The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-01-08
ROOSEVELT AT HOME.
II. w. Lucy's Impressions Of
the President.

w. Lucy impressions Oh
the President.
GLIIPSEs OF LIFE AT WASHINGTON
Toby. III. r.. the British Journalist,
Says the Chief Executive IL an Om-
~niv0rous header and Tells How He
Finds Time For His miscellaneous
Reading-Roosevelt shows One Of
His Most Precious Art Treasures.
The following extracts are from the
travel diary Of Toby. M. P. (Mr. H.
w. Lucy. the famous British journal
list, who was lately in the United
states). as printed in the London
Punch:
President Roosevelt is the kind of
man who would make himself at home
anywhere, whether in the bacEwoods
Of the west. in the stately home the
United States provides for its presi-
dents or anywhere in the wide range
that lies between these extremes.
Healthy in mind and body, he is gifted
with the CHEEKY nature whose price is
above rubies.
The president is an omnivorous read
er. At one turn of conversation he is
reminded Of a passage in Homer, the
next he is expatiating on the history
of Tittlebat Titmouse. Contemporaries
ously with the announcement of the re-
bellion in Panama, d~exterously exploit
ed by the president and his secretary Of
state, John Hay, a personality as popu-
lar in London as in Washington. there
vas published in the States a new edi-
ton of the works of Samuel Warren.
tune for renewing his acquaintance
with the works of the author of Ten
Thousand a Year." so while the oppo-
sition papers Illuminated den%unciationof
his Panama policy he read of Tittlebat
Tftmouse. AS for Dickens. he knows
him SO intimately that he would have
been a dangerous competitor in the con-
test initiated by Calverley in his ia
nous examination paper on "Pick-
wick
How does the president, a mar upon
whose personal labor the sun never
sets, find time for this miscellaneous
reading? Well. all over the world it is
the exceptionally busy man who has
spare moments for desirable ends.
President Roosevelt shares a secret
possessed by Mr.. Gladstone. whom in
his animated and varied conversation.
with it's wide range and intimate ac-
quaintance with any topic started. he
strongly resembles.
"All my life," Mr.. Gladstone once
said to me. II have taken care of my
ten minutes. certain that the hours and
the days would take care of them
Selves"
A ministerial colleague who accom-
panied the president on a recent trip
westward told me of a habit that ex-
plains everything.
1--WE Travelled day after day." he said.
"the president addressing at successive
stations crowds of country folks. 1t
was a pretty hard days work for the
toughest of rough riders. For myself,
though / hadn't to make speeches, |
was thankful after the turmoil to turn
into my berth for a sneoze or a rest.
AS soon as the train moved off out
came the presidents book. and he read
away till. the train pulling up at an
other crowded station, a fresh speech
was demanded and delivered under the
abiding sense of supreme ministerial
responsibility"
This practice the president observes
wherever he is in residence. II read
when l can" he s~ays-''always u bit
before l go to bed. Sometimes. at Pc
RODS of great pressure, l awake about
3 in the morning. If l lay there think
ing Of things. l should be worried to,
death. unfit for my work in the coming
day. So l switch on the light. take up
my book, read a chapter or two. fall
asleep and wake up bright and early
In his philosophical. CHEEKY way the
president makes the best of ~what-say.
to the Duke of Devonshire-would be
an intolerable nuisance.
when | was a young man. he said.
II lived mostly out Of doors and en-
joyed abundant exercise. Now l can't
get much. But you go and stand in
my place on an autumn afternoon and
have your hand shaken by from 300 to
1000 sturdy citizens and if when it's
over you don't feel as If you had been
telling a tree or two you are made of
harder grit thar l."
President Roosevelt has inherited at
the White House many valuable en-
cravings and paintings. the latter in
Guiding portraits of some famous pred