chronic liar. 
 I never believe anything he says." And of another 
 diplomat he declared, "He's no better than a 
 darned skunk." It was easy to understand what 
 he said and meant at such times. And my two 
 classmates were really alarmed; and they took 
 solemn counsel together, as they left the house, as 
 to how they could induce "Theodore" to put a 
 bridle on his tongue. 
 
 Over against this little coterie of old-time 
 friends, as guests, put some of his beloved Rough 
 Riders. For all kinds were invited. What fun in 
 him it was when he suggested solemnly, as he was 
 inviting "Bill", an ex-sheriff of a frontier county, 
 "Perhaps you'd better not bring your gun to-night, 
 Bill. The British Ambassador is going to be at 
 the dinner, and it wouldn't do for you to shoot 
 around his feet to make him dance." The story 
 runs that "Bill" promised solemnly not to come 
 "heeled", and added that even if he had, he "would 
 not have thought of doing such a thing." 
 
 At about this time, the autumn of 1907, 
 Roosevelt, always eager for life "in the open", 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 259 
 
 made a hunting trip down into Mississippi. His 
 friend, Doctor Alexander Lambert, was one of 
 the party. During this trip Roosevelt wrote (and 
 sketched) several of the charming letters to his 
 children which have been put into the volume edited 
 by Joseph B. Bishop. Doctor Lambert has given 
 me this incident of the trip ; and it shows how wide- 
 open Theodore Roosevelt's eyes had now become, 
 through experience in "ways that are dark and 
 tricks that are vain" in the political world. Just 
 as the party was starting from Washington, sev- 
 eral reporters hurried into the train, stated that 
 a report was circulating to the effect that Messrs. 
 
 H and P of New York were combining 
 
 on some important deal. They asked the President 
 to talk about the possibilities and probabilities of 
 such a merger. But all that Roosevelt would say 
 was this, with a laugh, "Wait, now! Wait! I 
 don't really know anything about the matter. But 
 as soon as I get back, in a week or so, I will call 
 together about fourteen men whom I have in mind, 
 and will confer with them. They will probably 
 try to deceive me; but out of all their talk I shall 
 get at the truth, and I will call you together and 
 tell you about it." 
 
 On the wall of the study or office or parlor of 
 every member of the "Class of '80" hangs a copy 
 of the excellent portrait of Roosevelt by the emi- 
 
260 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 nent American artist, Joseph De Camp. This 
 portrait was painted in the autumn of 1908, in the 
 White House. The painting itself now hangs on 
 the wall of the Harvard Union. Its story, as told 
 me by De Camp, at least partly in the painter's 
 own words, runs in this fashion. 
 
 "Two or three of Roosevelt's Harvard class- 
 mates came to me, in Boston, and told me that a 
 group of them wished a portrait of their famous 
 friend and wished me to do it. After some talk, 
 I agreed. I went on to Washington to confer with 
 the President. On my way I met a friend who 
 warned me, after learning about my purpose, 
 'Stand right up to Roosevelt or he'll push you off 
 the earth. If you do stand up to him, you'll like 
 him.' So in I went. I kept the hour and minute 
 appointed by Loeb, his secretary. And I had to 
 wait one long hour, while I could hear him, Roose- 
 velt, in the adjoining room, discussing saddles, 
 bits, guns, clothing and all the equipment for his 
 hunting trip into Africa, which was to come off a 
 few months later. Presently Roosevelt walked in 
 and we shook hands. I had never seen him before 
 and had really never formed any positive opinions 
 about him. When he began to ask questions 
 about the sittings, I tried to answer clearly and 
 definitely. But when he started in to make sug- 
 gestions, I could not long stand it. And I said to 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 261 
 
 him, 'Mr. President, if I'm going to paint this 
 picture, I've got to do it in my way. It won't be 
 my first picture, either.' 
 
 'That stopped him short. He looked at me 
 anew, for a moment, then put out his hand a second 
 time, and said with his characteristic smile, 'You 
 seem to be the right sort of American; go ahead.' 
 From that moment he let me lead. So we went 
 ahead. And all kinds of things happened. But 
 let me summarize just here and say that I soon 
 saw, from noting the people who came and went 
 as I worked, that this man's foundation aim was to 
 help the under dog. 
 
 "I never saw a man's exit expedited. so skill- 
 fully as was that of a French official who came 
 in, fully uniformed and decorated, to bring a huge 
 volume containing the Personnel of the French 
 Navy, for use by an ally, the United States. I 
 saw the French officer, a Captain or something 
 high, standing near the door, his lips moving, and 
 evidently rehearsing the speech in English which 
 he had prepared. When the right moment came, 
 Roosevelt, who knew the man's errand and did not 
 intend to waste time, went quickly over to him, 
 seized him by the hand, shook it, accepted the big 
 book, asked one or two questions, did not wait for 
 replies, and, all the time, with a smile, yet with a 
 hand on the official's gold-laced arm, was gently 
 
262 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 but firmly pushing him towards, and then finally 
 through, the door. It was a good piece of work. 
 And I think that the anxious French officer was 
 quite as glad to have the interview thus ended as 
 was the President. 
 
 "Roosevelt was a great man," continued De 
 Camp, "with that simplicity of address which so 
 often is seen in really great men. And he did hate 
 servility and enjoy a man or woman who stood up 
 to him. To illustrate : He had agreed to give me 
 an hour's sitting, each time. This he did, faithfully 
 though impatiently, several times. Then he got 
 into the way of cutting the sitting a bit short by 
 saying, in his most winning manner, 'Now, De 
 Camp, let's go out and take a little walk in the 
 garden.' And out I went with him, two or three 
 times. But one day I held him up. I said, without 
 shading it, 'Mr. President, you talk about a square 
 deal, but you're not giving me that.' 'What do 
 you mean?' he demanded sharply, but not angrily. 
 'This. You agreed to sit for an hour, each time, 
 and you're cutting me out of it.' He took it as I 
 thought he would. He looked repentant and re- 
 plied, 'Well, I'll do better, after this. I see your 
 side of it.' 
 
 "At another time," continued the artist, "I was 
 one of a dinner party at the White House. One 
 of the guests, Mr. N , a Yankeefied individual 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 263 
 
 with a shrill voice, asked me how the President 
 was do'ing, as a model, as a sitter. And I replied, 
 'He's a rotten sitter. That's the whole of it.' 
 What was my alarm, a few minutes later, to hear 
 this fellow's shrill voice retailing my conversation 
 to the President himself. Later Roosevelt made 
 his way to me and remarked, 'What's this I hear? 
 
 Mr. N tells me that you said I was a rotten 
 
 model.' Of course I was a bit uneasy, but I knew 
 my man and I put the thing through. I re- 
 sponded, 'Yes, I did say that. And I would have 
 put it even stronger if I had known how. You're 
 on the jump, every minute you are posing.' He 
 was positively delighted. He smiled, then his face 
 grew thoughtful and determined, and he said, 
 'Wait until to-morrow's sitting! I'll fool you.' 
 And he did, to a certain extent only, however, for 
 I knew what was coming — he stood like a carved 
 statue. He was putting his will into it." 
 
 One of my friends, who several times was a guest 
 at the White House, has tried to make me believe 
 that Roosevelt did not mind in the least the ridicule 
 and abuse and falsifying of the newspapers, and 
 that he often read aloud, with laughter, malicious 
 attacks made upon him in their columns. This 
 statement may hold true about my classmate when 
 he was in the bosom of his family. But it does not 
 harmonize wholly with what De Camp narrated. 
 
264 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 "One day," said the painter, "as he was standing 
 in position, his Secretary came in and puf some 
 press clippings into his hands. He read them, as 
 he always read, with lightning rapidity. Suddenly 
 and angrily he stopped, crushing the slips in his 
 hand, and poured out a stream of the strongest 
 language that I ever heard. He went on for a 
 few seconds thus, consigning a certain New York 
 journal to various Dantean regions. Then his 
 wonderful sense of humor came to the surface. He 
 smiled, and said to me, 'De Camp, if you know 
 any stronger language than I've used, will you 
 please take up the subject where I left off?' I 
 replied, in spirit as in letter, and rolled out some 
 phrases in German, in French and in Italian. He 
 said, 'Thanks! I feel relieved. I wish I could use 
 those myself.' " 
 
 Mr. De Camp continued, "With all its cares 
 and struggles, Roosevelt would have been glad to 
 continue his term in the White House. I said to 
 him one day, 'You have done many things, Mr. 
 President. Among others you have got the heads 
 of the common people above water. They realize, 
 as never before, their power and their responsibili- 
 ties.' This I said as I worked, and he broke out 
 in rejoinder, eagerly, almost fiercely, with all his 
 spirit and passion, 'I'd like to stay at this post an- 
 other four years, and I'd have them out, not only 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 265 
 
 their heads, but up to their waists.' Such a doer 
 of deeds he was. One day he said to me, 'I hate 
 a man who never does anything. Why, I'd rather 
 do something and get it wrong, and then apologize, 
 than to do nothing.' " 
 
 One day, as the sitting was on, a stenographer 
 came in, and Roosevelt began to dictate to her. 
 He grew very absorbed in this, and the sitting was 
 becoming a failure. "Presently," Mr. De Camp 
 told me, "I stopped work and waited and looked 
 significantly at my model. With a laugh he ceased, 
 waved the stenographer away, and explained, 
 'That is an address which I have promised to give 
 at the Sorbonne, in Paris, when I return from my 
 trip to Africa.' " So much for Roosevelt's fore- 
 handedness or "preparedness" or thoroughness, 
 whichever word you prefer. Verbum sat. 
 
 Vigorous, strenuous as was President Roose- 
 velt's official public life, his private family life was 
 almost on a par with it. He spoke from his heart 
 when he wrote, "I have had the happiest home life 
 of any man I have ever known." And this was 
 not alone because of his loving, sympathetic heart, 
 but as much because of his intelligent observance 
 of the psychological laws that govern all human 
 groups, even families. 
 
 He shared so many emotions and experiences 
 with the family. He took a deep interest in all the 
 
266 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 pets of all the children, — and no family ever gath- 
 ered in more pets than the Roosevelt family. 
 Doctor Iglehart writes: 
 
 "I saw the President come down the main stair- 
 way, at the White House, to greet a distinguished 
 guest, an Archbishop. A pet dog had just been 
 brought from Oyster Bay and had not yet seen 
 Roosevelt. At that moment they met. And the 
 joy of the little pet was overwhelming. And Mr. 
 Roosevelt went right down on the floor to greet 
 him, while the stately Archbishop stood silently 
 looking on, ten feet away. In ten seconds Mr. 
 Roosevelt was on his feet again, serious, dignified, 
 ready to talk with the Archbishop, who, being a 
 real man of heart, was immensely pleased with the 
 incident." 
 
 A portion of a letter from Doctor David Starr 
 Jordan I give here; for it reveals the wide range 
 of Roosevelt's interests, even amid his crowded 
 presidential days. 
 
 "Roosevelt entered Harvard College hoping to 
 become a naturalist, having already made a con- 
 siderable collection of birds, besides many observa- 
 tions as to their habits. His eyesight being defec- 
 tive, however, and not connecting well with mag- 
 nifying glasses, his early ambition was discouraged 
 by his teachers, to whom the chief range of study 
 lay within the field of the microscope. They over- 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 267 
 
 looked the fact that besides primordial slime and 
 determinant chromosomes, there were also in the 
 world grizzly bears, tigers, elephants, and trout, 
 as well as song-birds and rattlesnakes — all of 
 which yield profound interest and are alike worthy 
 of study. 
 
 "So, being discouraged as to work along his 
 chosen line, and in his love of outdoor science, the 
 young naturalist turned to political philosophy, his 
 secondary interests lying in history and politics. 
 He then closed up his private cabinet, giving his 
 stuffed bird-skins (through Professor Baird, of 
 the Smithsonian) to me. These I transferred to 
 the University of Indiana, where they are now in 
 a befitting glass case in Owen Hall, each skin 
 nicely prepared and correctly labelled in the crude 
 boyish handwriting which the distinguished collec- 
 tor never outgrew. 
 
 "In the various natural history explorations un- 
 dertaken by me — and by others during Mr. Roose- 
 velt's administration — we could always count on 
 intelligent and effective sympathy. In so far as 
 scientific appointments rested with him, he gave 
 them careful and conscientious consideration. In- 
 deed, during his administration, governmental 
 science reached its high-water mark." 
 
 All kinds of pets the nature-loving Roosevelts 
 had. In the Autobiography may be read this rather 
 
268 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 novel incident. "I was talking, one day, with a 
 Senator, about the Railroad Rate Bill. My 
 youngest boy had just been loaned a beautiful 
 king-snake, by the admired proprietor of an animal 
 shop, not far from us. The boy came rushing in, 
 to exhibit his treasure, which he had placed inside 
 his coat. As he struggled, eagerly, to get off his 
 coat, the Senator started to help him, but sprang 
 back in alarm as the boy and the snake popped 
 out together, from the garment." 
 
 Well he knew how keenly the normal child loves 
 animals. And when he writes home, his tactful 
 sympathetic pen throws this off. "Dear Quenty- 
 Quee, — The other day, when out riding, what 
 should I see, in the road, but a real B'rer Terra- 
 pin and B'rer Rabbit. They were sitting sol- 
 emnly beside each other, and looked as if they 
 had come out of a book. But as I rode nearer, 
 B'rer Rabbit went lippity lippity off into the 
 bushes, and B'rer Terrapin drew in his head and 
 legs, till I passed." 
 
 To one of the older boys he writes, and again 
 from the White House: "I am glad I have tried 
 this Japanese wrestling, but I am really too busj^ to 
 keep on with it. After I have been grappling with 
 Senators and Congressmen all day, by five o'clock 
 I feel like a stewed owl. Then the wrestling seems 
 a bit too strenuous. My right ankle and my left 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 269 
 
 wrist, and one thumb and both great toes are 
 swollen and I carry several bruises. Still, I have 
 made good progress ; and, since you left, they have 
 taught me three new throws that are perfect 
 corkers." 
 
 If the "Man from Mars" had picked up that 
 letter, he would not have surmised that it came 
 from the President of the United States. His 
 lifelong interest in "the manly art" gave especial 
 point to an incident which occurred after he had 
 returned to private life. He and Mrs. Roosevelt 
 were in a railway station, and Mrs. Roosevelt was 
 having some difficulty about her ticket. At that 
 moment a fine-looking man came up and asked if 
 he could help. He said further that he had been 
 one of the crew of the presidential yacht, the May- 
 flower. In reply to Roosevelt's friendly inquiry, 
 he stated that he had left the navy in order to 
 study dentistry; and "in order to earn money for 
 his tuition in his studies, he was practising his real 
 profession as a prize-fighter." That amused Roose- 
 velt vastly. 
 
 Roosevelt's athletic exercises — kept up, in large 
 measure, to give physical support to his strenuous 
 mental life — were of the most vigorous sort. Box- 
 ing, wrestling, riding, long cross-country "hikes", 
 — these he kept up, with that steadfastness charac- 
 teristic of him, until late in his life. He was never 
 
270 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WAMUOR 
 
 — as he often said frankly — a first-rate horseman, 
 but he was no neophyte. A story told by George 
 von L. Meyer, then Postmaster General, and given 
 by De Wolfe Howe, in his excellent biography of 
 Meyer, runs thus: 
 
 "May 11, 1907, I rode with the President, Root, 
 and Lodge. The President put his horse over a 
 three-foot stone wall and a four-foot hurdle. My 
 horse was in good form, and was carrying thirty 
 pounds less than the President's. I, unthinkingly, 
 put my horse over the five-foot jump; and at once 
 the President put his horse at it. The horse re- 
 fused, but his rider set his teeth and put him at it 
 again. He cleared it, but barely. Lodge was 
 amazed that the President, with his weight and 
 mount, had taken such a, risk, and I was sorry that 
 I had set the example. The President remarked, 
 'I could not let one of my Cabinet give me a lead 
 and not follow.' " 
 
 In Rear Admiral Piske's Autobiography, 
 "From Midshipman to Rear Admiral", I find this 
 unsought testimonial to the serious, painstaking, 
 open-minded man in the White House in 1907: 
 
 "Roosevelt, when President, aided me greatly in 
 bringing my marine projects and inventions into 
 use, when other officials at Washington were nar- 
 row-minded and gave me no assistance. President 
 Roosevelt took his duties as Commander-in-Chief 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 271 
 
 of the Army and Navy more seriously than any 
 other President except George Washington." 
 
 It is pleasant to read this earnest, disinterested 
 testimony to Roosevelt's official devotion to his 
 work as, for instance, in contrast we get this light 
 bit of repartee. Carl Akeley told one day about 
 seeing sixteen lions filing slowly out of one cave. 
 The President's eye twinkled. "By George," he 
 exclaimed, "I wish I could turn those lions loose in 
 Congress." A Congressman present interposed, 
 "But, Mr. President, aren't you afraid they might 
 make a mistake?" 
 
 Roosevelt snapped his teeth together, and his 
 smile widened. "Not if they stayed long enough," 
 he rejoined. 
 
 It was in the full tide of his crowded, active 
 "elected" term, in 1905, that he joined his college 
 classmates in Cambridge for the celebration of the 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of the graduation of the 
 Class of '80. As all graduates of Harvard know, 
 the twenty-fifth anniversary is the bright particular 
 milestone along the post-graduate highway which 
 is held in highest favor. On that anniversary a 
 class is given especial honor; and all its members, 
 wherever they may be scattered over the face of 
 the earth, seek to return to Cambridge and clasp 
 hands and compare notes de voyage, and persuade 
 themselves that they are still young men. 
 
272 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 The celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary 
 began with a reunion and registration at the 
 Parker House, Boston, on Monday, June 26. In 
 the evening came the "Pop" concert in Symphony 
 Hall, with decorations, cheers for '80, and songs of 
 the olden time and the new. At noon, members 
 of the class gathered at the Oakley Clubhouse, 
 Watertown, where Roosevelt came in due time, be- 
 tween showers, for it was a day of broken weather. 
 We found him the same vigorous, sympathetic 
 friend he had always been. He was really glad to 
 have the members of his college class around him. 
 
 Presently the inevitable group picture was 
 taken. A copy of it hangs on the wall in front of 
 my desk as I write. Roosevelt, of course, is in the 
 center, his stern, determined countenance seeming 
 like the fixed iron core of a wheel about which the 
 fellow members of his class might circle. At his 
 right sits — as I look at the picture — Robert 
 Bacon, with figure and face noble and beautiful to 
 look upon, and with an indwelling spirit of equal 
 nobility and beauty. On Roosevelt's left sits our 
 Class Secretary, John Woodbury, faithful, untir- 
 ing, loyal to his classmates and beloved of them all. 
 
 As I look at this group of men — my friends, 
 with whom I share tender memories of an olden 
 time — I think them worthy representatives of 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 273 
 
 "Old Harvard" and a fitting guard of honor for 
 the man who sits at their center. 
 
 It is only a shred of a sentiment but, as I look at 
 the picture, I note that in the foreground, a few 
 feet in front of our first line, stands a sundial. 
 Symbol and reminder of the passing of the days, 
 the flight of the fugitive years. 
 
 One of my classmates, Louis Greeley, writes 
 me, recalling our gathering at the Oakley Club. 
 "That evening I heard the newsboys in Boston 
 crying, 'Evening papers, picture of the Class of 
 '80.' I bought a copy and found only a picture 
 of Roosevelt. I expostulated with the enterpris- 
 ing newsboy, and he replied, 'Roosevelt is the class 
 of '80.' And I did not seriously object." 
 
 The one other meeting which brought us, as a 
 class, distinctly together, during that Commence- 
 ment Week, was the dinner — strictly a Class din- 
 ner — at the Hotel Somerset, Boston, in the evening 
 of Tuesday, June 27. It was an enthusiastic 
 meeting. I have referred to it in earlier pages of 
 this volume. Among the "events" on the program 
 was the presentation of three silver tankards, by 
 William Hooper, in behalf of the class, to Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt, "Bob" Bacon, and John Wood- 
 bury. 
 
 The high light of the evening was furnished by 
 our eminent classmate, who talked for nearly an 
 
274 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 hour, in his fervid, fearless way, about affairs of 
 the nation and his attempts to set things right. 
 There were members present who were newspaper 
 men, and some of them took notes; but the talk 
 was confidential and was not put into the papers 
 in any detail. One of my classmates was L. E. 
 Opdycke, and he, with a memory perhaps sharp- 
 ened by his good work in the Greek Play at Cam- 
 bridge, recalled and wrote to our class secretary, 
 on February 8, 1906, six months afterward, the 
 exact words with which Roosevelt began his fasci- 
 nating address. It runs thus: 
 
 "Now see here, fellows, I want you all to under- 
 stand, in the first place, that I haven't the least 
 idea that I'm a great man. It is true that I have 
 had exceptional success; but then I've had excep- 
 tional opportunities. The only credit that I can 
 claim is for having been there, every time, to take 
 advantage of those opportunities." 
 
 Of course Roosevelt could not "feel great." He 
 simply expressed himself, put forth his powers, 
 did his work, and his fellows, looking on, have made 
 the decision as to his greatness. 
 
 With one passage from Roosevelt's address, 
 made in Memorial Hall on Wednesday, June 29, 
 I close this chapter. It is both characteristic and 
 prophetic. 
 
 "Our presiding officer, Bishop Lawrence, has 
 
ELECTED PRESIDENT 275 
 
 spoken of my efforts for peace. Of course I am 
 for peace. Every President who is fit to be Presi- 
 dent is for peace. But I am for one thing before 
 peace. I am for righteousness first, and then 
 peace. When, in '61, certain of you won peace by 
 the sword, you made us forever your debtors; be- 
 cause, when the choice was between what was 
 peaceful and what was right, you chose the right." 
 This was his honest, lofty idealism. And he 
 held to it by word and deed, with heroic con- 
 sistency, through all his length of days. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 HIS GREATEST VICTORY 
 
 One of the solemn, though somewhat vague vows 
 assumed by neophytes in sundry religious orders 
 is the vow to "renounce the devil and all his works." 
 This pledge would be easier of fulfillment if the 
 diabolic presence and efforts were always easily 
 distinguishable. Cloven hooves and forked tail 
 and sulphurous fumes do not much attract us; 
 but when money or a palace or a throne — or the 
 United States Presidency — beckons alluringly 
 then the renunciation becomes difficult. 
 
 But this renunciation is what Theodore Roose- 
 velt achieved. He renounced a reelection to an 
 office and an opportunity which he desired in- 
 tensely; he did this because he believed that it was 
 right for him to do it. The Republican Party 
 leaders, left to their own wishes, were not only 
 ready to place William Howard Taft in the White 
 House, but they would have been glad to place 
 anybody there rather than Roosevelt. 
 
 This was fully understood by Roosevelt, Taft, 
 and the party leaders. And the Convention was 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 277 
 
 held and Taft was nominated. Under these con- 
 ditions, his nomination was equivalent to an elec- 
 tion. But I wish to make clear what has been 
 allowed to rest obscured or neglected, that Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt's renunciation of a second "elected" 
 term marked the highest moral and spiritual level 
 that he attained, lofty as his life was throughout. 
 
 There are several letters given in Mr. Bishop's 
 collection which make the situation perfectly clear. 
 One to Doctor Lyman Abbott, on May 29, 1908; 
 one to Judge Dayton, on May 28, 1908; one to 
 Frank H. Hitchcock, Chairman of the Republican 
 National Committee, on June 1, 1908. These and 
 other published letters make clear the fact that 
 Roosevelt not only could have had the nomination, 
 election, and Presidency without more effort than 
 signifying a "Yes", but that he made every pos- 
 sible effort to prevent the convention from forcing 
 it upon him as the Vice-presidency had been forced 
 upon him. 
 
 This splendid renunciation of a scepter of power 
 which fairly leaned toward his now trained hand, — 
 this I conceive to mark the highest point morally, 
 spiritually, of my beloved classmate's greatness. 
 A negation has not the prestige of an affirmation 
 in the popular mind; but this in form only; in prac- 
 tice it often rises into sublime preeminence. What 
 would Julius Caesar, or Bonaparte, or Frederick 
 
278 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 the Great have done, if in Roosevelt's place, at the 
 end of one glorious term and with another term 
 offering itself? No answer need be given. And 
 I wonder the more at Roosevelt's decision when I 
 reflect that he, of all men, was a man of deeds; and 
 for him to deny himself the dazzling privilege of 
 a continuance of his patriotic public service, — that 
 self-control, that self-denial was a refutation of 
 all those charges of insatiate ambition ever 
 launched against him by his envious, baffled, un- 
 scrupulous enemies. 
 
 History and biography furnish no situation 
 equal in solemn significance to Roosevelt's stand, 
 as he renounced that third term. If ambition is 
 the last lingering "infirmity of noble minds", then 
 he had indeed purged himself of all human in- 
 firmities. He had thoroughly weighed the merits 
 of the case. His extremely frank letters to 
 Trevelvan show this. But his deeds tallied with 
 his words; his will and conscience backed his ideal- 
 
 if 
 
 istic perceptions; and he compelled the wish and 
 will of a grateful, admiring nation to turn toward 
 William Howard Taft, believing this course to be 
 best for the country. 
 
 That was his great renunciation, unparalleled 
 in all the past. And with it was involved a smaller 
 renunciation, far less important, yet a real self- 
 denial and a wise self-restraint. Denying himself 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 279 
 
 the pleasure of all oversight of the new incoming 
 regime, he planned and carried out his trip into 
 Africa. Outwardly this trip was only one of his 
 many adventurous excursions into the wild regions 
 of the globe. But inwardly there was in his large, 
 generous nature the wish to give his friend and suc- 
 cessor, Mr. Taft, full and unconstrained sweep for 
 the exercise of his new executive powers. That 
 was always Theodore Roosevelt's way from child- 
 hood, through college, throughout his life, — always 
 the large, generous way. 
 
 Roosevelt's departure from American shores 
 brought relief to several groups of American citi- 
 zens. Among them were the "Interests", so called, 
 that is the powerful "team-players" of high finance. 
 The mot went the rounds of the press at this time 
 that "Wall Street expected every lion in Africa 
 to do his dutv." 
 
 On March 23, 1909, Roosevelt set sail from New 
 York with several companions, naturalists and 
 others, and a complete equipment for the work be- 
 fore him. The work was, summarized, the procur- 
 ing of mammals, birds, plants for the National 
 Museum at Washington. As he afterward wrote, 
 "Every animal I have shot, except six or eight for 
 food, has been carefully prepared for the National 
 Museum." 
 
 In a reception speech made in Cambridge, 
 
280 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 England, on Roosevelt's return from Africa, 
 eleven months later, Doctor Henry Goudy put his 
 own humorous interpretation on the ex-President's 
 African trip, thus: "He is a statesman, a noted 
 sportsman, and a naturalist. His onslaughts upon 
 the wild beasts of the desert have been not less 
 fierce, nor less successful, than his warfare on the 
 hydra-headed corruption in his own land." 
 
 And Lord Curzon addressed Roosevelt, soon 
 after, in a more rhetorical but equally eulogistic 
 way: "Peer of the most august kings, queller of 
 wars, destrover of monsters wherever found, vet 
 the most human of mankind, deeming nothing 
 uninteresting to you, not even the blackest of the 
 black." 
 
 On the w r hole, that was what Roosevelt stood 
 for in the eyes of all European nations, — a vigorous 
 successful reformer, a practical idealist, impelled 
 by a burning passion to make his native land, and 
 indirectly the whole world, more habitable, more 
 civilized, because more just, righteous, and humane. 
 
 The Roosevelt party followed the shortest route 
 possible: across the Atlantic, through the Mediter- 
 ranean and Suez Canal and Red Sea, then down 
 the coast of British East Africa and landed at 
 Mombasa. Thence by rail through a game country 
 where wild animals were so abundant that had it 
 not been for the danger involved in getting the 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 281 
 
 more savage kinds, the shooting would have been 
 as mock-heroic as that of Kaiser Wilhelm, with his 
 high platform and the helpless beasts driven by 
 as to an abattoir. 
 
 The actual shooting, by Roosevelt and his son 
 Kermit, does not so much interest me. Suffice it 
 to say that both of them took their full part in 
 the duties, joys, hardships and veritable dangers 
 of each day. 
 
 Reading a little between the lines of the reports 
 of the several members of that expedition, I 
 gather — what I knew before — that my classmate 
 had so far overcome that natural timidity against 
 which he had set himself in earlier years that he 
 had quite forgotten the emotion; and only the un- 
 ceasing attention of Messrs. Selous, Cunningham, 
 Tarlton, and others kept him from the sharp fangs 
 of the lion and the devastating sweep of the ele- 
 phant's trunk. 
 
 Extremely interesting are the bits of informa- 
 tion, the revealing incidents, which come to us 
 through Roosevelt's own vivid volume, "African 
 Game Trails." His love of the beautiful was not 
 very marked, as the beautiful is set forth by a 
 painter's brush. But Great Nature Herself, with 
 her diapason tones, spoke directly to his soul. 
 "There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit 
 of the wilderness," he declares, "that can reveal 
 
282 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 its mvsterv, its melancholy, and its charm. Over 
 and beyond the thrill of the fight with dangerous 
 animals, there is the fascination of the silent places, 
 the large tropic moons, the splendor of the new 
 stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of 
 sunrise and sunset, in the wide waste-spaces of the 
 earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the 
 slow change of the ages, through time everlasting." 
 Another point of interest which the book-lover 
 naturally feels for this book-lover hunter is the 
 "pigskin library" which he carried with him, and 
 in which he buried himself so speedily, when on 
 the march or by the campfire, and even instantly 
 after bringing down some monster elephant or 
 rhinoceros. It was a "working library", that one 
 of the pigskin bindings. Worn, soiled, the volumes 
 in turn were stuffed into saddle pocket or cartridge 
 bag. And I venture the suggestion that those 
 books increased the perils of their versatile owner 
 — though not to a fatal ending — as did Shelley's 
 books, as he sailed in a small boat along the Italian 
 coast, one hand holding the tiller, the other a book. 
 The poet wrote in his last letter, to a friend, that it 
 was a mistake to say, as many had said, that a man, 
 while sailing a boat, could do nothing else; for he 
 had demonstrated that a man could read and sail a 
 boat at the same time. That was poor, unpractical 
 Shelley's own obituary. 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 283 
 
 The weeks and months glided quickly away as 
 Roosevelt explored and hunted and gathered flora 
 and fauna in Africa. Then came the return by 
 way of Khartoum. His "Safari" reached that 
 edge of civilization on March 14, 1910. Thence 
 directly down the river to Cairo. At this point 
 something happened which makes us feel that we 
 have again the real Roosevelt, not the khaki-clad 
 hunter of big game, but the fearless statesman who 
 dared face hostile audiences and attacked tyranny 
 and fraud wherever entrenched. He had agreed 
 to give an address to a body of Egyptian students. 
 They comprised the body of the so-called "Nation- 
 alist Party"; they were the "Young Egypt", in 
 protest against British control; and only a month 
 before they had assassinated the Prime Minister, 
 Boutros Pasha, Warning came to the American 
 ex-President that if he dared refer to this "re- 
 moval" of the Prime Minister, his own life would 
 be in danger. 
 
 Their utter ignorance of Roosevelt's character, 
 their stupid threat, hinted at their own incompe- 
 tence for self-government. Their threat only 
 sharpened Roosevelt's interest in Egyptian insur- 
 rectionary affairs. And in his speech he dealt 
 directly and vigorously with their lawless, violent 
 conduct, which unfitted them, he pointed out, for 
 
28-1 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 that self-governing, under law and order, which 
 they demanded. 
 
 From Cairo to Italy and up through the several 
 European nations which he visited on this re- 
 turn to the United States, his journey was like 
 the "triumph" of a victorious Roman general of 
 the ancient times. It far surpassed, in the en- 
 thusiasm aroused, the "Grand Tour" of ex-Presi- 
 dent Grant. He did not need disillusioning, as he 
 met kings and potentates ; he was too much a man 
 of the world for that. He met them with as fine 
 a courtesy as their own; he recognized the worth 
 in them when it was there; and hollowness and 
 pretence gave him frequent occasions for mirth. 
 
 Almost at the threshold of this triumphal 
 progress, a situation developed, a problem con- 
 fronted him, which would have brought many a 
 statesman to confusion. I refer to what is called 
 "The Vatican Incident." Brieflv, it was this. 
 While still on African soil, he had replied to an 
 inquiry made by Mr. Leishman, our United States 
 ambassador at Rome, that he would be glad to 
 meet both the Pope and the King. "When he ar- 
 rived in Rome, a message from the Rector of the 
 American Catholic College, Monsignor Kennedy, 
 was awaiting him. 
 
 'The Holy Father will be delighted to grant 
 audience to Mr. Roosevelt, and hopes that nothing 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 285 
 
 will arise — like the Fairbanks incident — to pre- 
 vent it." 
 
 The "Fairbanks incident" was the visiting, by 
 ex-Vice-president Fairbanks, of a certain Meth- 
 odist mission in Rome. Having done this, the 
 Vatican was closed to him. 
 
 In reply to the warning note, with its reference 
 to Fairbanks, Roosevelt sent this letter to the Pope, 
 through our ambassador. 
 
 "It would be a real pleasure to me to be 
 presented to the Holy Father. ... I recognize his 
 full right to receive or not to receive whomsoever 
 he chooses. . . . On the other hand, I have the right 
 to decline to make any stipulations which might 
 limit my freedom of conduct. I trust that he will 
 find it convenient to receive me." 
 
 Roosevelt thus went to the full limit of conces- 
 sion and courtesy. But a reply came the next day : 
 
 "In view of the circumstances, for which neither 
 His Holiness nor Mr. Roosevelt is responsible, an 
 audience could not occur, except on the under- 
 standing expressed in the former message." 
 
 Thus the visit to the Vatican was not made. 
 Anybody who knew the personal equation of 
 Theodore Roosevelt could have forecast this result, 
 so far as he was concerned. For the Roman 
 Pontiff Roosevelt had very kindly feelings, as he 
 had also for many of his adherents. Probably that 
 
286 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 kindly old prelate had very little to do with the 
 specious scheme. Merry del Val, his secretary, 
 was doubtless the moving spirit in the matter. Of 
 him Roosevelt said, "He is a polished man, of 
 much ability in a narrow line, but a furiously 
 bigoted reactionary ; in fact, a good representative 
 of a sixteenth-century Spanish ecclesiastic." 
 
 This "Vatican incident" gave rise to large head- 
 lines in the newspaper world, for a short time, but 
 all intelligent persons, Protestant or Roman 
 Catholic, read between the lines and deplored the 
 super-subtlety of the Pope's secretary. The world 
 over, men knew Roosevelt so well that they were 
 sure his action meant simply that he would not be 
 bound by any religious body in his freedom toward 
 any other religious body. And the confidence of 
 the Roman Catholics of the United States toward 
 Roosevelt remained undisturbed. I mvself recall 
 one afternoon at Oyster Bay, when, as I was taking 
 my departure after an hour or two of conversation, 
 I met at the front door two Roman Catholic 
 clergymen, coming with smiling confidence to call 
 upon Mr. Roosevelt. As I exchanged a greeting 
 with them, after I had left my host, one of them 
 pointed toward the study where my classmate was 
 waiting and whispered, in a warm, unconstrained 
 way, "A real man, in there!" 
 
 Roosevelt established free, friendly relations 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 287 
 
 with the Quirinal, seat of the Italian Government, 
 without difficulty. He met and liked Victor Em- 
 manuel, and this feeling was reciprocated. Speak- 
 ing of the King, afterward, Roosevelt enjoyed 
 throwing his friendly approval — as often he did — 
 into a characteristic humorous Americanism. "I 
 like him," he declared. "He is a genuine kind of 
 man. He could carry his own ward in an election." 
 
 So far as the masses of the people throughout 
 Italy were concerned their attitude was one of en- 
 thusiasm. So many of their relatives and friends 
 had visited and lived in the United States that 
 they were in close touch with our national affairs 
 and Roosevelt's boundless popularity. A friend 
 of mine writes me that she saw Roosevelt waiting 
 at a railway station in Italy, and she saw several 
 people kneel to him and try to kiss his hand. So 
 much for Italian fervor and free expression. 
 
 Busy and somewhat bored weeks passed in this 
 touring of hospitable, enthusiastic Europe. The 
 various populations knew the great champion of 
 Democracy, and the crowned heads nodded to him 
 with an unconventional friendliness. Like Benja- 
 min Franklin at Paris a century or more before, 
 Roosevelt, loving realities and respecting himself 
 and his native land, met all nobles and dignitaries 
 on a man-to-man basis. In fact, his new royal 
 friends enjoyed the free, frank atmosphere which 
 
288 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 this well-bred American carried with him. For his 
 part he wearied a little of it at times. One day, 
 while he was busy, a card was sent up to him, — a 
 card with a crest and other insignia. "Confound 
 it!" he exclaimed, as he went to meet his visitor. 
 "These kings bore me to death." 
 
 Yet certain sensational American journals, 
 famished for news, maintained that he conceded too 
 much to the effete royalties of Europe, and that 
 he regretted that our American system of govern- 
 ment had no place for himself as monarch. He 
 heard of this on his return, and exclaimed to W. R. 
 Thayer, "Think of it! Some of those papers said 
 I wanted to be a prince. Do you know what a 
 prince is ? He's a cross between Ward McAllister 
 and Vice-president Fairbanks. How could any- 
 body suppose that I would wish to be that!" 
 
 Lawrence Abbott, of the Outlook, had joined 
 Roosevelt at Khartoum, and traveling thenceforth 
 with him, rendered him tactful, effective aid 
 throughout his visits in European capitals. The 
 volume of letters, appeals of all sorts, which poured 
 in uj)on Roosevelt during the European tour, 
 almost passes belief. Requests for money, invi- 
 tations to lecture after he had reached home, 
 advice sought on all possible questions, private and 
 public. One morning's mail contained these items : 
 "Applications for autographs, stamps, post cards; 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 289 
 
 then inquiries about his views on the Bacon- Shake- 
 speare controversy; his opinion on the referendum 
 in city affairs; description asked regarding a spe- 
 cial kind of African antelope; an article desired 
 for an American college paper; a request for an 
 article on Hungarian emigration to the United 
 States ; review desired of a book of poems, sent by 
 the author; a brief article for a Young Men's 
 Lyceum; on International Peace." 
 
 Thus the requests poured in, and skillful, tactful 
 Lawrence Abbott spared his chief all he could and 
 met the naive requests with courtesy and efficiency. 
 
 I can the better appreciate this volume of cor- 
 respondence flowing in upon Roosevelt because, a 
 few years later, I sat with him for an hour one 
 day at his desk in the Metropolitan office, New 
 York. He read aloud about thirty letters which 
 had come in by the morning's mail, commented on 
 them, and passed them over to his very competent 
 secretary, Miss Josephine Strieker, who was to 
 send full replies which he had briefly sketched. In 
 this situation, as in so many, his sense of humor 
 oiled the wheels of his routine work. The letters 
 were as varied and impossible as can be imagined. 
 One letter I recall, over which we three laughed 
 aloud. It was from a man in Vermont. "I am 
 thinking of buying a horse", it began. "And I 
 write to you, Colonel, because you must have learned 
 
290 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 a good deal from your dealing with horses on your 
 ranch. Now, the horse I have had offered me 
 is . . ." and so on. Roosevelt sped through the 
 badly written lines, really amused, I think, and 
 passed it over to his secretary. From her the man 
 in Vermont probably got a pleasant letter, which 
 was not likely to do him any harm, at least. 
 
 Among the monarchs of the earth with whom 
 lloosevelt consorted was King Haakon of Norway. 
 They dined and walked and talked together with 
 much mutual satisfaction. Lawrence Abbott, who 
 saw all, tells so good a story of our great Repub- 
 lican, as he charmed away the medieval prejudices 
 of Norwegian royalty, that I give it in detail: 
 
 "Mr. Roosevelt was narrating his experience as 
 a deputy sheriff in the ranching days. He was in 
 pursuit of a red-handed border ruffian, and his 
 friend, Sheriff Seth Bullock, was after the same 
 criminal. Their official lines converged and finally 
 met at a point where the pursued criminal lay dead 
 on the ground. Then Roosevelt said, 'Your 
 Majesty, you have been much in England and are 
 familiar with grouse-shooting. So that I may tell 
 you that Sheriff Bullock and I met, over that 
 dead body, in the attitude of 'My bird, I believe?' " 
 
 In Mr. Roosevelt's itinerary of triumphal prog- 
 ress, Germany was included. The Kaiser was of 
 course one of the most important personages on 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 291 
 
 his "visiting list", for several reasons. And his 
 relations with that individual had been somewhat 
 involved. In the Venezuela affair, Roosevelt must 
 have seriously jarred the arrogant poseur of 
 Berlin. But Roosevelt had followed an intelligent 
 and sustained policy toward him. This he divulges 
 in a letter to Henry White, Ambassador to Rome, 
 in August, 1906. 
 
 "My course toward the Kaiser, during the last 
 five years, has been uniform. I admire him, re- 
 spect him, and like him. But he has intense ego- 
 tism. I have tried to show him that I am friendly 
 to him and to Germany. When I have forced him 
 to give way I have tried to build a bridge of gold 
 for him, thus helping him to preserve his dignity 
 and reputation. In other words, when I have had 
 to take a part of the kernel from him, I have been 
 anxious that he should have all the shell possible, 
 and have that shell painted in any way he wished." 
 
 I give Roosevelt's estimate of the German Em- 
 peror for what it is worth. It was formulated in 
 1906. In 1916 and 1918 that opinion may have 
 altered. Letters had been exchanged between the 
 two world-leaders; now they met and said pleasant 
 words to each other ; but under all that intercourse, 
 especially as read in these post-bellum days, there 
 seems always present a guardedness, a watchful- 
 ness, which betrayed a veiled mutual distrust. 
 
292 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 The Emperor showed his visitor every courtesy 
 and tried in several ways to impress upon this 
 powerful citizen of the American Republic the 
 resources and the potentialities of his empire. As 
 a feature of his hospitality, the Emperor invited 
 Roosevelt to witness some maneuvers of his army. 
 This reviewing lasted several hours; and Roose- 
 velt, in speaking of it afterward, declared that 
 Wilhelm "talked steadily." That may be. But 
 I suspect that our fertile, fluent American did a 
 larger part of the talking than he realized. While 
 they were riding about together, the court pho- 
 tographer took a series of pictures of the two 
 eminent men. And the Emperor later sent copies 
 of these to Roosevelt, at Oyster Bay. On the 
 backs of the photographs the Kaiser wrote hu- 
 morous explanations. On one of them — a picture 
 of the two on horses, with Roosevelt talking vigor- 
 ously and the Emperor listening — is inscribed, with 
 excellent humor: "The Colonel of the Rough 
 Riders lecturing the chief of the German Army." 
 
 A later incident is pertinent here, which is told 
 about the visit of a prominent German- American 
 (so called) to Oyster Bay, after Germany had 
 invaded helpless, betrayed Belgium. The visitor 
 reminded Roosevelt that the Emperor had shown 
 Roosevelt greater honors at Berlin than he had 
 ever before shown to any private individual. The 
 
■ <*-:■ 
 
 COPYRIGHT INTERNATIONAL FILM SERVICE, INC. 
 
 ROOSEVELT TALKS WITH KAISER WILHELM. 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 293 
 
 drift of the man's artful words was apparent. 
 Roosevelt sensed it; and his reply came promptly 
 and sharply, "My relations with the Kaiser have 
 been exactly the same as with the King of Bel- 
 gium." 
 
 England came last on Roosevelt's list, and his 
 reception there was sympathetic and enthusiastic. 
 He had given his Sorbonne lecture in Paris; and 
 in London he gave his now famous "Guildhall 
 Address." It created great confusion for a time 
 — mainly protest and disapproval — but all that 
 turmoil settled down soon into a reasonable ac- 
 ceptance of the courageous American's reasonable 
 words. He had simply told them that they should 
 hold a tighter rein over their dependency, Egypt. 
 As a discerning Englishman put it, he said, "Gov- 
 ern or go." The recent assassination of Boutros 
 Pasha gave point to his advice. John Bull frowned 
 and blustered a little, annoyed that anybody should 
 advise him about anything; but his good sense 
 prevailed, and very soon he set on foot in Egypt 
 wise, stern measures which probably grew out of 
 Roosevelt's plain words. To illustrate the fitful- 
 ness of popular favor and disfavor, I recall the 
 well-known fact that this Guildhall address, which 
 English newspapers made so much fuss about, was 
 not a hasty composition, as some hasty critics hastily 
 declared, but was prepared with great deliberation ; 
 
294 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 and its main points were laid before Earl Grey 
 and others before it was delivered. 
 
 An unexpected and mournful episode in Roose- 
 velt's tour was his attendance of the obsequies of 
 King Edward. The King had died on May 6, and 
 President Taft had directed Roosevelt to act as 
 a representative of the United States at the formal 
 exercises. Much pomp and circumstance charac- 
 terized the obsequies. Roosevelt and King Edward 
 had been friends, and the death and loss came to 
 our ex-President in a personal way. He bore his 
 part in the sad duties. All the sovereigns of Eu- 
 rope assembled in London to do honor to the il- 
 lustrious dead. Incidentally, they made- calls upon 
 Roosevelt, who was staying at Dorchester House 
 with Ambassador Whitelaw Reid. And he was 
 bored insufferably by much of their privileged and 
 titled dullness. 
 
 One of my classmates tells me that long after 
 Roosevelt's return to our shores, the two men were 
 recalling some of the incidents abroad. Said my 
 friend, "There must have been vast crowds in the 
 London streets, when the royal funeral cortege 
 passed, and they were looking for the last time upon 
 their king." "No," replied Roosevelt, with eyes 
 twinkling, "they were engaged, principally, in 
 looking at me." The hasty, acrid reader, whose 
 eye falls upon that last sentence, scoffs at its 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 295 
 
 egotism. But the keener reader smiles, with 
 Roosevelt and my other classmate, and knows that 
 it was absolutely true and is struck by the some- 
 what mournful humor of it. Roosevelt was so 
 truthful that he dared say even that. He was not 
 spoiled by his unparalleled popularity, but he was 
 not unaware of it. England had pretty well got his 
 measure, if we may cite Rudyard Kipling's words 
 as symptomatic of the national estimate of Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt. 
 
 In a letter which Kipling wrote to Brander 
 Matthews in 1910, he said, "Roosevelt has come 
 and gone and done our state great service. Here 
 you have one single-minded person saying and 
 doing, quite casually, things which ought to set 
 the world planning; instead of which the world 
 says 'Thank you, please do it again.' Take care 
 of him. He is scarce and valuable." 
 
 My classmate, Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, 
 has told me about a statement of Roosevelt's which 
 serves to bring out one of the rare sides of his 
 many-sided nature. The two friends were talking 
 together one day, and Professor Hart remarked, 
 "You have the reputation, Roosevelt, of being a 
 very astute politician." 
 
 This led Roosevelt to say these things. "I don't 
 know or care what they mean by my being 'astute.' 
 The whole thing is simply that I try to find out, at 
 
296 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 every step, what is the right thing to do, and then 
 I do it. The difficulty is not in the doing, but in 
 the finding what the right course is." 
 
 That is not the difficulty with most people. 
 Their difficulty lies in willing and doing the right, 
 after they are reasonably clear as to what it is. 
 But Roosevelt's nature was so tremendously moral, 
 his reaction toward the right, when discerned, was 
 so automatic, that his only difficulty lay in his 
 discernment of the right. And in many of his 
 measures and "policies" — the Panama Canal and 
 the Coal Strike, for examples — this was what gave 
 him power. Once having seen his course clearly, 
 according to his best insight and judgment, he 
 moved toward it promptly and irresistibly. 
 
 It was this simple, elemental, moral quality in 
 Roosevelt that deceived — or, rather eluded — his 
 rivals and enemies, through the greater portion of 
 his career. When he said a thing he meant it. But 
 they, by nature or training devotees of indirection, 
 instantly began to cast about for his meaning, and, 
 behold, it was laid there at their very door. "And 
 they call that 'astuteness'," exclaimed my class- 
 mate, with a smile of vast delight. 
 
 I am reminded here, as I think of the high honors 
 bestowed on Roosevelt at this period of his life, 
 of the charges of mendacity which were hurled at 
 him by his enemies, at several epochs. This charge 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 297 
 
 of mendacity interests me, as an analyst of Roose- 
 velt's character. It was a superficial, unscientific 
 estimate, and was usually an outcome of hatred 
 rather than of calm observation. Roosevelt was 
 essentially sincere. His instinct for the truth was 
 like that of the compass needle for the Pole. Yet 
 no normal man of average intelligence but has told 
 lies, great or small, many or few; yet there is rarely 
 any doubt of the standing of a man in his friends' 
 and neighbors' estimation. A man is known as 
 habitually truthful or mendacious, irrespective of 
 any one fact in his record. And Theodore Roose- 
 velt was almost fanatically a truth-lover, in him- 
 self, in other people, in words and in deeds. But his 
 personality, his psychology, shows in this, — that 
 he lived intensely in each day or hour, rarely re- 
 calling the dead past, and far more concerned with 
 observing and estimating accurately to-day than 
 with recalling his observations and estimates of 
 yesterday. This habit of his played havoc with 
 those tinsel consistencies which so torment your 
 professional politician, — that creature who never 
 puts himself on record if he can avoid it, and often 
 finds it convenient to be absent when a measure is 
 put to vote. 
 
 I daringly said something of this sort to my 
 classmate, one afternoon at Oyster Bay; and he 
 took it equably, facetiously, yet approvingly. 
 
298 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 "This is what I say to people," I remarked, "who 
 sneer at your Ananias Club and suggest that you 
 make yourself president of it." He laughed. He 
 knew well my absolute, lifelong devotion to him. 
 And he replied, with a hearty laugh, "You special- 
 ized in Psychology under William James, in 
 college, I believe." 
 
 With the utmost good nature, he spoke; and I 
 answered, "Yes, and I am forever pursuing a post- 
 graduate course in it." 
 
 I forget the exact year of that visit and that bold 
 scalpel-thrust of mine; but I do recall that he was 
 friendly and fascinating. As I was leaving him 
 he asked, in an instinctively lower tone — which I 
 laughed at openly — "Is there anything I can do 
 for you, Gilman?" And my reply was, with a 
 warm grasp of his hand, "Not one thing; nothing, 
 absolutely — except to allow me the continued joy 
 of working to put you in positions of power, where 
 you may go on fighting the good fight for right- 
 eousness and truth." 
 
 Then it was a bright smile from him and a 
 "Good-by! I've been delighted to have this talk 
 with you." 
 
 Still holding that "Ananias Club" theme in 
 mind, I append those eloquent words of Joseph 
 Choate, in his address at the dedication of the 
 
HIS GREATEST VICTORY 299 
 
 Harvard memorial window in St. Saviour Church 
 (Southwark, London), in May, 1905: 
 
 "So considerable have been the contributions of 
 Harvard's sons to the social and intellectual life of 
 our nation that, if all other books and papers were 
 destroyed, our country's history could be fairly 
 reproduced from the Harvard University Cata- 
 logue, and from what is known of the lives of the 
 alumni there registered. And if you ask me if she 
 is still true to her ancient watchwords, Veritas and 
 Christo et JEcclesiae, I can answer that in our own 
 time, in a single quarter of a century, she has sent 
 forth Phillips Brooks to be a pillar of Christ and 
 the Church, and Theodore Roosevelt to be a cham- 
 pion of the Truth." 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 LAUREL AND CYPRESS 
 
 The triumphal tour of the Roosevelt party 
 through Europe drew to an end. And, from what 
 my active, eager classmate wrote and said, it is 
 evident that he had become bored with it before 
 the end. He had enjoyed the novel experience of 
 dwelling in marble halls and talking with titled 
 persons. And he had found that they varied in 
 character and intelligence precisely as did the peo- 
 ple whom he had known in his native land, — fellow 
 statesmen or neighbors at Oyster Bay. 
 
 The qualities in him which had most appealed to 
 his friends in the several European peerages were 
 his newness and his apparent frankness ; previously 
 they had nocked to William Cody, "Buffalo Bill", 
 admirable type of the American border-scout and 
 manager of the bewildering "Wild West Show." 
 Roosevelt was simply a later curio to them. But 
 the astute ex-President was by no means as naive in 
 his frank expressions of opinion as he seemed. 
 Always, behind his daring and flattering frankness, 
 there sat an intelligent estimate of how much direct 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 301 
 
 statement they could bear. And behind his pic- 
 turesque speech and frontier stories lay a back- 
 ground of reserve and standards of cultivation 
 quite equal to their own. 
 
 So Roosevelt enjoyed it all, with that capacity 
 for enjoyment so marked in him. And then he 
 tired of it; he had sounded the good minds which 
 he had met and had been amused at the foibles of 
 the feebler folk; and now he longed for home and 
 the environment which was native and dear to him. 
 
 I know of nothing more like his own impulsive 
 self than his sending from London for Sheriff Seth 
 Bullock. He explained thus, "By this time I felt 
 that I just had to meet my own people, who spoke 
 my neighborhood dialect." That "neighborhood 
 dialect" was stretching it a little. The simple fact 
 was that Roosevelt loved and trusted that fearless, 
 outspoken Black Hills sheriff and always had 
 done so, since the two first met in the Far West, 
 and Seth confessed presently, 'Yer see, by yer 
 looks I thought yer wuz some sort of a tin-horn 
 gamblin' outfit, an' I might have ter keep my eye 
 on yer." 
 
 Sheriff Bullock and his wife went over, as 
 Roosevelt desired; and the presence of this ex- 
 ponent of the elemental human virtues rested 
 Roosevelt, I think, and made the desired offset to 
 the attentions of dukes and duchesses. 
 
302 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Roosevelt's relations with persons of more rudi- 
 mentary social training than himself, whether in 
 North Dakota or at Oyster Bay, or during a walk 
 through lloek Creek at Washington, were always 
 interesting to the analytic eve. Charles Washburn 
 recalls a visit which he made to Sagamore Hill 
 after Roosevelt's duties as President had termi- 
 nated. And Roosevelt remarked, "I am a Demo- 
 crat and a radical. I like to go to the Lodge 
 (Masonic, not Cabot!) and sit on those hard 
 benches while my cousin's gardener presides." 
 
 An exquisite shading of this "democratic" qual- 
 ity in Roosevelt comes out in a story told by Albert 
 Loren Cheney. "At one of Mr. Roosevelt's recep- 
 tions at Oyster Bay, two members of a reception 
 committee held rather old-fashioned ideas as to 
 conventional dress; and they appeared in plain 
 business suits, while the other members of the 
 committee wore Prince Albert coats and silk hats. 
 The constraint was somewhat noticeable. And 
 when the two men in business suits approached the 
 President, his eyes twinkled, he raised his hands, 
 and exclaimed, 'Here come the aristocrats.' " 
 
 On Roosevelt's return to the United States, the 
 popular enthusiasm was boundless. Probably 
 never in the history of our country, during a peace- 
 ful period, was so much admiration lavished on a 
 plain citizen. In fact it became hysterical, no less. 
 
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LAUREL AND CYPRESS 303 
 
 Crowds thronged about him wherever he went, and 
 evinced their enthusiasm in volleys of cheers. Jo- 
 seph H. Choate, in a New York letter of June 22, 
 1910, to his wife, says: 
 
 "I was down town, all the afternoon, and, on 
 my way up, I saw a tremendous crowd at Fifth 
 Avenue and Twenty-second Street, filling the 
 entire street. As it proved, they were simply wait- 
 ing for Roosevelt to come out of Scribner's, and 
 when he came out there was a rush and a crush, and 
 a hurrahing as if King George V were coming, so 
 that only with difficulty could he get into his auto ; 
 and then it took two blocks before two mounted 
 policemen could get him free of the crowd. All the 
 same, he enjoyed it immensely." 
 
 Of course he enjoyed it; but nobody saw better 
 than he the fickleness of extreme popular favor 
 like that. On several occasions, public and private, 
 he spoke of it; he said, "It is hysterical; and when 
 the popularity of a man has reached that stage, it 
 can turn, in an instant, to opposition, antagonism, 
 hate." At a cordial testimonial dinner given him 
 at Sherry's, he said in substance, "On the ocean 
 there are crests of waves, and hollows or troughs 
 between waves. I have reached the crest, and I 
 have enjoyed all. When the hollow comes, I will 
 try to meet it as best I can." He was interrupted 
 
304 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 at this point by protests and cheers. But he smiled, 
 shook his head, and repeated his words. 
 
 Man of action, of adventure that he was, he 
 was also a scholar. And he knew his history and 
 biography too well to be deluded by the plaudits 
 of the crowd. Doubtless he was familiar with 
 Robert Browning's "Patriot", — "Thus I entered 
 Brescia and thus I go." But this keen analysis of 
 his environment, this relentless facing of facts, did 
 not prevent him from enjoying the sunshine while 
 he had it. And when the shadows came, and the 
 sky darkened, and the faces of men — both chronic 
 foes and apprehensive friends — frowned upon him 
 he still kept his poise, wonderful man that he was; 
 he was dauntless amid the wreckage of his hopes; 
 and nobly, "without capitulation", as Stevenson 
 says, he moved forward over his Via Dolorosa. 
 
 One of my classmates, a sturdy character, the 
 repository of great wealth and important public 
 duties, said to me excitedlv, at our twentv-flfth 
 anniversary, "There is nothing left for us. Life 
 offers nothing to look forward to." "What do 
 
 you mean, H ?" I asked. And he replied, 
 
 "Why, this: We, as a class, as a group, by the 
 supreme eminence of our great classmate, have 
 reached the highest point possible in prestige and 
 fame. Any further move must be downward." 
 
 His feeling was right, but he was overwrought. 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 305 
 
 Roosevelt had a similar feeling when he returned 
 from across the sea, with the applause of Europe 
 in his ears, — yet that applause was drowned by the 
 vociferous adulation of his waiting fellow country- 
 men. But, as so often before, his humor-sense re- 
 lieved the tension. He said playfully to a friend 
 one day at about this time, "I am like Peary at the 
 North Pole ; there is no way for me to travel except 
 south." 
 
 In one sense he was correct. From the outer, 
 worldly viewpoint, Roosevelt's course after his re- 
 turn to the United States was downward, "toward 
 the south." But, inwardly, subjectively, judged 
 by those standards by which impartial History 
 measures men, his course was ever upward until 
 the end. And this book, from now on, even more 
 than in previous pages, will aim at naming and 
 translating the high heroic steps of his career. 
 
 Mention must be made first of the outward 
 events, the political conditions in which he played 
 his part. But only in a condensed way will they 
 be treated. The supreme question for the analyst 
 of Theodore Roosevelt's complex and phenomenal 
 character is this, — how did he meet those stern 
 events and harsh conditions? What effect did 
 they have upon him? What reactions did he show, 
 as he moved along this dark, rocky defile of ad- 
 
306 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 versity, in comparison with his former reactions, 
 when illumined by prosperity and success? 
 
 The answer is that through all his later disap- 
 pointments he abated not one atom of his high ideal- 
 ism and pure, heroic purpose. There are football 
 } > layers upon every college team who play a good 
 game so long as their side is winning. But when 
 the game is going against them, they slacken, they 
 weaken, and sometimes, in desperation, they resort 
 to methods which they would have scorned when 
 they were winning. Roosevelt was not of that base 
 sort. He played as nobly, dauntlessly, heroically 
 in his losing days as ever in the winning days. 
 He remained the same individual, an American 
 citizen of sublime intent, in the Progressive cam- 
 paign and during his enforced absence from the 
 European battle line, as when he held office at 
 Albanv, and in Mulberrv Street, and in the White 
 House. 
 
 The events and conditions which followed his re- 
 turn from Europe, briefly outlined, are these. He 
 had made Mr. Taf t, his friend, President. Not Taf t 
 only, but any man of a half dozen that could be 
 named would have been put into the White House 
 had he so directed. Such was his potent popularity 
 among the people ; although the Republican bosses 
 made wry faces in their councils as they conceded 
 this fact. 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 307 
 
 But Roosevelt had misjudged Taft, as often he 
 misjudged men, under the bias of his tumultuous, 
 emotional nature. In cool blood he read men's 
 minds and hearts with piercing accuracy. But 
 when his blood became heated — and it boiled at a 
 low temperature ; yet be it added that it cooled with 
 remarkable speed — when heated and excited, his 
 power of sound judgment, as in most men, became 
 inhibited; and he erred. He erred with regard to 
 Taft. He thought that Taft was in entire accord 
 with him, and, sharing his views, would continue 
 his policies. But he was mistaken. And Taft, 
 when left to himself, and especially when left to 
 the influences of his friends, deviated from the 
 Rooseveltian policies and — so Roosevelt believed, 
 on his return from. Africa — was working harm to 
 the Republican Party and to the nation. 
 
 There is no need of my going into the details 
 of Taft's measures and policies. At the best they 
 are now but dry bones of the dead past. The inter- 
 esting thing is Roosevelt's character and conduct 
 through this period. Because his leadership of 
 the Progressive Party, and -especially his antag- 
 onism toward his former friend, are acts which 
 have been hardest for the American people to 
 understand. 
 
 Let it be said here that there was no personal 
 strain between Roosevelt and Taft. A report has 
 
308 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 gone forth that when Roosevelt set sail from New 
 York, he sent a friendly farewell telegram to Taft, 
 but was grieved or annoyed that Taft did not ac- 
 knowledge this message for nearly fifteen months. 
 That report is quite unfounded in fact. From 
 personal letters read by me, I know that Taft sent 
 a most friendly letter to Roosevelt just before he 
 sailed. And Roosevelt's telegram to Taft, sent 
 from the steamer, expected no reply and was itself 
 a reply to the friendly Taft letter which I have 
 mentioned. Taft did not write to Roosevelt during 
 the African trip because he did not wish to disturb 
 him in the enjoyment of his well-earned holiday. 
 As he wrote Roosevelt on May 26, 1910, "I did not 
 wish to invite your comment or judgment on mat- 
 ters at long range, or to commit you in respect to 
 issues which you ought perhaps only to reach a 
 decision upon after your return to the United 
 States." 
 
 This was all fair and friendly on Taft's part. 
 And Roosevelt, as he came back into American life, 
 had no personal animus toward his successor. Sim- 
 ply, as weeks passed and as he studied existing 
 national and political conditions, and as he read 
 the complaining letters which poured in upon him, 
 he became estranged from at least the policies if 
 not at first the person of the President. Then came 
 the singular, unprecedented message and sum- 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 309 
 
 mons to him from the "Seven Governors." They 
 urged him, they laid upon him the solemn duty that 
 he oppose Taft's renomination. 
 
 Not at once, but after long, careful inquiry and 
 reflection, he heeded this unparalleled summons. 
 His own strengthening conviction was that his 
 duty to the Republican Party and to the country 
 necessitated such a step. 
 
 At this point I present portions of an extremely 
 interesting letter written at this time by Judge 
 Robert Grant, of Boston, to a friend. It narrates 
 incidents of a visit made to Judge Grant by Roose- 
 velt, and is written in a personal, confidential man- 
 ner. 
 
 "T. R.'s visit to me was arranged January 23rd 
 (1912), when he wrote asking if it would be con- 
 venient for me to put him up, for the night of 
 February 25th (Sunday), as he was coming on to 
 a Harvard Overseers' meeting. He had a standing 
 invitation to stay with me whenever he came to 
 the Overseers' meetings. 
 
 "You have already heard of the letter from the 
 seven Governors and of his Columbus speech. . . . 
 Of course that speech had set the country into 
 convulsions, and every one was on tiptoe to know 
 what his answer was to be, though it was generally 
 assumed that 'Barkis was willing.' My house had 
 suddenlv become a storm center, not altogether to 
 
310 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 my relish, fond as I am of Theodore. All Sunday 
 morning the telephone was kept very busy by 
 newspapers and people who wished to communicate 
 with him, and a small army of reporters had es- 
 tablished itself near my house. 
 
 "When T. R. arrived, at 3:30, he said he would 
 not see any one until 5:30, and that he wished to 
 tell my wife and me 'all about it.' So he sat down 
 in our library and talked over two hours. At six 
 o'clock he had a short interview with the reporters, 
 downstairs, but gave them no inkling of what his 
 response to the Progressive invitation would be. 
 He told them that his decision would be announced 
 from New York. 
 
 "Three friends — invited at his request — came 
 to dinner that evening, and sat with us until half- 
 past eleven, the conversation — an absorbing mono- 
 logue punctuated by questions — running mainly 
 on the burning topic [the proposed Progressive 
 Party]. Theodore seemed in perfect health. As 
 he was starting upstairs for the night he stretched 
 out his arms and exclaimed, T feel fine as silk.' It 
 was just 'midnight; and with the strenuosity of the 
 day I myself was feeling a trifle jaded. 
 
 "Xext morning the news was in the newspapers; 
 and our house became — until four o'clock — a po- 
 litical headquarters. I fled to my court duties at 
 nine, but my wife stood by the Penates. The 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 311 
 
 Colonel had possession of the rooms, downstairs, 
 and visitors were numerous, coming singly and in 
 delegations — some from other states. 
 
 "Some of the points which were brought out by 
 our conversation, the evening before, were these. 
 I asked, 'Has not every one of your friends ad- 
 vised you against this step?' He replied that every 
 one had; but that he had deliberated long upon the 
 matter and could not disregard the call made upon 
 him by the seven Governors, — to do so would be 
 cowardice. 'But you will agree that Taft has made 
 a good President, this last year?' I suggested. He 
 acquiesced, without enthusiasm, and added that 
 Taft had left the Republican party in a condition 
 of respectable inactivity. When I suggested that 
 the public would say that he was disloyal to the 
 President, it was evident that this did not disturb 
 him. 
 
 "Further, he said that he realized that the proba- 
 bilities were all against his nomination; that a 
 President in office has all the machinery on his side ; 
 but that, of course, it would not do to admit, out- 
 side, that he expected to lose. . . . Unquestionably 
 he believes that we are on the brink of a great 
 economic revolution, and that it is better that the 
 Republican party should point the way than that 
 the Socialists should lead. It was manifest that he 
 believed that it was indispensable for the future 
 
312 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 good of the Republican party that he should make 
 the breach. When he said as much, I asked: 'But 
 the situation is complex, I suppose? You would 
 like to be President.' 'You are right,' he replied, 
 'it is complex. I like power; but I care nothing 
 to be President as President. I am interested in 
 these ideas of mine and I want to carry them 
 through, and feel that I am the one to carry them 
 through.' He said that he believed the most im- 
 portant questions to-day were the humanitarian 
 and economic problems, and that reforms were 
 urgent. 
 
 "Much as I admire him, I feel as if he has made 
 an unnecessary mistake which threatens to be his 
 Waterloo. And yet at the same time, I am so in 
 sympathy with his desire for social justice that I 
 am likely to be classed as one of his supporters. 
 But I feel a little as if a Baby had been left on my 
 doorsteps." 
 
 Here I take up that most nearly insoluble prob- 
 lem in Roosevelt's career, — his break with Taft. 
 It is not really insoluble, not actually incompre- 
 hensible, but complicated and intelligible only as 
 one grasps the "springs of action" in Roosevelt's 
 nature. Often I have heard people say, "I admire 
 Roosevelt in all particulars except one. I cannot 
 understand — or forgive — his going back on Taft, 
 his friend." 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 313 
 
 That statement argues well for the sound, 
 wholesome heart of the speaker, but reveals that 
 speaker's misapprehension of Roosevelt's mental 
 and moral make-up. His affections were strong 
 but his moral sense was even stronger. He felt 
 deeply the call of friendship, but his devotion to 
 duty, to right and truth as he understood them, was 
 phenomenal, even fanatical. And the change of 
 attitude which he underwent toward Taft he would 
 have undergone toward his closest of kin, even 
 toward a member of his own beloved family, under 
 similar conditions. 
 
 That stand, taken by Roosevelt against Taft, 
 was either fanaticism or it was exalted patriotism. 
 Call it, then, which you will. But I have stated the 
 psychology, the ethics of it, as it appears to me. 
 
 One of Roosevelt's striking acts at this period, 
 while his possibilities as the Republican candidate 
 were pending, was his Columbus, Ohio, speech, on 
 February 21, 1912. In that speech he set forth 
 his now well-known measure, the "Recall of Ju- 
 dicial Decisions." Reports of this measure — in a 
 distorted, incorrect form, the "Recall of Judges" 
 — spread quickly over the whole country; and it 
 aroused much sharp opposition; it was held to be 
 revolutionary and anarchic. As a "Recall of 
 Judges" it would indeed have been very radical; 
 but it was only a recall of their decisions. And 
 
314 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 such a recall — as Roosevelt wrote me personally 
 — should come only after giving the people several 
 months in which to reach a cool, calm opinion. 
 
 Taking this Columbus speech in this, its real and 
 moderate form, it interests me in two ways. First, 
 it was an astonishing act of courage or defiance; 
 Roosevelt must have known that it would arouse 
 the entire legal profession and thousands of other 
 persons against him. Second, I see in this "Recall 
 of Judicial Decisions", this check and correction 
 laid upon the courts, a consistent expression of 
 Roosevelt's life-long distrust of legal prestige and 
 power. All through his life — at least after his 
 brief study of law in his uncle's office — he dis- 
 trusted the absolute authoritative integrity of the 
 legal profession. He numbered many trained at- 
 torneys among his friends, but his distrust lay 
 rooted under all, nourished by his experiences with 
 New York courts. Further, his plea for the 
 "Recall" expressed his profound democratic belief 
 in the authority of the body of the people over 
 against any class or privilege. He was the most 
 consistent, democratic Republican that this coun- 
 try ever produced. 
 
 So he made his daring, consistent, conscientious 
 "suicidal" speech, which further included the radi- 
 cal but less inflammatory suggestions of the Initia- 
 tive and the Referendum, and took what came of it. 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 315 
 
 What came of it was the renomination of William 
 Howard Taft by the bosses, sometimes called the 
 "Old Guard", of the Republican Party. 
 
 The "Old Guard", posing as the Republican 
 Party, ruled out unmanageable Theodore Roose- 
 velt, who could have swept the country as the Re- 
 publican nominee; but it failed to elect its candi- 
 date; and it threw the election to the Democratic 
 candidate, Woodrow Wilson. Thus the bosses of 
 the Republican Party split that party through their 
 own jealousy and greed of power, when they might 
 have steered it to victory. The final vote proved 
 this. The election of November 5, 1912, gave the 
 result: about fifteen million votes were cast; 
 Wilson received about six million ; Roosevelt about 
 four million, and Taft about three million. If the 
 total votes for Roosevelt and Taft had been thrown 
 as one vote for Roosevelt as a Republican candi- 
 date, he would have been elected by over a million 
 votes; but the Republican bosses would then have 
 lost their control, even as they actually lost it by 
 the election of Wilson. 
 
 As soon as it became clear that Roosevelt had 
 been shut out of the Republican nomination, which 
 the party as a whole desired for him — shut out of 
 it by meticulous and even perverted applications 
 of legal technicalities and precedents, in the Con- 
 vention — then the Progressive Party began to 
 
316 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 take fuller form. And it held its convention at 
 Chicago on August 5. 
 
 Two impressions I give, concerning that remark- 
 able assembly, out of the many equally vivid ones 
 which press for utterance. First, I recall the 
 marked moral and even religious character of that 
 Convention, contrasting strongly with the adroit 
 manipulation and smooth, steam-roller action 
 which had prevailed at the Republican convention. 
 Those Progressive delegates may or may not have 
 been in error, but at least that convention never 
 was surpassed, in its high idealistic quality, by any 
 political gathering in history, ancient or modern. 
 
 And there, among those highly wrought indi- 
 vidualists, the delegates — where the "lunatic 
 fringe" was often plainly in view as they conferred 
 and debated over that bone of contention, the 
 platform of the new party — among them moved 
 Roosevelt, calmest and steadiest of them all, a 
 miracle of self-possession, with the fires of his 
 heart banked into submission, leading his almost 
 frenzied followers to a goal of agreement and a 
 harmony of purpose. As one of the California 
 Progressives said, "Only the courage, tact, and 
 steadiness of Colonel Roosevelt prevented a smash- 
 up. There was almost hysteria in the ranks, due 
 to overwork and insomnia. But Roosevelt, who 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 317 
 
 had worked harder and slept less than any of them, 
 kept also the coolest head." 
 
 That testimony is significant as bearing upon the 
 question of the mental health, the sanity, of our 
 great leader. For the charge of mental derange- 
 ment was one of the several shallow, ridiculous 
 charges brought against him by superficial critics 
 and desperate enemies. An alienist of good repute 
 in New England published at this period an article 
 which, without using Roosevelt's name openly, was 
 an evident and savage attack upon him, and set 
 forth proofs of his mental unsoundness at great 
 length. One of the leading newspapers in Boston 
 declined to print the fallacious article, but another 
 accepted it. This unjust attack was only one of 
 numerous onslaughts made on Roosevelt's condi- 
 tion and capacity. But, through them all, as 
 through a shower of missiles, that brave man strode 
 on, with a soundness and steadfastness which was 
 not like that of a broad-based, commonplace 
 earthen jar, but like the elasticity and vitality of 
 a wind-scourged, pliant sapling, bending and often 
 seeming to yield, but ever regaining its vertical 
 poise, the poise of health and strength. 
 
 Apropos of the methods used in the Republican 
 Convention of 1912 at Chicago, I will quote my 
 classmate, Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of 
 
318 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Government at Harvard University. He was a 
 delegate-at-large to the Convention. 
 
 "In the Chicago Convention, all the evidence 
 obtainable showed that a majority of the Repub- 
 lican voters, the country over, preferred Roosevelt ; 
 while the majority of the delegates elected pre- 
 ferred Taft. Had Roosevelt started in a month 
 earlier, he would have secured about twenty more 
 delegates; and, in the judgment of many people 
 on the ground, that addition of twenty on one side 
 and their subtraction from the other side would 
 have turned the scale. The decision was really 
 made by the southern delegates, who personally in- 
 clined to Roosevelt, but were chosen by methods 
 which put them into the hands of the other side. 
 
 "By a close vote, the Taft forces got control of 
 the machinery of the Convention. The Roosevelt 
 men made it their business to show that there was 
 a strong body of Roosevelt supporters who would 
 vote for him to the last. Hence the unceasing 
 volume of cheers and demonstrations. The man- 
 agement was so exasperated that Chairman Root, 
 by a ruling absolutely contrary to all the prece- 
 dents of the Republican Convention, held that no 
 member could be present and decline to vote; and 
 thereby subtracted two votes from the Massachu- 
 setts delegation, which was tied. The Roosevelt 
 delegates felt that the will of the party had been 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 319 
 
 scandalously disregarded and most of them wel- 
 comed the 'Bolt' as the only means of protecting 
 popular government." 
 
 After the Progressive nomination was given 
 Roosevelt, amid an enthusiasm never transcended 
 in history, came the campaign for the November 
 election. In that campaign I bore my humble part. 
 It is difficult, in these discreet and cautious days, 
 to find men who were Progressives in those glorious 
 days of 1912. There is a singular ignorance of it, 
 often in quarters where it was supposed to have 
 taken deep root and flourished. All men to-day 
 who lay claim to at least average intelligence, 
 affirm the greatness of the leader of that splendid 
 protest against machine rule. But not all of whom 
 I would have expected it are ready to avow their 
 old-time sharing in that reform movement. There- 
 fore let me here make it clear that I was a Pro- 
 gressive, and by pen and tongue and purse gave 
 all the aid I could to put our "Greatest American 
 citizen" into our "greatest seat of power", — the 
 White House. Bearing in mind Mr. Dooley's 
 piquant sketch entitled, "Alone in Cubia", I emu- 
 late him in his charming disregard of arithmetical 
 accuracy, and I declare, with a smile, that at least 
 one other hat — mine — was "in the ring" with 
 Roosevelt's. 
 
320 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Seriously, recalling the events of 1912, I do not 
 find that 
 
 "The leaves of memory seem to make 
 A mournful rustling in the dark." 
 
 On the contrary, I look back upon that thrilling 
 period as through a rainbow arch of beauty. The 
 old days of romance and sentiment, the days of 
 crusades and holy quests, seemed to have come 
 again. This old brown earth, though old, was 
 not sterile, and had produced in our time one who 
 rivaled King Arthur and Richard the Lion- 
 hearted. We sought to tear Wrong from the 
 throne and Truth from the scaffold, but in vain, 
 at least largely in vain. The will of the people, 
 a people who believed itself self-governed, was 
 thwarted; and the will of a half-dozen political 
 bosses, miscarrying, set a man in the White House, 
 who — to use my illustrious classmate's own words 
 — was "not an idealist, but a selfish, dishonest poli- 
 tician." 
 
 One of the "high lights" of that glorious Pro- 
 gressive campaign was the startling yet heartening 
 episode of the attack on Roosevelt, at Milwaukee, 
 by an insane man, Schrank. At once the broad, 
 deep sympathy of a whole nation went out nobly 
 toward the victim of the bullet. Then our Progres- 
 sive hearts throbbed proudly as we read how 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 321 
 
 splendidly our leader had met that dreadful expe- 
 rience. Dauntless he was, in deed as in word; no 
 stage hero he; no sonorous orator he, like Cicero, 
 whose recreant legs bore him safely away from the 
 tumults which his golden voice had raised; but an 
 earnest man with a message to his nation and ready 
 to die in the endeavor to deliver that message. We 
 devotees could not love him more, but we hoped 
 that the incident would reveal his noble quality 
 more fully to the nation at large. 
 
 About a year after this shooting outrage, I was 
 visiting my classmate at Oyster Bay. As we sat 
 in return, took my key at once — as he so easily did, 
 on your mantel, thinking I might see Schrank's 
 flattened bullet there, in a vial." My host smiled 
 in return, took my key at once — as he so easily did, 
 with people he trusted — and replied, "I haven't 
 put that missile up on exhibition yet. I may 
 sometime. But now I've got it safe here — " smit- 
 ing his big, full chest a mighty blow — "It's safe 
 enough, anyway. And it's mine, all mine, too." 
 
 Little wonder it was that the popular mind was 
 much confused and misled, in those heated cam- 
 paign days, about the Progressive candidate. 
 Ninety-eight per cent, of the newspapers of the 
 country were against him. Many editorial writers 
 believed what they wrote, but many did not. I 
 knew one who wrote against him for months, but 
 
322 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 on the wall of that man's bedroom hung a photo- 
 graph of Theodore Roosevelt; and one of his 
 newspaper companions declared that he said his 
 prayers to it. Such was the power of the counting- 
 room and such was the insistence of household 
 needs. 
 
 Among the wild, absurd, impossible canards that 
 flew about in those exciting days, I know of noth- 
 ing more ludicrously extreme than this. I was 
 called to my telephone one evening, and a friend, 
 a fellow Progressive, spoke to me. Said he, "A 
 business man of my acquaintance, from Georgia, 
 is here in Boston. He tells me that in his city this 
 story is generally believed; namely, that at a ban- 
 quet there recently, Roosevelt was a guest, that he 
 drank to excess, and that after all guests had left 
 the dining hall, Roosevelt slipped back into it and 
 drained the dregs of several wine glasses." 
 
 My friend, over the telephone, began to follow 
 up this grotesque and ghastly lie with apologies 
 for taking my time with it. But I broke in with 
 a half-hearted laugh, which he gladly echoed. "Of 
 course it's a lie," I said. And he responded, "There 
 couldn't be a bigger one." 
 
 So extreme was the antagonism toward Roose- 
 velt at that period, so completely did it inhibit 
 sound judgment and common sense. 
 
 At several meetings of Progressive leaders, the 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 323 
 
 untrue, libelous attacks by newspapers were dis- 
 cussed and lawsuits were suggested but were not 
 brought. Roosevelt himself was fully aware of 
 all these scurrilous attacks, and they irritated him 
 appreciably. But he did nothing about them — 
 except to give the lie to the more nearly respectable 
 of them — and then, after the contest was over, and 
 the country, with that remarkable equilibrium 
 which characterizes it, settled quickly into place 
 and peace, then Roosevelt, having fought the lions 
 and nobler beasts of the campaign, turned his at- 
 tention to the hyenas and jackals who had hung 
 on the trail of the nobler animals. He picked out 
 a typical case of libel; an editor of a newspaper 
 in Michigan had declared in print that Roosevelt 
 got drunk frequently. Roosevelt brought a suit 
 against the wretched man, trial by jury came on, 
 lasted one week, and a verdict was returned, in 
 Roosevelt's favor, for the nominal sum of six cents. 
 This was the result which he had desired, complete 
 vindication without doing too much harm to the 
 loose-tongued, contemptible culprit. 
 
 In trying to explain to myself the scandalous 
 rumors about drunkenness which Roosevelt's ene- 
 mies — and even shallow friends — encouraged, 
 especially during the heated Progressive campaign, 
 I have recalled my classmate's excited manner in 
 conversation and at dinner parties; and I have 
 
324 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 seen that a casual observer, noting his eager, 
 animated speech and gestures, and noting, for 
 instance, wine glasses in general use, might easily 
 have been led to associate the two facts and to say 
 that in Roosevelt the wine caused the animation. 
 But such a judgment as that would have been 
 foundationless. It was his own eager spirit that 
 gave animation to his words and actions. A class- 
 mate said this to me recently, "Theodore was the 
 most abstemious of men. He didn't know the 
 difference between whisky and gin. I have sat 
 at public and private dinners with him often. He 
 didn't care what he ate or drank. His great in- 
 terest was intellectual, moral, and humane ques- 
 tions. If I had invited him and a half-dozen other 
 friends to dine, and my cook had failed me, I would 
 have worried less about Theodore than about any 
 of the other guests." 
 
 There is another enlightening explanation of 
 the wicked, absurd rumors about intoxication which 
 John Leary gives. "I was with Roosevelt and 
 other friends at Oyster Bay, just after the trial 
 of the Michigan editor. Our host passed around 
 the cigars, remarking that he could not vouch for 
 them because he did not smoke, but that Leonard 
 Wood gave them to him and Wood knew. Some- 
 body then asked Roosevelt if he ever smoked. And 
 his reply touched the drinking scandal. 'Often, 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 325 
 
 when I have declined a cigar, my friend has asked 
 lightly, "And what are your bad habits?" and I 
 have replied, in a similar mood, Prize fighting 
 and strong drink. Now it happens', continued 
 Roosevelt, 'that the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, 
 elected to create some persons with whom it is 
 never safe to joke — solemn asses who lack a sense 
 of humor. One of those persons to whom I made 
 that jocular remark said to somebody else, "Roose- 
 velt I have heard drinks hard." And that other 
 fool confirmed it: "Yes, I know he does; he told me 
 so himself." And so the story went on its travels.' : 
 I fear that we Progressives were more or less 
 made up like that groping company in Adullam's 
 cave. So kind, sad friends told us often. But not 
 wholly; probably only the "fringe" was "lunatic." 
 Not all the members of that gallant company could 
 be described as "in distress or in debt or discon- 
 tented." The "Mighty Three" must not be for- 
 gotten, they of the dauntless, deathless loyalty. 
 Many there were among us of that strain. And 
 they fought and hoped — yes, and prayed — for 
 they knew that their cause was just. But "The 
 children of darkness are, in their generation, wiser 
 than the children of light." And victory was 
 denied those devoted crusaders, while Truth crept 
 sorrowfully back upon his scaffold and Wrong 
 vaulted gayly to his unmerited throne. 
 
326 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 The defeat at the polls was hard for most of us 
 to accept, especially as we were convinced that the 
 people as a whole had desired Theodore Roosevelt 
 to be their President. As for Roosevelt himself, 
 if he was borne down by the defeat, even temporar- 
 ily, few saw evidence of it. Perhaps we loyal 
 followers overestimated the burden of his disap- 
 pointment. But he had been, through the eager, 
 anxious months, our mighty Atlas, bearing up our 
 world, and we felt deep gratitude and longed to 
 spare him all we could. 
 
 When one takes into the account Roosevelt's 
 wonderful dynamic equation, his combative per- 
 sonality, his always joyous championship of justice 
 and truth, irrespective of results, the conclusion is 
 naturally reached that he by no means regretted 
 his attempt at reform of party weakness and boss 
 tyranny, and he might easily have paraphrased 
 and cheerfully repeated the trite old lines, " 'Tis 
 better to have fought and lost, than never to have 
 fought at all." 
 
 In a recent conversation with James Ford 
 Rhodes, he spoke thus of Theodore Roosevelt. "I 
 knew him through many years, and always I rec- 
 ognized him as a great man. He was our greatest 
 President since Lincoln. And he was the most 
 bookish man we ever had in the White House, 
 despite all the emphasis he put on sports and out- 
 
LAUREL AND CYPRESS 327 
 
 door life. He had rare powers of insight; and he 
 could almost foresee coming- events. A consistent 
 man he seemed to me, too, despite the changes in 
 his views which have sometimes misled people's 
 judgments of him. He grew steadily, all through 
 his career; that growth explained his changes in 
 opinion. His transparent honesty and sincerity 
 was a winning quality. To this quality — and a 
 physical and moral courage which could never be 
 questioned — he added a large intelligence and a 
 rare power of combining ideas into cohesive 
 thought. Lincoln and Washington were his 
 ideals." 
 
 When I mentioned the Progressive Party, with 
 Roosevelt as its leader, Mr. Rhodes shook his head. 
 "I doubt if Roosevelt acted wisely in that," said he. 
 
 I responded cheerfully that I believed that he 
 had done exactly the brave though partly unsuc- 
 cessful thing which needed to be done. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 VALIANT FOR TRUTH 
 
 I come now to the last chapter of this interpre- 
 tation of the character of Theodore Roosevelt. 
 And, as I glance back over the pages already 
 written, I see that I am ending where Virgil began : 
 it is anna virumque cano; and would that I had 
 the inspired pen to chant, in rhythmic strophes, the 
 epic of his dauntless, consecrated life. He was 
 armor-clad, sword in hand, a "Happy Warrior." 
 He was an ethical idealist, — not in words, merely, 
 but in daring deeds and sustained industry, en- 
 during privations and accepting vicissitudes. 
 Dauntless in the face of danger, generous in the 
 hour of victory. 
 
 Roosevelt's moral idealism, attested by his every 
 deed, is what most commands my admiration and 
 devotion. This element in a great leader's char- 
 acter is what determines his lasting fame before that 
 mighty court — supreme over all other courts — 
 World Opinion. The world may be dazzled for a 
 time by the unscrupulous meteor-like career of a 
 Napoleon Bonaparte or a Frederick the Great; 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 329 
 
 but it places in its permanent Pantheon of exalta- 
 tion only such steadfast, star-like idealists as 
 Abraham Lincoln, Chinese Gordon, Francis of 
 Assisi, Georges Clemenceau and Theodore Roose- 
 velt. 
 
 As I pass and repass over the incidents of his 
 life, shaping and reshaping my conceptions of 
 him, I hold all to be true of him that I have pre- 
 viously affirmed; but now, nearing the end, I 
 exclaim: "How wonderfully and ceaselessly this 
 man developed under the schooling of life!" No one 
 preeminent quality in him made him great. He 
 had the ordinary faculties possessed by his fellow 
 men — will, memory, insight, patience, courage — 
 only he had them in an extraordinary degree, each 
 highly developed, none rudimentary, an assemblage 
 of qualities essentially human but so fully devel- 
 oped in him that he was not merely "Man" ; but as 
 Oscar Straus declared to me, with conviction and 
 repetition, "He was superman." 
 
 His chosen field of study, in college days as 
 afterward, was not political economy or sociology 
 or government, but it was a cross-section of all 
 these which we might call "Applied Morals", 
 morality applied to life, worked out in individuals 
 and groups. No abstractions pleased him; but 
 righteousness in terms of tenement houses, sweat- 
 shops, corporations, courts, criminals, wages, 
 
330 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 trusts, — all these problems, with their human in- 
 terest, called upon his insight and judgment and 
 courage. And among these conditions and forces, 
 as on a battlefield among cohorts and battalions, 
 he fought joyously, gloriously, and life to him was 
 a boon and a blessing. 
 
 It might seem that at this point in his life, having 
 filled acceptably such high public offices and having 
 made such a triumphal tour abroad, he would find 
 few interests left him during his waning years. 
 Indeed, he said this very thing to me, at Sagamore 
 Hill one day: "I am through, I fancy, with the 
 active part of my life. Henceforth the place for 
 a man of my age is the hearth-side and with the 
 grandchildren." But his eyes were bright, even as 
 he said this, and his expression was playful, and 
 I knew that the lion in him would rouse easily and 
 instantly, on challenge. 
 
 This playful plea of my strenuous classmate was 
 only the merest pretence. He knew himself well 
 and knew that "the call of the wild" would be 
 potent over him to the end of his days. Theodore 
 Roosevelt, with his frank, direct nature, was very 
 unlike the "Wily Odysseus" of ancient Greek 
 tradition. But he had many points in common 
 with Tennyson's "Ulysses." As I read that poem, 
 I come to the line, 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 331 
 
 "I cannot rest from travel. I will drink 
 Life to the lees. . . ." 
 
 And I am reminded of our illustrious, active 
 American. He was eager to explore new regions 
 of the earth; he desired to experience every human 
 emotion. Hence, in 1913, when the opportunity 
 came to travel into the wilderness of South 
 America, he accepted it. It was an expedition 
 fraught with perils and privations, at its best ; and, 
 in his case, it exhausted him and took years from 
 his life. This he knew well and admitted, on his 
 return. And thousands of saddened friends, in 
 1918, said to one another, "But for that deadly 
 trip into the wilds of Brazil, our 'Greatest Amer- 
 ican' could become our 1 President in 1920." 
 
 The original object of the expedition was the 
 securing of flora and fauna from the central 
 plateau of Brazil. Roosevelt's great interest in 
 natural history made this prospect extremely at- 
 tractive. But, at Rio Janeiro, the Brazilian Min- 
 ister suggested that Colonel Roosevelt join in with 
 the plans of Colonel Rondon, an experienced 
 Brazilian explorer, and trace the course of a 
 slightly known river, the Rio da Duvida (River 
 of Doubt). This plan was carried out. 
 
 A detailed account of the vicissitudes of this 
 deadly trip has been written out by Roosevelt in 
 a book, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness." The 
 
332 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 wonder is that any one of the Roosevelt party 
 survived the exhausting experiences. All of them 
 were in bad condition when thev returned to Xew 
 York, and the leader himself, at that time fifty- 
 live years old, was manifestly at low ebb. 
 
 An interesting and very "human" incident which 
 occurred on Roosevelt's journey from Xew York 
 City down to Oyster Bay has been given me by 
 Charles K. Bolton, of the Boston Athenaeum. 
 After the train had started from Xew York, 
 Roosevelt was told that a considerable number of 
 fellow townsmen had come up to the city in order 
 to travel back with him and shake hands with him. 
 He was in a very fatigued and even weakened con- 
 dition; but, on learning this, he started on a tour 
 through the train and greeted every friend. He 
 ended this wearying little tour in the baggage car, 
 where he sat down to rest on a trunk. Fresentlv 
 he asked a friend, who was standing near him, if 
 he could get him a glass of water. This was done 
 speedily. Just as he was about to drink, a little 
 dog, who was fastened as "baggage" at the end of 
 the car, whined a plaintive request for some of that 
 water. 
 
 Instantly Roosevelt noted the thirsty little ani- 
 mal's need and wish, carried the glass of water over 
 to the animal, drank half of it, and gave the eager 
 little creature the remainder. 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 333 
 
 It was a characteristic act. He, the hunter of 
 big game, who had killed lions and bears and many 
 savage beasts, never lost that tender sympathy 
 with petted dogs and horses which always charac- 
 terized at least three Roosevelt generations. Sav- 
 age, man-eating beasts of forest and jungle were 
 quite different, in Colonel Roosevelt's estimation, 
 from the loving, trusting, dependent animals of 
 the household whom we make our pets. 
 
 A disastrous enterprise the Brazilian trip had 
 proved to be. "The River of Doubt" — now called 
 by official order Rio Teodoro — had been discov- 
 ered, but at too great a cost. Roosevelt, after 
 manifesting the most inflexible courage and forti- 
 tude, came back to civilization sick and enfeebled, 
 and with at least a decade of years cut out of his 
 life. But such years as he had remaining he filled 
 with acts of the finest fiber of American citizenship. 
 After a few months of rest and recuperation, he 
 rose nearly to his former level of efficiency, — or 
 outwardly appeared to. Then came the challenge 
 to his lion-like nature, — his beloved country's great 
 need of leadership in the days when Germany was 
 threatening the rest of the world and the man in 
 the White House was elaborating his "watchful 
 waiting." "Waiting?" For what? Waiting for 
 an indignant, humane nation to force him into a 
 righteous war. 
 
334 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 President Wilson's apologists urge that he could 
 not safely and wisely have moved toward war 
 "until he had the country behind him." But the 
 reply to that plaintive, dove-like cooing is that had 
 he been a real leader, he could have led them to 
 action a year before they reached it, — dragging 
 him along with them. Had Theodore Roosevelt 
 been President he would have been a real leader; 
 he would have brought the people — by speeches 
 and proclamations — a year earlier to that goal of 
 just and valorous knight-errantry toward which, 
 unaided from the White House, they were blindly 
 groping their way. 
 
 Lyman Abbott — perspicacious man — said to 
 me anent the Mexican internal troubles, just then 
 under full headway, "If Theodore Roosevelt were 
 President he would settle and quiet Mexico in one 
 month. Such is his power of stimulating leader- 
 ship." And the same principle would have held 
 true of the vastly larger, more complex World 
 War. 
 
 While the paciflstic occupant of the White 
 House dallied with his obvious duty and the people 
 became more and more impatient at his indiffer- 
 ence and timidity, Roosevelt busied himself, day 
 and night, by tongue and pen, in voicing the rising 
 tide of popular demand that we take part in the 
 defense of justice, freedom, and world-civilization. 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 335 
 
 Although many Pacifists and pro-Germans raised 
 a hue and cry against his efforts, Roosevelt became 
 steadily the incarnated demand of the American 
 people for righteous participation in the war. 
 
 In this voicing of the wish and will of the people, 
 Roosevelt was much aided by his confidential rela- 
 tions with the newspaper men of the country. 
 John Leary, Jr., has given us a very interesting 
 chapter on the singularly intimate terms on which 
 Roosevelt lived with the reporters or correspond- 
 ents of the great Xew York dailies. They hung 
 about him at Oyster Bay, even in his days of de- 
 feat, like a guard of honor. They knew, with a 
 newspaper man's instinct, that although he was 
 under the shadow of official disapproval, yet, as a 
 private citizen, he stood foremost in the country, 
 and his influence was more potent than that of any 
 other man. 
 
 By their tact and intelligence and admiration, 
 those reporters knew how to adjust themselves to 
 the sometimes imperious yet always generous, ten- 
 der will of the man about whom they gathered. 
 They formed a brilliant little coterie and liked to 
 think of themselves as a "newspaper cabinet", 
 after the fashion of the intimate "Tennis Cabinet" 
 of former days at Washington. 
 
 All through his life Roosevelt, more than any 
 known public man, had depended on newspaper 
 
336 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 men; through them, treated squarely, he had been 
 able to thwart the wiles of party leaders and make 
 himself understood by the "Plain People", — his 
 real source of power. He always established trust- 
 ful and even affectionate relations with them. He 
 was once a guest of the Illinois Bar Association 
 at a dinner. Several of the members of the "news- 
 paper cabinet" followed him, but were kept out- 
 side. When, half through the dinner, he learned 
 that they were not allowed to be present, he left 
 the table and joined them in the grill of the hotel, 
 remaining there much longer than the presiding 
 officer of the dinner wished. 
 
 But the incident — and others like it — bound 
 him and the newspaper men over the whole country 
 closely together, even though many of those men, 
 at times, were compelled to conceal their sympa- 
 thies. 
 
 The genuine affection in which that "cabinet" — ■ 
 picked men — at Oyster Bay held him was evinced 
 at the sad end, when they learned that he had died. 
 John Leary gives the tender touch to that situa- 
 tion, thus: 
 
 "The taxicab driver was taking two reporters 
 back to the station from Sagamore Hill, on the day 
 when its master left it on his last journey. 'Brace 
 up, Phil!' said one. 'We'll soon be in town. Pull 
 yourself together!' 'Shut up, you fool!" blubbered 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 337 
 
 the other. 'You're crying just as hard as I am.' : 
 During the highly wrought ante-war period, 
 aided by the more independent newspapers, Roose- 
 velt — it has been said by competent judges — did 
 a greater work than when in the presidential chair. 
 He was tireless in summoning the nation to rise 
 from its ease and lethargy and to heed its con- 
 science and its heart, as the continued tyrannies 
 and atrocities of Europe were reported in this 
 country. Through it all, with Pacifists and pro- 
 Germans synchronizing in their extremely militant 
 demands for peace, he kept on his way. He was 
 again in battle, this warrior, and he was happy, 
 yet anxious withal. His faith in the American 
 people — true democrat that he was — never' really 
 failed. 
 
 Julian Street gives a few flashing lines of com- 
 ment worth remembering. "Well may we be 
 thankful that Roosevelt lived to see his profound 
 faith in us justified, lived long enough to see us 
 take up arms, in answer to his repeated calls, to 
 see us quit the life of ease for that of strenuous 
 endeavor. That the poison of Pacifism did not 
 ruin our nation was due largely to the fact that we 
 had Theodore Roosevelt as an anti-toxin." 
 
 When, after a laggard year had dragged itself 
 along, came the declaration of war, April 6, 1917, 
 not many days elapsed before Roosevelt made his 
 
338 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 suggestion of sending across a regiment or even a di- 
 vision of men made up of former Rough Riders and 
 similar men — all over the draft age — with ex- 
 penses paid by private subscription, with equip- 
 ment furnished by the Allies, and thus not con- 
 flicting with the plans of the regular army. He 
 was to go with it, but not as its commander. There, 
 as in the Spanish War, his good sense and modesty 
 showed. 
 
 Everything looked favorable. Men volunteered 
 for this division by hundreds, and a quota could 
 easily have been raised. But — the President did 
 not favor it. Senator Warren G. Harding placed 
 a resolution before the Senate, in harmony with 
 Roosevelt's suggestion. It passed the Senate and 
 hung, for a time, in the House; but eventually it 
 passed. But — the President would not sign it. 
 He said that it would interfere with the plans of 
 the regular army. A flimsy reason. 
 
 Roosevelt, eager, anxious to take part in the 
 great world conflict, humbled himself to the seek- 
 ing of an interview with the President in the White 
 House. In vain. "Had I said to a man what 
 Wilson said to me," remarked Roosevelt after- 
 ward, "it would have meant a permission. But it 
 was Wilson who said it, and Wilson is — well, I 
 don't know." 
 
 That was Wilson's evasiveness. "Being by na- 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 339 
 
 ture and inclination secretive" — as ex-Secretary 
 Lansing has expressed it — he left the matter 
 cloudy, in Roosevelt's eager, anxious mind. Then 
 came those ominous, terrible words of Roosevelt's, 
 as cited by Leary, "It is the regret of my life that 
 I am not permitted to serve. Had I been per- 
 mitted to go across, there need not have been any 
 fear felt as to political glory to be reaped by me, 
 for I would never have come back." 
 
 That awful statement meant that he knew his 
 limited resources of health and strength, and he in- 
 tended to give all — yes, consecrate and expend 
 himself in this enterprise, and die on a European 
 battlefield — in behalf of world- justice and a 
 righteous peace. 
 
 Such an avowal of martyr-purpose would not 
 mean, from some men, all that it meant from 
 Roosevelt. But we know him, and we know that 
 he would have carried out his intention. It makes 
 me recall by contrast the prophetic words of my 
 friend, Judge Marcus P. Knowlton, regarding 
 Wilson in the beginning of Wilson's presidential 
 term: "We must not expect the highest things of 
 Mr. Wilson." And we learned that. In pain and 
 sorrow, in regret and despair, we learned it. But 
 with Roosevelt we learned to expect the highest, 
 the heroic things. And our dauntless leader never 
 failed us. 
 
340 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 But that humiliating personal and hopeless ap- 
 peal to the autocrat of the White House marks 
 for me the nadir of my classmate's adversity and 
 pain. Think not that he would have made that ap- 
 peal for any personal gain. To die were easier. 
 But for his country's fair fame, for the rescue of 
 civilization in Europe — for the welfare of the 
 world — for all these he bowed himself and became 
 a supplicant. In vain. 
 
 As a document bearing very directly and per- 
 sonally upon this period in Roosevelt's career, I 
 offer a letter of recent date, written to me by 
 Frederick H. Allen, my classmate and Roosevelt's. 
 
 New York, March 24-, 1921. 
 My dear Gilman: 
 
 I have just received your letter regarding your 
 "Life of Roosevelt" and am very glad to answer it. 
 
 You will recollect that Congress, shortly after 
 the declaration of war, on April 6th, 1917, passed 
 a resolution to allow the formation of a volunteer 
 force not to exceed one hundred thousand men. 
 This resolution was passed for the purpose of per- 
 mitting Roosevelt to organize this force. This, 
 with the aid of a staff of workers, his friends, was 
 almost complete and hundreds were enrolling every 
 day. What was lacking was the permission of the 
 President to make it a recognized body, and a part 
 of the army. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt had tried in vain to get this per- 
 mission from the President; and he finally asked 
 me, as his friend and as a life-long Democrat and 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 341 
 
 one who had been active in Mr. Wilson's election, 
 and who was in somewhat close touch with the 
 Administration, to go to Washington to see if I 
 could not secure this permission. He authorized 
 me to say that if he should be permitted to get up 
 an army corps, that the President could appoint 
 the commander of the corps, the commanders of 
 divisions, and that he would be the eighth brigadier, 
 in command merely of a brigade. 
 
 I went to Washington and saw Mr. Baker, Sec- 
 retary of War, and told him what Mr. Roosevelt 
 had said. He demurred at the idea, on the ground 
 that this war should be carried on by the regular 
 officers of the army, and stated that the organiza- 
 tion of the armies should be carried through on the 
 lines laid down by the General Staff and the regu- 
 lar officers, and did not think it well that a volun- 
 teer force should be got together. I said to him 
 that it seemed to me that the question was a broader 
 one and should not be considered from the stand- 
 point of the General Staff and regular officers of 
 the army alone. That the country was not yet 
 awakened to the seriousness of the war, that its 
 enthusiasm had not yet been aroused, and that it 
 would not only be a great help to the country to 
 secure the eager support of Roosevelt and his 
 ardent admirers and friends, but that I felt, from 
 the Democratic Party point of view, it would be 
 a very helpful thing to enlist this enthusiastic sup- 
 port and aid for the Democratic Administration 
 and for the furtherance of its policies in the prose- 
 cution of the war. Besides, as commander of a 
 brigade, Mr. Roosevelt's position would only be 
 one in which he would be directed to carry out 
 orders and in no way be one in which he would 
 
342 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 have any influence upon the plans or strategy of 
 a campaign. 
 
 I saw, however, from Mr. Baker's non-com- 
 mittal replies, that the cards had been stacked 
 against Roosevelt, and that there was little hope 
 of success. However, in order to do all I could 
 and in order to get my views promptly before the 
 President, I got Admiral Grayson, the President's 
 personal physician, who saw him every day and 
 who is an old friend of mine, to lunch with me; 
 and I set forth the arguments that I had stated to 
 Mr. Baker, and told him what I considered to be 
 Mr. Baker's attitude, and that I wanted him to 
 make a personal appeal to the President regard- 
 ing the question; and he promised immediately to 
 do so, and told me further that he agreed with 
 me. 
 
 I returned to New York, and promptly saw 
 Roosevelt and told him of my interviews, but that 
 I felt there was no hope of success. That Mr. 
 Baker had merely "rubber stamped" the views of 
 the Administration and the General Staff; and so 
 it proved to be. 
 
 After my appointment with the Naval Avia- 
 tion in August, and shortly before sailing for 
 France, I went to say good-by to Roosevelt; and, 
 almost with tears in his eyes, he congratulated me 
 upon the wearing of the uniform which had been 
 his heart's desire. I never saw him again, as he 
 died before I returned to this country. I still be- 
 lieve that had he been allowed to organize the 
 corps which he wished to do, that it would have re- 
 sulted in our getting into action in France much 
 more promptly than we did, in effective force ; for 
 most of the men enrolled by him had already had 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 343 
 
 more or less military training and could have been 
 promptly shipped overseas. 
 
 This part of my classmate's letter, bearing upon 
 Wilson's autocratic and probably jealous action, 
 needs no comment. The letter goes on interest- 
 ingly, thus: 
 
 In the Spring of 1917, General Stepanek, then 
 Major Stepanek, who was one of a committee of 
 three, consisting of President Mazarik, Mr. Benes 
 and himself, whose headquarters were in Paris, 
 and who represented all the elements in Czecho- 
 slovakia opposed to the Central powers, came out 
 to this country for the purpose of organizing a 
 volunteer force of Czecho- Slovaks to go over to 
 France to fight. He brought letters to me and I 
 took him down to Washington, first to the State 
 Department, where we saw various gentlemen and 
 where little but a vague knowledge seemed to exist 
 as to the attitude of the Czecho-Slovaks towards 
 the war, and the reasons why so many of them had 
 deserted and gone over to the enemy, and were in 
 opposition to the Central powers, and they seemed 
 in Washington to be rather suspicious of these 
 people as citizens of an enemy power. 
 
 We were told that the Government did not wish 
 to have bodies of Italian- American, Franco-Amer- 
 ican or American Czecho-Slovak troops, but that 
 all citizens, no matter of what descent, should be 
 organized into a national American army. This 
 difficulty was finally overcome by granting permits 
 to Czecho-Slovaks, whether citizens or not, to go 
 to France as civilians, where they were afterwards 
 organized as troops. However, prior to accom- 
 
SU ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 plishing this, I got Roosevelt to meet General 
 Stepanek and myself at the Harvard Club, and in- 
 stead of having to set forth detailed explanations 
 as we had had to do in Washington, the historic 
 and other reasons for the disaffection of Czecho- 
 slovakia, we immediately saw that Mr. Roosevelt 
 knew the history of the country, the history of its 
 coming under the Austrian crown, the difficulties 
 the people had always had in their relations with 
 the Austrian Empire, and the reasons why the 
 great majority of the people took the position they 
 did in opposition to Austria in the war. No ex- 
 planations were necessary with him, such as we had 
 to make in Washington. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Frederick H. Allen. 
 
 During this period of Wilson's "watchful wait- 
 ing" our country was sinking steadily in the esteem 
 and good-will of the entire world. Our nation was 
 in a ferment of unrest and shame. The best ele- 
 ments of our people were increasingly desirous of 
 throwing our strength — sadly and criminally un- 
 prepared though we were — on the side of the Allies 
 as soon as possible. At this time, while visiting 
 friends in Stockbridge, I made an afternoon call 
 upon Joseph H. Choate. That brilliant diplomat, 
 rich in honors, proved as always a most cordial 
 and entertaining host. Conversing about current 
 affairs, I recall that he said, "I receive a good many 
 visits here from many kinds of people, many of 
 them men from other countries. And, from all that 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 345 
 
 I can gather, we are the most hated people on the 
 face of the earth." This he said with that blending 
 of humor and truth for which he was famous. A 
 few moments later, as he asked me questions, it 
 transpired that I spoke of being a college class- 
 mate of Roosevelt's; and I added, "I admire and 
 love that man." 
 
 Instantly a mischievous smile spread over his 
 expressive countenance; and, laying his friendly 
 hand on my shoulder to counteract the sharpness 
 of his words, he called out to his wife, in an adjoin- 
 ing room, "Do come in here, Mabel! Here's a man 
 who really admires Roosevelt." But this was only 
 a bit of play; and he said, immediately afterward, 
 some wise, kind words about our then unpopular 
 Progressive leader. 
 
 The tide of popular favor, however, was then 
 at its lowest ebb. The country — influenced not a 
 little by Wilson's hesitancy and procrastination — 
 was giving more and more sympathetic heed to 
 Roosevelt's exhortatiens. And Mr. Choate, like 
 many other excellent citizens, altered his attitude 
 appreciably toward that man who was really, in 
 those days of impatience and shame, our country's 
 leader, its uncrowned king. "Autres temps, autres 
 moeurs" , says the adage. "Opinions alter with the 
 years", we may translate it. And one of the most 
 striking changes in opinion and attitude that I 
 
346 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 know was this: During the warring days of the 
 Progressive campaign, my illustrious classmate — 
 talking with that rare and charming, but danger- 
 ous, freedom of his — said to me, "I have many 
 enemies; but the bitterest enemy I have is Win- 
 throp Murray Crane." I could not forget that 
 statement. Fancy my feeling, therefore, as I sat 
 in a Roosevelt Memorial Association meeting in 
 Symphony Hall, Boston, in the autumn of 1920, 
 and heard, after the speaking, announcements of 
 checks given and moneys pledged to the Memorial 
 Fund; and the first check which was read was "One 
 thousand dollars from Winthrop Murray Crane." 
 Times had changed assuredly. Just how much and 
 in what ways they had changed, I will not affirm. 
 I make my statement of facts and leave it. 
 
 Roosevelt, the many-sided man of wide interests 
 and broad sympathies, always kept in friendly 
 touch with the magazine world. From 1908 to 
 1914 he was connected with the Outlook magazine. 
 He was free to express his own opinions in its 
 columns on any topic, over his name. This he did, 
 yet he was open to suggestions and frequentljr al- 
 tered his statements and modified his opinions, as 
 some friend gave him new light on a subject. 
 
 In 1914, he became associated with the Metro- 
 politan magazine. As previously mentioned in 
 these pages, I had the great pleasure of sitting be- 
 
FRAZIER'S BRONZE BAS-RELIEF OF ROOSEVELT. 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 347 
 
 side him at his desk one forenoon — the competent 
 and devoted Miss Josephine Strieker, his secretary, 
 being a third — and listened to scores of letters 
 which had come to him, and listened also to the 
 tactful, sympathetic replies which he dictated. The 
 mot is told of him, in this connection, that he found 
 certain critical people hard to please. "If I go 
 down from my office or come up to it, in the front 
 elevator, they say that I am ostentatious. And if 
 I go or come in the rear elevator, they say that I 
 am secretive." 
 
 At this period, and later, he wrote many edi- 
 torials for the Kansas City Star. Through these 
 various channels and by numberless speeches — he 
 was incessantly in demand — he carried on his 
 patriotic leadership of the best thought of the 
 nation. Together with all this public activity ran 
 purely and happily the parallel current of his 
 private home life. His work for the nation did 
 not prevent him from meeting, with great wisdom 
 and matchless fidelity, the demands upon him of 
 his nearest of kin. The same lofty key of family 
 life at Sagamore Hill was kept throughout its 
 master's life. Mr. Bishop gives, in a letter, a story 
 which is striking but in no way exceptional, as to 
 the high quality of the home life of the Roosevelt 
 family. 
 
 During Roosevelt's tour in Europe on his return 
 
348 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 from Africa, the ex-President and Mrs. Roosevelt 
 were staying with the Crown Prince and Princess 
 of Sweden. At dinner one day, the Crown 
 Princess turned to Roosevelt and asked, "Is it 
 true that Mrs. Roosevelt would not receive the 
 Russian Grand Duke Boris when he was in 
 America?" Her guest met her frank question with 
 a reply equally frank. 
 
 "We were at Sagamore Hill, not at the White 
 House, when the incident occurred which you have 
 in mind. The Grand Duke had led a scandalous 
 life in America. This was known to everybody. 
 The Russian ambassador asked permission to bring 
 the Grand Duke to our home. I could not courte- 
 ously refuse this request. Mrs. Roosevelt shared 
 my disapproval of the Grand Duke's notorious 
 conduct and felt that his presence in our house 
 would be an insult. Accordingly, when the two 
 dignitaries arrived, she had gone out. The ambas- 
 sador expressed regret at not finding her at home. 
 And I did not explain further than to say, 'Mrs. 
 Roosevelt has gone out to lunch, Mr. Ambassador ; 
 she is not in the house.' " 
 
 With that fine courtesy which characterized 
 them, Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt never mentioned 
 the affair. "But," adds my fun-loving classmate, 
 in Mr. Bishop's narrative, "apparently the Grand 
 Duke and the Ambassador were not able to conceal 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 349 
 
 their feelings and expressed their chagrin to a 
 sufficient number of people to insure the matter 
 getting into the papers, which it accordingly did." 
 
 It is a delightful little tidbit of social news, espe- 
 cially agreeable to democratic ears. The man 
 Roosevelt — backed by his wife, who shared his life 
 nobly, beautifully — was a real man, with a love of 
 integrity and purity not only in his public career, 
 in brilliant letters and speeches, but also in his 
 private life, down through the simple, personal 
 details of his daily living. Thirty years ago I 
 heard President Arthur Hadley of Yale say in a 
 public address upon social problems, "Society 
 alone has the power to correct the evils which so- 
 ciety creates." True words which have remained 
 in my memory. And while many good people, 
 themselves high-minded, hesitate or fail to make 
 a stand against social moral laxities .which they 
 personally — and feebly — disapprove, not so acted 
 Theodore Roosevelt. The moral idealism of the 
 man was fundamental; it was expressed not only 
 in words, as he stood on the platform with applause 
 punctuating his appeals for truth and justice, but 
 in deeds, even amid the smallest punctilios of a 
 clean, cultivated, social code. 
 
 In the earlier and even in the mid-life periods of 
 my great friend's career, his record stands, in my 
 memory, as in the black-and-white sketches of 
 
350 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 deeds and facts. But the last ten years of his life 
 stand recorded, for me, in colors — the colors of 
 emotion; I knew his preeminence of character; I 
 saw him developing it, through strenuous years — 
 intellectually even if not morally, for he was born 
 with an unchanging passion for truth and right — 
 until he became the greatest living man of his time. 
 And his greatness was not because of the extreme 
 development of any single quality, but because he 
 had all the high qualities of other men, only most 
 of those qualities, in him, were larger and stronger 
 than in them. Thus he was not a prodigy, not an 
 abnormal type; he was a superman; he was first a 
 man and then something more than other excellent 
 able men, around the full periphery of his large, 
 rich nature. 
 
 In masses of vivid color come to me those last 
 scenes of his life. I am not so much concerned 
 with the things he did; but I am deeply sympa- 
 thetic with his feelings as he did them. I rejoice, 
 for example, as I look at that fiery "Barnes trial" 
 in its entirety. It stands out, like a battle scene, 
 in vivid red, like blood. Roosevelt had expressed 
 his opinion of William Barnes's character and 
 actions in plain Saxon terms. Barnes at once 
 brought suit for libel against Roosevelt. Barnes's 
 counsel, William M. Ivins, declared that among 
 Roosevelt's letters could be found evidence of 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 351 
 
 methods similar to Barnes's. He declared confi- 
 dently to Elihu Root, on the eve of the trial, "I am 
 going to Syracuse to-morrow, to nail Roosevelt's 
 hide to the fence." To which boast astute Elihu 
 Root replied, "I know Roosevelt, and you want 
 to be very sure that it is Roosevelt's hide that you 
 get on to the fence." 
 
 Results justified Root's warning. The trial 
 lasted more than a month. Ivins went over thou- 
 sands of letters and speeches written by Roosevelt 
 during his public career, and read selections from 
 them in court. Roosvelt's marvelous memory 
 showed itself when he interrupted the reading of 
 one letter, several years old: "Isn't there an inter- 
 lineation there, which says — so and so?" And it 
 was there, and was read out. 
 
 The whole country followed that exciting libel 
 suit with deep interest, and with a confidence in the 
 defendant's character which the results justified. 
 Roosevelt's name was on the front page of the news- 
 papers day after day. One of his most inveterate 
 enemies said bitterly of Barnes, "He is the most 
 blundering lunatic I ever saw. After the unsuc- 
 cessful Progressive campaign we had Roosevelt 
 dead and buried. And now Barnes has not only 
 opened the door for him to come back, but has 
 pushed him to the front of the stage and made him 
 a greater popular idol than ever." 
 
352 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Two points connected with the triumphant vin- 
 dication of Roosevelt in that trial are worth noting. 
 First, when the time for cross-examination came, 
 he requested his counsel to raise no objection to 
 any question which might be asked him by Ivins. 
 There vou have the fearless Roosevelt, clear in 
 conscience, and self-reliant as ever. He knew that 
 his record was clean, and he welcomed all possible 
 inquiries about it. And the second point, which 
 appeals to every paternal and maternal heart, is 
 that at the end of the day on which the last of his 
 letters was read in the courtroom, he said to a 
 friend, "It has meant more to me than anything 
 else in this trial, that there is not a single thing in 
 those old letters of mine which I am ashamed to 
 have my children read." Just, clean, honest living 
 it was, from his great public policies, known to all 
 men, down to the smallest and most confidential 
 items of his private correspondence, even under the 
 microscope. 
 
 It might properly be added that not only did the 
 whole nation rejoice that Roosevelt came through 
 the trial — verdict eleven to one for acquittal — 
 without even the "smell of fire upon his garments"* 
 but defeated and disappointed William Barnes 
 was presently won over to a new attitude toward 
 the man whom he had accused. Three years later, 
 when the Republican leaders of New York wished 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 353 
 
 Roosevelt to run for the governorship, Barnes was 
 with them; and he said to the reporters, "No mat- 
 ter what my relations to Roosevelt have been in the 
 past, we need now a man of his integrity, character 
 and great foresight." 
 
 It is always pleasant for friends of two men who 
 have been open and intense rivals and enemies to 
 see them generously bury the hatchet and "make 
 up." Such a broad-minded, warm-hearted recon- 
 ciliation took place between Taft and Roosevelt 
 in the Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, on a Sunday in 
 May, 1918. The two strong-natured men, for- 
 merly friends, had become utterly estranged dur- 
 ing the political campaign of 1912. The epithets 
 which they hurled at each other in the blinding heat 
 of that struggle now seem amusing only. But the 
 estrangement was deep. And the breach between 
 them continued to exist through several years. 
 Friends of both, knowing their warm hearts, longed 
 to see them in harmony again. A meeting between 
 the two was arranged at the Union League Club 
 in New York. But it amounted to little. The 
 time for generous concessions on both sides was 
 not yet ripe. Roosevelt said picturesquely, grimly, 
 of this meeting at the Club, "It was one of those 
 friendly affairs, where each side, before entering 
 the meeting place, made sure its hardware was 
 in good order." 
 
354 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 Leary tells us that he was drawn to the dining 
 room of the Blackstone Hotel by loud cheers. 
 And, in a few moments, the message sped through 
 the halls and corridors, "Taft and Roosevelt have 
 got together." And that was the situation. They 
 had happened, quite unexpectedly, to meet in that 
 hotel on that day. And Time had healed the 
 wounds of their former conflicts. They both 
 longed to be friends again. And they became 
 friends. They beamed on each other as they shook 
 hands. 
 
 Later, as Roosevelt went to the railway station, 
 he expressed himself freely and joyously to Leary. 
 "Jack, I never felt happier over anything in my 
 life. It was splendid of Taft." 
 
 Passing now to a somewhat different yet wholly 
 unrelated side of Roosevelt's character, I say a few 
 things about his religious faith. He went regularly 
 to church, at Washington and at Oyster Bay, and 
 wherever it was possible. But that fact does not 
 throw much light on his — or any man's — real in- 
 ner religious convictions. The habit and custom of 
 church-going may involve many diverse considera- 
 tions. And what a man really believes and aims at 
 doing is hidden far within a man's heart. Roose- 
 velt did unbosom himself, however, now and again, 
 to sympathetic friends. 
 
 To John Leary he once said, "I am fond of that 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 355 
 
 verse of the prophet Micah: 'To do justly and to 
 love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God'; 
 that, to me, is the essence of religion." And such 
 it was, in his cool, calm moods. But in September, 
 1918, evidently amid the pangs of his heart over 
 the death of his son Quentin, he wrote "The Great 
 Adventure." And I know few pieces of writing, 
 in the English tongue, which are loftier than this. 
 There is in it the same intense white-heat of passion 
 which we find in James Russell Lowell's "Com- 
 memoration Ode." It almost clothes itself in a 
 garment of rhyme and rhythm. 
 
 "Only those are fit to live who do not fear to 
 die. . . . Both life and death are parts of the 
 same Great Adventure. Never yet was worthy 
 adventure worthily carried through by the man 
 who put his personal safety first. Never yet was 
 a country worth living in unless its sons and daugh- 
 ters would die for it at need. ... In America all 
 our people are summoned to service and sacrifice. 
 All who give service or stand ready for sacrifice 
 are the torch-bearers. We run, with the torches 
 until we fall, content if we can then pass them to 
 the hands of other runners. The torches whose 
 flame is brightest are borne by the gallant men at 
 the front, and by the gallant women whose hus- 
 bands and lovers, whose sons and brothers, are at 
 the front. These men are high of soul, as they 
 
356 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 face their fate on the shell-shattered earth, or in 
 the skies above, or in the waters beneath. And no 
 less high of soul are the women with torn hearts 
 and shining eyes, — the girls whose boy-lovers have 
 been struck down in their golden morning, and 
 the mothers and wives to whom word has been 
 brought that henceforth they must walk in the 
 shadow. These are the torch-bearers. These are 
 they who have dared the Great Adventure." 
 
 This is poetry of a high order. Lacking rigid 
 conventional poetic form, it yet thrills with that 
 exaltation of soul which marks the lines of the real 
 poets. Indeed, what else is it but the mystical 
 Faith of the great Apostle to the Gentiles? 
 
 The days and the months passed, the armies in 
 Europe were close to the verge of exhaustion, but 
 millions of fresh young warriors were hurrying to 
 reach the battle line. And Germany sought an 
 armistice, — which was granted. And the greatest 
 war of all human history practically was over. 
 
 Through it all Roosevelt had expended his 
 energy bounteously, in all channels that were still 
 open to him, the channel which he had most eagerly 
 sought having been closed to him by the autocrat 
 of the White House. He had not sulked in his 
 tent, like Greek Achilles, bitter with disappoint- 
 ment. But after his rebuff by Wilson he strove 
 indefatigably for human rights and national honor. 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 357 
 
 And, by his own pure, high spirit, as well as by 
 contrast with selfish, sordid Wilson, he grew in 
 popular favor rapidly, day by day. And had he 
 lived, he would have been the successful presiden- 
 tial candidate of the whole American nation in 1920. 
 From the crest of the wave — as he expressed 
 it, in 1910 — he had sunk into the hollow of the 
 wave in 1912 and 1913. Then, with the greatest 
 crisis of the world imminent, our greatest leader 
 was summoned from the wave-hollow; and men 
 who had voted for Wilson, men who had hurled 
 harsh epithets at the Progressive Leader, now as 
 one man looked toward him, admired him, praised 
 him and almost worshiped him. The tide of popu- 
 lar favor, at full in 1910, ebbed to its lowest point 
 in 1913. Then, in 1916, it began to rise; and it 
 rose steadily until the day of our illustrious hero's 
 
 death. 
 
 That death came on January 6, 1919, at his 
 dearly loved home at Oyster Bay. He had spent 
 some time at the Roosevelt Hospital a short time 
 before, and, after seeming to be dangerously and 
 hopelessly sick, had revived and had gone to Saga- 
 more Hill. His faithful secretary, Miss Josephine 
 Strieker, attended him closely during those days 
 in the hospital. She has described to me some of 
 the conditions and incidents of that illness. Two 
 qualities in him came out into bold relief, she told 
 
358 ROOSEVELT: THE HAPPY WARRIOR 
 
 me. One was his desire to cause as little trouble 
 to doctors and nurses as possible. Even when 
 stricken with discomfort and pain, he was unselfish, 
 and often expressed sympathy for those who cared 
 for him. 
 
 His other characteristic quality, which Miss 
 Strieker set before me, was his insistence that the 
 frequent bulletins which she prepared and gave 
 out should express the exact facts of his case. Once 
 or twice the doctors \v r ere inclined to modify or 
 
 m 
 
 suppress some of the severest statements. For 
 they knew that those bulletins were being tele- 
 graphed and cabled over the whole civilized world. 
 And they did not like to arouse too much public 
 excitement. When Roosevelt learned this, he 
 protested; he insisted that the truth, the whole 
 truth and nothing but the truth should go into 
 those bulletins. And his wishes were heeded. 
 
 It is a custom among Harvard graduate-classes, 
 when a member of the class dies, for the Class Sec- 
 retary to send a notice of the death, with a few 
 salient facts, to every other living member of the 
 class. When Roosevelt's death came, on January 
 6, 1919, at Oyster Bay, our Class Secretary, John 
 Woodbury, sent out the usual notice; but, instead 
 of giving the customary facts about our classmate's 
 career, he sent to us this citation from Bunyan's 
 "Pilgrim's Progress": 
 
VALIANT FOR TRUTH 359 
 
 "After this it was noised abroad that Valiant for 
 Truth was taken with a summons, and had this for 
 a token that the summons was true, that his pitcher 
 was broken at the fountain. When he understood 
 it, he called for his friends and told them of it. 
 Then said he, 'I am going to my Father's. And 
 though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet 
 now I do not repent me of all my trouble. My 
 sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my 
 pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that 
 can attain it. My marks and scars I carry with 
 me, to be a witness for me, that I have fought His 
 battles, who will be my rewarder.' " 
 
 Thus came to Theodore Roosevelt the end of the 
 earthly life. Our nation and the whole world felt 
 a pang as the sad news went forth. From the lips 
 and pens of longtime friends — and even former 
 foes — poured tributes of praise for this remarkable 
 human being. For all felt, as they made full sur- 
 vey, standing amid the shadows, of Theodore 
 Roosevelt's earnest, noble life, that he had proved 
 himself a true man, a high, fine ideal of American 
 citizenship. 
 
 For myself, although deeply mourning his death, 
 and wondering at his inexhaustible courage and his 
 unbroken fortitude, I am assured that his life was 
 
360 ROOSEVELT: THE HArPY WARRIOR 
 
 a happy one. To me he is — and shall ever be 
 the Happy Warrior. 
 
 "Who is the Happy Warrior? ... He 
 
 • • • • • 
 
 Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, 
 Nor thought of tender happiness betray; 
 
 • • • • • 
 
 Finds comfort in himself and in his cause; 
 And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws 
 His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause: 
 This is the Happy Warrior; this is He 
 That every Man in arms should wish to be." 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, Lawrence, on two hu- 
 morous situations, 244; with 
 Roosevelt at Khartoum, 288, 
 289, 290 
 Abbott, Lyman, 277; on Mexi- 
 can problem, 334 
 Abuse, Roosevelt's feeling toward, 
 
 263, 264 
 Aehilles, 356 
 
 Action, keynote of his life, 103 
 Adullam's Cave, resemblance to, 
 243; Progressives like company 
 in, 325 
 African trip, 279-283 
 Aggressive quality in Roosevelt, 
 
 15 
 Ahlwardt, Rector, anti-Semitic 
 
 demagogue, 124 
 Akelev," Carl, 271 
 Alaska, 203 
 Algeciras, 203 
 
 Alger, Secretary Russell A., 143 
 Allen, Frederick H., letter to 
 
 Gilman, 340-344 
 Ambition, analysis of his, 194-196 
 Americanism, speech at Union 
 
 League Club, 98 
 Ananias Club, 298 
 "Ancient Irish Sagas, The", 
 
 Roosevelt, 253 
 Andrews Creek, camp at, 94 
 "Applied morals", 329 
 Art Club, member of, 42 
 Arthur and the Round Table, 
 
 King, 23 
 Arthur, Vice-President Chester 
 
 A., 202 
 Assembly, elected to New York, 
 
 70 
 Astuteness, reputation for, 295, 
 296 
 
 Athletic Association, member of, 
 
 42 
 Athletics, interest in and devo- 
 tion to, 17, 33, et seq.; keen 
 interest in, 269 
 Atlanta Constitution, 244 
 Aunt Anna. See Bui.i.ock, Anna 
 "Autobiography", the. 3, 64, 76; 
 quoted, 88, 131, 203, 215, 227, 
 267, 268 
 
 Bacon, Robert, 272, 273 
 
 Balboa -^5 
 
 Barnes', William, 350, 351, 352, 
 353 
 
 Bas-relief of Roosevelt, 162 
 
 Bear, encounter with grizzly, 106 
 
 "Ben Butler", accident when rid- 
 ing, 92 
 
 "Black Horse Cavalry", 74 
 
 Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, 353 
 
 "Big Business", 203 
 
 Bishop, Joseph B., 95, 125; 
 quoted, 139, 252, 253, 259, 277, 
 347, 348 
 
 Bolton, Charles K., 332 
 
 Bok, Edward W., 244, 245 
 
 Boris, Grand Duke, 348 
 
 Boston Evening Transcript, 244 
 
 Boston Herald, 243 
 
 Boulanger, General, 163 
 Boutros Pasha, 293 
 Boxing, keen interest in, 36 
 "Boy's Life of Roosevelt, The", 
 
 Hagerdorn, quoted, 170 
 Brattle Street, Number 62, Cam- 
 bridge, 43, 58 
 Brazil, trip to, 331 et seq. 
 Brooks, Phillips, 189, 299 
 Brooks, Preston S., 74 
 Browning, Robert, 135, 304 
 
 363 
 
36-4 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Brownsville affair, 249; Roose- 
 velt's settlement of, 251 
 
 Bryan, William J., 137 
 
 Hrvcc, , James, observation of, 197 
 
 Buffalo, X. Y., President Mc- 
 Kinley assassinated at, 199; 
 Vice-President summoned to, 
 199; Roosevelt takes oath as 
 President at, 200 
 
 Bulbs and blossoms, 12 
 
 Bullock, Anna (Aunt Anna), 
 early instruction by, 20 
 
 Bullock, Setb, 290, 301 
 
 Bunyan, John, 358, 359 
 
 Burroughs, John, on Roosevelt's 
 knowledge of birds, 4 
 
 Cairo, Egypt, daring speech at, 
 
 283 
 California, speech at University 
 
 of, -2-26 
 "Call of the Wild", 77 
 Cambridge, England, reception 
 
 at, 279 
 Capital, 235 
 Capital punishment, attitude 
 
 toward, 176 
 Carlyle, Thomas, Roosevelt's 
 
 opinion of, 231 
 Carow, Edith Kermit. See 
 
 Roosevelt, Edith Ker.mit 
 
 (Mrs. Theodore, ne'e Carow) 
 Century Magazine, 253 
 Chaffee, General Adna R., 151 
 Character, unfolding of his, 74, 
 
 75; the rebuilding of his, 131, 
 
 132 
 Charter Revision Committee, 129 
 Cheney, Albert Loren, 302 
 Chittenden, Lucius E., comment 
 
 on Lincoln "Memories", 2 
 Choate, Joseph H., 66; address 
 
 in London, 299; on Roosevelt's 
 
 home-coming, 303, 344, 345 
 Church, regular in attendance at, 
 
 35 1. 
 Civil Service Commission, ap- 
 pointed to, 103, 104; service on, 
 
 104-117 
 Civil Service Reform, his work 
 
 for, 103-117 
 Clark, E. E., 214 
 
 Class of '80, 21-40; its claim to 
 fame, 21; Roosevelt on Coal 
 Strike at reunion of, 215, 259; 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of, 
 271-274; dinner at Hotel 
 Somerset, 273; secretary's no- 
 tice to, 358 
 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 225 
 Clemenceau, Georges," 329 
 Cleveland, Ex-President Grover, 
 
 213, 249 
 Clubs, membership in, 42, 59 
 Coal Strike, settlement of the, 
 
 211-214, 255 
 Cody, William, 300 
 Collins, "Subby," encounter with, 
 
 74 
 Colombia, 225, 226, 227 
 Colorado, hunting trip to, 197 
 Columbus, Ohio, speech at, 313 
 Combat, love for righteous, 11, 
 14, 15 
 
 "Commemoration Ode'', Lowell, 
 355 
 
 Constant, Baron d'Estournelles 
 de, letter to, 234 
 
 Corporations, reforming laws re- 
 lating to, as Governor, 169 
 
 Correspondence, volume of, 288, 
 289 
 
 Courage, before hostile audience, 
 67, 190; in action in Cuba, 148, 
 149 
 
 Cowboy life, 76-95 
 
 Cowboy, treatment of the dis- 
 honest, 87 
 
 Crane, Winthrop Murray, 346 
 
 Croker, Richard, so-called boss 
 of Tammany, 166 
 
 Cuba, unbearable conditions in, 
 140; return from, 163 
 
 Cunningham, with Roosevelt in 
 Africa, 281 
 
 Curzon, Lord, 280 
 
 Dakota Ter., 76-95 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, correspondence 
 with, 95, 96 
 
 "Days", Emerson, 236 
 
 Dayton, Judge, 211 
 
 De Camp, Joseph, paints por- 
 trait of Roosevelt, 259-265 
 
INDEX 
 
 365 
 
 Delavan House, New York, en- 
 counter at entrance to, 74 
 
 Denver, Col., bold speech at, 190 
 
 Dewey, Admiral George, quoted, 
 140, 219 
 
 Dining club, interest in his, 42- 
 44 
 
 Diplomacy, in Western life, 88 
 
 D. K. Society, member of the, 
 43, 54 
 
 Dobbs Ferry, amusing prank at, 
 9 
 
 Dow, William, 78 
 
 Dress, innate good taste in, 70, 
 71 
 
 Duel, a threatened, 86, 227 
 
 Dunne, Finley P. ("Mr. Dooley"), 
 letter to, 214 
 
 Duvide, Rio da. See River of 
 Doubt 
 
 "Education of Henry Adams, 
 The", quoted, 191, 192 
 
 Edward VII, King, Roosevelt at 
 obsequies of, 294 
 
 Egypt, first trip to, 20, 283 
 
 Effectives, on rank-list in college, 
 60 
 
 Eliot, Charles W., amusing in- 
 cident with, 47 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 236 
 
 Employers' Liability Law, 256 
 
 Energy, dynamic factor of his 
 life," 21 ; his boundless, 97 
 
 England, visit to, 293-295 
 
 English composition, not taken 
 while in college, 60 
 
 Europe, first trip to, 20; second 
 visit, 20; in, with bride, 62, 
 100, 101; return from Africa 
 through, 284-295 
 
 Exchange Club, Boston, speech 
 at, 37 
 
 Eyesight, defection, 4, 17 
 
 "Fairbanks Incident", the, 285 
 
 "Fair play", love of, 36 
 
 Fence, *p icket » around the 
 
 "Yard", 58 
 Finance Association, member of 
 
 the, 42 
 
 Fiske, Rear Admiral Bradley A., 
 his testimonial, 270 
 
 Ford Franchise Bill, the fight for 
 the, 170, 171 
 
 Forest Reserves, 255 
 
 "Four Eyes", a Western sobri- 
 quet, 80, 88; disagreeable en- 
 counter over, 81 
 
 Francis of Assisi, Saint, 329 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 287 
 
 Frederick the Great, 328 
 
 French language, familiarity 
 with, 20 
 
 "From Midshipman to Rear Ad- 
 miral", Fiske, 270 
 
 Galahad, Sir, 75 
 "Gang, The", 230 
 Gavin, Tony, letter to Gilman, 
 
 152-157 
 Germany, and Venezuelan arbi- 
 tration, 218; visit to, 290-292, 
 333, 356 
 Gilman, Bradley, first impressions 
 of Roosevelt, 1; long acquaint- 
 ance with, 2; analysis of 
 Roosevelt's character and per- 
 sonality, 2 et seq.; admiration 
 and devotion for Roosevelt, 
 61; correspondence with Roose- 
 velt, 65; Roosevelt's literary 
 work, 102, 103; on opinion of 
 some peace advocates, 137; an- 
 alysis of Roosevelt's ambition, 
 194-196; the Presidential Pla- 
 teau, 201-228; on Roosevelt's 
 desire for reelection, 229-235; 
 view of Roosevelt's renuncia- 
 tion, 276-279; the break with 
 Taft, 312-315; impressions of 
 Progressive convention, 316; an 
 ardent Progressive, 319; ex- 
 planation of reports of intoxi- 
 cation, 323-325; bitterness of 
 defeat of Progressives, 326; 
 Roosevelt's religious faith, 354 
 Glee Club, an associate member 
 
 of the, 42 
 Goethals, Colonel George W., 
 
 228 
 Gordon, Charles George, "Chi- 
 nese", 329 
 
366 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Gorman, Senator Arthur P., 
 ■It's controversy with, 
 11 J. 113 
 
 Goudy, Dr. Henry, 280 
 
 Governor of New York, wanted 
 by Republicans for, 163, 164; 
 nominated for, 165; elected, 
 ](iii; opposed by Independ- 
 ents, 166, KiT; energy and in- 
 dustry as, 168; four most im- 
 portant m I ' 5, HiS, 169; 
 opposition of the hosses, 169, 
 l; the fighl for the bills, 170- 
 173; attitude toward capital 
 punishment, 1 7 . > ; enjoyment of 
 the office of, 177; home life 
 while, 17 7-181; end of term, 
 182, l v !; desire for second 
 term, 183 
 
 Grant, Judge Robert, Roosevelt 
 at home of, 309-312 
 
 Grant, Ulysses S., 202, 284 
 
 "Great Adventure, The", Roose- 
 velt, quoted, 355, 356 
 
 Great Britain, and Venezuelan 
 arbitration, 218 
 
 Greek, lack of interest in, 60 
 
 Greelev, Louis, 273 
 
 Grey, Karl, 3, 294 
 
 Gridiron Club, 247 
 
 Griffin, Hank, altercation with, 
 105 
 
 Grosvenor, Congressman, his at- 
 tack on Civil Service Reform, 
 111; unavailing call at White 
 House, 160 
 
 Guild, Curtis, in campaign of 
 1900, 1S8, 1S9, 197 
 
 Guildhall Address, London, 293 
 
 Haakon VII, King of Norway, 
 
 290 
 II idley, Arthur Twining, 349 
 Hagerdorn, Herman, "Boy's 
 
 Life of Roosevelt", quoted, 170 
 Hale, Edward E., quoted, 47, 
 
 196 
 Hale, Ellen I)., paints portrait at 
 
 White 1 Ions,-, 22] 
 Hale, .Matthew, amusing incident 
 
 at White House, 205; letter 
 
 from, 
 
 Halford. E. W., 115 
 Handwriting, Roosevelt's, 113, 
 
 114 
 Hanna, Senator Mark, 233, 234 
 "Happy Warrior", the, 98, 134, 
 
 181, "232, 328, 360 
 Harding, Senator Warren G., 
 
 338 
 "Haroun-al-Roosevelt", 121 
 Harrison, President Benjamin, 
 appoints Roosevelt to Civil 
 Service Commission, 103, 104 
 Hart, Albert Bushnell, 295; on 
 methods of Republican Con- 
 vention of 1912, 317-319 
 Harvard Advocate, 28; editor of, 
 
 •12 
 Harvard Crimson, 28 
 Harvard Graduated' Magazine, 
 article on Roosevelt's studies, 
 59, 60 
 Harvard L T nion, public debate at, 
 
 39, 40 
 Harvard University, Roosevelt 
 at, 1; habits of life while at, 
 24 et seq.; the class of '80, 24- 
 40; his rank in class, 31; ig- 
 noring classroom routine, 38- 
 39 
 Hastv Pudding Club, 27, 42, 52- 
 
 54" 
 Havana, sinking of battleship 
 
 Maim at, 141 
 Hay, John, quoted, 141; humor- 
 ous letter to Ambassador 
 White, 184, 235, 236; gives 
 Lincoln ring to Roosevelt, 237 
 Hay-Herran Treaty, 225 
 Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 225 
 Hendricks, Vice-President 
 
 Thomas A., 107 
 Hess, Jake, ward politician, 70 
 Hewitt, Abram S., defeats Roose- 
 velt for mayoralty, 100 
 Hill, Professor A. S., 55, 56, 57 
 History, not taken by Roosevelt 
 
 in college, 60 
 "History of New York City", 
 
 Roosevelt, 132 
 "History of the Naval War of 
 
 1813", Roosevelt, 63, 102, 135 
 Hitchcock, Frank II., 27 7 
 
INDEX 
 
 367 
 
 Holleben, Dr. von, German Am- 
 bassador and Venezuelan arbi- 
 tration, 218 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Doctor 
 
 Hale's opinion of, 196 
 Hong Kong-, 140 
 Hooper, William, 273 
 Hotel Somerset, Boston, 273 
 Howe, M. A. De Wolfe, 270 
 Humor, keen sense of, 9-11, 13, 
 14; his quality of, 158 
 
 Idealist, an, 116, 117 
 
 Iglehart, Doctor, 266 
 
 Illinois Bar Association, dinner 
 
 to Roosevelt, 336 
 Inauguration, 236-238 
 Independence, of opinions and 
 
 actions of others, 26 
 Independents, opposed to Roose- 
 velt for Governor, 166, 167 
 Indianola, Miss., post office at, 
 
 206 
 Influence, his, 94 
 Initiative and Referendum, 128, 
 
 314 
 Institute, The, member of, 42 
 Insurance- Bill, fight for the, 171- 
 
 173 
 "Interests", the, 279 
 "Internationalism", 238 
 Intoxication, malicious reports 
 
 of 322-325 
 Isle La Motte, Vt., 199 
 Italy, visits, 284-287 
 Ivins, William M., 350, 351, 352 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 106 
 
 James, Professor William, 
 
 quoted, 67, 68, 134, 298 
 Janus, Temple of, 141 
 Japan, 238 
 Jordan, David Starr, wide range 
 
 of Roosevelt's interests, 266, 
 
 267 
 Judiciary, denunciation of a cor- 
 rupt, 71, 72 
 
 Kaneko, Viscount Kentauo, 
 Gilman's interview with, 239; 
 at Oyster Bay, 240 
 
 Kansas City Star, editorials for 
 
 the, 317 
 Khartoum, 283 
 Kipling, Etudyard, 191 ; letter to 
 
 Brander Matthews, 295 
 Knowlton, Judge Marcus P., on 
 
 Wooclrow Wilson, 150, 339 
 
 Labor, 235 
 
 Labor and Capital, 209; and the 
 
 Nobel Peace Prize, 243 
 Labor legislation, 203 
 "Labors of Hercules", 118 
 Ladies' Home Journal, 244, 145 
 Lambert, Doctor Alexander, 217, 
 
 218, 253, 259 
 Lansing, Secretary Robert, 339 
 Latin, lack of interest in. 60 
 Laughter, whole-hearted, 158 
 Law, begins and abandons study 
 of, 64; contemplates study of, 
 198 
 Lawrence, Bishop William. 27 1 
 Lawton, General Henry YV.. 151 
 Leary, Jr., John, characteristic 
 conversation with, 8; explains 
 reports of intoxication, 321, 
 335, 336, 354 
 Lee, Alice Hathaway. See 
 Roosevelt, Alice Hathaway 
 (Mrs. Theodore, nie Lee) 
 Legal conventions, repugnance 
 
 to, 64; caustic speech on, 66 
 Leishman, John G. A., 284 
 Lesseps, Count Ferdinand de, 224 
 Leupp, Francis E., 204 
 Lewis, William Draper, "Life of 
 Theodore Roosevelt", quoted, 
 57, 194 
 Libel, suit against editor for, 
 
 323 
 Life, his view of the larger, 69 
 "Life of Theodore Roosevelt", 
 
 Lewis, quoted, 57, 194 
 Lincoln, Abraham, comment on, 
 2, 75, 146, 201, 202; ring, 237, 
 °52 329 
 Literary work, 63, 100-101-103 
 Little Missouri River, 76, 77, 78, 
 
 82, 90, 94 
 Livingstone, David, "Missionary 
 Travels in Africa", 6 
 
 
368 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Lobsters, amusing incident with, 
 4 
 
 Lodge, Senator Henry Cabot, 
 135; letter to, quoted, 183, 
 203, Jll 
 
 Lodging-rooms, closes police, 129 
 
 Loci'. Jr., William, Secretary, 
 200, 244 
 
 Logic, high standing in, in col- 
 lege, CO 
 
 Long, Secretary John D., 135; 
 qunted by Lodge, 135, 136 
 
 Lowell, James Russell, 64, 355 
 
 McKelway, St. Clair, at Union 
 League Club, 98, 99 
 
 McKinley, President William, 
 115; appoints Roosevelt Assist- 
 ant Secretary of Navy, 135, 
 142, 143; assassination of, 199; 
 death jf, 200; policies contin- 
 ued by Roosevelt, 202 
 
 Maine, U. S. battleship, 141 
 
 "Man on Horseback", the, 163 
 
 Marriage, first, 62; second, 100 
 
 Marryat, Frederick, 18 
 
 Matterhorn, climbs the, 62 
 
 Matthews, Brander, 295 
 
 Mayflower, the presidential 
 yacht, 242, 269 
 
 Mayoralty of New York City, 
 nominated for, 100; defeated 
 for, 100 
 
 Medora, Dakota Ter., 94 
 
 Memorial Hall, 1; speech on 
 Commencement Day, 1905, 66; 
 address in, 274, 275 
 
 Mendacity, charges of, 296, 297 
 
 Merrifiehi, William J., incidents 
 in ranch life with Roosevelt, 
 90 et seq. 
 
 Merry del Val, Raphael, pontifi- 
 cal secretary, ■J'AG 
 
 Metaphysics, high standing in, in 
 college, 60 
 
 M e t ropolita n Magazine, connec- 
 tion with, 346 
 
 Meyer, Postmaster General 
 George von L., 270 
 
 Mice, youthful interest in White, 
 5, 6 
 
 "Mighty Three", the, 325 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis., attempt to 
 assassinate Roosevelt in, 320 
 
 "Missionary Travels in Africa", 
 Livingstone, 6 
 
 Mississippi, hunting trip to, 259 
 
 "Mr. Dooley". See Duxxe, Fix- 
 ley P. 
 
 Mitchell, John, 212 
 
 Mombasa, 280 
 
 Monroe Doctrine, and Venezu- 
 elan arbitration, 218 
 
 Montauk Point, arrival from 
 Cuba at, 163 
 
 Monterey, Cal., Roosevelt, Moody 
 and Stow at, 161, 162 
 
 Moody, Secretary William H., 
 161, 162 
 
 Moosehead Lake, boyish encoun- 
 ter on trip to, 15 
 
 Morale of the Rough Riders, 151 
 
 Moral idealism, his, 328 
 
 Morley, John, 22; amusing inci- 
 dent at W T hite House, 205, 206 
 
 "Morton Hall Crowd", send 
 Roosevelt to the Assembly, 70 
 
 Muir, John, 82 
 
 Murray, Joe, friendly guidance 
 of, 69, 108 
 
 "Museum of Natural History", 
 Roosevelt^, 5, 19 
 
 Napoleox Boxaparte, 22, 328 
 "Nationalism" 238 
 Natural History, honorable men- 
 tion in, 31; ranks high in, 60 
 Natural History Society, mem- 
 ber of the, 42 
 Nature study, interest in, 3, 4 
 Navy, appointed Assistant Sec- 
 retary of, 135; idea of fighting 
 efficiency, 139; foresees war 
 with Spain, 140; a touch of 
 humor at the last, 142; more 
 than double in size, 255; fleet 
 circumnavigates the globe, 255 
 Negro problem, 203, 204, 207 
 "Newspaper Cabinet", 335 
 New York City, residence in, 63; 
 visits to, 95; return to, 97; 
 nominated for mayor of, 97; 
 police commissioner of, 119- 
 132 
 
INDEX 
 
 369 
 
 New York Herald, 244 
 
 Nile River, interest in bird life of, 
 
 20 
 Nobel Peace Prize, 243 
 North Pole, like Peary at the, 
 
 305 
 
 Oakley Country Club, 272 
 
 Ober's restaurant, 44 
 
 O'Brien, Robert L., letter to Gil- 
 man, 243-247 
 
 Ohl, J. K., 244 
 
 "Old Guard, The", 230, 315 
 
 "Oliver Cromwell", Roosevelt, 
 168 
 
 Olney, Richard, 247-249 
 
 Opdycke, L. E., 274 
 
 Oyster Bay, 101 ; home life at, 
 177-180; Viscount Kaneko at, 
 240; Roman Catholic clergy- 
 men at, 286, 297, 324, 332, 357 
 
 Pain, endurance of, 92, 93 
 Panama, 203 
 
 Panama Canal, esteemed his 
 greatest achievement, 223; as 
 conceived and executed by, 
 225-228, 255 
 Pandora's box, 21 
 Parker House, Boston, 272 
 Pastimes, youthful, 17 
 "Patriot", Browning, 304 
 People, the, faith in, 70, 129; ap- 
 peals to, 128; reliance on, for 
 reelection, 233 ; reached 
 
 through the Press, 336 
 Perdicaris-Raisuli affair, 219, 
 
 220 
 Peter the Hermit, 182 
 Pets, fondness for, 266, 267, 268 
 Phi Beta Kappa Society, mem- 
 ber of the, 31, 42 
 Philippines, 255 
 Photograph, his class, 26, 27 
 Physical development, 32 ct seq. 
 "Pigskin Library", the, 282 
 "Pilgrim's Progress, The", Bun- 
 
 yan, 358, 359 
 Pius X, desire to meet Pope, 284, 
 
 285 
 Piatt, Senator Thomas C, 104, 
 164, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 
 172, 173, 174, 183-187, 190 
 
 Poker, political bluff like game 
 of, 173 
 
 Police Commissioner, appointed, 
 119; work as, 119-132 
 
 Political Economy, a leader in, 
 in college, 60 
 
 Porcellian Club, member of the, 
 42 
 
 Portrait, painted by Ellen Hale, 
 221 ; Roosevelt presents a, to 
 Grace Church, Washington, 
 223; painted by De Camp, 
 259 
 
 Portsmouth, N. H., Treaty of, 
 240; Peace Conference at, 
 255 
 
 Prayer, an amusing childish, 7 
 
 "Preaching", sound, pure advice 
 in his, 157 
 
 Precedence, instances of the eti- 
 quette of, 241-243 
 
 Preparedness, his work for, 
 137 
 
 President, succeeds McKinley as, 
 200; to continue McKinley's 
 policies as, 202; liking for the 
 work, 217; confidence in the 
 new, 218; attendance at church, 
 222; desire for reelection, 229- 
 235; elected, 236; inauguration, 
 236, 237; as peacemaker 'in 
 Russo-Japanese War, 238-240; 
 Nobel Peace Prize, 243; action 
 in Brownsville affair, 249-252; 
 capacity for work, 253, 25 1 ; 
 what he accomplished while, 
 254-256 
 
 Presidential plateau, 201-228 
 
 Press, relations with reporters of, 
 175, 335; opposed by, in Pro- 
 gressive campaign, 321 ; their 
 feeling for, 336 
 
 Proctor, John R., 106 
 
 Progressive Party, convention of, 
 70, 307; convention of, 316- 
 319; campaign of 1912, 319- 
 325; defeated, 315; character 
 of the convention, 316; reason 
 for the "bolt", 318, 319; Press 
 against the, 321; the company 
 in Adullam's Cave, 325; bitter- 
 ness of defeat, 326 
 
- 
 
 INDEX 
 
 —HEW S-, 
 
 - 
 
 - - 
 
 ... . ■ 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 131 
 
 : ■ - 
 
 : 
 
 
 163; c --.*.-. 
 
 :-■ 
 ■ 
 
 : 
 
 : 
 
 : - ■ -. 
 
 Right, lore of 
 
 ed of 
 
 ~z -.' . 
 
 3, - 
 
 : : 
 
 •■- ■ . 
 nion of 
 
 - 
 
 member of the. 
 ' .cob, anecdote of Roose- 
 
 L 2 6. 33 ; in 
 
 campaign for governorship, 
 
 ..' "■ . :: -U 
 
 .mission BilL 169; urges 
 
 co mmuta tion of death sentence, 
 
 Rio Janeiro. 331 
 
 :' Doubt, the, 331, 333 
 Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt 
 
 ter of Theodore), incider.- 
 
 spcccfi ml L nion .Lc3. srti£ 
 
 98, 99, 100 ; letter to, I J 
 Roman .. 130 
 
 Rondon, Colonel, 331 
 Roosc- I ithawa 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, n<?> Lee), 
 rnarria. - ■ her 
 
 husband's grief, 
 
 Rooserelt, Edith Kermit 
 
 Theodore h 
 
 row), marr \ . . in- 
 
 angnration da 
 Rooserelt, 
 
 1: - . -- . " 
 
 son of Tbeo- 
 
 : :e . - 
 
 :\ - •■?-•?'.:. V. --.':. ■.. M-- - : e: 1 -- 
 (mother of Theodore), com- 
 ment on h me son, 
 her sense of humor. 7 ; her 
 . prank. . leath, 
 
 Roosevelt, The re father of 
 Theodore), only man Roose- 
 
 thetic interest in son's pas- 
 times, 16, 
 ';. • -e --.'.-.. 7 . - '. -f. G.'.zz •..-." = 
 : impressions of, 1. 
 : his character. 
 John Burroughs* opinion of, 
 musing incidents of child- 
 hoc : . defective eyesight, 
 *; '. jseum of Natural 
 
 i youthful 
 capade, 6; the remonstrant's 
 pra instinct for retalia- 
 
 tion. -- -rase of humor, 
 13, 14; boyhood development, 
 12-13, : >ve for combat, 
 
 .1 development, 16- 
 _• a favorite pastime, 
 - 19; tim- 
 idity overcome by will, 19; 
 familiarity with French, 30; 
 two trips to Europe, 20; the 
 dominant qnalitv, 21--23; the 
 ,5 of '80, title 
 
 to fam-. - - life in cc. . 
 
 -reliance and independence, 
 . . earnestness in debate. 
 
 photograph of, 28 ; rescue 
 of hors^ rchlight parade, 
 
 . lies and standin? in col- 
 
 ' - - - .' 
 
 - -_• (report 
 34; interest in sparrixi.- 
 innovations in the classroom, 
 
INDEX 
 
 ;-" 
 
 Ro- Tbeodort 
 
 • -39 ; club me: , 
 
 t jt of He - 
 42; his c . 
 rfcs G. Wa- 
 
 51; .- 
 
 onistic, 51-' .- 
 
 61: - 
 
 
 
 - 
 ■ 
 
 I 
 
 I " - 
 tier. 
 
 to 1 * ... 
 
 71-71 
 - 
 - 
 and mother, 77: 
 
 Hm 
 
 - 
 htm: 
 .- • ■ - ' ' " ' 
 
 rifles", i 
 de?. 
 
 • • ' S • " ' ■ B7- 
 
 8S-€ 
 
 ■ 
 91; a I 
 
 • 
 
 York, 95; 
 
 I 
 Davisf P5-. : 
 
 - " . 
 ■ 
 
 mr.: - - 
 
 _ 
 • " Sag 
 
 101; resnmes 
 "K - " 
 IS:. ■ • "The - 
 
 - ... 
 
 - -. - ■ - - •--• 
 
 -nissioD-- ^b- 
 
 inzr. *. - z 
 
 - 
 
 ----- - - - r. 
 
 107- - ■ besb 
 
 r.: : -.z 
 
 3m 
 
 - 
 - 
 115-116; an idealist I !& 
 
 116-117: : • 
 
 - - • . 
 
 - 
 - 
 
 ." . F.iif . - - - ' 
 
 £?; 1 
 
 - - - - 
 
 . E 
 
 '. - " ■ • 
 
 - ' ■ - 
 • ' ZXT-E • 
 
 - 
 
 a his "1 
 
 -■ - 
 - i 
 
 •• ■■ I - 
 N . Sea 
 
 prepai •• 
 
 _ 
 ■ 
 
 ! ■ 
 ent, 141; ■ 
 - 
 
372 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore (Continu.ed) 
 Wood, 143; war declared, 
 143; declines first offer of 
 commission, 144; choice of the 
 title "The Rough Riders", 144; 
 formation and equipment of 
 the regiment, 145-146; a re- 
 calcitrant soldier, 147; ex- 
 ceeding authority, 148; his 
 courage in action, 148-149; in- 
 fluence with men of the regi- 
 ment, 150; morale of the 
 regiment, 151; Tony Gavin's 
 letter on, 152-157; sound ad- 
 vice to his men, 157; laughter, 
 158; humor perceptions, 158; 
 humorous breaches of military 
 etiquette, 159-1G0; sympathy 
 between his men and, 160; a 
 joke on the Rough Riders, 161; 
 love of combat for the right, 
 16-2; bas-relief of, 162; arrival 
 at Montauk Point, 163; the 
 "Man on Horseback", 163; 
 drafted for governorship, 164; 
 Piatt's aversion to and need for, 
 164; interview with Quigg, 
 Piatt's agent, 164; nominated 
 for Governor, 165; his dra- 
 matic campaign, 166; election, 
 166; opposed by extreme Inde- 
 pendents, 166; his energy and 
 industry in office, 168; writes 
 "The Rough Riders" and 
 "Oliver Cromwell", 168; four 
 important measures, 169; oppo- 
 sition of Piatt and the bosses, 
 169; cooperation with Piatt, 
 170; a bold stand, 171; strug- 
 gle over the Insurance Bill, 
 171; Piatt's bluff "called", 172- 
 173; what he could do, 173; 
 his opinion of his position, 174; 
 relations with the reporters, 
 175; attitude toward capital 
 punishment, 175-176; close of 
 his term, 176; his beautiful 
 home life, 177 et seq.; molding 
 his children's characters, 180; 
 letters to his children, 180; en- 
 joyment of the governorship, 
 181 j the turning point, 182; de- 
 
 sires a second term, 183; op- 
 posed by Piatt, 183; slated for 
 the Vice-presidency, 184; futile 
 remonstrance of, 184-186; John 
 Hay's letter, 184; Piatt's threat 
 and the rejoinder, 186; the 
 Convention of 1900, 186; nomi- 
 nates McKinley, 186; Conven- 
 tion out of hand, 186; nomi- 
 nated for Vice-president, 187; 
 disappointment and depression, 
 187; a man of destiny, 187; in 
 the campaign, 188; power in 
 his manner as a public speak- 
 er, 188; eagerness to hear him, 
 189; courage in debate, 190; 
 joy in the campaign work, 192; 
 growth in public favor, 193; 
 his ambition, 193-196; prophecy 
 of Speck von Sternberg, 194; 
 generous sentiment to Curtis 
 Guild, 197; election, 197; hunt- 
 ing trip to Colorado, 197; con- 
 siders study of law, 198; con- 
 sults Mr. Justice White, 198; 
 assassination of McKinley, 
 199; death of McKinley, 200; 
 takes oath of office as Presi- 
 dent, 200; the Presidential 
 plateau, first half, 201-228; 
 continues McKinley policies, 
 202; consultation with leaders, 
 203; the Booker T. Washington 
 incident, 203-205; amusing ex- 
 perience of John Morley at 
 White House, 205; the Indian- 
 ola post office, 206; his view 
 of the Negro Problem, 207; 
 conferences with Doctor Wash- 
 ington, 208; Labor and Capi- 
 tal, 209; handling the coal 
 strike, 210-214; enjoyment of 
 "Mr. Dooley", 214; " relations 
 with Senator Quay, 215; his 
 democratic spirit, 216; enjoy- 
 ment of his work, 217; his con- 
 fidence, 217; growth in public 
 esteem, 218; sharp talk to Ger- 
 man Ambassador, 218; the 
 Perdicaris-Raisuli affair, 219; 
 .Miss Hale's portrait of, 221; 
 attendance at church, 22-2; 
 
INDEX 
 
 373 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore (Continued) 
 
 greatest contribution to the 
 world, 223; the Panama Canal, 
 224 et seq.; difficulties with Co- 
 lombia, 225 et seq.; appoint- 
 ment of Goethals, 228; desire 
 for election to full term, 230; 
 opinion of Carlyle, 231; de- 
 sire to reach the plain people, 
 233; use of the Press, 233; 
 relations with Senator Hanna, 
 233; letter to d'Estournelles de 
 Constant, 234; appreciation of 
 his good fortune, 236; election 
 of 1904, 236; the Lincoln ring, 
 237; inauguration, 237; Russo- 
 Japanese War, 238; first steps 
 for peace, 239; Viscount Kan- 
 eko on, 239; Baron Rosen's 
 opinion, 240; the Treaty of 
 Portsmouth, 241; cutting Gor- 
 dian knots of etiquette, 242; 
 precedence in the White 
 House, 242; Nobel Peace Prize 
 and its disposition, 243; a trib- 
 ute from the Press, 243; 
 friendship with Richard 01- 
 ney, 247; the Brownsville af- 
 fair, 249 et seq.; ceaseless ac- 
 tivity, 253; some results of 
 administration, 254; personal- 
 ity, 256; hospitality in the 
 White House, 257; hunting 
 trip in Mississippi, 259; an 
 artist's trials while portrait 
 painting, 260 et seq.; happy 
 family life, 265; his varied in- 
 terests, 266; letters to his chil- 
 dren, 268; athletic exercise, 
 269; Admiral Fiske's testimo- 
 nial, 270; twenty-fifth anni- 
 versary of '80, 271 et seq.; the 
 Class picture, 272; the talk at 
 the Class dinner, 274; at Me- 
 morial Hall, 274; renunciation, 
 276; nomination of Taft, 277; 
 the African trip, 279 et seq.; 
 "African Game Trails", 281; 
 the pig-skin library, 282; re- 
 turn to civilization, 283; bold 
 speech at Cairo, 283; in Eu- 
 rope, 284; the Vatican inci- 
 
 dent, 284; meets Victor Em- 
 manuel, 287; popularity in 
 Italy, 287; bored by kings, 287; 
 volume of correspondence, 288; 
 talks with King Haakon of 
 Norway, 290; in Germany, 290; 
 estimate of the Kaiser, 291; 
 courtesies shown by Kaiser, 
 292; in England, 293; the 
 Guildhall Address, 293; at 
 obsequies of King Edward 
 VII, 294; Kipling's opinion, 
 295; his astuteness, 295; the 
 charges of mendacity, 296; 
 truthfulness, 297; the Ananias 
 Club, 298; Joseph H. Choate's 
 tribute, 299; close of the Euro- 
 pean tour, 300; lonjrings for 
 home, 301; return, 302; cor- 
 diality of his reception, 302; 
 his views on his popularity, 303; 
 likens himself to Peary, 305; 
 his high idealism, 306; mis- 
 judgment of Taft, 307; rela- 
 tions with Taft, 308; summons 
 from the "Seven Governors", 
 309; in Boston, 309; views ex- 
 pressed to Judge Grant, 31 1 ; 
 the break with Taft, 31 J; 
 speech at Columbus, Ohio, 313; 
 the Recall of Judicial Deci- 
 sions, 313; the Initiative and 
 Referendum, 314; Taft renom- 
 inated, 315; election of Wilson, 
 315; formation of the Pro- 
 gressive Party, 315; the Pro- 
 gressive Convention, 316; at- 
 tacks on Roosevelt, 317; meth- 
 ods of the Republican Conven- 
 tion of 1912, 317; nominated 
 by the Progressives, 319; at- 
 tempt to assassinate, 320; op- 
 position of the Press, 321 ; 
 scurrilous reports of his use of 
 liquor, 322; his suit for libel, 
 323; his temperate habits, 321; 
 the hour of defeat, 325; James 
 Ford Rhodes on, 326; moral 
 idealism, 328; development 
 throughout life, 329; the trip 
 to the Brazilian wilds, 331 ; 
 "Through the Brazilian Wil- 
 
374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore (Can tinned) 
 derness", 331; disastrous re- 
 sult-, 333; the challenge of the 
 World War, 333; voicing the 
 popular demand for action, 
 834; aided by his newspaper 
 friends, 335; their affection for 
 him, 336; tireless in his efforts, 
 337; declaration of war, 337; 
 movement to raise regiment, 
 338; offers services, 338; 
 thwarted by Wilson, 338; his 
 great regret, 339; the country 
 in low esteem, 314; literary 
 connections, 346; the Grand 
 Duke Boris incident, 348; his 
 greatness, 349; the Barnes libel 
 case, 3.50; his clean private 
 life, 351 ; reconciliation with 
 Taft, 353; religious faith, 354; 
 "The Great Adventure", 355; 
 growth in public esteem, 357; 
 death of, 357; last illness, 357; 
 Valiant for Truth, 359; "The 
 Happy Warrior", 3G0 
 
 Roosevelt, Quentin (son of 
 Theodore), letters to, 268, 
 355 
 
 Roosevelt Hospital, 357 
 
 "Roosevelt Luck", 173 
 
 Roosevelt Memorial Association, 
 346 
 
 "Roosevelt Museum of Natural 
 History", 5, 19 
 
 Root, El'ihu, 351 
 
 Rosen, Baron Roman Romano- 
 vitch de, on the Treaty of 
 Portsmouth, 240 
 
 Rough Riders, the, 144-162; 
 choice of the name, 144; for- 
 mation of the regiment, 144; 
 pardoning a prisoner, 146-148; 
 at San Juan Hill, 149; influ- 
 ence over men of, 150; their 
 faith in him, 150; morale of, 
 151; devotion and loyalty to 
 Roosevelt, 151-162; letter of 
 Tony Gavin, 152-157; advice in 
 fan-weil speech to, 157; ludi- 
 crous breaches of etiquette, 
 159, 160; sympathy between 
 Roosevelt anil, 160; 'at inaugu- 
 
 ration, 237; at White House, 
 258 
 
 "Rough Riders, The", Roosevelt, 
 158, 168 
 
 "Round Robin", the famous, 149 
 
 Rowing, preference for, 17, 18 
 
 Ruskin, John, 82 
 
 Russia, 238; ambassador of, 
 348; Grand Duke Boris of, 318 
 
 Russo-Japanese War, 238-243; 
 Roosevelt takes steps to stop, 
 239-243; the Treaty of Ports- 
 mouth, 240, 241 
 
 St. Georges, Loxdox, Roose- 
 velt's marriage in, 100 
 
 Sagamore Hill, 101, 330, 336, 
 347, 348, 357 
 
 San Juan Hill, charge up, 134, 
 149 
 
 Santo Domingo Treaty, 255 
 
 Sargent, Doctor Dudley A., on 
 Roosevelt's physical condition, 
 33-35 
 
 Schick, Rev. John M., 222, 223 
 
 Schrank, attempts to assassinate 
 Roosevelt, 320, 321 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 141 
 
 "Self-made" man, a, 18, 75 
 
 Self-reliance, his, 29 
 
 Selons, with Roosevelt in Africa, 
 281 
 
 "Seven Governors", the call from 
 the, 309 
 
 Sewall, William, 78; quoted, 83, 
 85, 86, 89, 94, 95, 97; letter to, 
 235 
 
 Shafter, General William R., 149 
 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 282 
 
 Sherry's, New York, dinner to 
 Roosevelt at, 174, 303 
 
 Shidy Case, the, 109 
 
 Shyness, in youth, 46 
 
 Sincerity, his, 27, 297 
 
 "Skipping rope" as physical ex- 
 ercise, 35 
 
 "Solid South", failed to gauge 
 feeling in, 203 
 
 Sorbonne, Western incident re- 
 lated to, ST. 265 
 
 South America, visits, 331 et seq. 
 
 Spalding, Rev. Mr., 49 
 
INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 Spanish War, 141-160 
 
 Speech, early lack of fluency in, 
 
 27, 28 
 Spirit, the valor of his, 11, 14 
 
 Stack, Tom, incident in saloon 
 of, 94 
 
 Sternberg, Baron Speck von, pre- 
 diction of, 194, 195 
 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis, quoted, 
 71 
 
 Stone, Frederick Mather, inci- 
 dent related by, 54, 55 
 
 Stow, Vanderlyn, meeting with 
 Roosevelt and Moody, 161, 
 162 
 
 Straus, Oscar, on Roosevelt's 
 leading quality, 130, 329 
 
 Street, Julian, 337 
 
 Strieker, Josephine, Roosevelt's 
 secretary, on his trustful na- 
 ture, 127, 289, 347, 357, 358 
 
 Strong, Mayor William D., ap- 
 points Roosevelt Police Com- 
 missioner, 119 
 
 Sumner, Senator Charles, 74 
 
 Sunday School, experience as a 
 teacher in, 49-51 
 
 Superintendent of Insurance, re- 
 forming office of, 1G9; fight for 
 the Bill, 171-173 
 
 Superintendent of Public Works, 
 reforming office of, 169 
 
 Sweden, Crown Prince of, 348 
 
 Symphony Hall, Boston, 272 
 
 Tact, lack of in youth, 89; ac- 
 quired in mature life, 89 
 
 Taft, William Howard, 14, 276; 
 nominated for Presidency, 277, 
 278, 279, 294, 306; Roosevelt's 
 mis judgment of, 307; relations 
 with Roosevelt, 308; the final 
 break, 312-315; renominated, 
 315; defeat of, 315; reconcilia- 
 tion with Roosevelt, 353, 354 
 
 Tammany, 100 
 
 Tangier, 219, 220 
 
 Tarlton, with Roosevelt in Afri- 
 ca, 281 
 
 Taylor, "Buck," ardent speech of, 
 165, 166 
 
 Taxidermy, his interest in, 13 
 
 Teamwork, necessary in work for 
 
 reform, 76 
 Tenement. House Commission 
 
 BiK, 169 
 "Tennis Cabinet", the, 335 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 330, 331 
 Teodoro, Rio. See Rivee op 
 
 Doubt 
 Thayer, Professor James B., 64 
 Thayer, William Roscoe, 27, 28; 
 
 comment on Roosevelt, 45, 
 
 quoted, 72, 288 
 "Theodore Roosevelt and his 
 
 Time", Bishop, quoted, 95 
 "Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to 
 
 His Children", edited by 
 
 Bishop, 180, 181 
 "Through the Brazilian Wilder- 
 ness", Roosevelt, 331 
 Timid, naturally, 18; correction 
 
 of this defect* 18, 19 
 Torch-light parade, incident of, 
 
 30 
 Trevelyan, Sir George Olto, 
 
 Roosevelt's letters to, 231, 278 
 Trinidad, W. I., unfortunate re- 
 mark at dinner at, 227 
 Truth, his instinct for, 297 
 Turtle, youthful interest in, 5 
 
 "Ulysses", Tennyson, 330, 331 
 Union League Club, New York, 
 speech at, 98, 353 
 
 "Valiant for Truth", 359 
 
 Van Wyck, Judge, defeated for 
 governorship by Roosevelt, 166 
 
 "Varieties of Religious Experi- 
 ence", James, quoted, 67, 68 
 
 "Vatican Incident", the, 284-286 
 
 Venezuelan arbitration, interview 
 with German Ambassador, 218, 
 219 
 
 Vice in New York, his fight 
 against, 69, 70 
 
 Vice-presidency, slated for, by 
 Piatt, 184; 'reluctance to ac- 
 cept, 184-186; the Convention 
 of 1900, 185-187; nominated 
 for, 187; campaign for, 188- 
 197; Curtis Guild in campaign, 
 188, 189, 197; bold speech at 
 
376 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Vice-presidency (Continued) 
 Denver, 190; incidents of the 
 campaign, 193-197; elected to 
 the, 19T; church attendance 
 during, -'-'-' 
 Victoria, Queen, 204, 205 
 Victor Emmanuel III, Roose- 
 velt's regard for, 287 
 
 War, declaration of (against 
 Spain), 143; (against Ger- 
 manv), 337 
 
 "War Party", the, 143 
 
 Washburn, Charles G., comment 
 on Roosevelt, 46; quoted, 134, 
 1G2; description of Roosevelt, 
 168, 302 
 
 Washington, Booker T., 203; 
 dines at White House, 204; re- 
 sulting storm, 204, 205, 206, 
 207; Gilman's talk with, 208, 
 209 
 
 Washington, D. C, inauguration 
 of Roosevelt, 236, 237 
 
 "Watchful Waiting", 333 
 
 West, hunting trip in the, 104- 
 100 
 
 Weyler, General, 148 
 
 Wheeler, General Joseph, 151 
 
 White, Mr. Justice Edward 
 Douglas, Roosevelt seeks ad- 
 vice of, 198 
 
 White, Henry, humorousNletter of 
 John Hay" to, 184, 185 
 
 White House, Booker T. Wash- 
 ington dines at, 204; Episcopal 
 clergyman at, 205; reply to 
 labor leader at, 210; portraits 
 painted at, 221, 259; prece- 
 
 dence in the, 242; life of, 257; 
 Rough Riders at, 258; pets in 
 the, 266 
 
 Whitman, Walt. 90 
 
 "Wilderness Hunter, The", 
 quoted. B2 
 
 Will, his indomitable, 16, 19 
 
 William II, Emperor of Ger- 
 many, Roosevelt's meeting 
 with, 290-292; facetious note 
 on photograph of, 292 
 
 Wilson, President Woodrow, 
 Judge Knowlton's opinion of, 
 150, 339; election of, 315, 333, 
 334, 338, 340. 344, 345, 356, 357 
 
 Windsor Castle, Booker T. Wash- 
 ington at, 205 
 
 "Winning of the West, The", 
 Roosevelt, 102 
 
 Winthrop Street, Number 16, 
 Cambridge, 26 
 
 Wood, Leonard, 141, 142, 143, 
 144, 145, 324 
 
 Woodbury, John, Class secretary, 
 quoted," 58, 173, 272, 273; death 
 notice from, 358 
 
 Woodchuck, preparation of 
 skeleton of, 5 
 
 Woods, Arthur, 254 
 
 World War, the, 151, 334; 
 United States enters, 337; 
 Roosevelt's desire to partici- 
 pate in, 337-344 
 
 Wrestling, tries Japanese, 268, 
 269 
 
 Yellowstoxe Park, 99 
 "Young Egypt", warning 
 the party" "of, 283 
 
 from 
 
 



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