The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-10
MORE RoOSEVELrIA.

The man who declared that although
he was a Republican he hoped Roose-
welt would.nOt be elected because he
was 80 blooming tired of all the
Roosevelts' had probably been reading
the editorial page of the New York
a Washington correspondent whose
amazing industry compensates for his
lack of humor and his paper shows its
appreciation by printing what he
writes concerning the Roosevelts at the
head of a column on the editorial page
Nothing that any member of the
Roosevelt family does escapes the eagle
eye of the correspondent but, unlike
most correspondents, he never embel-
fishes his facts. No graceful fancy, no
flight Of the Imagination is permitted
to embroider the edge of his story. Dis
passionately he records that Kermit
Roosevelt has made a snow man, or
that the president has been photo
graphed with his sons and without his
sons, or that the presidents barber has
been put into bright blue livery, or
that the president has received a brace
ef ducks from Maryland and is con-
cerned to know whether he has a legal
right to eat them; and the bald state
ment carries conviction to the heart Of
the reading public.
While a choleric individual like the
Republican referred to may consider
such reading matter inane, 1t Is a more
valuable contribution to the existing
Rooseveltia, we think, than even the
Riis book. Riis allowed his feelings to
run away with him, but the Tribune
correspondent holds himself we'll in
hand, and on this account is the more
reliable Boswell. It will surely profit
posterity more to read that on Thurs
day, March 80, 1904, Theodore Roose-
welt shook hands with three hundred
people, giving each one a hearty grip.
than that, while president and in the
White house, he was in the habit of
frequently telegraphing J. Riis.
These two items explain the differ
ence between the Riis method and the
Tribune correspondents method. The
latter never obtrudes himself. When
he tells US that on Tuesday morning
the president wore a black tie with red
pin dots, we have no idea of what the
correspondent himself thinks Of the
tie. He may loathe black ties with red
pin dots, and he may be forever alien
ated from the president because the
latter has chosen to wear one. Or the
tie may have been the means of bring
ing him into closer soul communion
with the wearer. Whatever the effect,
we have no means Of determining.
Riis, on the contrary, would have tack
ed such passionate adtectives on to the
black tie that the red pin dots would
fade by contrast. We would never
have a moments doubt as to what he
thought Of the tie. Indeed, we would
probably read in a foot-note that he
intended to beg it of the president
when the latter saw fit to discard it
in order that he might carry it around
in a pasteboard box next his heart.
The president has been considerably
vexed by the conduct of a number Of
the Washington correspondents, but
we have never heard that he has COM
planned Of this particular correspond
ent. Since the Tribune is a warm
friend Of the administration, it is safe
to conclude that he approves of it's
correspondent as fully as he approves
Of Riis. Both may be regarded, there
fore, as the administrations accepted
biographers.
The selection is most happy, we
think. The cold hard facts furnished
by the Tribune's Gradgrind are re-
lieved, although their value is not less
| ened, by the soul flow of the impul-
sive and warm-hearted Riis. The lat
ter's book has been criticised for unre-
liability. But posterity Will read it in
connection with the Tribune's CORE
spondent's daily record, and the char
acter Of Theodore Roosevelt will be as
an open book.