Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-25


to beautify that which was re-
garded in its day as beautiful,
and in later day as hideous And
since Col. Theodore Roosevelt was
only 61 years old when he died, not
enough time has elapsed to soften
the shock produced when one goes
to the Roosevelt birthplace and
gazes on the furniture which has
been reassembled. We go prepared
to say How quaint" and find our
selves saying How funny"
The Woman's Roosevelt Memorial
Association has purchased his birth
place, four-story brownstone front
at 2S East Twentieth street, New
York City. This house, while not
old enough to be a landmark, is of
style that Is rapidly becoming so
rare that 1t is approaching that
period when people would go out of
the fame given 1t by our beloved
Roosevelt. There are IL rooms in
the house, narrow halls, fiat chested
closets, and a small balcony in the
back overlooking handkerchief
size yard. The price paid was
$4,000.
The association has put the furni-
ture in this house in place, finding
much of it in good state of pres
eIvation in the various family attics.
The original furnishings, family por-
traits and other heirlooms have been
given by the Roosevelt family, which
is cooperating with the association
in making the interior as much like
it was in the days when Roosevelt
was child as can be.
Not Merely q Museum
| But this was not enough. The
| place would become merely a Roose-
Velt museum were there not some
means provided for carrying out the
Roosevelt ideas and preserving the
| Roosevelt ideals. To meet this need
the association also purchased the
house next door, in which an uncie
Of the youthful Theodore lived, pay
ing $45, 900 for it
With the addition of this building
the uniting of the two properties
being worked out harmoniously in
the architectural design-there is
room for those things which the
Woman's Roosevelt Memorial Asso-
citation believes will form a memoir
ial to the Roosevelt national person.
ality. There is, for instance, a free
circulating library containing not
only the writings of Colonel Roose-
velt, but many copies of his books
which interested him, those books
on travel, natural history and biog-
raphy which had potent influence in
shaping his career and his opinions.
Glasses will be held in this house
for the teaching of English, the one
language for all Americans, to peo-
pie of foreign birth and to those
who perchance had to leave school
before they acquired a working mas
terry of the language. Lectures on
the history of the nation, the state
and the city will be given to stimu-
late interest in good government, and
a large assembly hall has been pro-
vided.
The houses are only a block from
Gramercy Park, which remains to
this day an exclusive residence dis
trict, but within this block, on both
sides of the Roosevelt houses, across
the street and in the rear, factories
are encroaching. Commerce has
swallowed up the homes in its march
uptown; the association might not
have found brick OF the two houses
left standing had the members de-
layed action a year longer. It will
be remembered, however, that the
association was formed, and the
money began pouring in the day
after the ex-President was buried.
Seek One Million Dollars
The goal of the association Is ST.
600, 900; there is no doubt the amount
will be oversubscribed. At the very
first meeting $4,000 poured in, and
to date the fund is between $4,000
and S85 5000, with the work of ap-
pealing for funds not fairly begun
This association is working inde-
pendently of the Mems National
Memorial Association. which has
started out to roll UP $10,000,000
with which to erect two memorials:
in Washington and in Oyster Bay.
There were 200 women at the first
Injecting; there are now more than
900 foundation members. II feel,'
said the secretary, that the women
owe more to Roosevelt than to any
other man of recent times. Just one
thing alone that he did has made
countless women contented in theiI
homes.
And that? And that was rural
mail delivery! The Panama Cana
closes up in insignificance when com.
pared with what the rural mail de.
livery means to men and women
especially women, in the isolated
regions.
But to get back to the interior o.