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THEODORE ROOSEVELT
1919

CHAPTER 17

HERCULES' CONTINUED—HUNTER EXPLORER—PROGRESSIVE

THE ninth miracle of Theodore Roosevelt was his record as a mighty hunter.   Hercules excelled in the chase; he put an arrow through the heart of a deer, and killed a lion with his club now and then; but as a hunter of big game he was an amateur when compared with Roosevelt.   It is a rule of human nature and of history that the greatest workers have also been the most enthusiastic at play. Roosevelt's hunting trips were both a rest and a tonic to him in his great achievements.

The magnitude of the hunting spirit in him can be seen in the fact that eight books, or almost one-fourth of all that he wrote, are devoted to hunting or game. How proud he was as a boy at Harvard when he killed his first deer in the Adirondacks, and of its head which he put up in his room as a trophy. He tells this story of the killing of his first grizzly as recorded by Halstead in his life of Roosevelt:
When in the middle of the thicket we crossed what was almost a breastwork of fallen logs, and Merrifield, who was leading, passed by the upright stem of a great pine. As soon as he was by it, he sank suddenly on one knee, turning half-round, his face fairly aflame with excitement; and as I strode past him, with my rifle at the ready, there, not ten steps off, was the great bear, slowly rising from his bed among the great spruces. He had heard us, but apparently hardly knew exactly where or what we were, for he reared up on his haunches sideways to us. Then he saw us and dropped down again on all fours, the shaggy hair on his neck and shoulders seemed to bristle as he turned toward us. As he sank down on his forefeet I had raised the rifle; his head was bent slightly down, and when I saw the top of the white head fairly between his small glittering evil eyes I pulled the trigger.

Half rising tip, the huge beast fell over on his side in the death throes, the ball having gone into his brain, striking fairly between the eyes as if the distance had been measured by a carpenter's rule. The whole thing was over in twenty seconds from the time I caught sight of the game; indeed, it was over so quickly that the grizzly did not have time to show fight at all or come a step toward us. It was the first I had ever seen, and I felt not a little proud, as I stood over the great brindled bulk, which lay stretched out at length in the cool shade of the evergreens. He was a monstrous fellow, much larger than any I have seen since, whether alive or brought in dead by the hunters. As near as we could estimate (for of course we had nothing with which to weigh more than very small portions) he must have weighed about twelve hundred pounds.
After this lie had more tragical experiences and narrow escapes, in one of which an angry beast rushed upon him so suddenly that, catching the limb of a tree, he swung over the back of the grizzly and thus saved his life. In his African Game Trails he gives this account of his killing of the first and second lions in one day:
Right in front of me, thirty yards off, there appeared from behind the bushes which had first screened him from my eyes, the tawny, galloping form of a big maneless lion. Crack! the Winchester spoke; and as the soft-nosed bullet ploughed forward through his flank the lion swerved so that I missed him with the second shot; but my third bullet went through the spine and forward into his chest. Down he came, sixty yards off, his hind quarters dragging, hia head up, his ears back, his jaws open and lips drawn up in a prodigious snarl, as he endeavored to turn to face us. His back was broken; but of this we could not at the moment be sure, and if it had merely been grazed, he might have recovered, and then, even though dying,' his charge might have done mischief. So Kermit, Sir Alfred Pease, and I fired, almost together, Into his chest. His head sank, and he died.
He makes this mention also of the killing of the second lion that same day:
I was still unable to see the lion when I knelt, but he was now standing up, looking first at one group of horses and then at the other, his tail lashing to and fro, his head held low, and his lips dropped over his mouth in peculiar fashion, while his harsh and savage growling rolled thunderously over the plain. Seeing Simba and me on foot, he turned toward us, his tail lashing quicker and quicker. Besting my elbow on Simba's bent shoulder, I took steady aim and pressed the trigger; the bullet went in between the neck and shoulder, and the lion fell over on his side, one foreleg in the air. He recovered In a moment and stood up, evidently very sick, and once more faced me, growling hoarsely. I think he was on the eve of charging. I fired again at once, and this bullet broke his back just behind the shoulders; and with the next I killed him outright, after we had gathered round him.
R. J. Cunningham, Colonel Roosevelt's hunting companion in East Africa, tells this story of the killing of a huge elephant:
The Colonel was determined to get an elephant, and a tusker at that. I told him what that meant, and how much risk there was, but he said he was willing to face it. Well, we found an elephant in a forest on Genia Mountain. We had been hunting for three days, and it was really hard work for a man of the Colonel's bulk in that heat and at that altitude, 11,000 feet. At last I caught sight through a thick bush of an elephant hide and tusk, about thirty-five feet away, just enough to tell me it was a flue specimen. I pointed it out to the Colonel, and he fired with complete coolness and got the elephant in the ear and dropped him. As the shot went off the forest all around roared with trumpetings. We were in the midst of a herd of cows and young bulls, and one of the latter thrust his head through the bushes right over the Colonel's head. . I was right behind him and fired at once and bowled it over. Then I rushed up to the Colonel and said: "Are you all right, sir?" But I could see he was before I spoke. He hadn't turned a hair. At any moment the cows might have blundered through the bush over us, but he never thought of that. He went up to the old chap he had killed and gave it the coup-de-grace, and then let himself loose, j I never saw a man so boyishly jubilant.
With the utmost courage, with, his companions he hunted and slew the most dangerous wild beasts known*to man, such as lions, rhinos, buffalos, elephants, and leopards. Some of his experiences were thrilling and the escapes narrow. We have in our family a trophy of this African hunting trip, a paper-knife made out of the skin of one of the rhinos Mr. Roosevelt killed himself, which he sent as a wedding present to our daughter with a beautiful letter of congratulation written in his own tiny handwriting. The knife looks exactly as though it were made of yellow celluloid.

Colonel Roosevelt went to Africa, not only as a hunter of big game, but also as a lover of nature and an explorer, to secure scientific facts for permanent record.

Primarily he went out under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington to secure specimens of fauna and flora of that continent, and our Hercules planned the expedition in great magnitude, taking with him as companions scientific men to collect, secure, prepare and transport these specimens. Besides he had an army of between three and four hundred savages. The nature and extent of the expedition of this modern Hercules can be seen by the following official report to the government:
khaktum, March 15, 1910. 
To the Bon. Charles Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian:

sib: I have the honor to report that the Smithsonian African expedition which was entrusted to my charge has now completed its work. Full reports will be made later by the three naturalists, Messrs. Mearns, Heller and Lor-ing. I send this preliminary statement to summarize what has been done; the figures given are substantially accurate, but may have to be changed slightly in the final reports.
We landed at Mombasa on April 21, 1909, and reached Khartum on March 21, 1910. On landing we were joined by Messrs. E. J. Cunningham and Leslie J. Tarlton; the former was with us throughout our entire trip, the latter until we left East Africa, and both worked as zealously and efficiently for the success of the expedition as any other member thereof.

We spent eight months in British East Africa. We collected carefully in various portions of the Athi and Kapiti plains, in the Sotik and round Lake Naivasha. Messrs. Mearns and Loring made a thorough biological survey of Mt. Kenia while the rest of the party skirted its western base, went to and up the Guaso. Nyero, and later visited the Guas Ngishu region and both sides of the Rift valley. Messrs. Kermit Roosevelt and Tarlton went to the Laikipia Plateau and Lake Hamington, and Dr. Mearns and Mr. Kermit Roosevelt made separate trips to the coast region near Mombasa. On December 19th the expedition left East 'Africa, crossed Uganda and went down the White Nile.

North of Wadelai we stopped and spent over three weeks in Lado, and from Gondokoro Mr. Kermit Roosevelt and I again crossed into the Lado, spending eight or ten days in the neighborhood of Rejaf. At Gondokoro we were met by the steamer which the Sirdar, with great courtesy, had put at our disposal. On the way to Khartum we made collections at Lake No and on the Bahr-el-Ghazel and Bar-el-Zeraf. We owe our warmest thanks for the generous courtesy shown us and the aid freely given us not only by the Sirdar, but by all the British officials in East Africa, Uganda and the Sudan and by the Belgian officials in the Lado, and this, of course, means we are also indebted to the home governments of England and Belgium.

On the trip Mr. Heller has prepared 1,020 specimens of mammals, the majority of large size; Mr. Loring has prepared 3,163 and Dr. Mearns 714, a total of 4,897 mammals. Of birds, Dr. Mearns has prepared nearly 3,100, Mr. Loring 899 and Mr. Heller about 50, a total of about 4,000 birds. Of reptiles and batrachians, Messrs. Mearns, Loring and Heller collected about 2,000. Of fishes, about 500 were collected. Dr. Mearns collected marine fishes near Mombasa and fresh water fishes elsewhere in British East Africa, and .he «and Cunningham collected fishes in the White Nile. This makes in all of vertebrates: Mammals, 4,897; birds, about 4,000; reptiles and batrachians, about 2,000; fishes, about 500; total, 11,397.

The invertebrates were collected carefully by Dr. Mearns, I with some assistance from Messrs. Cunningham and Kermit Roosevelt.

A few marine shells were collected near Mombasa and land and freshwater shells throughout the regions visited, as well as crabs, beetles, millipeda and other invertebrates. Several thousand plants were collected throughout the regions visited by Dr. Mearns, who employed and trained for the work a Wunyamuezi named Makangarri, who soon learned how to make very good specimens and turned out an excellent man in every way.

Anthropological materials were gathered by Dr. Mearns with some assistance from others; a collection was contributed by Major Ross, an American in the government service at Nairobi.

I have the honor to be,
Very truly yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1913 Mr. Roosevelt made a tour of South America in the interest of literature and political science. And in 1914 he went back to South America to deliver some lectures and make a tour of explorations which he had had in mind for years seeking the undiscovered portion of the River of Doubt. He explored the River of Doubt for six hundred miles, placing it distinctly upon the map of the world for the first time, for the jungles were so thick that often the exploring party had to cut their path through with axes and the region was so deadly that it is said no white man can live in it. The hero feared nothing, dared every danger, in his determination to find the great geographical fact. In recognition of this discovery the Brazilian government renamed the river, "Rio Teodore" (Theodore River).

tenth—Mr. Roosevelt after his African hunting trip addressed some of the greatest universities of the world, including those of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Berlin, and received honorary degrees from Cairo, Christiana, Oxford, Cambridge and Berlin. One of the greatest wonders of the world was the manner in which the audiences, composed of the most distinguished men of the nations, listened to his messages and the credit they gave him for reliable scientific information on the subjects which he treated. His courage led him to say many things at right angles to the sentiment felt by the hosts—as when he rebuked race suicide in his address at the University at Paris. It was while on this trip that he made his celebrated address severely criticizing England's policy in Egypt.

eleventh—He performed the miracle of the progressive campaign. After serving out three years and one-half of President McKinley 's unexpired term, Mr. Roosevelt was re-elected President of the United States in 1904 by the largest popular majority which had ever been given a candidate for that office. And retiring from his seven and one-half years of service he announced that he would make a hunting trip to Africa and collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institution. In response to a letter protesting that such a trip had in it so many perils that I hoped he would not make it, and insisting that a life so valuable as his to his country should not be subjected to such extraordinary perils, he wrote me that there were several reasons for his trip. He had long desired such a hunting trip for big game; and he was also anxious to gather scientific data with reference to the animal and plant life of that continent.

He said that he had been instrumental in the nomination and election of Mr. Taft and that he thought it would be a fair thing to the new administration, and to the people who had elected it, to get out of the country and a long way from it and leave no grounds for believing that he had anything whatever to do with the administration.

On -his return from the hunting trip in Africa the reception accorded him was one of the most stupendous and glorious ever given to any man. But he found that the Republican party was getting into a snarl, that the insurgents were increasing in number and influence. He refused to take sides openly for quite a while, but at last sided with the insurgents and became the candidate of that faction for the nomination for the Presidency in 1912 against President Taft, making his famous statement, "My hat is in the ring."

The party machinery, however, was in the hands of the regular faction, and in the seating of contesting delegations, the Republican National Committee created a majority for Mr. Taft. The insurgents left the convention hall in Chicago in a body and went over to the Orchestra Hall, where the Progressive party was officially organized as a protest against the action of the Republican committee.    This was in June.

The fifth day of August was set as the time for a national Progressive convention, and at that convention Theodore Roosevelt was named for the Presidency, to run against Mr. Wilson, Governor of New Jersey, leading the Democrats, and Taft, running to succeed himself.

Toward the close of Mr. Roosevelt's administration I said to the President, "Hosts of friends over the country want you to run again; your hold upon the leadership of the Republican party is absolute. Your closest friends want to know whether you desire to run again." He replied, "I meant exactly what I said the night I was elected, that I would not be a candidate to succeed myself. I have had all the honor there is in the office, I have accomplished much of what I undertook to do, and the people have treated me with such consideration and affection that I am willing now to yield my office to some one else." He continued, "Besides, I am very, very fond of nature, and would like to pursue extensively my nature study. I am very, very fond of reading and of writing books. I should like to spend some solid years in the field of literature. I am very fond of hunting and would like to have longer periods of rest and recreation in that way. No, I shall not run again. I am positive on that subject, and you are welcome to say to all the boys that are closest to you that I am in earnest and will not take the nomination." -. Then he paused, and with a voice somewhat softened he said, "I will tell you this in strictest confidence. There is only one condition under which I could ever be induced to enter the race for the Presidency again." Deeply anxious, I inquired, "And what is that?" He answered, "Frankly this. If the Republican party were ever to go back on the progressive policies which are so necessary to the highest prosperity of the country, and to which I have devoted my life, if it should become necessary I might be compelled to take the field again and try to keep the party in the right track. I do not expect any such condition to arise. I have every reason to believe that the leaders of the party recognize the wisdom and the virtue of the policies for which the party now stands; that they will not reverse it and invite party defeat and national injury. I do not want it to occur. If things go well, as I fully expect them to do, I shall give the rest of my life up to the pursuits and joys of civil life, at the same time doing everything in my power for the happiness and prosperity of my fellow-countrymen."

Seated on the porch at Sagamore Hill after the Progressive convention had been held in Chicago in August, 1912, he called my attention to what he had said to me in the White House, and said, "Precisely the thing I had hoped would not occur has occurred, and I feel compelled under the circumstances to enter the field again." I said to him, "I am so sorry,you did not get the nomination of the Republican convention. You no doubt felt justified in running independently as a protest against what you counted a wrong, but to me the chances for your success seem slim. The Republican party that has ruled the country for fifty years is split in two. The Democrats are strong. You have no press, no party organization, no party history, no party loyalty to begin with, where millions of votes are required. But I intend to follow you in this new movement. It breaks my heart to sever party ties, but I have found you right and safe as a leader and I am going in the boat with you. I do not know where I am going, but I know I am going somewhere, and I am going somewhere mighty fast."

At this he broke out into a loud, hearty laugh and said, "Right you are, my friend, we are all going somewhere, and we are going there mighty fast.''

"Now tell me," I continued, "for you can see so much further than the rest, is there a ghost of a chance of winning out?"

"It is so early in the contest," he replied, "that it is impossible to foretell with any certainty, but I consider we have a fighting chance."

"Will you get a single electoral vote?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," he said, "a good many of them." He continued, "The race is between Wilson and myself; if Wilson shall lead me I will be a very decent second." And so he was with his four million, one hundred and twenty-six thousand and twenty, to Mr. Wilson's six million, two hundred and eighty-six thousand, two hundred and fourteen votes, which was one of the most monumental personal victories any man ever had.

During this campaign perhaps the most heroic act of his life was performed. It was when he made a speech of half-an-hour's length just after he had been shot by an assassin in Milwaukee, October 14, 1912. John Schrank, who had followed him from city to city with the intention of killing him, waited for the Colonel's car at the depot in Milwaukee, and as he was about to enter an automobile to go to the meeting, pointed a pistol at his heart. Just then the crowd commenced to yell, "Hello, Teddy!" and the Colonel threw up his hand in recognition, as was his custom, raising the gun out of its course, which sent the bullet through his spectacle case in his breast pocket, through the manuscripts of several speeches which he had in his pocket, the web of his suspenders, and was deflected from his heart, which would certainly have been pierced had it not been for the wave of the Colonel's hand.

Of course the friends insisted on driving the Colonel to a hospital and calling the meeting off. He would not listen to the proposition, but ordered the chauffeur to drive to the hall at once. When he came upon the platform of the hall his friends fairly fought him to keep him from making his speech, but he waved them back with his strong arms and said he would make the speech and that the wound could be looked after later. He would not even allow a surgeon to examine the wound. He began his speech by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, you will pardon me if I cut my remarks somewhat short, as the fact is I have been shot." Some people laughed and some jeered, and most of them were startled beyond measure at the announcement. In the part of the speech referring to himself he said:

"I do not care a rap about being shot, not a rap. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech. But I will try my best. First of all I want to say this about myself. I have altogether too many important things to think of to pay any heed or feel any concern over my own death. Now I would not speak to you insincerely within five minutes of being shot. I am telling you the literal truth when I say that my concern is for many other things.

"I want you to understand that I am ahead of the game anyway. No man has had a happier life than I have had—a happy life in every way. I have been able to do certain things that I greatly wished to do, and I am interested in doing other things." His voice became somewhat weak at the last, but he finished the speech as he had intended to make it. The annals of human heroism scarcely furnished a parallel to this, standing in his shoes full of blood and delivering a speech to the living which in all possibility or probability would be his death message. This one act of heroism equals all of the labors of the ancient Hercules put together.

When the World War came into view, feeling the necessity of dropping all partisan considerations, he returned to the Republican  party, rolling up his sleeves and working vigorously for Mr. Hughes for the Presidency. He said to me that he never allowed any personal grievance to interfere with his actions for the public good, and that as the life of the nation was at stake he buried all grievances and was willing to take the hand of fellowship of those who had prevented his nomination. And the very men who had "steam-rollered" him joined with the progressive faction of the party in entrusting to his hands the national leadership of the Republican party. It is a question which is the greater victory, to have made such a record as a progressive candidate or to have manifested the magnanimity which he did toward those in his party who had opposed him so bitterly.

Mr. Roosevelt, while a strict partisan, was above all a patriot. When he headed the Progressive ticket many Democrats voted for him. As a rule the rank and file of the Democrats of this country always had the highest respect for Mr. Roosevelt and large numbers of them loved him. At the time of his death the Democrats of the nation seemed to have suffered as deep sorrow as the Republicans.
twelve—He was a giant in the World's War. Theodore Roosevelt was responsible for stirring up the national spirit in the only wars we have had since Lincoln's time, the Spanish-American and the present World War. More than any other man, he realized that the devastation of Belgium and the sinking of the Lusitania were crimes against humanity and our own government and demanded that they be avenged at whatever cost. His tremendous intellect caused the nation, which desired peace and was determined to have it, to realize that there was a just cause for war for the preservation of the honor and life of our own nation and the liberty and peace of the world. He showed his patriotic faith by his work in giving all he had to the success of this conflict, and in one of his last messages to the public he said, "There is room in this country for but one flag."

The Hercules of mythology had his faults, but the world has not time or disposition to look or dwell upon them. It only remembers his mighty power, his rugged virtue and his love and service for his country.

Theodore Roosevelt had his faults, certainly he did, for he was human; only one man ever lived who was without fault, and He was God. It was the singularly human element, that was liable to err, that made him so immensely popular. A faultless angel could never have gotten elected to any office which Colonel Roosevelt ever filled. The people want some one like themselves, capable of getting mad once in a while when it is necessary, and of fighting desperately when a just cause arises.

It must be remembered, however, that the things that were most severely criticized in him, and which his closest friends regretted at the time, proved to be the strongest points in his plans and administration. When he fought the encroachments of the money power two-thirds of the people thought he was driving the nation into bankruptcy. But the people soon learned that he was right, and the rich men themselves said he must go to the front again to save the nation from financial collapse. When everybody was for peace he was for war. After a while the nation found that he was right and it was wrong and followed his advice. Most men saw only one little section of the truth, but he had eyes with which he saw around the whole sphere of truth.

He had faults to be sure, but I was so close to him that I did not see them. He had such a superb personality that I did not stop to see whether he had a twisted little finger nail on his left hand or a mole on his neck. I have not dwelt on his faults; others will likely do that. Some critics may not have their intellect colored with love as mine is; some biographers may have a muck rake in their hand; some may be so prejudiced that they will underestimate him; some will be brutally frank, like Froude in writing of Carlyle, and become his slanderers rather than biographers, but the Theodore Roosevelt I knew had so many strong points and so many virtues that I only have space for these in this record.

Hercules was a very devout man. He was poisoned to death by accident in the very act of worship. Realizing that he had to die he called upon Jupiter for protection. He then coolly prepared for his exit from the world. He erected a large funeral pile on Mount Oeta, and calmly directed Philoctetes to set it on fire when he had ascended it. Jupiter, with the approbation of the gods, suddenly surrounded the pile with smoke, and Hercules, after his mortal parts were totally consumed, was carried up to heaven in a chariot drawn by four horses, amidst peals of thunder, and his friends raised an altar where the burning pile had stood. His worship became general, and his temples, which were scattered everywhere, were the most magnificent that could be found in the world.

Colonel Roosevelt, quite a while ago, picked out the place in the little cemetery near Sagamore Hill where his mortal remains should lie. I went out to visit the grave of my friend the other day. Close by the grave was a little tent used by the returned soldier boys of Oyster Bay, who guarded this precious dust. The young men told me that on one occasion 5,000 had visited the grave in one day, and that John Burroughs, the celebrated naturalist, and Bill Sewall, Mr. Roosevelt's guide and life-long hunting companion, had visited the grave with deep emotion; and that a representative of the Japanese government had a few days before gone through some ceremony of religious worship and had craved the privilege of carrying a handful of dust, as a sacred relic, back to his home in Japan. The flowers were all faded, the frames that held them were exposed, but their story was there; there was the wreath of the Rough Riders of the West, one of a colored church in the South, one from a French general tied with a French flag, one from his brother Masons, one from the President of the United States, and just under it was a bunch of pussy willows picked by the little children of the Cove School. The faded flowers and leaves were symbols only of the mortal part that rested in the tomb. The spirit of Theodore Roosevelt was taken to heaven in the chariot of righteousness. The evergreens in the cemetery lot, untouched by the frost and snow, were but the symbol of his immortality. While standing there some voices were heard. This one from the great hero who gave the Christian civilization to Europe and America, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." And then came these words of his Master for whom he suffered martyrdom, "In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."