Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1903-08-21
President Roosevelt on cleanness of
Speech.

President Roosevelt delivered an ad-
dress last Sunday at his Oyster Bay
home at large meeting of the Roman
Catholic societies of the Holy Name
of New York, Brooklyn and Long Is
land His theme was American Man
hood" and the thought which he es-
pecially emphasized was the impor-
tance of cleanness of thought and
cleanness of speech for those who
would be good men and good citizens.
Here are typical paragraphs:
"a ask you to remember that you can.
not retain your sef-respect if you are
loose and foul of tongue that a man
VINO Is to lead a clean and honorable life
must inevitably suffer if his speech like
wise is not clean and honorable"
Il do not want to see Christianity
professed only by weaklings; l want to
see ii moving spirit among men of
strength. / do not expect you to lose
one particle of your strength or courage
by being decent. on the contrary. l
should hope to see each man who is a
member of this society. from his mem
bershiU in it, become all the filter to do
the rough work of the world all the
filter to work in time of peace. and if.
which may heaven forefend. war should
come, all the filter to fight in time of
war"
desire to see in this country the de-
cent men strong and the strong men de-
cent, and until We get that combination
in pretty good shape we are not going
to be by any means a : successful a : we
should be. There is always a tendency
among very strong men and among boys
who are not quite young men as yet to
think that to be wicked Is rather smart:
it shows that they are men How often
you see some young fellow who boasts
that he is going TO see life meaning by
that he is going to see that part Of life
which 1t is a thousandfold better If it re-
mains unseen. | ask that every man
here constitute himself his brothers
keeper by setting an example to that
younger brother which will prevent him
from getting such a false estimate of
lille as that"
There is in this a reminder of a
predominant trait in the character
of Gen. Grant. He was notably a man
of clean thought and clean speech. 1t
used to be charged against Gen. Grant
by some of his opponents, when he
was President of the United States
as a fault not easily TO be condoned
that he liked a good horse better than
he liked the companionship of some of
his would-be prominent associates and
advisers-the inference being that he
was 'horsy," with all that that term
, implies But the fact was quite the
opposite. 1t is a story of the General,
doubtless authentic, in the days when
he was in active command in the field,
| that in the headquarters tent one even
ing a brother officer began telling a
/ story, asking first. by way of preface,
/ whether any ladies were within hear
/ ing. Gen. Grant at once, in his pc
culiarly quiet but conclusive way, said,
"A story that is not fit to be told be-
fore ladies is not fit to be told at all"
/ That settled the story. 1t was not
told. The incident was said by those
who knew Gen. Grant best to be typ
ical of his own manner of thought and
speech, and it and the words of Pres
ident Roosevelt may well be a lesson
TO all boys and young men who would
have before them an ideal of true
strength and manhood.