Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-10-29
THE ORIGINAL ROOSEVELT MAN.

% Rave Been the Original Roosevelt
Man and the Dlscoverer Of President
Roosevelt. s t.... s..
North Dakota Record: In the obser-
walton car Of the Flyer, between Grand
Forks and Devils Lake, I recently met
John A. Rea Of Olympia, Wash, form
erly OF Bismarck. this state. He had
Deen east for several months, taking
IN both national conventions, the st.
Louis Fair, Washington, Philadelphia,
and New York. He was full of inter
esting gossip. He had had delight
;Iul visit with our senior senator at
Chicago and his old friend, Alex. Nc
kenzie during the republican conven-
ton. Rea was Pierce's manager in
his first senatorial contest, but had
lett the state before the second fight,
when his older friend Hansbrough
doWned his later friend. Rea was the
hrst man to bring Hansbrough out in
1889 for representative to congress
through the Dakota edition Of the st.
Paul Pioneer Press. He succeeded
Gov. Pierce as editor of that edition.
Incidentally learning that Rea had
been caller at the white house while
in Washington city, where he was SEN
ator Foraker's guest for a week, I re-
called the fact that he knew the only
Roosevelt in his cowboy days, and
asked him few questions to see If
The Record could get q story from him.
Eyes, I called on the president. I
had no business with him but at the
last minute without company I drop
ped into the Annex (no credit to the
U. s. or the architect) and In few
minutes was invited inside. It is no
news to tell you that he is one of the
easiest men to approach in the world.
He is easy because he is great. Great
men are natural men. He is as easy
to get at in the white house as he was
in the cabin you have in your excellent
exhibit in the agricultural building at
St. Louis, ~ -. t
when did you first meet him?"
"At Chicago in 1884 during the ma
tional republican convention. He was
there as a delegate at large from New
York supporting Edmunds. He was
then 26, the companion and friend of
George William Curtis and Andrew D.
White, who were also delegates at
large from New York, friends of Ed
munds. He was in distinguished COM
pany. In that convention for the first
time also appeared Cushman X. Davis,
my brainy idol. and Joseph B. Foraker,
Ohio's, senior senator today, Henry
Cabot Lodge too, and William Nc
Kinley. I believe, for the first time in
national convention. Roosevelt, like
Foraker, took no back seat. He was at
the front and as much at home as in
the state convention that sent him to
the national convention.
Following the convention I met
him on the train to Bismarck and the
Bad Lands. He told me ON that trip
something I have not seen in print
that may be worth repeating. He was
close to Curtis. and from him learned
that he had written an editorial for the
Harper's Weekly, committing the pa
per to the support of Blaine. The Har-
per Brothers turned it down, and threw
the paper against the .plumed knight
and with the paper Curtis went. Left
wholly. to himself, Curtis would have
supported Blaine. Both White and
Roosevelt were seriously disappointed
but both promptly determined to sup
port Blaine. Roosevelt told me he,
would and he did. He didn't seem to
have any other thought when talked
to him, several days after the conven-
tion. White was then president of
Cornell, where had been student
under him, and naturally I was in his
company while at the 'S4 convention
Didn't you and Roosevelt hold
Il IVuA vi VI July NOAOUAdtAOu LII Nu0 Ddu
Lands?" ~ -
eyes, at Dickinson, July 4, 1886, we
were the orators. so-called, at the first
Fourth OF July celebration ever held In
Stark county or the Bad Lands coun-
try. We spoke from platform upon
the prairie In a breeze that the cowboy
4 (Roosevelt) called q gale My talk 4
remember was prepared, and the cow.
boys was extempo He used
some Of my stun as text. DR.. v. II.
stickney presided. Western Starr, a
lawyer now In Chicago, read the Dec
laration Of Independe Il met him
recently IN that city There was q pa
rade IN three divisions under Chief
Marshal Aud, headed BY the Dickinson
Silver Gornet Band There was q
wagon load 81 little girls drawn by
four white horses. The girls, dressed
! IN white, represented the states. There.