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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1900)
THE COURIER. V tnenl comes sometimes bb a shock to the man ot slower ways. He dooa not stop at conventionalities. If a thing is right, it ie to be done and right away. It was notably so with the round robin in Cuba asking the Government to re cull the perishing Rrmy when it had won the iight. People shook their heads, and talked of precedents. Precedents! It has been Roosevelt's business to make them most of his time. But is there any one today who think he set that one wrong? Certainly no one who with me saw the army come home. It did not come a day ton soon When he had done bis work for the ships and resigned his office to take the field, the croakers shouted that at last he had made the mistake ot his life; all to get into a scrap. His men didn't think so when he lay with them in the trenches beforo Santiago, sharing his last biscuit with them. They got to know him there, and to love him. I know what it cost him the leave his sick wife and his babies. I wanted to keep him at home, but I Baw him go with pride, because I knew be went at the call of duty. He thought the war just and right. He had done what he could to biing it on as the only means of stopping the murder in Cuba, and he went to do hi a share ot the ti'hting a9 a matter of right and of example to the young men to whom he was a type of the citizen and the patriot. As that type when he came home, we made him our governor in New York state. We ran him on the pledge of his record the pledge ot honesty, manhood, and courage; and he kept the pledge. I shall let some one else tell the story of that Just let me recall the last trip we took together, because it was so much like the old days in Mulberry street. There had arisen a contention as to whether the factory inspector did his duty by the sweat-shops or not, and from the testimony he was unable to decide. So he came down from Albany to see for himself. It wbb a sweltering hot day when he made a tour of the stewing tenements on the down-town east side. I doubt if any other gov ernor that ever was would attempt it. I know that none ever did. But he never shirked one of the twenty houses we had marked out for exploration. He examined the evidence of each while the tenants wondered who the stranger was who took bo much interest in their a.Tairs; and as the result he was able to mark out a course for the fac tory inspector that ought to double and treble the efficiency ot his office and bring untold relief to a hundred thous and tenement houee workers if it is followed when Roosevelt is no longer in Albany. That will be our end of it: to see to it that he did not labor in vain. That is Roosevelt as I saw him daily duriDg those good years when things we had hoped for were done. There stands upon my shelves a row of books, more than a dozen in number, begin ning with the "Naval War of 1812," written when he was scarcely out of college, and yet ranking as an authority, both here and abroad, including the four stout volumes of "The Winning of GURbED HAIR (9 -AII- IWLMIIIIG. :b. jb wiioox Xo. 14th St. the West," and ending with the "Rough riders," the picturesque account ot that picturesque regim-c I in the laBt war, which testify to his uotfring energy as a recorder as well as a maker of history. The secret ot that is the 6tory ot the police force and the sweat shops over again: his enjoyment of the work. If I were to sum the man and his achieve ments up in a sentence, I think I should put it that way. But that would not mean an accident of the Dutch and Huguenot and Irish blood that go to make up his heredity. It would mean ot itself an achievement. Theodore Roosevelt "as born a puny child. He could not keep up with the play of other children, or learn so easily as they. He had to make himself what he is, and with the indomitable will that characterized the boy as it does the man, he set about it. He became at once an athlete and a student. When he joins the two, he is at his best. His accounts of life on the Western plains, of hunting in the Bad Land? of Dakota, where he built his. ranch on the banks ot the Little Missouri, are written out of the man's heart. Mr. Roosevelt's recent protest against the impertinent intrusion of the camera fiend upon the seclusion of his home life t Oyster Bay was perfectly char acteristic of him, and of his way of say ing the right thing at the right time. The whole country applauded it. In his home Mr. Roosevelt ceases to be governor of the Empire State, and be comes husband and father, the com panion of his children, who treat him like their big. overgrown brother. His love for children, especially for those who have not so good a time as some others, is as instinctive aB hiB compan ionship of all that needs a lift. I doubt if he is aware of it himself. He does not recognize as real sympathy what he feels rather as a sense of duty. Yet 1 have seen him, when school chil dren crowded around the rear platform of the train from which he had been making speeches, to shake hands, catch the eye of a poor little crippled gin in a patched frock, who was making frantic but hopeless efforts to reach him in the outskirts ot the crowd, and, pushing aside all the rest, make a way for her to the great amazement of the curled darlings in the front row. And on the trip home, on the last night of the can vas of 1893, when we were at dinner in hiB private car, busy reckoning up ma jorities, I saw bim get up to greet the engineer of the train, who came in his overalls and blouan to Bhake hands, with such pleasure aB I had not seen him show in the biggest meeting we had had. It was a coincidence and nn omen that the name of the engineer of that victorious trip was Dewey. That bent of his is easily enough ex plained. There hangs in his study at Oyster Bay, apart from the many tro phies ot the chase, the picture of a man with a strong, bearded face. "That is my father,'' said Mr. Roose velt. "He was the finest man I ever knew. He was a merchant, well-to-do, drove his four-in-hand through the park and enjoyed life immensely. He had such a good time, and with cause, for he was a good man. I remember seeing him going down Broadway, staid and respectable business man that he was. with a poor little sick kitten in his coat pocket, Trbich he had picked up in the street." The elder Theodore Roosevelt was a man with the Bame sane and practical interest in his fellow-man that his son has shown. He was the backer of Charles Loring Brace in bis work of gathering the forgotten waits from the city's etreetB, and of every other sensi ble charity in his day. Doctor Henry Field told me once that he always, oc cupied as he was with the management ot a successful business, on principle cave one day of the six to visiting the poor in their homes. Appirently the atalogy between father and son might be carried fatther, to include even the fa mous round-robin; for, upon tha same authority, it was the elder Theodore Roosevelt who went to Washington after the first Bull Run and warned President Lincoln that he must get rid of Simon Cameron as secretary of war, with the result that Mr. Stanton, the "Organizer of Victory," took his place. When the war was fairly under way, it was Theo dore Roosevelt who organized the allot ment plan, which saved to the families of 80,000 soldiers of New York State more than S5.000.000 of their pay; and when the war wa9 over he protected the soldiers against the sharks that lay in wait for them, and eav to it that they got employment. That was the father. I have told you what the son is like. A man with red blood in his veins; a healthy patriot, with no clap-trap 'jingoism about him, but a rugged belief in America and its miaslon; an intense lover ot country and flag, a vigorous optimist, a believer in men, who looks for the good in them and finds it. Practical in partisanship; loyal, trusting, and gentle aB a friend; unsel fish, modest as a woman, clean-handed and clean-hearted, and honest to the core. Iu the splendid vigor ot his young manhood he is the knightliest figure in American politics today, the fittest ex pment of his country's idea, and the rmdel for it3 young sons who are coming to take up the task he set tham. For their Bake I am willing to give him up and set him where they can all see and strive to ba like him. Sj we shall have little need ot bothering about bo3s rule and misrule hereafter. We shall farm out the job of running the machine no longer; weshill be able to run it our selves. When it com93 to that, the Vice-Pres idency is not going t j kill TneoJore Roosevelt. It will take a good deal more than that to do it. Reprinted by permission from the American Monthly Review of Reviews for Augubt, 1900. (d) "Pioneers of Ceramic Art in America," Miss Butterfield, Omaha. (e) "The influence of Ceramic Art on the Home' Mrs. Brock, Lincoln. (f) "Ceramics as a Wage Earner for Wom en," Miss Lombard, Fremont. Illustrated talk on the pictures and statuary of the Paris Exposition, Mrs. F. M. Hall, Lincoln. Wednesday Morning, 9:30 A. M. Meet ing of the Federation, Mrs. Ap person, chairman. Club Reports, Eighty-nine Clubs, two min utes each. Wednesday Afternoon, 2:30 P. M. Busi ness meeting, Mrs. Apperson, chairman. Unfinished Business, New Business. 3:30 P. M. Music, Mrs. Barbour, chairman. NEBRASKA FEDERATION OF WOM ENS CLUBS. SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING, OCTOBER, 9-J2, 1900, LINCOLN. Tuesday, JO A. M. Executive meeting. 2 P. M. Meeting of Board of Directors. 3 P. M. Program.- Meeting of the Federation. Mrs Apperson, chairman. Invocation. Address of Welcome, Mrs. H. M. Bushnell, Lincoln. Response, Mrs. Adelaide F. Doane, Crete. Address of President, Mrs- A. L. Apperson. Report of Recording Secretary, Miss Mary Hill, York. Report of Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Virginia D. Arnup, Tecumseh. Report of Treasurer, Mrs. Adelaide F. Doane, Crete. Report of Auditor, Mrs. A. B. Fuller, Ashland. Report of Libriarian, Mrs. G. M. Lambert son, Lincoln. Report of Reciprocity Bureau, Mrs. A. A. Scott, Lincoln. Report of State Chairman of Correspond ence, Mrs. Louisa Lowe Ricketts, Lincoln. Report of Credential Committee. Roll Call of Delegates. Thursday Evening, 8:00 P. M. Report of Biennial Delegates. 8:30 P. M. Art, Mrs. F. M. Hall, chairman. (a) "Antiquity of Pottery," Mrs. Wiggen- horn, Ashland. (b) "Prehistoric Pottery," Mrs. Morey, Hastings (c) "Potteries of the United States," Mrs. Perfect, Omaha. MUSIC IN AMERICA. V Music of the American and Indian Negro, (illustrated) Mrs. H. P. Eames, Lincoln. Evolution of American Music Madam Baetens Omaha Polonaise Brillante J. C. D. Parker Mrs. Lily Ruegg Button Fremont The Spirit of Spring Henry Parker Miss Lora Holmes Lincoln Slumber Song Valentine Abt Miss Lillian Kauble Plattsmouth A Day in Venice Nevin Dawn Gondoliers - Venetian Love Song Good Night Serenade Liebling Miss Corinne Paulson Omaha One Spring Morning Ethelbert Nevin The Nightingale's Lament Miss Belle Warner York Songs of the Sea MacDowell TothcSea Song Flute Idylle MacDowell Witches' Dance MacDowell Mrs. Will Owen Jones Lincoln - Merrily I Roam, Waltz Song, Schlieffarth. Mrs. Wagner Thomas Omaha Serenade Victor Herbert Miss Hagenow Mrs. Hagenow Miss Brownell M iss Eiche Lincoln "Wednesday Evening, 8:00 P. M. Recep tion. Thursday Morning, 9:30 A. M. Reports of Biennial Delegates, Mrs. Ap person, chairman. 10:00 A. M. House hold Economics Meeting, Mrs. Pugh, chairman. Report of Chairman, Mrs. Mary Moody Pugh, Omaha. I. "Are cooking school methods practical in everyday life?" Miss Rosa Bouton, Lincoln, 2. "The domestic problem and its solu tion,"' led by Mrs. J. Paul, St. Paul. 3. "Echoes from the domestic science ses sion of the Biennial," Doctor Georgiana "T Grothan, St. Paul. 4 "Food adulterations and what may be done to enforce pure food laws," Mrs. Harriet S. MacVlurphy, Omaha. Gen eral Discussion. 5. "Recitation, "Domestic Science," -Miss Alice Howell, Lincoln. 6. "Home making from a father's stand point," Reverend Fletcher L. Wharton, Lincoln. 7. "Science vs. drudgery," Mrs. Anna M. Steele, Fairbury. 8. "How we may interest women in the practical department of club work," Mrs. Minnie Durland, Norfolk. 9. "Ethics of home life," Reverend Mary Girard Andrews, Omaha. 10. "Report of the national household economic annual convention at StLouis," Mrs. Susa Gates, Provo, Utah. Thursday Afternoon, 2:30, P. M. Mrs. Apperson, chairman. Report of Biennial Delegates. 3:00, P. M.-Educational meeting, Miss Haskell, X. 'v-