The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-24
Theodore Roo.evel,-the Man.


Gertrude Atherton has given to the pub
lie pen picture of Theodore Roosevelt
which will live. Like most characters en-
bodyiug primitive traits, and thrown into
the midst of a complex civilization.
Roosevelt has been misunderstood by the
majority of his fellow citizens. 1t Is hard
either for the civilized man to understand
the savage, or for the savage to under
stand the civilized man.
Mrs. Anterior, however, has grasped the
fact that it is possible for the descendant
of high civilization TO revert to a prim-
tive type-a fact not generally 'fecoglizei
by amateur students of heredity. She SAYS
therefore of Roosevelt:
''He belongs 10 an old and established family,
and il there is anything in breeding ne should
have clean. well-cut face with high brow
and 4 refinement of nostril and chin. Instead. his
face is almoet primal, as the faces OF remote and
naneless Roosevelts must have been before civil
iza;ion began its work.
And again:
lis II this reversion to primal type in appear
ancc that has persuaded Roosevelt that he, and
he alone, is the incarnation OF the primal VIZ
tues? Or is there war within him between the
rugged qualities of the savage and the superim-
positions Of civilization!
.'He has the brute virtue of physical courage TO
a SURPRISING degree. and gift for leadership
which, we're he uneducated. might make MN
really great man In savage country.
Thus far, the character is not obnoxious.
Some of the greatest men of modern civ
iIization have been the simplest. Bismarck
was Just such an atavistic revers.on to the
simple medieval soldier. But there Is a
very important difference between Roose-
welt and Bismarck. The Man Of Blood and
Iron" was not a buffer. Roosevelt is.
Mrs. Atherton claims that he is the mas
ter buffer of the United States, which is
possibly little too strong statement;
but she adds something which is perfectly
true:
There is no one so GENEROUSLY buffed by
Roosevelt Roosevelt himself II il almost
unfair TO call him fraud and iakir; he is
merely the most signal instance in the world
today Of the ill-knit forces OF elemental and
super-civilized man..
Bismarck never pretended; not even to
himself. He took himself for just what he
was, no less and no more He lid not
claim TO be the representative Of siren
uous life, or anything of that kind He
l
done, and he was going TO do them, ard
then he went ahead and did them while
the rest OF Europe was wondering II he
really could. A German is seldom self
conscious; he is too mattar-of-fact. Rcose-
Welt, with the elemental Dutch simplicity
in him, is modern American enough to be
a poseur, and to try TO gather into Lis own
personality all that he thinks America is
and ought 10 be; and the personality is
not quite big enough for tue lea. That
is what is the matter with him. Bismarck
would have managed that whole Republican
Convention IL he had been there; he would
not have allowed himself to be ham
boozled into the notion that, as repre-
senting the new spirit Of the NATION, he
was needed on the ticket. II was the
immortal American self-consciousuess Of
the Rough Rider that befco!cI him; ard
that quality generally belongs to two
classes of Americans; those who are,
and those who are trying to be, aris-
tocrats, and take the matter seri-
ousiy. Ever since Roosevelt took to
politics he has been conscious of the
TACT tnat ne was cOllege DreO man,
belonging to an old New York family. and
that it was good of him TO be in politics
at all. Nobody who takes aristocracy seri-
oLsly can truly represent the new Amer
lean or any other American, because this !
is imbued with a sense of humor, !
and the spectacle of any man expecting !
the sun, moon, AID stars, or the elemental |
forces of society, to stani still and wait /
on him because his ancestor came over
with William the Conluer5r, or Governor |
Bradford, or old Peter Stuyvesart. is -.
sen,ially funny. Roosevelt does not repre-
sent America. but he thinks he does. AS |
Mrs. Anterior says Of him in her closing |
paragraph:
81 suppose that when he referred 10 the United |
States as the young giant of the West he iancied
il was typihed in his person. II had read that |
speech in log cabin OF the Sierras should have |
thought so, too; but ] have seen him, and j
don't"
Roosevelt is not the only civilized man
who has reverted to savagery, with all its
innocent assumption of importance. Some
Of the English aristocracy are doing pre-
cisely the same thing