The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-27

| I0CStTtptu HlfnStI WHcu NC W d1 called to the office of President, as "a
 middle aged literary man with large II family" Now when Roosevelt start ed to write what did he know of the South or the South know of him? He had never put foot south of Mason and
 Dixon's line. The conception he had of the South was the academic concep- tion of Harvard, with no other illumi- nation than that from a northern home from which a Southern mothers In
 fiuence had been missing. But dc
 something he must, but write he must
 The safety valve could not be held down | on that resistless energy of his. l Environment makes itself felt in the | earlier days of a young mans life The | school boy. when he writes a compost tion fills it with the lofty and suited l maxims of the copy book When he becomes college man he has a fit oi
 adjectives and he becomes the suited
 sophomoric talker and the suited sophomoric writer The force of his environment is strong upon him and he is moved and guided by that in- fiuence. the freshest upon him. So Theodore Roosevelt wrote with in- fuence of his environment fresh upon
 him. Now when a man goes out to take hand in the fight in the world
 the metal that is in him shows itself
 
 breast to breast and gives blow for
 blow the basic. clements of his char
 acter show through the polish of en-
 vironment.
 Here for instance is Theodore Roose-
 welt in one of his early books describ-
 ing Admiral Raphael Semmes as a
 pirate" And in later years he tells
 the world that that Confederate uncle of his, Irvine Bulloch. "was the finest ha ho yuhn nearer filling out that splendid char acter of Thackeray. Colonel Newcomb. than any man I ever met" And yet this Irvine Bniloch. fought side by side with and quite as bravely as the pirate" Semmes.
 Wonderful Entente Cordinle.
 In what is written here is the only explanation of the wonderful entente cordiale. which has been so suddenly established between Roosevelt and the section of the country. in which he once saw so little good. They were so naturally congenial to each other o', first sight. when the chasm between them had apparently been so great. that some explanation of the phenomenon is demanded. The South found that Roosevelt was anything but the sort of man that looks upon life as a cold blooded business proposition. He was warmer than the genialitv of the South. he was more enthusiastic than the spirited hospitality into which he went.
 .'To Theodore Roosevelt, whom the country has greatly overestimated as an author and whom the Democratic party has greatly underestimated as poIitjoian.' This was a recent toast of that brilliant Mississippian, John Sharp Williams. There is world of truth in it. I grew to appreciate It's during that Tuesday. which President Roosevelt spent on Alabama soil. I began the day with some pre- conceived ideas of the Presidents work and the Presidents character. He had always been a picturesque character. figure of interest. since the stormy days he spent as Police Commissioner Of the citv of New York. shared the ooin- ion of the Mississippian. that Theodore Roosevelt was by no means among the frst writers of America And I be- 1ieve like watson that he was honest and fearless. but man who had made sc 70 "thurderinE Dlunders.
 Notv ithstanding these blundefs the conviction had formed that ne nao Ac- co,r rIfshee some of tLe greatest things that have beer put to the credit or any of orr Presidents since Washington. Iaffersen and Jackson. I believed thar his active strenuous life hal been all for the good of the country, when one forgot semeof his writings and when one divorced from his public life those things which made the Southern man believe that he stood close to social equality. And If he had stood for social quality he could not have been great enough, able enough and effective snourh. no matter what his attainments were. to be honored of the South. But | there has heen some mistake some where. Perhaps there has not been | single utterance on his Southern tour l tbat The white man of the South could | not enGcrse.
 Greatest Politician Ever.
 Ii was in those four hours that he | bent in Montgomery and Tuskegee mat inc conviction was formed that he was the greatest politician that ever step ped in shoe leather. Nor IS the word nsed in a derogatcry sense. A man IS ,ot necessarily evil because he is pol tician. The power, the influence poll tieiau can wield because of the fact +bat he is a politician is not necessari- v an evil power. All the rncre credit +o the n an who Is dynamo Of pohticai ,over and uses is in the main for .ooa Theodore Roosevelt deserves the ,radit. the appreciation of the South he went out of his way to ex- en5 the hand of friendship. because he vent out of his way to show the south what he was and to ask for the friend ,hin of the South. From the risk. from he exertion, from the streruosity Of ,is Southern tour he had nothing to yain, but this friendship.
 What has made him the most popular igure in the United States, fact which ,as been shown in other ways than the lection returns of 1904?. First of all, he broad humanity, the warmth of na- ure that was heritage from his southern ancestry That Is con- ,iction that came cut of the study of in, while he was in Middle Alabama. lnd because of these elements he is the rreatest politician of his time. What made him a storage battery of magnetic 
 Tn the first pace he is deep chested, road shoudered. vital animal. You nav have noticed hat the man who in- usnces other men is a vital, forceful nan. the man with the broad shoul- err and the deep chest. The man to i nArence other men must be a storage I atte,v of 1T egnetic dynamic force. The 1 hin chested student may be great ritter. a great inventor, l great scitn- Ist hut he is not the man to go out 2 nd bend other mems wills to his own. or one thing then. Theodore Roosevelt a splendid animal,
 The ropular man Is the man who Is ontinuaily doing things and saying ninss great and small that other men ke. He is constantly responsible for or1ethinR little oi great. that stirs up