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CHAPTER XXVIII
His Home-Coming and Welcome

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HOMEWARD BOUND " This is my own, my native land " Ifrom the Times-Star  (Cincinnati)
IN Europe the plain people had received Roosevelt gladly everywhere.   The European   enemies   of  America   have   always been among the rulers and privileged classes.    The  United  States  has  meant  to the workman and the peasant of Europe the

land of opportunity and of promise, and Roosevelt's name had become familiar as that of the man typifying the best things in the life of the American people.
The European press had received Roosevelt with interest, curiosity, and expressions of amusement more or less polite. His address at the Guildhall, which was admirable in form and spirit, quite shocked the British newspapers because it was the conventional British thing to appear shocked. In reality, nobody was in the smallest degree perturbed or offended.

OLD  EUROPE  RESTING  AT   LAST! From the Inquirer (Philadelphia)

I CAN'T SEE HIM, BUT I THINK I CAN HEAE
HIM ! " From the Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

 

UNCLE SAM'S TURN NEXT!

' MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OP THEE ! " From the Sun  (Baltimore)

IN PASSING
(Colonel Roosevelt, on the homeward voyage, takes advantage of the opportunity to deliver a lecture to old Neptune on " How to Run the Ocean.")
From the American (New York)

RELIEF  IN   SIGHT From the Herald  (Washington)

SIGHTED ! From the Evening World (New York)
AWAITING   THE  TRAVELER'S  RETURN From the Post  (PIttsburg)

His Home-Coming and Welcome

227

new york to mb. roosevelt:  "Good-morning,  Colonel!''—From the Eagle  (Brooklyn,  N.  Y.)

RELIEF ! From the Daily Nctcs  (Chicago)

WONDER WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR?
From the Inquirer (Philadelphia)

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

 

 

DELIGHTED ! From the Journal (Minneapolis)

BACK  FROM ELBA From the News-Scimitar (Memphis)

But much more important than Europe's casual impressions, and the comments of the European press, was the sort of effect upon the state of mind of his own countrymen that Mr. Roosevelt's return was destined to produce. His last year in the White House had been difficult, and many of the newspapers had been harsh in their criticisms. The President is a man of great power by virtue of the bearings his office has upon the fortunes of hundreds of thousands of men who are of some consequence in their own communities. When Mr. Roosevelt refused another term and his successor was duly elected people began to think of the man who was coming into power and who was already choosing- his official associates, rather than of the man who was not only laying down the

 

THE UNITED STATES WILL PLEASE COME TO
OKDER! From the Herald (Washington)

insurgent and regular, both : " You wait till Roosevelt gets here ; he'll fix j'ou ! "
From the Oregonian (Portland)

His Home-Coming and Welcome

229

UNCLE  SAM'S  "WELCOME HOME"  TO ROOSEVELT (Homer Davenport in New York Evening Mail)

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

MUTUAL GREETING From the Times-Star (Cincinnati)
From the Eagle  (Brooklyn)
sceptre of rule, but who was also going into a voluntary exile, banishing himself to the heart of Africa, in order that there might be no man able to say that Roosevelt out of office was still trying to order the affairs of the country.
There was widespread interest in his African movements, but only scanty news. Not one word of authorized interview, or of comment upon American affairs or his own intentions, did Mr. Roosevelt utter during his entire absence. Many business men throughout the country, led by Wall Street, had ex-

pressed themselves, with rather brutal frankness, as happy to have Mr. Roosevelt go to Africa. They were eager to enter upon the expected years of calmness and unruffled business prosperity that were sure to come with the wise and steady administration of Taft, succeeding the headstrong and turbulent years of the Rough Rider in leadership of the nation.
It is not the President alone, however, who makes our polit-i c a 1 and financial weather. Mr. Taft's first year was stormier than any one of Mr. Roosevelt's seven and a half years. This was for many reasons; some of which were subject to Mr. Taft's control. Many of them, however, were beyond his power.
It happened, nevertheless, that just as Wall Street and the people whose state of

His Home-Coming and Welcome

231

Copyright, 1910, by P. F. Collier & Son
" HURRAH  FOR   TEDDY!"
(The welcome awaiting him at the hands of the people.) From Collier's Weekly

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mind  is determined by the business barometers had formed the habit  of abusing Mr. Roosevelt with extreme exaggeration, even so had they in one short year begun to abuse Mr. Taft quite as unsparingly.   And since Mr. Taft was the man at the helm, it was easy enough to forget the other man's faults and to wish that he were steering the ship again. And so a good many of the men who had been willing to have Roosevelt exile himself, but who had not been willing in March, 1909, to go down the harbor to bid him God-
THE NON-PARTISAN  RECEPTION
HOME AGAIN ! From the World (New York)
(In accordance with Colonel Roosevelt's wishes, his reception   was   entirely   non-partisan.) From the Record (Philadelphia)

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

HIS   PROGRESS   HOMEWARD

SWAMPING THE COLONEL ! Prom the Press (New York)

speed, were quite elated to find themselves appointed to serve on the large reception committee of June, 1910; and down the harbor they cheerfully went, to welcome Mr. Roosevelt back home with effusion, if not with life-long affection.
The country as a whole, however, welcomed him home with an enthusiasm and a devotion that were sincere beyond any doubt. He was greeted with an applause that rang true in every State and Territory. Nothing of its kind so impressive had ever been seen in New York as the crowds that lined the route of his drive from the Battery up Broadway to Central Park at high noon of June 18, 1910.
It would be easy to make up a volume of the clever and amusing cartoons drawn for the American newspapers in the few days just before and just after Mr. Roosevelt's

TAKING   ON   THE   PILOT
From Collier's Weekly

His Home-Coming and Welcome

233

 

From Collier's Weekly

arrival. We have selected a few of these, in order to give some impression of the spirit and character of the country's greeting. It was deeply gratifying to Mr. Roosevelt to be welcomed home with such heartiness; and the little speech he made, in response to Mayor Gaynor's formal but kindly words of welcome, must be recorded in these pages as belonging to our condensed chronicle of Roosevelt's career. The speech in full was as follows:

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THE  RETURN  FROM ELBA From Collier's Weekly
I thank you, Mayor Gaynor. Through you I thank your committee, and through them I wish to thank the American people for their greeting. I need hardly say I am most deeply moved by the reception given me. No man could receive such a greeting

Copyright, 1910, by Harper & Brothers
" MY BOY ! "
(Uncle Sam's welcome to ex-President Roosevelt.) From Harper's Weekly

unct.e sam : " How's the boy? " From the Inquirer (Philadelphia)

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

father knickeebocker : " Come to my arms, my beamish boy !' From the World (New York)

without being made to feel both very proud and very humble.
I have been away a year and a quarter from America, and I have seen strange and interesting things alike in the heart of the frowning wilderness and in the capitals of the mightiest and most highly polished of civilized nations. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, and now I am more glad than I can say to get home, to be back in my own country, back among the people I love.
And I am ready and eager to do my part, so far as I am able, in helping solve problems which must be solved if we of this the greatest democratic Republic upon which the sun has ever shone are to see its destinies rise to the high level of our hopes and its opportunities.
This is the duty of every citizen, but it is peculiarly my duty; for any man who has ever been honored by being made President of the United States is thereby forever after rendered the debtor of the American people, and is bound throughout his life to remember this as his prime obligation, and in private life as much as in public life, so to carry himself that the American people may never have cause to feel regret that once they placed him at their head.

On the following page is a picture of Mr. Roosevelt in the act of uttering these appropriate words. The meaning of the statement was clear beyond a doubt. Mr. Roosevelt meant as ex-President to serve his country as best he could, doing everything in his power to promote progress and justice, without seeking anything for himself.

 

uncle sam : " Just as I expected, Teddy! Associating with Emperors and Kings hasn't changed you one particle ! "—From the Press (New York)

EN ROUTE  AGAIN From the World (New York)

His Home-Coming and Welcome

235

Photograph by the American 1'icbs A

MR. ROOSEVELT RESPONDING TO MAYOR GAYNOR'S ADDRESS

Photograph by Brown Bros.
TUB WELCOMING CROWDS ON FIFTH AVENUE,   NEW YORK, JUNE 18, 1910
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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

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WHEN TEDDY COMES MARCHING HOME
From the Journal   (Detroit)

 

NEW  YORK  AT  LAST '. From the Jersey Journal  (Jersey City)

uncle sam : " We were wondering what to do with you.' T. R. : " Leave that to me! "—Philadelphia Press.

His Home-Coming and Welcome

237

Photograph by Brown Bros.

THE ROUGH RIDERS GREETING THEIR COLONEL

HIS GREATEST HONOR (Roosevelt's   enthusiastic   reception   on   landing   at   New
York.) From the Herald (Boston)

Photograph by the American Press Assn.
RECOGNIZING FRIENDS EN ROUTE

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

HOME AGAIN! From the Evening News (Newark)

Copyright by the American Press Association, N. Y.
SAGAMORE HILL, MR. ROOSEVELT'S HOME, AS IT WAS IN THE  SUMMER OF 1910