The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-31

pernicious in that ii destroys the habit c
thoroughness in both pupils and teacher.
Roosevelt and Helen Hunt Jackson
In the course of an article on Heller
| Hunt Jackson. a writer in the "Atlanti
Monthly" mentions fact which throw
some light on the remarkable mind o
Roosevelt, the cowboy candidate. the war
rior, the incarnation of 1.-The strenuous
! life Placid observers have recently beef
impressed with the idea that Roosevelt.
notion of being strenuous is about tn
same as hornets conception of its mis-
sion in life. The ordinary business maj
prefers the bee as model
When Mrs. Jackson wrote "a Century
of Dishonor" she was imbued with some
strenuous ideas of her own about justice
to the Indian. She was woman of bril-
! liant gifts and highly sensitive temper
ament; and she felt very strongly ON this
subject. She had lofty ideal of the way
in which 1t should be treated, and she
knew the need for absolute accuracy in
any work of the kind, which was liable
to be sharply criticised, and to meet the
eyes of people eager and determined to
pick flaws in it il possible. She there
fore determined to make it serious and
Unconditional study of the facts "a her
than mass of rhetoric; and she allowed
no statement to be incorporated in it
without positive proof to back up her as
sert:on. She threw herself heart and soul
into the work, and nearly broke down
with hard study in libraries, verifying
and collecting her facts. The important
points in the book were made with the
counsel of Regular Army officers of wide
Indian experience, who had been friends
Of her husband; and she tried in every
possible way to make the book an argu-
ment based on indisputable and well-es-
tablished facts. Then she sent a copy of
it, at her own expense, to every member
of Congress.
When Theodore Roosevelt read that
book he set it aside as feminine senti-
mentalism. to be jauntily classed with
fiction
Though Mrs. Jackson made her rcputa-
ton largely as a writer of fiction, in
which vocation her vivid Imagination ard
great command Of language fitted her to
excel. this one book of hers displays few
OF her characteristic qualities. 1t is just
what she tried so hard to make tia rec
ord of facts, substantiated and corrobo-
rated by authority; and only here and
there does her impassioned nature break
forth in a page of appealing and ferv!d
rhetoric. But there are some men who
would consider the multiplication table
piece of sentiment If they were told that
it was the work of a woman.
Apparently Roosevelt took no pains to
bring forth arguments to meet those OF
his feminine opponent. He civilian.
Enthusiastically preferred his own judy
ment to that of Western army officers.
who. of all men, are least likely to be
prejudiced in favor of foe whom they
have fought for years. 1t is an unQues-
may be found some of the best friends the
red man has; and but for the rapacity of
civilians and the unwise action of the
at Washington on several oc-
casicns, disastrous Indian wars might
have been averted by the wise and careful
action of the men on the ground. Men
like Roosevelt. who are moved by preju-
dice and impulse rather than Judgment,
and meet carefully considered arguments
with wave of the hand and charges of |
seem disposed to arrogate |
TO themselves the privilege of substitute |
ing rhetoric for logic, and oratory for |
sense. 1t is they who talk loud |
est about sentimentality. when some |
philanthropist urges that justice |
should be done the weak; and it is they |
who howl for vengeance. when. having |
been refused the justice. which might
nave averted catastrophe, the oppressed
,ne turns on his prosecutors.