The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-12-14
THE ROOSEVELT MYTH.

! Boston Pilot: Already the industrious
workmen in the Great American Myth
Factory who call themselves contem-
porary historians, of whom Mr.. Maclay,
the inventor of the battle Of Santiago
fiction, is a fine example, have begun
to construct an ancestry for President
Roosevelt calculated to please their sew
eral patrons
The ingenious Macarthur, ne of the
| self written threatening letters, was
| first in the field to proclaim in the
pages of cheap magazine that Mr..
Roosevelt is a fine type of the braWny
Scot. ............-.--
Another writer, in another magazine
of the same caIibre, promptly filed
caveat declaring that the president is
| "Scotch-Irish.''
Now comes a gentleman in the Cen
fury Magazine for December, calling
himself IAN Old Acquaintance" of the
chief executive, and says:
Born of northern father and south
ern mother; commingling in his veins
the blood of the English, Dutch. Scotch
and Huguenot; reared in New York,
and educated in New England; living
part of his life in the far west, and
part in Washington, where all sections
Roosevelt is the most catholic, cosmo-
politan and on-sectional American in
public life since Henry Clay"
The writer last quoted comes nearer
the truth than either of the other i'm
aminative gentlemen, save In one most
important particular. The English
strain to which he gives the first place
is entitled to no place at all in Mr..
Roosevelts pedigree. AS his friend and
ella ssmate, Mr.. Francis Lowell, said in
introducing the future president to a
Boston audience at Huntington hall on
Nov Is, 1893: HE is one of the truest
Americans in the country. and his chief |
boast is that he has not drop of Eng
lish blood in his veins"
The Scotch and French elements are
not very strong in the presidet's blood
each being mere : what analytical
chemists call "a ace
President Roosevelt himself. no
longer ago than last June, speaking on
commencement day at Harvard college,
said:
Il am particularly glad that 1 should
be allowed to speak here with my good
friend, if he will allow me to call him
such, the German ambassador. Mr..
Ambassador, when the president of the
college was speaking of the part played
that I would like to put in mod
est plea for the Dutch AS far as I
know, Mr.. Ambassador the two stocks
l represent are the only ones omitted I
the Dutch and the Irish. Mr.. Prest-
dent, those of us who have known as
l have known the German ambassador, |
place a peculiar value upon what he /
has said today of speaking for his peo-
pie in the words of cordial friendship
to the United States, because we know |
he means every word he has said. 1 |
agree with every word of the apprecia
ton of the ties that bind US towards 7
your ancestor in England turning to I
Mr.. Bellows). 1 only want to make a |
plea that there are great many more !
Of us who are also bound by ties of |
blood to other nations of the old world
1.-THE two stocks represent, the Irish |
and Dutch" 1t is splendid mixture of |
fire and phlegm, daring and GOODNESS.
Blended together, they make an ideal
soldier and ruler No wonder the Eng
ish try to claim him, even as they
claim Burke and Wellington, and as
their "Anglo-Saxon" cousins this side
IF the water claim everybody of dis
-inction in American history.
The scrubby literary jackals who
amp on the trail of the holder Anglo
Saxon marauders claim every prize
overlooked by these, and many not
overlooked. as their proper prey, which
hey label "Scotch-Irish." Generally
hey wait until the distinguished sub
ect is dead. because it is embarrassing
syen to their audaeity to be contra
lieted by the subject himself.
The present subject has spoken with
'ut any ambiguity on several occa-
lions. For instance. at the New Eng
and dinner at Brooklyn, N. Y, on
Dec. 81, 1898, he said:
Il always feel at the banquets of
he New England society that 1 and
he president of the Friendly Sons of
IT. Patrick whom 1 so often find here
With me, represent at this feast the
'lct1ms who are dragged at the wheels
L the conquering Romans chariot. I'm 1
ait Irish myself, as well as half Dutch.
nave had occasion to tell New
england senator, very intimate
riend. when he has reviled me, saying
nat the Dutch are a conquered race.
nat what he says is perfectly true,
nut that the other half of me, the
IRISH, has avenged the Dutch
SO we'll do 1 know the Irish race" J
aid he. speaking about his famous !
ough riders at Albany on March II.
900, that 1 could have wished that T
ny men all had some Irish blood in t
heir veins" i
Surely the Anglomaniacs and the
Scotch-Irish" Jabberwocks are over =
ding the matter in claiming this man
s one of their tribe while he is vet
live and so very able and ready to ex-
hn e. n