Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-05-27
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Correspondence to the Herald
from the Nations Capital.

A keen observer of human nature
recently remarked that misunder-
standing of the word strenuous"
and together with an intense admir-
alton of President Roosevelt were
having deleterious effect on the
manners Of the younger generation
in business. And there seems to be
abundant ground for the reflection.
Someone has said that imitation is
the sincerest form of flattery" and
many admirers of Theodore Roose-
welt attempt to initiate him by being
strenuous, but they fail signally
because Of totally erroneous con-
ception of the word. Marked by
strong or uncompromising zeal,
earnestness of effort is the dicti0n-
airy definition of strenuousness, and
in that sense it is truly applicable to
Theodore Roosevelt. Marked by
loud talking, furious demonstrations
of energy and by buster, seems to
be the meaning which most would
be-imitators Of the President attach
to the word. And n no way could
they be more mistaken. Apart from
certain facial contortions apparently
rendered necessary by a slight i'm
pediment Of speech and defect of
vision, President Roosevelt is a
quiet man. He gives the impress
sion of immense reserve force and
his accomplishments clearly indicate
that he possesses it. It is not by
shouting, walking the floor, raving
or putting up bluff at being fear
fully busy" that the President I'M
presses men, many of them years
his senior. On the contrary, it is by
an absolutely unmistakable sim
certify of purpose, a quiet de-
termined manner, great directness
of speech, which, however. never
descends to the rude or unmanner-
ly, and by a capacity for work
which enables him to devour books,
absorb and make his own an i'm
mense amount of information, and
to master every phase of subject
with which he may have to deal.
1t is also noteworthy that the Presi-
dent very rarely swears, never
takes the name OF God in vain. He
has no occasion to, for when he
wishes to speak with emphasis he
can attach more force to the ordi-
nary words of conversation than the
average man can convey with a
string of explosives.
Just about the time that President
Stickney of the Chicago e Great
Western Railway was criticising the
president for accepting transpor-
tation from the railroads, the Off
Gals of the Pennsylvania and other
railroads over which the president
travelled announced that on his re-
cent hunting trip he paid his fare
and that of every member of his
party. In view of the good ac-
complished by the presidents visit
ing various parts of the country, it
would seem that congress ought to
make an appropriation to cover all
the expenses of the president when
away from Washington. 1t is con-
siderable of hardship to have to
pay the expenses of numerous secret
service men, stenographers, secre-
tary, et-al, and it is only because he
is occupying the highest office in the
land that the president is compelled
to take with him wherever he goes
a more or less extensive escort and
office force.
The revelations of the Equitable
Life Assurance company have left a
bad taste in the mouth of every
man who carries an ''old line" life
insurance policy. Of course the
Equitable is sound financially, but
it's profits have been materially
curtailed by dishonorable, if not
dishonest, practices of it's directors
and managers and the savings of
thousands of people have been
risked in the speculative market.
The plague in India has proven
worse than war. There are re-
corded $685. deaths in a single
week. Sanitation is almost i'm
possible in a country where an
ancient and erroneous religious be-
lief forbids the determination of all
animals life, even the rats, which
are the great conveyors of the
Il