Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-03-11
LIKED BY DIPLOMATS.
Secret of President Rooseveit's
Popularity Among Them.
WIDE READING AND GOOD MEMORY

He Knows Something About Politics
and History OF Every European
| NatiOn-Eow He Surprised Nine.
HengeImuIler by His knowledge
of Poland.
No president who has occupied the
| White House within memory has
made so agreeable an impression upon
members of the diplomatic colony as
President Roosevelt, writes the New
York Commercial Advertisers Wash
ington correspondent. Indeed it is
doubtful whether among the reigning
sovereigns of Europe there is one who
is so thoroughly at home in discussing
with the representatives Of other ma
tons Just the questions in which those
representatives happen to be particu-
larly interested. The German emperor
may be an exception, for his mental
activities are said to be almost bound
less. AS for the others-so members
of the foreign colony in Washington
say-not one of them can compare
with the president Of the United
States. There are very few questions
about which President Roosevelt does
not know something. He has been a
voracious reader ever since he, was a
boy, and he has always been passion
ately fond Of history and biography.
| His memory is tenacious and encyclo-
pedic. Whatever information once
gets into his mind sticks there, ready
| to be called Oh ut seconds notice.
No president since John Quincy Ad-
ans has begun to compare with him
in the extent of his general knowledge
of questions not Immediately con-
cerned with American politics and his
tory. He knows something about the
politics and history of every nation in
Europe, even the most insignificant,
and he at times displays a familiarity
with them which is as surprising to
their representatives in Washington as
it is gratifying.
The wife of the Austrian ambassa-
dor, Won Hengelmuller, is native OF
Poland. If there is region in Europe
about which most American public
men have vague and hazy notions, it is
Poland. Everybody knows something
about Kosciusko and how freedom
shrieked when he fell, and that is
about the limit. But it happens that in
the course of his reading the president
has picked up 4 lot Of information
about Poland and about the old Polish
families. He knows their relationship
to one another and the part they have
played in polish history, so that when
Nine. Won Hengelmuller happens to be
placed beside him at dinner he can talk
to her about her own people with ia
miliarity and with just appreciation
which fill her with establishment and
delight.
So with VI. Jusserand, the new
French ambassador. NJ. Jusserand is a
litterateur Of high rank in his own
country and has an international repu-
tation, although comparatively few
Americans probably have ever read
much that he has written. He has
made a special study Of early English
literature and has written upon it with
great ability and with fine discrimina-
ton. When he came to talk with the
president, he was flattered and over
loved to find that Mr.. Roosevelt had
read everything he had ever written
about early English literature, Piers
Ploughman and the rest, and the two
conversed with enthusiasm for long
time upon topics congenial to both
which have no bearing whatever upon
international relations. Sir Michael
Herbert and Baron Won Sternburg OF
course are old friends, dating back to
the days when the president was an
under official in Washington, and all
| the other diplomatic representatives in
Washington find their personal rela-
tons with the occupant Of the White
House exceptionally pleasant.
The representative of q different type
| of individual to whom the president
appeals even more strongly than to the
| diplomats was in Washington recently
Seth Bullock, the sheriff Of Dead
wood, s. d. Bullock is as fine speci-
men Of the frontierSman as could be
| found anywhere. with long, dropping
mustaChcs. aquiline nose and hawklike
eye. Bullock came on to visit. the pres
| ident and brought with him Mrs. Bull
lock. They were invited to the German
| musicale ut the White House the other
evening. the president having warned
Seth in advance not to shoot the tid-
der" Seth was immensely taken with
the German choruses. After the enter
tainment was over Senator Lodge
asked him what he thought of it. 1T
was fine" was the reply. Il liked it. 1t
took me Il little higher up the gulch
than Id ever been before, but l liked
it." Seth would go through fire and
water for the president, and the presi-
| don't Uoul1 do the Some for him