The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-12-18

,A1oulii, <Afenie mad carved IN the back
OF the pumpkin the words Pumpkin
Giant, the candle inside illuminat-
ing 1t beautifully. Mother was waiting
Tor me at the navy yard, looking too
pretty for anything, when 1 arrived.
she and / had a ride this afternoon
VI course l am up to my ears in
work
The mornings are lovely now, crisp
and fresh; after breakfast mother and
II walk around the grounds accom-
| panied by Skip, and also by Slipper,
her bell tinkingly loudly. The gar
dens are pretty dishevelled now, but
the flowers that are left are still love-
ly; even yet some honeysuckle is
blooming on the porch
! Poets and Princes.
!, White House. Nov. 6, 1905.
DEAR KERMIT:
/ just a line, for really have nothing
to say this week. 1 have caught up
with my work. One day we had
rather forlorn little poet and his nice
wife in at lunch. They made me feel
iquite badly by being SO grateful at my
having mentioned him in what I
fear was very patronizing and in
deed, almost supercilious way, as hav-
ing written an occasional good poem.
am much struck by Robinson's two
/ poems which you sent mother. What
a queer, mystical creature he is! L
did not under stand one of then-that
about the gardens-and / do not know
that I like either of them quite as
much as some of those in The Chill
dren of the Night But he certainly
has got the real spirit of poetry in
him. Whether he can make it come
out I am not quite sure.
4 Prince Louis. of Battenherg, has
been here and I have been very much
pleased with him. He is really good
admiral, and in addition he is a we'll
read and cultivated man and it was
Acharning to talk with him. We had
him and his nephew, Prince Alexander,
a midshipnan. to lunch alone with US,
and we really enjoyed having them.
At the state dinner he sat between
me and Bona parte, and / could not
help smiling to myself in thinking that
here was this British admiral seated
beside the American Secretary of the
Navy, being the granddaughter of Ma
poleon and the grandson of Jerome,
king of Westphalia; while the British
admiral was the grandson of a Hes
sian general, who was the subject of
King Jerome and served under Napo-
leon. and then, by no means credit
ably, deserted him in the middle of
the Battle of Leipsic.
I am off to vote tonight.
Novels and Games.
White House, Nov. 10, 1905
I sympathize with every word you
say in your letter. about Nicholas
Nickelby, and about novels generally.
Normally only care for a novel if the
ending is good; and quite agree with
you that if the hero has to die he
ought to die worthily and nobly, so
that our sorrow at the tragedy shall
40 for a lri
one alwaysNfeels when man does his
duty well and bravely There is quite
Ienough sorrow and shame and suffer-
ing and baseness III real life, and there
+ is no need for meeting it unnecessary
" in fiction. AS police commissioner
| it was my duty to deal with all kinds
of squalid misery and hideous and UNI
ispeakable infamy, and l should have
been worse than a coward if I had
ishrunk from doing what was neces-
s sary; but there would have been nc
use whatever in my reading novels de-
failing all this misery and squalor and
crime, or at least in reading them as
| a steady thing. Now and then there
is a powerful but sad story which
reaIly is interesting and which really
does good; but normally the books
which do good and the books which
healthy people find interesting are
b
the sugar-candy variety, but which
while portraying foulness and suffer
ing when they must be portrayed, YET
have a joyous as well as noble side
We have had q very mild and opef
fall. I have played tennis a good deal
= the French Ambassador being now
Iauite steady playmate, as he and
I play about alike; and l have ridder
with mother a great deal. Last Mon.
day when mother had gone to New
York 1 had Selous, the great African
hunter, to spend the day and night. He
| Is a perfect old dear; just as simpl,
and natural as can be and very inter
esting I took him, with Bob Bacon
Clifford Pinchot. Ambassador Meyel
land Jim Garfield, for a good serambi.
and climb in the afternoon, and the,
;, all came to dinner afterwards. Befor.
I'VE came down to dinner / got him tt
Ispend three-quarters of an hour il
telling delightfully."- exciting lion ane
tHyena stories to Ethel, Archie ant
lOuentin He told them most vividl,
/. and so enthralled the little boys tina
= the next evening l had to tell them
!. large number myself.
To-day is Quentin's birthday and HI
. loved his gifts, perhaps most of all tn
/ weest, cunningest live pig you ever saw
p presented him by Straus Phil Stew
y art and his wife and boy, Wolcot
y twho is Archie's age). spent coupi
= Of nights here. One afternoon we ha'
y hide-and- go seek bringing down MI
Garfield and the Garfield boys, am
Archie turning up with the entlr
s football team, who took day off 70
g the special purpose We had obsta
g Gle races, hide-and- go- seek. blind
Is mans bluff and everything else: an,