Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-20
ROOSEVELTON THE HOME RUN
Public Interest in the Most Piotur-
esque Of Ex-Presidents.
MARTIAL SOUND OF DAILY LIFE
n Return from EIba, More
an AusterIitE - Attempt to
Peer Into TheOdore's
Future.

Roosevelt has crossed Lake. Victoria
Nyanza," the bulletin board h~oarsely
shouted above the midday roar OF the
crowded street. "Hurrah!' cried the un-
reflectlng patriot. fastening to his ac-
customed lunch counter. "well capture
Asia next. and then sweep Europe" For
the man who ran well might have thought
that he was reading news from the front
Of the triumphant progress Of a conquer
ing general at the head of an invading
army which literally had carried the war
into Africa.
We are surely little used to receiving
reports so startling of the activities of our
ex-presidents. Generally we have heard
Of them only as going to funerals or ad-
dressing sage admonitions to youth to be
good, and maybe they, too, would be
great.
Instead of this, the only funerals which
our contemporary ex-president has at
tended since leaving the White House
were those for which his rifle supplied
the corpse, while. in place Of autograph
album exhortations and copy book maxims,
he has been constantly holding up before
Young America an example Of doing and
daring which has been the despair OF the
s%toutest hearts. AS a visible sign Of his
prowess, huge trucks. piled high with the
trophies Of his conquests, have rumbled
along the avenues Of the capital to the
smithsonian institution, like the great treas
ures Of Italy which Napoleon sent back
to Paris.
His has been no Elba; it has been more
like an Austerlitz. Every note of his daily
life that has come to US has carried a
martial sound. We have read from time
to time OF his camping and breaking camp,
Of furious charges In unpr~onounceable
places and in the saddle of a horse bear
ing the ironical name of tranquility.
II he can be so strnuous in retirement,
well may the rhinos and hippos wonder
what he must have done to the old foxes
of the senate. the bulls and bears of Wall
street and the predatory bipeds of the
stock yards Jungle when he was on the
active list.
DR.. Roosevelt.
Soon the ex-president will float down the
Nile, out of darkest Africa and into the
land OF Egypt, where the light of civiliza-
ton first dawned. There, it is safe to pre-
dict, he will tell the Sphinx more than she
will tell him, and then will come the march
across Europe.
Meanwhile he will have made a light
ming change from khaki to the scholastic
gown and from the rough rider hat to the
mortar board. The mighty nimrod of
africa Will become the scholar In Europe.
and is certain to fill his hunting bag with
the university degrees that he will bring
down in Rome, Berlin, Paris, Oxford and
at lesser seats of learning. For the time
being, 1t will be neither Colonel Roosevelt
nor Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, but DR..
Roosevelt.
Those who look to see him loafing around
thrones are destined to be fooled. He has
signified to the kaiser, and all the kaiser's
royal cousins have doubtless taken notice.
that he wishes no state reception. but
would be glad to drop in at the schloss
and spend the evening. If, in other words,
William will become for the occasion an
ex-emperor. the ex-president will play with
him; otherwise he will take his big stick
and come home.
And the home coming will be the grand
climax of this ~strangest and most eventful
chapter in the life OF an ex-president. No
prophet is needed to assure us that there
will be such a swarming of the American
people as he draws near shore next June
IS TO leave standing room only on the
Island of Manhattan. The bowling OF the
savage jungle and the applause of all
Europe will be drowned in the roaring
welcome which he will receive from his
own.
quite Different.
The most picturesque of our presidents
has become at once the most picturesque
80 .n,r. - 49,