The sun., 1919-10-12

nation7 Roosevelt sacrificed his life fol
patriotism as. surely as if he had died
leading q charge in the battle of the
Marine. o.
"When I came to review Roosevelt's
career consecutively for the purpose OF
this biography l saw that many of his
acts and policies which had been misun,
derstood or misjudged at the time were
all the inevitable expressions of the prin-
ciple which wss the master motive of his
life. What we had imagined to be shrewd
devices for winning a partisan advantage
or for overthrowing a political adver-
sary, or for gratifying his personal ambi-
ton, had a nobler source.
Il do not mean to imply that RoOse-
welt, who was most .adroit politician, did
not employ with terrific effect the means
accepted as honorable in political fighting.
So did Abraham Lincoln, who also as a
great opportunist was both powerful
and shrewd political fighter but pledged
to righteousness. -. A contempt
rary can never judge as the historians a
hundred years after the fact judges, but
the contemporary view also has its place
and it may be really nearer to the living
truth than is the conclusion formed when
the past is cold and remote and the actors
are dead long ago.
$50 a friends's outlined portrait,
though obviously not impartial, must be
nearer the truth than an enemy's can
be-for the enemy is not impartial either.
We have fallen too much into the habit of
imagining that only hostile critics tell the
truth"
If contemporary biography lacks some
what the desirable quality Of detachment it
is the gamer by contributions from per-
sonal knowledge when Thayer writes of
a Roosevelt. Thayer recalls Roosevelt at
Harvard and testifes: HE was no
grind; the gods take care not to mix even
a drop of pedantry in the makeup of the
rare men whom they destine for great
deeds or fine works. He also recalls
Roosevelt's maiden speech, made at the
annual dinner of the Hdrrard Crimson
in 1879. +-,
"He still had difficulty in enunciating
clearly or even in running off his words
smoothly. At times he could hardly get
them out at all, and then he would rush
on for a few sentences, as skaters re-
double their pace over thin ice. He told
the story of two old gentlemen who stam-
mered, the point of which was that one
Of them, after distressing contortions and
stoppages, recommended the other to go to
DR.. y, adding: He cured me- A trifing
bit of thistledown for memory to have
preserved after all these years; but still it
is interesting to me TO recall that this was
the beginning of the public speaking of
the man who later addressed more audi
enees than any other orator of his time
and made deeper impression by his
spoken word"
Roosevelt excited comment at Harvard
by driving a dog cart and wearing "red-
dish, powder-puff side whiskers which no
chatting could make him cut" Thayer is
able to explain legend that in a historic
bout in the gym Roosevelt boxed with his
eyeglasses lashed to his head Not long
ago / asked him the TRUTH" the biogra-
pher says. "'Persons who believe that
he said, must think me utterly crazy, for
one of Charlie Hanks's blows would have
smashed my eyeglasses and probably
blinded me for life"
One more picture from Harvard: "His
habit of absorption became byword; for
if he visited a classmates room and saw
book which interested him instead of join
ing in the talk he would devour the book,
oblivious of everything else, until the col
lege bell rang for the next lecture, VIXEN
he would jump up with start and
dash off"
II ~ IL