The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-12-22
EDITED By
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Mrs. Roosevelt, as are here described
at this time constituted the presidents
chief recreation. His public journeys
and hunting expeditions had afforded
too much rich material for cartoonists
and jokesmiths to please the president,
He wrote to a friend in Texas that he
would take no more hunting trips
while he was in the White House.
The Editor.
Visit to Washington's Birthplace.
White House, April 80, 1906.
DEAR KERMIT:
On Saturday afternoon mother and
started off on the Sylph, mother hav-
ing made up her mind 1 needed So
hours rest, and we had a delightful
time together, and she was just as
cunning as she could be. On Sunday
mother and I spent about four hours
ashore. taking our lunch and walking
up to the monument which marks
where the house stood in which
Washington was born. It is simple
shaft. Every vestiage of the house
is destroyed, but a curious and rather
pathetic thing is that, although it
must be a hundred years since the
place was deserted, there are still
multitudes Of flowers which must have
come from those in the old garden.
There are iris and narcissus and a
little blue flower, with a neat, prim,
clean smell that makes one feel as if
| it ought to be put with lavender into
chests of fresh old linen. The narcis-
sus in particular was growing around
everywhere, together with real wild
flowers like the painted columbine and
Star of Bethlehem. 1t was a lovely.
spot on a headland overlooking a
broad inlet from the Potomac. There
was also the old graveyard or grave
plot in which were the gravestones of
WaShington's father and mother and
grandmother, all pretty nearly ruined.
IL was lovely warm weather and
mother and 1 enjoyed our walk through
the funny, lonely old country. Mocking-
birds, meadow-larks, Carolina wrens
cardinals, and field sparrows were
singing cheerfully. We came up the
river in time to get home last evening
This morning mother and l walked
around the White House grounds as
usual. think 1 get more fond of
flowers every year. The grounds are
now at that high stage of beauty in
which they will stay for the next two
months. The buckeyes are in bloom,
the pink dogwood. and the fra grant
iilacs, which are almost the loveliest
of the bushes; and then the flowers,
including the lily-of- the-valley.
1 am debating in the office. Archie
is out by the sandbox playing with
the hose. The playing consists in
brandishing it around his head and
trying to escape the falling water. He
escapes about twice out of. three
times and must now be perfect
drowned rat q have just had him in
to look at him and he is even more of
a drowned rat than I supposed. He
has gone out to complete his shower
bath under strict promise that imme-
diately afterwards he will go in and
change his clothes.)
Quentin is the funniest mite you
ever saw and certainly very original
little fellow. He left at mademoiselle's
plate yesterday a large bunch of flow
ers with the inscription that they We're
from the fairies to her to reward her
for taking care of two good, good
boys" Ethel is a dear.
More About Dickens.
White House, May 20, 1906.
DEAR TED:
Mother read us your note and I was
interested in the discussion between
you and -- over Dickens. Dickens
characters are really to a great extent
personified attributes rather than in
dividuals. In consequence, while there
are not nearly as many who are actual
ly like people one meets, for in
stance in Thackeray. there are a great
many more who possess characteristics
which we encounter continually, though
rarely as strongly developed as in the
fictional originals. So Dickens char
acters last almost as Bunyan's do. For
instance, Jefferson Brick and Elijah
Pogram and Hannibal Chollop are all
real perSonifications of certain bad
tendencies in American life, and I am
continually thinking of or abiding to
some newspaper editor or senator or
bronchial rowdy by one of these three
names. / never met any one exactly
like Uriah Heep, but now and then we
see individuals show traits which make
it easy to describe them, with refer
ence to those traits, as Uriah Heep.
1t is just the same with Micawber. Mrs.
Nickleby is not quite "a real person,
but she typifies, in accumulated form,
traits which a great many real persons
possess, and I am continually think
ing of her when I meet them. There
are half a dozen books of Dickens which
have. I think, furnished more chara-
cters which are the constant compan-
ions of the ordinary educated man
around US, than is true of any other
half-dozen volumes published within
the same period.
No Place Like Sycamore Hill
Ito Ethel, Sycamore HiIE)
BLESSED ETHEL:
am very glad that what changes
have been made in the house are good,
and I look forward so eagerly to see
ing them. After all, fond as I am of
the White House and much though I
have appreciated these years in it,
there isn't any place in the world like
home like Sycamore Hill, where things
are our own, with our own associations,
and where it is real country.
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