The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-30
ROOSEVELT IN PRINT.

try are instructing for him and the sole question before the Republicans as to their ticket Is whether they will permit the assumed modesty of Senator Fair banks to avail him in his real scheme to be conscripted for the position of vice Presidential candidate. In the meantime, books are pouring out of the printing Roosevelt. The first one to appear was
 that of MT. Francis E. Leupp, the we'll known Washington correspondent of The New York Evening Post. The next was by Jacob A. Ris (pronounced Reese), the young Dane who was associated with Roosevelt when the latter was Police Commissioner of New York City. MT. Robert Bridges of Scribners Magazine has third, and Senator Lodge. the Pres ident's closest friend. brings up the pfo- cession with a selection from the public addresses. It is still several months be- fore the actual opening of the political campaign. and if the people are not al- ready surfeited, they are likely to be, with this continuous stream of comment and adulation. It is remarkable that one who lives so constantly before a camera can furnish material for all the volumes that have been and will be inflicted upon us The story is told that after an engage ment in Cuba, Colonel Roosevelt employed his entire command in rehearsfhg the fight and charging anew up a hill before ay inn oUfpa Coz In tographer a chance to secure a life-like picture of the battle. Can this be true? We think quite probably it is. When his friend, Riis, had a commission to write an article for a Philadelphia magazine on his home life, what thing better than have study his subject on the ground? Down Jake came, and the result was a good forecast of his more ambitious undertak ing just given to the world. Jake was amorous then and is amorous now. He grovels in the dirt of flattery; none but superlatives can satisfy him when he tries to describe the qualities of his dear, great, good friend. Mir. Leupp is more measured in his words. but he, too. evidently thinks he is in the presence of wonder when he stands before the President. He un- consciously puts the reader in the posses sion of facts that enable him to use his own judgment in making up an opinion, not so fiattering as the authors of the subject. He shows the President delb- erately abandoning all his economic mo- finrS fo in in ha Pnnthli. can ranks; that he gave up sound views of the tariff to ensure he would advance politically; that he is not squeamish in adhering to his civil service ideals; that he is an indifferent speaker and writer and not more than ordinary in force of intellect
 MT. Bridges uses the speeches and writ ings to depict his man, a perfectly legiti- mate method. He will hardly win any enthusiasm for these, for whatever may be said of the sound morality they in- culcate. they remain mere copy-book stuff after all.
 Senator Lodge seems to feel this when he rests his case on the sincerity of the President. Whatever one may think of the speeches, the Senator says. no one can doubt their sincerity. Two and two make four We have never heard this proposition very seriously suggested, Yet every one who announces that two and two make four can be credited with sln- cerity. It is this sort of commonplace sincerity that is manifest in the Presi- dents speeches. They are made of saw dust, but real genuine saw-dust.
 These books are the beginning of the flood which will visit us during the year. It is a mistake to infer the people are so generally and deeply interested in this personality as these books and articles might seem to indicate. They do prove there Is a curious man in the White House. He has been written about more at length in a short time than any Presi- dent preceding him for the entire period of their service. He prompts some of this personally, no doubt. In the. main, though, he is written about because he is curious. There has never been so cuEfous fellow in that office. Andy Johnson on a spree would appear more reliable than Roose- welt at times