Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-04

|
| of Theodore Roosevelt in the days when he
| was police commissioner. He has a sur
| prising number of old friends and acQuaint-
ances down there, and they all speak of
him in the highest terms.
| He was odd. very odd, but he was a
| good sort of man. said an old Magyar who
earns a living by selling long black Hun
| garian cheroots which make the smoker
| think upon his latter end Il never saw
! anybody who was so quick, so eager, so
| busy. If he walked along the street he
went as fast as other men would run. and
I when he took dinner at Little Hungary he
| couldn't bear to wait even few minutes
! for the next course. l knew the walters
| there then, and they didn't like to attend
on MIN. though he was always generous
| with his tips. They said he used to worry
| them too mitch by wanting things in
| hurry
| Hungarian Dinner for the Hungry.
| Another Hungarian who knows Theodore
Roosevelt is the keeper of tiny restau-
| rant near Little Hungary" He purveys
dinner of six courses, including the ia
| nous 'go4dash," for the small sum of %
| cents, and in the afternoons and evenings
his place is Tiled by sober serious-look-
| ing Hungarians who drink numerous cups
| of black coffee and play dominoes and
| queer Hungarian card games as intently as
| If their very lives were at stake. although,
| as matter of fact. they rarely gamble
| for even SO much as a dime.
The proprietor asserted that Theodore
| Roosevelt came to his place frequently
when he2was police commissioner, and once
or twice later. when he was governor of
+ New York state. He used to sit down at
one of the little. deal tables, drink a cup
! of black coffee, and smoke one of those
| black Hungarian cheroots, which are to a
| PittSburg stogie what the latter is to a
good Havana, But he could never keep
still, although the atmosphere of these
contemplating restaurants isaas restful as
that of an old-fashioned village church.
Everybody else would be as silent The
grave, playing the game for hour after
hour without single ,remark; but Theo-
dore Roosevelt would jump up and down
from one table to another to see how the
players weSe getting on, and would bonn
bard the proprietor and walters with scores
of questions about things. Hungarian.
Did the President ever eat one of your
2J-cent dinners?" the proprietor was asked
Yes, once, and he said it was very good"
the Hungarian replied, smiling proudly;
but he never had it a second time al
cannot expect that it should be good
| enough for so great a man, though 1 am
| rather proud of my goulash."
Helping the Poor.
The Hungarian colony is by no means
one of the poorest in New York Indeed
it ranks among the richest of the alien
communities. But there is, nevertheless, a
good deal of poverty among them, and
Theodore Roosevelt used to take the keen
est interest in the work of the social settle
ments and other charitable agencies labor
| ing in the quarter.
After taking dinner at Little Hungary
| he would often go with Colonel Warning to
| visit some poyerty-stricken family in a
| back tenement and relieve their needs.
Many stories are told of these visits, which
| were somewhat after the fashion of those of
| of Haroun- al-Raschid. The following is
| typical one:
| One evening, while Mr.. Roosevelt was at
dinner, a newsboy entered the restaurant
and tried to sell his papers to the diners.
| waiter started to drive him out, but Mr..
| Roosevelt interposed and bought a paper.
| He noticed that the boy little fellow of
about twelve, looked pinched if from
| hunger, AMI that he was extremely ill-clad,
| although it was cold December night.
| Mr.. Roosevelt saw that the boy looked
| hungrily at the food the tables around
| him, so he called up the head waiter. Slip
| ping bill into the hand of that great man,
| he asked him to take the lad into the kitch-
| en- and get him good square meal This
| was done.
| After both had dined well, Mr. Roosevelt
| made the boy take him to his home. 1t was
| tiny garet on the top floor of ram
| shackle tenement house. The family con-
| sisted of the boys mother, who was too i'll
| to work. and three little children. The boy
| paid the rent by selling papers, and was
the sole support Of the family. There was
| of dry bread. and Hungarian who went
| there with Mr.. Roosevelt told the writer
| that he had never seen such hopeless, abb
| ject poverty.
A Philanthropic President.
Mr.. Roosevelt sent the boy out with
money to buy a good dinner and provided
| for the needs of the family for some time
| to come. Then he interested various char
| liable societies in the case and had the wo-
| man and her children properly taken care
/ Of. He got the boy good job In the en-
ployment OLA wealthy Hungarian, and he
| Is now doing exceedingly WELL This Is
only one case out of many which are re-
| lated Of the Presidents philanthropic activ-
| ity in the Hungarian quarter
| AS Is well known, the President. during
| his reign as police commissioner, was fond
| of making surprise visits at the station
houses, especially on the East Side, and he
| would frequently walk the streets for hours
at night to see whether the patrolmen were
| doing their duty properly on their beats.
| Once when he was doing this he caught a
| burly policeman brutally beating an old
| man with his night stick. The commits
| sioner did not waste words, according to
| several Hungarians in whose quarter the
| affair happened File promptly knocked the
| policeman down. The man jumped to his
| feet. mad with rage, but when he recog-
nized the commissioner his Jaw dropped
and he saluted humbly.
Mr.. Roosevelt held an inquiry into the
| matter on the spot He found that the pa
| troman was half drunk and that he had
| fallen foul of the old man because the lat
| ter had demonstrated with him for using
bad language to couple of Hungarian wo-
men, The man was dismissed from tle
pforce, and only escaped further punishment
because the old Hungarian refused to tes-
| tify against him. This story is well known
In the Hungarian quarter, and 1t is always
! told when the people want to describe to