Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-04

received cordially. The boy was almost
embraced.
The president took him by the shoulders
IN caressing fashion and talked with him
as any g~ood-natured senior in a school
might do with a new scholar who pleased
his fancy. The boy had looked abashed
and terrified before his presentation. When
II was over he seemed to me to be the hap
piest boy In the world-with the exception
perhaps Of Mr.. Roosevelt.
Knows No Fatigue.
The president seems really tireless, In the
literal sense Of that word. My personal
visit was made on the evening Of the day
on which he returned from his comet-like
trip to the Carolinas. He had got back to
Washington in the morning, after five days
Of soul wearying travel, still more weary
ing speechmaking and merchandising.
and the ceaseless strain Of social and
every other sort Of exciting experience.
Almost any other man would have gone to
bed and put business aside for one day at
the least. MIR. Roosevelt had gone to his
desk, instead. to clear of the work accu-
mutation Of nearly a week. He had then
held an important cabinet meeting, re-
ceived many official and other callers who
had vexing business matters to discuss,
made several appointments to ONCE and
attended to a multitude Of other trying
affairs. Yet when l desired to withdraw
on the ground that he must be well-nigh
exhausted, he cheerily answered:
'oh, no, I'm not at all tired. In fact, I
never feel much OF WEAKNESS. Light a
cigar. 1 want to talk with you about a
historical point which you criticised some
years ago in one of my books"
Fortunately, l was sitting at the time in
III ---- N. 4
think 1 might have fallen. Think OF this
busy man. ceaseless engaged with strenu-
Gus public affairs, still remembering that
poor little criticism Of mine years after It
was written! The criticism concerned a
minute detail Of very small consequence
IN any case, yet so earnest and sincere is
this man and so strenuous" in all that he
does that he remembered the point perfectly
and mentioned II now only because he was
interested to explain to me how he had
been led into the Insignificant little error.
1t seemed to me that in this incident more
than one admirable quality OF the presi-
dents mind and character were revealed
In a very enlightening way.
Country GainsJ Letters Lose.
Mention Of this incident is a reminder
that Mr.. Roosevelt is the only man Of let
tiers who has been president since Madison
went out Of office, in 1917. Even Madison
is hardly to be reckoned a man OF letters IN
the accepted sense Of the term. His writ
tngs we're OF political polemics, pure and
simple, and therefore, Notwithstanding
their grace and force, they are scarcely
10 be accounted as literature In the proper
sense Of the term. Mr.. Roosevelt, on the
contrary, has written scarcely at all upon
political things, while his purely literary
and his topical works rank among the
most important Of those that have appeared
in print in this generation. Only the ex-
cellence Of his public service could recon-
cile us to the loss Of so gifted an author
to authorship, and perhaps we have not
lost him after all. Who knows? He Is
still less than A years of age. II he Is
elected to a second term in 1904 he will
be a man very little beyond 80 when he
shall finally leave public life, and a man
SO robust as he is in mind and body, a man
so strenuous in all his intellectual activi-
ties, should be at his very best for literary
work at that age. He will be equipped, too,
as no writer in our country has ever been,
with an Astounding knowledge of affairs and
conditions, with a varied and ripe expert
ence and with an unusually broadened hu-
mar sympathy. II his superb health holds
out to the end Of his public life, there Is
every reason to expect that the succeed
ing years will give us literary and his
torical work at his hands even better and
more important than any that has gone be-
fore.