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THEODORE ROOSEVELT
1919

CHAPTER 24
 ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART
WE found the parallel for Theodore Roosevelt in the Hercules of classical antiquity. "We see his counterpart in the Great Heart of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in his masterful memorial oration uses as his peroration a quotation from Bunyan's allegory. He likens Roosevelt to Valiant—for-the-Truth, whom the author represents as holding the sword, with which he fights for the right, so firmly that it became cemented to his fingers and seemed to grow out of his hand as a part of it. But the real hero of the second part of Pilgrim's Progress was Great Heart. His tender regard for women and children was such that he devoted his time and energy in helping them up the pathway of life, and in clearing away its difficulties and dangers. He was a Hercules who braved lions in the path, drove them out of the way of the women and children and fought and slew the robbers and giants that undertook to harm them. It was Great Heart who led Christiana and her four sons along the dangerous pilgrimage of life up to the delectable mountains and the land of Beulah. He presents an exact picture of the tender regard Theodore Roosevelt always had for the women and children of America, especially for the helpless ones. From the very beginning of his public life till the day of his death he did everything in his power to improve the condition of women and children, and to promote their progress, usefulness and happiness. The laws on the statute books safe-guarding the interest of the women and children, especially those of the poor, were many of them put there by Mr. Roosevelt's influence. The other day I went over on the East Side to see a very old woman, Mrs. Mary Ledwith, who said she was born in 1830, and hence was 89 years of age. She said that she went to live in the home of Mr. Charles Carow, the father of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, before Lincoln's election. She was in the family when Mrs. Roosevelt was born; she put her first dress upon her and remained in the family until the time, when she went, as a nurse, into the home of Colonel Roosevelt, when Miss Ethel Carow was married to him. She remained in the family until a few years ago. She said there never was a nicer little girl than Ethel Carow, and no finer woman than Mrs. Ethel Roosevelt. She is so lovely to me now, comes to see me and on Christmas always brings me some nice present, generally a garment that she has made with her own fingers. This nice one she gave me this last Christmas. I had the chance to see Colonel Roosevelt at close range and there was never a finer man. He also has been so tender and good to me, visiting me, and always came to see me when I was sick. All those pictures on the wall of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt and the children were given to me by him. The last time he was here he spent some considerable time looking over them and said, "This one was taken at Albany, that one in New York, this other one in Washington and this at Oyster Bay." Those pictures are mighty good company to me and they seemed to be to him that day. Quite an amusing incident occurred one day. I had lived on the second floor of this building and had moved to the third, where I am now. And Colonel Roosevelt, running up the first stairway, rushed into the apartment I formerly occupied and frightened the tenant nearly out of her wits. Mrs. Weis-man resented the insolence and Colonel Roosevelt told her who he was, begged her pardon and said he wad looking for Mrs. Ledwith. He then came upstairs just as full of life as a boy and laughed heartily as he said, "You got me into a lot of trouble by not notifying me that you had moved upstairs, for I got into another person's house and did not know but that I would be arrested as a burglar." Mrs. Ledwith said she was very sorry that her memory had failed her, as she had so many delightful experiences in being in the home of so great and good a man as Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt's tender regard for Mrs. Ledwith was an illustration of that affection and care which he had for the aged man and woman.

Almost the greatest characteristic of Mr. Roosevelt's life was his love for children and the deep interest he took in their welfare. No wonder the boys in America idolized him. He knew them so well and was so much of a boy himself. During the Barnes trial in Syracuse the Colonel kept up his horseback exercise. One afternoon a prominent Syracusan looked up from his newspaper on the front porch and called to his wife upstairs: '' There goes Theodore Roosevelt on horseback." At the moment the six-year-old son of the house was in the bathtub. He heard his father, rushed scampering and spattering downstairs, out of the front door and right down the walk to the middle of the street, hoping for a glimpse of his great idol. But he was too late for the Colonel had gotten out of sight, and the father had to run out and kidnap his nude child and carry him back into the house while the little fellow kept on saying: '' Where is he, papa! Where is he! Which way did he go!" That night, at a reception, the father told the Colonel of it. "By George—by George!''—and he chuckled. '' You bring that boy to me—I want to see him!" He was brought, duly clad, and was mounted for half an hour on the Roosevelt knee, and told stories about Injuns and lions and giraffes and grizzlies and my grandchildren; and when taken home in a trance, and measured, his father said he had grown an inch.

Not very long before he died, one autumn day Colonel Roosevelt went down to the court in New York and sat for two hours at the elbow of Justice Hoyt and acted as unofficial consulting justice. In one case he leaned over and whispered to a youngster, "It's all right, sonny. You're all right, but remember don't do it again or he'll send you away." One little urchin had stolen something good to eat from the pushcart and had made restitution to the owner. Mr. Roosevelt as he thumped the arm of the chair said, "That's a fine boy, that kind make first-rate citizens.''

Colonel Roosevelt's love for the children was manifested in his deep desire that the children of the plain people, and of poverty, might have all the advantages of a common school education, and also technical instruction in the fine arts. This interest was shown, a few years ago, in a visit to the Third Street Music Settlement in New York City. He was entranced with the orchestra of East Side boys and girls, from many lands, playing a movement from a Haydn symphony, and was astonished by three little pupils with the Widor "Serenade" for piano, violin and 'cello, followed by various piano and violin solos. He made the children a beautiful speech in which he said: "Boys and girls, do not envy your neighbors who may have many automobiles in their garages while you have your piano, your violin, or 'cello. Prepare yourself to earn the living wage, but do not forget to leave the casement open to let in 'the light that never was on sea or land.' Let the love for literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, and, above all, music enter into your lives.''

One cold day in February in returning from lunch to The Outlook office he found a little immigrant boy nine years old who had got lost from his parents and was crying bitterly. The Colonel took out his handkerchief, wiped the child's eyes and spoke to him kindly, and took him by the hand and led him to the matron of one of the police stations with the personal request that she immediately find his parents and take him to them, which she did.

In 1903 there was an important function in Portland, Ore., of which Mr. Roosevelt was the centre. The city was crowded and the pavements were lined with people witnessing the procession. There was a little incurable invalid girl, who was very anxious to see the President of the United States as he went by. And they put her on a stretcher and carried her to the edge of the pavement. President Roosevelt, noticing the pale, sick little creature, stopped his carriage, ran to the cot where she lay, stooped down and kissed her and then hurried back to his carriage and the procession went on. As Hercules, he was at the head of the nation; as Great Heart, he bent down and kissed the sick little child.

This love for children is illustrated by an incident told me by Rev. Dr. Bowman. One day Mrs. Bowman and her small daughter, Ruth, were taking a train for Oyster Bay. The child, lifted up the steps by her mother, ran ahead of her into the car. Knowing Colonel Roosevelt and noticing that no one else was in the seat with him, she sat down beside him. The Colonel had a manuscript in his hand but at once turned aside and entered into an earnest conversation with Ruth. The mother half scolded the child for having disturbed the Colonel and took her by the hand to lead her to another seat. The Colonel instantly remonstrated and said he felt proud that the child had noticed him and that he was glad she sat beside him. He arose politely and asked Mrs. Bowman to take his seat by the side of Ruth, saying he would find another one. She remonstrated, but he insisted and sat down by the side of a colored man, which no one else in the car seemed to care to do. Before going, however, he said, "Ruth, I am about to start on a long journey to Africa. I will be away a long time and shall not be able to see you. Here is a dollar which I want you to keep to remember me by, and here is another dollar I want you to give to your brother for him to remember me by."

Several years before when little Ruth was a baby learning to walk she had pulled herself up by the side of a high-chair in which her brother was seated at the table and pulled it over on her and cut her head pretty severely. Colonel Roosevelt, hearing of the accident, immediately sent his daughter Ethel down to the parsonage to find out how badly the child had been hurt and to say that if there was anything he could do for her he would count it a privilege to do so.

In one of Colonel Roosevelt's greatest addresses he describes the ideal man as a true Christian and illustrates that fact by referring to Great Heart, Bun-yan's hero.
THE COVE SCHOOL

The little Cove School, near to Sagamore Hill, furnishes a complete revelation of Roosevelt, the Great Heart. On a visit to the Cove School Miss Ella G. Stewart, who is the teacher there, gave me the following information. In everything connected with the school he took as deep and personal an interest as though it were his own family. There was a garden committee of the rural neighborhood, composed of ladies, which gave prizes for the best kept garden at the different homes in the neighborhood. The exhibits were brought to the school house in September, before the beginning of the school, and first, second and third prizes, which were furnished by the women, were presented by Mr. Roosevelt.

He took a deep interest in these contests and on Friday following the opening of school he awarded the prizes. He gave a book himself to the one who made the best effort. For instance, he gave a book to a boy who did not have the best garden, but who had the best garden under the circumstances. His field was full of roots and hard to cultivate, and the Colonel explained to the school that the boy got the book because he had made such a good garden having had to overcome such great difficulties. Leonard Hall got one of these big books on gardening as a prize.

Each year Arbor Day was celebrated, Mr. Roosevelt paid for the trees and each of the scholars planted one. One autumn he presented a large bird house and put it up in a tree in the school yard and the children put up smaller boxes in the trees around the house and here the birds found refuge and nested and sung. There was no mistake about Great Heart's feeling for the beautiful choristers of the woods. The walls of the school were fairly covered with the pictures of birds and on the table was a magazine about birds and reasons for loving them, which he sent to the school with his compliments every year. On the wall was a curious picture and a beautiful one also made of silk thread by a sailor who was on one of the ships of the fleet that went around the world, and which he sent as a present to Colonel Roosevelt. In presenting the picture Mr. Roosevelt told them about the great United States fleet and the reasons he had for sending it around the world.

Noticing a bronze tablet on the wall in memory of Mr. Fleet, who had been a trustee of the school for thirty-one years, I remembered it was the one to which Colonel Roosevelt declined to contribute. In answer to a letter requesting his subscription, which was expected of course to be an affirmative one, he declined. He knew Mr. Fleet to have been an excellent man and to have rendered invaluable services and that if the memorial should do the children any practical good, such as a drinking fountain or a gymnasium or fountain for birds on the outside he would contribute liberally to it, but for a brass tablet on the wall not a cent. He said he would not give a cent to it if the memorial was to his grandfather.

The crown and climax of the Cove School year were the Christmas exercises. For over thirty years Great Heart had been the Santa Claus of the school, making piles of fun for the children and just as much for himself. It had been the custom of Mr. Roosevelt for over thirty years to give a present to every child in the school at Christmas time. He arranged it so that each child should write a letter to the teacher telling her what present he or she desired Santa Clans to bring. The letters were carefully filed and each boy and girl received to the dot the very thing asked for.

The exercises were usually held on Friday afternoon closing the school term, and preceding the Christmas vacation. The children first gave recitations and songs, and then Mr. Roosevelt made a twenty-five-minute address to them and their parents and friends who had assembled.

Rev. H. S. Dunning, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Oyster Bay, a warm friend of Mr. Roosevelt, often went out to the Cove School Christmas exercises. He told me a number of interesting things about the exercises, among them a story which the Colonel related in one of these short addresses.

He told about one of the few Christmases he spent away from the Cove School, the one in which he was on his hunting trip in Africa. Mr. Roosevelt said that he chanced to be, on that day, among the natives at a town where few, if any, white people lived. A bull elephant had been running amuck, terrifying the people of the vicinity and killing some of them. He and his party determined on this Christmas day to go out and, if possible, destroy the beast. In a very vivid way he related the story of how they' came upon the creature and how finally, after considerable peril to themselves, they succeeded in dispatching him. Needless to say, the eyes of the children bulged with excitement as the tale was unfolded to them.

After the exercises Mr. Roosevelt took the presents off the tree one by one with his own hands and had the child whose name was called come forward and receive it, and he usually made some delightful or funny remark about the present that was given. For instance, he would use some baseball phrase when he handed a boy a ball and bat, and would have some sweet little words to say when he gave a dolly to a little girl. Little Margret Martin, aged five years, came forward for her present and Santa Claus took her up with a hand under each shoulder and holding her up said, "I want everybody in the house to see the sweet little girl who made such a pretty speech to-day." When a boy came up for his present he gave him a flashlight, saying, "This reminds me of my trip to South America, when I had to get up in the night with my flashlight to see if there were any snakes under the bed."

At the close of the exercises the Colonel shook hands with everybody in the house (there were usually about one hundred present). He was the host, and all were the happy guests that day. More than that, he seemed like a father and the children and neighbors like his family. Beside the gifts to the children he gave each year a book to every teacher in the school. Only one year did he ever miss, that was in 1917. That Christmas he sent a letter to the teachers informing them that he and Mrs. Roosevelt had determined not to give any Christmas presents to adults that year as the war was on and they wanted to save every cent they could to aid in its prosecution. He said they had* determined to continue the gifts to the children as usual and that they might have the children send their letters out to Santa Claus as usual, and that they would get the presents they asked for. The little Cove School, democratic and progressive* has been fortunate in its teachers. Miss Sarah C. Provost was the head teacher for twenty-four years. Since her death that position has been filled by Miss Stewart. It is a long distance between the country school at the cove and the University of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Berlin, but Great Heart, acting as Santa Claus for the little Cove School, was as great, if not a greater man than he was as a world character with cap and gown receiving his degree from Cambridge. Love is the strongest thing in the universe. Love is the strongest force in human character. It colored the intellect and dominated the imperial will of Theodore Roosevelt. He was a Hercules in force, in rugged virtue and heroic service for others. But he was also Great Heart, whose love softened his spirit and controlled his life.

When Theodore was a boy his father took him and the other children and left them at their own Sunday School at Dr. Adams' church and then went on down into the slums to take charge of a mission school amongst the poor and the wayward. The aunt, Mrs. Bullock, used to say as she saw him starting out with the children, "There goes Great Heart." And as the world saw Theodore Roosevelt caring for the children of his home, his community and of the nation, especially concerning himself about the children of the poor and wretched, the people said in their hearts, "There goes Great Heart." In his boyish, playful spirit, in his intense affection for the children, in his plans for their betterment and happiness, he imitated his Master, Who said, "For of such is the kingdom of heaven."

In referring to Colonel Roosevelt's death, Rudyard Kipling said, "It is as though Bunyan's Mr. Great Heart had died in the midst of his pilgrimage." At first thought it would seem that Great. Heart had died on his pilgrimage, but on second thought we feel 'that having conducted safely so many women, children and helpless ones up the rugged, dangerous path of life to the river over which they passed to the Celestial City, he himself followed them and joined the throng upon the other side.

There was a giant in olden times. He was so tall and strong that he used forest trees as walking sticks and wore the clouds as his hair. The lightning was the flash of his eye, the thunder was the sound of his voice, the tornado was his breath, and the earthquake was the shock of his foot. He had a bad heart and was mighty to oppress, injure and slay, and people fled from him in terror and their loud wails of sorrow and pain were heard. In our time there lived a giant mightier than the one in classic story, but of another character. His heart was great. His feet stood firmly on the earth and his head was crowned with stars. He was a terror to evil-doers only. The lightning of indignation, that flashed from his eye, shattered the institutions of moral evil, and the thunder of his voice warned the people of the dangers that threatened the happiness and life of the republic. But this giant loved his fellowmen and went about doing good.

He was so tall in heart and mind that everybody in the nation could see him, and was charged with such mysterious magnetism that they could not take their eyes off him, but watched to see where he went, what he said, and what he did. He went among the common people, who heard him gladly as he taught them how to govern themselves, and how to govern the nation. He went into the homes of the poor to sympathize with them, lift them up and bring hope and joy to them, and demanded of the law-givers better housing and education for them. He went among the sick, suffering and oppressed to bless them. He entered the universities and taught them. He visited the State Legislatures and National Capitol and asked that just and beneficent laws be enacted.
Everywhere hundreds and thousands of children from the homes and schools flocked about him, and followed him to cheer and love him. He played with them, and loved them as a father would his own, and had both arms full of them wherever he went. And the people said that this giant that can crush the great evils of the nation with one arm, and press the babies to his heart with the other, was a real sovereign, and demanded that he be the ruler of the nation. And in office and out of office the people looked to him as their leader till the day of his death. This giant was so beautiful in his character and so fragrant in his influence that the multitudes flocked about him and cheered him, and they shouted, "He is Roosevelt! Roosevelt!" (A field of roses.) They said he is Theodore, Gift of God, as the name indicates. And so he was a garden of June roses, a gift of God, to our earth and generation. He arose as the mighty hero in the forefront of the fight of the world battling for the rights of his fellows, and the honor of his God, and as soon as the victory was won he slipped away one night, and made an easy step from the mountain top of earthly duty and fame into heaven.