Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-08-30
BY James C. White

dore Roosevelt has again accomplished
the seemingly impossible.
At the close of his first days tour of
Vermont it is admitted that he has not
only shaken the rock-ribbed Republicans
out of their standard complacency, but
he has brought the voters as a whole to
a cheering outstanding, heart-pulsing
expression of the interest which they
have in his campaign. At the Strong
Theater tonight, where he closed a
strenuous fifteen hours of campaigning
over 140 miles in an automobile, 5000
Vermont citizens fairly yelled their
heads off with enthusiasm.
The entire rank and file of the Pro-
gressive party, from the Civil war vet
eran to the youth about to cast his first
vote, has been strengthened by the
wave of enthusiasm he has evoked.
Tonight James R. Garfield said that
from what he had seen he believes that
a 20, 900 vote for the state Progressive
party was possible and that Roosevelt
himself in November had more than an
even chance of really carrying the
State.
EXPECT BIG VOTE.
Perhaps.in setting the state vote fig
uge Mr.. Garfield was a little more en-
thusiastic that usual, but it can be said
that there are hard-to-fast Republicans
in this city tonight who are talking of a
10, 900 vote for the ticket being more
than likely at Tuesdays election, while
the men in the movement are talking
of Is, 200 and are positive that the Sc
lection of governor will of certainty be
thrown into the Legislature.
1t was the open and unusual display
of enthusiasm by the voters that has
brought about this change of feeling.
Frazer Metzger, the Progressive can
didate for governor, was the first to
comment on it, as his .eyes fairly glist-
ened with satisfaction.
Before the day was out all had been
impressed with the fact that an out
speaking, cheering, mountaineering
Vermonter had taken the place of the
solid citizen hitherto the despair of the
most skilful political spellbinders.
At the Bennington ball park there
were 5000 who broke into cheers at the
entry of the Colonel and fairly mobbed
his machine when he was leaving the
grounds.
At Rutland an equal number of en-
thusiasts waited patiently for him dur
ing the three hours he was behind his
schedule. Waited not in ease on
chairs or other resting places, but in
the muck and ruck of the gutter and
street and on the sidewalks, waited
with persistence, with loyalty and en-
thusiam.
Again the same spirit was displayed
at the Addison County Fair, and finally
at the big rally here tonight, where he
did not arrive until after 9 O'Clock.
BY THE ROADSIDE.
What came to them as real proof that
he has gripped the hearts of the real
people of Vermont, was not the greet
ings at the mass gatherings, but those
from the roadsides.
!, There has never been anything just
, like it in Vermont before.
, For 40 miles along the highway
= which he travelled, there was a constant
, procession of those who had not heard
his immediate words, to whom a greet
ing from him was as near as possible as
a voice from Mars, to whom he was sim
ply a figure of a man who stood for
things which appeared to them, yet all
+ were anxious to extend a greeting.
Bleak hillsides and green garden
lands, deep valleys and mountain tops
blossomed with old soldiers in faded
blue, with old men and young men in
y toll worn clothes, mothers from the
E kitchens, with babes in arms, who
waited patiently, anxious for the chance
to wave a greeting as he whisked by.
1t was easy to explain that during the
= day perhaps some should appear, but
= late tonight, when he was whisking
over the roads in a frantic attempt
to make Burlington on time, there
= could still be seen in the half gloom OF
o the night these little groups waiting or
= the last lap and raising their cheers in
. the darkness, one thing which deserves
. mention to make clearer the import
o ance of this greeting.
ON HOSTILE GROUND.
G The section through which he toured
today was distinctly hostile ground dur
e ing the spring primaries.
e The eastern part of the State, it may
e be remembered, went for him, but this
western section was held by the ma
chine gang.