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CHAPTER XXV
Stepping Out of the White House

prom Puck.   Copyrighted 1908.    By Permissio:

 

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I'VE HAD A PERFECTLY CORKING TIME!
I
F any man had ever seen Mr. Roosevelt in a mood of dejection or disheartenment, the fact had never been revealed.    He was  always  the  man  of  confidence  and  strong heart.    It was  not that he  took his responsibilities recklessly, but he never allowed them to burden or weigh him down.   There was never a day, however difficult, when he was not prepared to say of the Presidency, " I like my job," or to declare to friends and foes alike, " I am having a perfectly corking time."

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

IN  THE WHITE  HOUSE  ATTIC,  AS  MOVING   TIME   APPROACHES
mb. roosevelt :  " I wonder how much of this stuff Bill wants me to leave behind ? " From the Saturday Globe  (Utica)
Doubtless this was due in large part to his great physical vitality, to the evenness and regularity of his habits of life and work, and to the firmness of a nervous system that was not, like those of most other men, subject to reaction after excitement. In the language of a White House usher, who had served through several administrations, " there

 

LETTERS   FROM   THE   PEOPLE From the Daily Tribune  (Chicago)

Stepping Out of the White House

191

was never any man like him for hard work; yet no matter how late he was at it every night, he came downstairs each morning as fresh as the dew upon the roses." If Mr. Roosevelt ever had any days or hours of illness, the secret never leaked out.
THE NEWSPAPER MEN AND CARTOONISTS LAMENTING MB. ROOSEVELT'S LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE.
From  the   ~Sew$-Trtt>unr,   (Duluth)
All his work was planned well in advance and finished easily on time. If he had a speech-making tour ahead of him, his dates were well arranged, and the speech to be made at each place had been carefully drafted and put on paper. Some Presidents had never found time while in office to read a book. Mr. Roosevelt always kept up with current literature, and was always digging into more or less recondite fields of history and science. He read whole libraries while in the White House, although no one knows , how he found the time. He was conversant with early Celtic literature and with the sagas of the Teutonic North. He was more thoroughly familiar than any other American with all books relating in a general way to sportsmanship, travel, and natural history. His constant devotion to the interests and concerns of his family had kept him acquainted also with the books that interest young people and children.
At the moment of his leaving the White House and starting on his adventurous journey to Africa he was, without doubt, more completely and freshly informed about Afri-

1'ASSING   ON   THE   TORCH
("Let at least the satisfaction be ours that we have carried onward the lighted torch in our own day
and generation. It' we do this, then, as our eyes close, and we go into the darkness, and other hands grasp
the torch, at least we can say that our part has been borne well and valiantly."—From Roosevelt's Lecture
at Oxford.)	From the fleraW (Syracuse)

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

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PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, AT THE LINCOLN FARM IN KENTUCKY, FEBRUARY 12, 1909

ROOSEVELT AT A LINCOLN DINNER IN NEW YORK From the Evening Mail  (New York)

can hunting,—in so far as knowledge could come from the reading of books and conversation with sportsmen and travelers,—than any other man in the world. He left the White House with no regrets, and with a sense of having served the country to the best of his ability. And somehow the world did not think of him as a man passing into retirement, or as one who had run his race and finished his course. Everybody was asking what Roosevelt would do next.
On February 12, less than a month before Mr. Roosevelt retired from the Presidency, he went to Hodgenville, Kentucky, to speak

Stepping Out of the White House

193

WELL   BEGUN   AND   WELL   DONE From the Evening Mail (New York)
at the farm where Abraham Lincoln was born, a hundred years before. His tribute to Lincoln on that occasion was, in rhetorical form, the most perfect speech he had ever prepared. Its portrayal of Lincoln's devotion to duty and high qualities as a great President was in some sense a revelation of Mr. Roosevelt's own ideals. It seemed to reflect something of the spirit in which, from his entrance into the political life of New York in 1882, through all his successive experiences, to the end of his term in the White House, he had given his own best courage and best effort for what he believed to be right causes.

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A Cartoon  History of Roosevelt's Career

the fkightened animals : " Hist! See who's coming ! " (By   Homer   Davenport   in   Evening Matt, New York)