The use of this text or audio material is subject to the TR American Patriot user agreement located at: TR American Patriot.com 

Theodore Roosevelt’s

LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN

By Joseph Bucklin Bishop

Fifth section of 6 ends on page 201

A VISIT TO WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE

White House, April 30, 1906.

DEAR KERMIT:

On Saturday afternoon Mother and I started off on the _Sylph_, Mother
having made up her mind I needed thirty-six hours' rest, and we had a
delightful time together, and she was just as cunning as she could be.
On Sunday Mother and I spent about four hours ashore, taking our lunch
and walking up to the monument which marks where the house stood in
which Washington was born. It is a simple shaft. Every vestige of the
house is destroyed, but a curious and rather pathetic thing is that,
although it must be a hundred years since the place was deserted, there
are still multitudes of flowers which must have come from those in the
old garden. There are iris and narcissus and a little blue flower, with
a neat, prim, clean smell that makes one feel as if it ought to be
put with lavender into chests of fresh old linen. The narcissus in
particular was growing around everywhere, together with real wild
flowers like the painted columbine and star of Bethlehem. It was a
lovely spot on a headland overlooking a broad inlet from the Potomac.
There was also the old graveyard or grave plot in which were the
gravestones of Washington's father and mother and grandmother, all
pretty nearly ruined. It was lovely warm weather and Mother and I
enjoyed our walk through the funny lonely old country. Mocking-birds,
meadow-larks, Carolina wrens, cardinals, and field sparrows were singing
cheerfully. We came up the river in time to get home last evening. This
morning Mother and I walked around the White House grounds as usual. I
think I get more fond of flowers every year. The grounds are now at that
high stage of beauty in which they will stay for the next two months.
The buckeyes are in bloom, the pink dogwood, and the fragrant lilacs,
which are almost the loveliest of the bushes; and then the flowers,
including the lily-of-the-valley.

I am dictating in the office. Archie is out by the sandbox playing with
the hose. The playing consists in brandishing it around his head and
trying to escape the falling water. He escapes about twice out of three
times and must now be a perfect drowned rat. (I have just had him in to
look at him and he is even more of a drowned rat than I supposed. He
has gone out to complete his shower bath under strict promise that
immediately afterwards he will go in and change his clothes.)

Quentin is the funniest mite you ever saw and certainly a very original
little fellow. He left at Mademoiselle's plate yesterday a large bunch
of flowers with the inscription that they were from the fairies to her
to reward her for taking care of "two _good_, _good_ boys." Ethel is a
dear.

MORE ABOUT DICKENS

White House, May 20, 1906.

DEAR TED:

Mother read us your note and I was interested in the discussion between
you and ----- over Dickens. Dickens' characters are really to a great
extent personified attributes rather than individuals. In consequence,
while there are not nearly as many who are actually like people one
meets, as for instance in Thackeray, there are a great many more who
possess _characteristics_ which we encounter continually, though
rarely as strongly developed as in the fictional originals. So Dickens'
characters last almost as Bunyan's do. For instance, Jefferson Brick
and Elijah Pogram and Hannibal Chollop are all real personifications of
certain bad tendencies in American life, and I am continually thinking
of or alluding to some newspaper editor or Senator or homicidal rowdy by
one of these three names. I never met any one exactly like Uriah Heep,
but now and then we see individuals show traits which make it easy to
describe them, with reference to those traits, as Uriah Heep. It is just
the same with Micawber. Mrs. Nickleby is not quite a real person,
but she typifies, in accentuated form, traits which a great many real
persons possess, and I am continually thinking of her when I meet them.
There are half a dozen books of Dickens which have, I think, furnished
more characters which are the constant companions of the ordinary
educated man around us, than is true of any other half-dozen volumes
published within the same period.

85. NO PLACE LIKE SAGAMORE HILL

(To Ethel, at Sagamore Hill)

White House, June 11, 1906.

BLESSED ETHEL:

I am very glad that what changes have been made in the house are good,
and I look forward so eagerly to seeing them. After all, fond as I am
of the White House and much though I have appreciated these years in it,
there isn't any place in the world like home--like Sagamore Hill, where
things are our own, with our own associations, and where it is real
country.

ATTIC DELIGHTS

White House, June 17, 1906.

BLESSED ETHEL:

Your letter delighted me. I read it over twice, and chuckled over it.
By George, how entirely I sympathize with your feelings in the attic!
I know just what it is to get up into such a place and find the
delightful, winding passages where one lay hidden with thrills of
criminal delight, when the grownups were vainly demanding one's
appearance at some legitimate and abhorred function; and then the
once-beloved and half-forgotten treasures, and the emotions of peace and
war, with reference to former companions, which they recall.

I am not in the least surprised about the mental telepathy; there is
much in it and in kindred things which are real and which at present
we do not understand. The only trouble is that it usually gets mixed up
with all kinds of fakes.

I am glad the band had a healthy effect in reviving old Bleistein's
youth. I shall never forget the intense interest in life he always used
to gain when we encountered an Italian with a barrel organ and a bear--a
combination that made Renown seek instant refuge in attempted suicide.

I am really pleased that you are going to teach Sunday school. I think I
told you that I taught it for seven years, most of the time in a mission
class, my pupils being of a kind which furnished me plenty of vigorous
excitement.

PRESIDENTIAL RESCUE OF A KITTEN

White House, June 24, 1906.

DARLING ETHEL:

To-day as I was marching to church, with Sloane some 25 yards behind,
I suddenly saw two terriers racing to attack a kitten which was walking
down the sidewalk. I bounced forward with my umbrella, and after some
active work put to flight the dogs while Sloane captured the kitten,
which was a friendly, helpless little thing, evidently too well
accustomed to being taken care of to know how to shift for itself. I
inquired of all the bystanders and of people on the neighboring porches
to know if they knew who owned it; but as they all disclaimed, with many
grins, any knowledge of it, I marched ahead with it in my arms for about
half a block. Then I saw a very nice colored woman and little colored
girl looking out of the window of a small house with on the door a
dressmaker's advertisement, and I turned and walked up the steps and
asked if they did not want the kitten. They said they did, and the
little girl welcomed it lovingly; so I felt I had gotten it a home and
continued toward church.

Has the lordly Ted turned up yet? Is his loving sister able, unassisted,
to reduce the size of his head, or does she need any assistance from her
male parent?

Your affectionate father,

The Tyrant.

SPORTS OF QUENTIN AND ARCHIE

Oyster Bay, Aug. 18, 1906.

DEAR KERMIT:

. . . . .

Quentin is the same cheerful pagan philosopher as ever. He swims like a
little duck; rides well; stands quite severe injuries without complaint,
and is really becoming a manly little fellow. Archie is devoted to
the _Why_ (sailboat). The other day while Mother and I were coming in,
rowing, we met him sailing out, and it was too cunning for anything. The
_Why_ looks exactly like a little black wooden shoe with a sail in it,
and the crew consisted of Archie, of one of his beloved playmates, a
seaman from the _Sylph_, and of Skip--very alert and knowing.

SKIP AND ARCHIE

White House, October 23, 1906.

DEAR KERMIT:

Archie is very cunning and has handicap races with Skip. He spreads his
legs, bends over, and holds Skip between them. Then he says, "On your
mark, Skip, ready; go!" and shoves Skip back while he runs as hard as he
possibly can to the other end of the hall, Skip scrambling wildly with
his paws on the smooth floor until he can get started, when he races
after Archie, the object being for Archie to reach the other end before
Skip can overtake him.

A TURKEY HUNT AT PINE KNOT

White House, November 4, 1906.

DEAR KERMIT:

Just a line to tell you what a nice time we had at Pine Knot. Mother was
as happy as she always is there, and as cunning and pretty as possible.
As for me, I hunted faithfully through all three days, leaving the house
at three o'clock one day, at four the next, and at five the next,
so that I began my hunts in absolute night; but fortunately we had a
brilliant moon on each occasion. The first two days were failures. I
did not see a turkey, and on each occasion when everybody was perfectly
certain that I was going to see a turkey, something went wrong and the
turkey did not turn up. The last day I was out thirteen hours, and you
may imagine how hungry I was when I got back, not to speak of being
tired; though fortunately most of the time I was rambling around on
horseback, so I was not done out. But in the afternoon at last luck
changed, and then for once everything went right. The hunter who was
with me marked a turkey in a point of pines stretching down from a
forest into an open valley, with another forest on its farther side. I
ran down to the end of the point and hid behind a bush. He walked down
through the pines and the turkey came out and started to fly across
the valley, offering me a beautiful side shot at about thirty-five
yards--just the distance for my ten-bore. I killed it dead, and felt
mighty happy as it came tumbling down through the air.

PETS ON SHIPBOARD

In November, 1906, the President, accompanied by Mrs. Roosevelt, went to
the Isthmus of Panama, where he spent three days in inspecting the
work of building the Panama Canal, returning by way of Porto Rico.
The journey was taken on the naval vessel _Louisiana_, and many of his
letters to the children were written while on board that vessel and
mailed after reaching Colon.

On Board U. S. S. _Louisiana_, On the Way to Panama. Sunday, November
11, 1906.

BLESSED QUENTIN:

You would be amused at the pets they have aboard this ship. They have
two young bull-dogs, a cat, three little raccoons, and a tiny Cuban
goat. They seem to be very amicable with one another, although I
think the cat has suspicions of all the rest. The coons clamber about
everywhere, and the other afternoon while I was sitting reading, I
suddenly felt my finger seized in a pair of soft black paws and found
the coon sniffing at it, making me feel a little uncomfortable lest
it might think the finger something good to eat. The two puppies play
endlessly. One of them belongs to Lieutenant Evans. The crew will not be
allowed ashore at Panama or else I know they would pick up a whole raft
of other pets there. The jackies seem especially fond of the little
coons. A few minutes ago I saw one of the jackies strolling about with
a coon perched upon his shoulder, and now and then he would reach up his
hand and give it a small piece of bread to eat.

NAMES OF THE GUNS

On Board U. S. S. _Louisiana_, Sunday, November 11, 1906.

BLESSED ARCHIE:

I wish you were along with us, for you would thoroughly enjoy everything
on this ship. We have had three days of perfect weather, while this
great battleship with her two convoys, the great armored cruisers,
_Tennessee_ and _Washington_, have steamed steadily in column ahead
southward through calm seas until now we are in the tropics. They are
three as splendid ships of their class as there are afloat, save only
the English Dread-naught. The _Louisiana_ now has her gun-sights and
everything is all in good shape for her to begin the practice of the
duties which will make her crew as fit for man-of-war's work as the
crew of any one of our other first-class battleships. The men are such
splendid-looking fellows, Americans of the best type, young, active,
vigorous, with lots of intelligence. I was much amused at the names of
the seven-inch guns, which include _Victor_, _Invincible_, _Peacemaker_,
together with _Skidoo_, and also one called _Tedd_ and one called _The
Big Stick_.

REFLECTIONS ON THE WAY

On Board U. S. S. _Louisiana_, Nov. 13.

DEAR KERMIT:

So far this trip has been a great success, and I think Mother has really
enjoyed it. As for me, I of course feel a little bored, as I always do
on shipboard, but I have brought on a great variety of books, and am at
this moment reading Milton's prose works, "Tacitus," and a German
novel called "Jorn Uhl." Mother and I walk briskly up and down the deck
together, or else sit aft under the awning, or in the after cabin, with
the gun ports open, and read; and I also spend a good deal of time on
the forward bridge, and sometimes on the aft bridge, and of course have
gone over the ship to inspect it with the Captain. It is a splendid
thing to see one of these men-of-war, and it does really make one proud
of one's country. Both the officers and the enlisted men are as fine a
set as one could wish to see.

It is a beautiful sight, these three great war-ships standing southward
in close column, and almost as beautiful at night when we see not only
the lights but the loom through the darkness of the ships astern. We are
now in the tropics and I have thought a good deal of the time over eight
years ago when I was sailing to Santiago in the fleet of warships and
transports. It seems a strange thing to think of my now being President,
going to visit the work of the Panama Canal which I have made possible.

Mother, very pretty and dainty in white summer clothes, came up on
Sunday morning to see inspection and review, or whatever they call
it, of the men. I usually spend half an hour on deck before Mother is
dressed. Then we breakfast together alone; have also taken lunch alone,
but at dinner have two or three officers to dine with us. Doctor Rixey
is along, and is a perfect dear, as always.

EVENTS SINCE COLUMBUS'S DISCOVERY

November 14th.

The fourth day out was in some respects the most interesting. All the
forenoon we had Cuba on our right and most of the forenoon and part of
the afternoon Hayti on our left; and in each case green, jungly shores
and bold mountains--two great, beautiful, venomous tropic islands. These
are historic seas and Mother and I have kept thinking of all that has
happened in them since Columbus landed at San Salvador (which we also
saw), the Spanish explorers, the buccaneers, the English and Dutch
sea-dogs and adventurers, the great English and French fleets,
the desperate fighting, the triumphs, the pestilences, of all the
turbulence, the splendor and the wickedness, and the hot, evil, riotous
life of the old planters and slave-owners, Spanish, French, English,
and Dutch;--their extermination of the Indians, and bringing in of negro
slaves, the decay of most of the islands, the turning of Hayti into a
land of savage negroes, who have reverted to voodooism and cannibalism;
the effort we are now making to bring Cuba and Porto Rico forward.

To-day is calm and beautiful, as all the days have been on our trip. We
have just sighted the highest land of Panama ahead of us, and we shall
be at anchor by two o'clock this afternoon; just a little less than six
days from the time we left Washington.

PRIDE IN AMERICA

On Board U. S. S. _Louisiana_, Nov. 14.

DEAR TED:

I am very glad to have taken this trip, although as usual I am bored by
the sea. Everything has been smooth as possible, and it has been lovely
having Mother along. It gives me great pride in America to be aboard
this great battleship and to see not only the material perfection of the
ship herself in engines, guns and all arrangements, but the fine quality
of the officers and crew. Have you ever read Smollett's novel, I think
"Roderick Random" or "Humphrey Clinker," in which the hero goes to sea?
It gives me an awful idea of what a floating hell of filth, disease,
tyranny, and cruelty a war-ship was in those days. Now every arrangement
is as clean and healthful as possible. The men can bathe and do bathe as
often as cleanliness requires. Their fare is excellent and they are as
self-respecting a set as can be imagined. I am no great believer in the
superiority of times past; and I have no question that the officers and
men of our Navy now are in point of fighting capacity better than in the
times of Drake and Nelson; and morally and in physical surroundings the
advantage is infinitely in our favor.

It was delightful to have you two or three days at Washington. Blessed
old fellow, you had a pretty hard time in college this fall; but it
can't be helped, Ted; as one grows older the bitter and the sweet keep
coming together. The only thing to do is to grin and bear it, to flinch
as little as possible under the punishment, and to keep pegging steadily
away until the luck turns.

WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAW AT PANAMA

U. S. S. _Louisiana_, At Sea, November 20, 1906.

DEAR KERMIT:

Our visit to Panama was most successful as well as most interesting. We
were there three days and we worked from morning till night. The second
day I was up at a quarter to six and got to bed at a quarter of twelve,
and I do not believe that in the intervening time, save when I was
dressing, there were ten consecutive minutes when I was not busily at
work in some shape or form. For two days there were uninterrupted tropic
rains without a glimpse of the sun, and the Chagres River rose in a
flood, higher than any for fifteen years; so that we saw the climate at
its worst. It was just what I desired to do.

It certainly adds to one's pleasure to have read history and to
appreciate the picturesque. When on Wednesday we approached the coast,
and the jungle-covered mountains looked clearer and clearer until we
could see the surf beating on the shores, while there was hardly a sign
of human habitation, I kept thinking of the four centuries of wild and
bloody romance, mixed with abject squalor and suffering, which had made
up the history of the Isthmus until three years ago. I could see Balboa
crossing at Darien, and the wars between the Spaniards and the Indians,
and the settlement and the building up of the quaint walled Spanish
towns; and the trade, across the seas by galleon, and over land by
pack-train and river canoe, in gold and silver, in precious stones; and
then the advent of the buccaneers, and of the English seamen, of
Drake and Frobisher and Morgan, and many, many others, and the wild
destruction they wrought. Then I thought of the rebellion against the
Spanish dominion, and the uninterrupted and bloody wars that followed,
the last occurring when I became President; wars, the victorious heroes
of which have their pictures frescoed on the quaint rooms of the palace
at Panama city, and in similar palaces in all capitals of these strange,
turbulent little half-caste civilizations. Meanwhile the Panama railroad
had been built by Americans over a half century ago, with appalling loss
of life, so that it is said, of course with exaggeration, that every
sleeper laid represented the death of a man. Then the French canal
company started work, and for two or three years did a good deal, until
it became evident that the task far exceeded its powers; and then
to miscalculation and inefficiency was added the hideous greed of
adventurers, trying each to save something from the general wreck, and
the company closed with infamy and scandal.

Now we have taken hold of the job. We have difficulties with our own
people, of course. I haven't a doubt that it will take a little longer
and cost a little more than men now appreciate, but I believe that
the work is being done with a very high degree both of efficiency
and honesty; and I am immensely struck by the character of American
employees who are engaged, not merely in superintending the work, but in
doing all the jobs that need skill and intelligence. The steam shovels,
the dirt trains, the machine shops, and the like, are all filled with
American engineers, conductors, machinists, boiler-makers, carpenters.
From the top to the bottom these men are so hardy, so efficient, so
energetic, that it is a real pleasure to look at them. Stevens, the head
engineer, is a big fellow, a man of daring and good sense, and burly
power. All of these men are quite as formidable, and would, if it were
necessary, do quite as much in battle as the crews of Drake and
Morgan; but as it is, they are doing a work of infinitely more lasting
consequence. Nothing whatever remains to show what Drake and Morgan
did. They produced no real effect down here, but Stevens and his men are
changing the face of the continent, are doing the greatest engineering
feat of the ages, and the effect of their work will be felt while our
civilization lasts. I went over everything that I could possibly go
over in the time at my disposal. I examined the quarters of married and
single men, white men and negroes. I went over the ground of the Gatun
and La Boca dams; went through Panama and Colon, and spent a day in
the Culebra cut, where the great work is being done. There the huge
steam-shovels are hard at it; scooping huge masses of rock and gravel
and dirt previously loosened by the drillers and dynamite blasters,
loading it on trains which take it away to some dump, either in the
jungle or where the dams are to be built. They are eating steadily into
the mountain, cutting it down and down. Little tracks are laid on
the side-hills, rocks blasted out, and the great ninety-five ton
steam-shovels work up like mountain howitzers until they come to where
they can with advantage begin their work of eating into and destroying
the mountainside. With intense energy men and machines do their task,
the white men supervising matters and handling the machines, while the
tens of thousands of black men do the rough manual labor where it is
not worth while to have machines do it. It is an epic feat, and one of
immense significance.

The deluge of rain meant that many of the villages were knee-deep in
water, while the flooded rivers tore through the tropic forests. It is a
real tropic forest, palms and bananas, breadfruit trees, bamboos, lofty
ceibas, and gorgeous butterflies and brilliant colored birds fluttering
among the orchids. There are beautiful flowers, too.

All my old enthusiasm for natural history seemed to revive, and I would
have given a good deal to have stayed and tried to collect specimens. It
would be a good hunting country too; deer, and now and then jaguars and
tapir, and great birds that they call wild turkeys; there are alligators
in the rivers. One of the trained nurses from a hospital went to bathe
in a pool last August and an alligator grabbed him by the legs and was
making off with him, but was fortunately scared away, leaving the man
badly injured.

I tramped everywhere through the mud. Mother did not do the roughest
work, and had time to see more of the really picturesque and beautiful
side of the life, and really enjoyed herself.

P. S. The Gatun dam will make a lake miles long, and the railroad now
goes on what will be the bottom of this lake, and it was curious to
think that in a few years great ships would be floating in water 100
feet above where we were.

ON THE WAY TO PORTO RICO

U. S. S. _Louisiana_, At Sea, November 20, 1906.

DEAR TED:

This is the third day out from Panama. We have been steaming steadily in
the teeth of the trade wind. It has blown pretty hard, and the ship
has pitched a little, but not enough to make either Mother or me
uncomfortable.

Panama was a great sight. In the first place it was strange and
beautiful with its mass of luxuriant tropic jungle, with the treacherous
tropic rivers trailing here and there through it; and it was lovely
to see the orchids and brilliant butterflies and the strange birds and
snakes and lizards, and finally the strange old Spanish towns and the
queer thatch and bamboo huts of the ordinary natives. In the next place
it is a tremendous sight to see the work on the canal going on. From the
chief engineer and the chief sanitary officer down to the last arrived
machinist or time-keeper, the five thousand Americans at work on the
Isthmus seemed to me an exceptionally able, energetic lot, some of them
grumbling, of course, but on the whole a mighty good lot of men. The
West Indian negroes offer a greater problem, but they are doing pretty
well also. I was astonished at the progress made. We spent the three
days in working from dawn until long after darkness--dear Dr. Rixey
being, of course, my faithful companion. Mother would see all she liked
and then would go off on a little spree by herself, and she enjoyed it
to the full.

WHAT HE SAW IN PORTO RICO

U. S. S. _Louisiana_, At Sea, November 23, 1906.

DEAR KERMIT:

We had a most interesting two days at Porto Rico. We landed on the south
side of the island and were received by the Governor and the rest of the
administration, including nice Mr. Laurance Grahame; then were given
a reception by the Alcalde and people of Ponce; and then went straight
across the island in automobiles to San Juan on the north shore. It was
an eighty mile trip and really delightful. The road wound up to the high
mountains of the middle island, through them, and then down again to
the flat plain on the north shore. The scenery was beautiful. It was as
thoroughly tropical as Panama but much more livable. There were
palms, tree-ferns, bananas, mangoes, bamboos, and many other trees
and multitudes of brilliant flowers. There was one vine called the
dream-vine with flowers as big as great white water-lilies, which close
up tight in the day-time and bloom at night. There were vines with
masses of brilliant purple and pink flowers, and others with masses of
little white flowers, which at night-time smell deliciously. There were
trees studded over with huge white flowers, and others, the flamboyants
such as I saw in the campaign at Santiago, are a mass of large scarlet
blossoms in June, but which now had shed them. I thought the tree-ferns
especially beautiful. The towns were just such as you saw in Cuba,
quaint, brilliantly colored, with the old church or cathedral fronting
the plaza, and the plaza always full of flowers. Of course the towns are
dirty, but they are not nearly as dirty and offensive as those of Italy;
and there is something pathetic and childlike about the people. We are
giving them a good government and the island is prospering. I never saw
a finer set of young fellows than those engaged in the administration.
Mr. Grahame, whom of course you remember, is the intimate friend and
ally of the leaders of the administration, that is of Governor Beekman
Winthrop and of the Secretary of State, Mr. Regis Post. Grahame is
a perfect trump and such a handsome, athletic fellow, and a real Sir
Galahad. Any wrong-doing, and especially any cruelty makes him flame
with fearless indignation. He perfectly delighted the Porto Ricans and
also immensely puzzled them by coming in his Scotch kilt to a Government
ball. Accordingly, at my special request, I had him wear his kilt at the
state dinner and reception the night we were at the palace. You know he
is a descendant of Montrose, and although born in Canada, his parents
were Scotch and he was educated in Scotland. Do tell Mr. Bob Fergie
about him and his kilts when you next write him.

We spent the night at the palace, which is half palace and half castle,
and was the residence of the old Spanish governors. It is nearly four
hundred years old, and is a delightful building, with quaint gardens
and a quaint sea-wall looking over the bay. There were colored lanterns
lighting up the gardens for the reception, and the view across the bay
in the moonlight was lovely. Our rooms were as attractive as possible
too, except that they were so very airy and open that we found it
difficult to sleep--not that that much mattered as, thanks to the
earliness of our start and the lateness of our reception, we had barely
four hours in which we even tried to sleep.

The next morning we came back in automobiles over different and even
more beautiful roads. The mountain passes through and over which we went
made us feel as if we were in a tropic Switzerland. We had to cross two
or three rivers where big cream-colored oxen with yokes tied to their
horns pulled the automobiles through the water. At one funny little
village we had an open air lunch, very good, of chicken and eggs and
bread, and some wine contributed by a wealthy young Spaniard who rode up
from a neighboring coffee ranch.

Yesterday afternoon we embarked again, and that evening the crew gave
a theatrical entertainment on the afterdeck, closing with three boxing
bouts. I send you the program. It was great fun, the audience being
equally enraptured with the sentimental songs about the flag, and the
sailor's true love and his mother, and with the jokes (the most relished
of which related to the fact that bed-bugs were supposed to be so
large that they had to be shot!) and the skits about the commissary and
various persons and deeds on the ship. In a way the freedom of
comment reminded me a little of the Roman triumphs, when the excellent
legendaries recited in verse and prose, anything they chose concerning
the hero in whose deeds they had shared and whose triumphs they were
celebrating. The stage, well lighted, was built on the aftermost part of
the deck. We sat in front with the officers, and the sailors behind us
in masses on the deck, on the aftermost turrets, on the bridge, and even
in the fighting top of the aftermost mast. It was interesting to see
their faces in the light.

. . . . .

P. S. I forgot to tell you about the banners and inscriptions of welcome
to me in Porto Rico. One of them which stretched across the road had
on it "Welcome to Theodore and Mrs. Roosevelt." Last evening I really
enjoyed a rather funny experience. There is an Army and Navy Union
composed chiefly of enlisted men, but also of many officers, and they
suddenly held a "garrison" meeting in the torpedo-room of this ship.
There were about fifty enlisted men together with the Captain and
myself. I was introduced as "comrade and shipmate Theodore Roosevelt,
President of the United States." They were such a nice set of fellows,
and I was really so pleased to be with them; so self-respecting, so
earnest, and just the right type out of which to make the typical
American fighting man who is also a good citizen. The meeting reminded
me a good deal of a lodge meeting at Oyster Bay; and of course those men
are fundamentally of the same type as the shipwrights, railroad men and
fishermen whom I met at the lodge, and who, by the way, are my chief
backers politically and are the men who make up the real strength of
this nation.

SICKNESS OF ARCHIE

White House, March 3, 1907.

DEAR KERMIT:

Poor little Archie has diphtheria, and we have had a wearing forty-eight
hours. Of course it is harder upon Mother a good deal than upon me,
because she spends her whole time with him together with the trained
nurse, while I simply must attend to my work during these closing hours
of Congress (I have worked each day steadily up to half past seven and
also in the evening); and only see Archiekins for twenty minutes or a
half hour before dinner. The poor little fellow likes to have me put my
hands on his forehead, for he says they smell so clean and soapy! Last
night he was very sick, but this morning he is better, and Dr. Rixey
thinks everything is going well. Dr. Lambert is coming on this afternoon
to see him. Ethel, who is away at Philadelphia, will be sent to stay
with the Rixeys. Quentin, who has been exposed somewhat to infection,
is not allowed to see other little boys, and is leading a career of
splendid isolation among the ushers and policemen.

Since I got back here I have not done a thing except work as the
President must during the closing days of a session of Congress. Mother
was, fortunately, getting much better, but now of course is having a
very hard time of it nursing darling little Archie. He is just as good
as gold--so patient and loving. Yesterday that scamp Quentin said to
Mademoiselle: "If only I had _Archie's_ nature, and _my_ head, wouldn't
it be great?"

In all his sickness Archie remembered that to-day was Mademoiselle's
birthday, and sent her his love and congratulations--which promptly
reduced good Mademoiselle to tears.

AT THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION

White House, April 29, 1907.

DEAREST KERMIT:

We really had an enjoyable trip to Jamestown. The guests were Mother's
friend, Mrs. Johnson, a Virginia lady who reminds me so much of Aunt
Annie, my mother's sister, who throughout my childhood was almost as
much associated in our home life as my mother herself; Justice Moody,
who was as delightful as he always is, and with whom it was a real
pleasure to again have a chance to talk; Mr. and Mrs. Bob Bacon,
who proved the very nicest guests of all and were companionable and
sympathetic at every point. Ethel was as good as gold and took much off
of Mother's shoulders in the way of taking care of Quentin. Archie and
Quentin had, of course, a heavenly time; went everywhere, below and
aloft, and ate indifferently at all hours, both with the officers and
enlisted men. We left here Thursday afternoon, and on Friday morning
passed in review through the foreign fleet and our own fleet of sixteen
great battleships in addition to cruisers. It was an inspiring sight and
one I would not have missed for a great deal. Then we went in a launch
to the Exposition where I had the usual experience in such cases, made
the usual speech, held the usual reception, went to the usual lunch,
etc., etc.

In the evening Mother and I got on the _Sylph_ and went to Norfolk to
dine. When the _Sylph_ landed we were met by General Grant to convoy
us to the house. I was finishing dressing, and Mother went out into the
cabin and sat down to receive him. In a minute or two I came out and
began to hunt for my hat. Mother sat very erect and pretty, looking
at my efforts with a tolerance that gradually changed to impatience.
Finally she arose to get her own cloak, and then I found that she had
been sitting gracefully but firmly on the hat herself--it was a crush
hat and it had been flattened until it looked like a wrinkled pie.
Mother did not see what she had done so I speechlessly thrust the
hat toward her; but she still did not understand and took it as an
inexplicable jest of mine merely saying, "Yes, dear," and with patient
dignity, turned and went out of the door with General Grant.

The next morning we went on the _Sylph_ up the James River, and on
the return trip visited three of the dearest places you can imagine,
Shirley, Westover, and Brandon. I do not know whether I loved most the
places themselves or the quaint out-of-the-world Virginia gentlewomen
in them. The houses, the grounds, the owners, all were too dear for
anything and we loved them. That night we went back to the _Mayflower_
and returned here yesterday, Sunday, afternoon.

To-day spring weather seems really to have begun, and after lunch Mother
and I sat under the apple-tree by the fountain. A purple finch was
singing in the apple-tree overhead, and the white petals of the blossoms
were silently falling. This afternoon Mother and I are going out riding
with Senator Lodge.

GENERAL KUROKI

White House, May 12, 1907.

DEAR KERMIT:

General Kuroki and his suite are here and dined with us at a formal
dinner last evening. Everything that he says has to be translated, but
nevertheless I had a really interesting talk with him, because I am
pretty well acquainted with his campaigns. He impressed me much,
as indeed all Japanese military and naval officers do. They are a
formidable outfit. I want to try to keep on the best possible terms with
Japan and never do her any wrong; but I want still more to see our navy
maintained at the highest point of efficiency, for it is the real keeper
of the peace.

TEMPORARY ABSENCE OF SKIP

The other day Pete got into a most fearful fight and was dreadfully
bitten. He was a very forlorn dog indeed when he came home. And on that
particular day Skip disappeared and had not turned up when we went to
bed. Poor Archie was very uneasy lest Skip should have gone the way
of Jack; and Mother and I shared his uneasiness. But about two in the
morning we both of us heard a sharp little bark down-stairs and knew it
was Skip, anxious to be let in. So down I went and opened the door on
the portico, and Skip simply scuttled in and up to Archie's room, where
Archie waked up enough to receive him literally with open arms and then
went to sleep cuddled up to him.

DEATH OF SKIP

Sagamore Hill, Sept. 21, 1907.

BLESSED ARCHIEKINS:

We felt dreadfully homesick as you and Kermit drove away; when we pass
along the bay front we always think of the dory; and we mourn dear
little Skip, although perhaps it was as well the little doggie should
pass painlessly away, after his happy little life; for the little fellow
would have pined for you.

Your letter was a great comfort; we'll send on the football suit and
hope you'll enjoy the football. Of course it will all be new and rather
hard at first.

The house is "put up"; everything wrapped in white that can be, and all
the rugs off the floors. Quentin is reduced to the secret service men
for steady companionship.

QUENTIN'S SNAKE ADVENTURE

White House, Sept. 28, 1907.

DEAREST ARCHIE:

Before we left Oyster Bay Quentin had collected two snakes. He lost
one, which did not turn up again until an hour before departure, when he
found it in one of the spare rooms. This one he left loose, and
brought the other one to Washington, there being a variety of exciting
adventures on the way; the snake wriggling out of his box once, and
being upset on the floor once. The first day home Quentin was allowed
not to go to school but to go about and renew all his friendships. Among
other places that he visited was Schmid's animal store, where he left
his little snake. Schmid presented him with three snakes, simply to pass
the day with--a large and beautiful and very friendly king snake and two
little wee snakes. Quentin came hurrying back on his roller skates and
burst into the room to show me his treasures. I was discussing certain
matters with the Attorney-General at the time, and the snakes were
eagerly deposited in my lap. The king snake, by the way, although most
friendly with Quentin, had just been making a resolute effort to
devour one of the smaller snakes. As Quentin and his menagerie were an
interruption to my interview with the Department of Justice, I suggested
that he go into the next room, where four Congressmen were drearily
waiting until I should be at leisure. I thought that he and his snakes
would probably enliven their waiting time. He at once fell in with the
suggestion and rushed up to the Congressmen with the assurance that he
would there find kindred spirits. They at first thought the snakes were
wooden ones, and there was some perceptible recoil when they realized
that they were alive. Then the king snake went up Quentin's sleeve--he
was three or four feet long--and we hesitated to drag him back because
his scales rendered that difficult. The last I saw of Quentin, one
Congressman was gingerly helping him off with his jacket, so as to let
the snake crawl out of the upper end of the sleeve.

In the fall of 1907 the President made a tour through the West and
South and went on a hunting-trip in Louisiana. In accordance with
his unvarying custom he wrote regularly to his children while on his
journeyings.