The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-02-10

& Y
welt and the Marquis de Mores be-
came friends. Old-timers in the Bad
Lands country still talk about that
meeting.
Scare Roosevelt" remember
one old cowpuncher saying Say,
son, you might as well try to scare
the devil himself with red fire and
q pair of horns. 1t just amt one O.
them things what can be DONE
That was Colonel Roosevelt
gentleman unafraid. And now like
to think of him as one of that COM
pany of valiant men of whom Kip
ling has written about:
Beyond the path Of the utmost
sun. through utter darkness
hurled.
Further than ever comet hared
or vagrant star-dust whirled.
Live such as fought and sailed
and ruled and loved and
made our world.
And ofttimes cometh our wise
Lord God. master of every
trade,
And tells them sales Of His daily
toll of Edens newly made;
And they rise to their feet as he
passes by, gentlemen un-
afraid"
"A gentleman unafraid! He is with
them now, the Strong Men, who did
their work on earth, and at the end
had no fear to die. He is one OF
them now in fellowship.
What an amazing range of activi-
ties the man had. Rancher, police
commissioner, politician, soldier,
bookman, traveller, hunter of big
game, author, naturalist. governor OF
the greatest state in the union, and
president OF the United States! Did
ever another man live so varied and
full a life?? And in everything he
did he had the zest of youth. He
was the playboy of the western
world.
An omnivorous reader, too! The
other day / was talking with Mary
Austin, down in one of the little
desert towns in California-one of
those towns of which she has been
poet and histriographer. Mrs. Aus
tin spent a day with Colonel Roose-
Welt at Sycamore Hill last summer,
and she told me how amazed she was
at the intimate manner in which Mr..
Roosevelt discussed her own books.
He knew them better than ! do
myself" she confessed. Think OF
it. A man who leads so busy a life
as Colonel Roosevelt discussing
points in my own novels. essays and
plays that l had forgotten myself
And he not only discussed these
points, but he took down my books
and turned to the pages in Ques-
ton"
/ imagine that Colonel Roosevelt
and MRS. Austin must have had
rare talk that day. ! know that he
was an ardent admirer OF her desert
work, for more than once he had SAID
in private and in public that the big
gest book that has come out OF the
far west is Mrs. Austin's Ine
Flock" a volume, by the way, tnat
is used as textbook on amman
psychology at the Sorbonne-
Colonel Roosevelt knew good
deal about animal psychology him
self. and he could appreciate MIS-
Austin's study of sheep. And being
poet at heart he could appreciate the
poet uf ne i'o'tn -ata$ 'hd
desert that Eliminates her pages. II
you don't believe the colonel was
poe. at heart, you haven't to take
NV word for it All you have to do
is to turn to one of his recent books.
tnar volume In which he describes
the last journey he took into the
southwest, and prove 1t for yourself
There are some passages In that
book, descriptions of the great south
western desert, that only man VINO
had the soul of poet could nave
written. l could prove my case by
quoting some of those passages here,
but it would take up too much space.
and. besides, ] am. really doing you
a favor by asking you to do 1t for
yourself. You will thank me for 1t.