The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1908-05-19

what age he may attain he will ma
main the same. Mr.. Choate, the lead
er OF the New York bar, gained this
conception of him over ten years ago.
recollcct that in a moment of i'm.
pulslve admiration he once apostroph-
lzed him as Roosevelt, the eternal
Doy!' That is precisely what he is.
BOY IN mind, with all boys veh-
emence and instantaneity of decision
and all of youths glorious privilege
OF dispensing with the teaching OF ex-
perlence. We must not be too i'm
patient with him. Indeed, L do not
know anybody whom l envy as much
as | do Mr.. Roosevelt.
lake all of lis, Mr.. Roosevelt is
subject to the law of compensations,
and the penalty to which it imposes
IN his case is vanity. After all. van-
ity is mixed atfliction, since its dis
advantages have TO be shared bv 9TH
erS. However intense nav be Mr..
Roosevelt 5 desire tp succeed himself
III the presidency. and ohvisously the
idea completely obscsseS him. as it
naturally should. his vanity closes the
door to possibility. For his vanity
does not blind Mr.. Roosevelt. It is
not OF that kind. He sees more clear
~ than perhaps any disinlcrestcd OBJ
server what his own position is ami
IN what relation he stands to all thc
circumstances that affect or control
him.
'Aly dear sir. / nave never known
man III public life who entertained
so few illusions about himself as Mr..
Roosevelt. While this clamor about
another term is to him Il sort of
ecstasy, it does not for moment
warp his judgment. lie knows pre-
clsely what the rclatiom is between
his refusal to serve another term and
the public or supposed public desire
that he should be reelected. No one
understood So we'll as Mr.. Roosevelt
the profound significance Of Judge
Brewers expression 'playin" hide
and seek with the American people,
Mr.. Roosevelt did not need that rcat
jurist's friendly intimation. He has
known all along where he stood.
- a man i'll popular relations with
his fellow men may allow himself all
sorts of attitude regarding his person.
al conduct. 1t is astonishing to what
extrcmities he may go and incur no
serious prejudice just as our social
system tolerateS all sorts of familiar
human derelictions and visits them
with its indignation and resentment
only when the law or the police take
official cogniZance Of them. So Mr..
Roosevelt. his coyness with the nomi-
nation aud the fascinating peril of his
relations with Mr.. Taft are the cav
lare of all contemporary political dis
cussion and furnish the spectacle Of
the moment. No one quite so we'll as
Mr.. Roosevelt himself knows what
would be the consequences Of MS
abandoning his attitude of self-abnc-
CATION.
'Since the night of election in 1904
MIR. Roosevelt's post of remuneration
has been the most seductive thing that
the American public has ever been
subjected to. Coupled with his daily
procedure and faculty for the specta-
cular it has served to dim and to OBJ
sure all other political pretcnsions in
any other quarter whatever until the
conditions obtain which you see to-
day. But Mr.. Roosevelt has no illus
ions. He knows that the very people
who are now the louGest and the most
lnsistent i'll demanding his candidacy
would, If he yielded, be the swiftes,
to condemn and the most mcrciless IN
their resentment.
'"The delusion which contcmplates
the Chicago convention as a prodiga!
celebration at which the fattcd Taft
is to be killed in Mr.. Roosevelt's hon
or has its practical and attractive side
for everybody except the proposed
beneficiary. He may not have much
sense, but his intuitions are marvel
ously accurate, and therefore there Is
no more danger of his appropriating
the nomination than that you or +
will.
"Both his renunciations look ncgli-
glble enough in the curious light of
| unrcality and insincrr.ty, which he
has so artfully thrown upon them.
One might almost say that the pub
| lie has either for"Ottcn ;hcm or hu