New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09

crawl out. His style was tinplinq,v .r.
it was masculine and vascular; and !, ~.
always the style of gentleman and
scholar. He could puncture with rani.r
and he could smash with a sledge-hammer.
and if he used the latter more often tb..
the former it was because of his fortbr;.h.
ness and his consuming hatred of th;rr.
'unmanly, ignominious, Infamous
at is by imagination, by the vision ans
the faculty divine, that now and again =.
occasional address, like Lincoln's at Ce.,,,s
burg, or contributed editorial. like Pooso
velt's on The Great Adventure.' rranscons-
its immediate and temporary purpose and -
lifted up to the serener heights of rr..
literature. 1t is not without intention tina.
The Great Adventure has been set by IL.
side of the Gettysburg address; thew ara
akin, and there is in Roosevelt's paracrsnb.
not little of the poetic elevation and of tha
exalted dignity of phrase which combine ;.
make the address masterpiece of Fnglsh
prose.
"Roosevelt's style is firm and succulent.
and its excellence is due to his havrr
learned the lesson of the masters Of Fncl;sh
He wrote well because he had read widely
and deeply, because he had absorbed good
literature for the sheer delight he took in If
Consciously or unconscious1y he enriched
his vocabulary, accommodating a store Of
strong words which he made flexible. bend
ing them TO do his bidding. But he was
meyer bookish in his diction; he never went
in quest of reconcile vocables, because his
taste was refined, and because he was eve,
seeking TO be 'understanded OF the peonles
What seems Colonel Roosevelts most
enduring work? Brander Matthews
says:
"Naried and brilliant as were Roosevelts
contributions to other departments of liter
allure, it is more than probable that his ulti
mate reputation as a man of letters will
most securely rest upon his stern abors as
a historian-not on the brisk and lively
little book on New York that he contributed
to Freeman's Historic Towns series, not on
the biographies of Benton and Gouverneur
Morris that he wrote for the American
Statesmen series, not on the shrewd and
sympathetic life OF Cromwell, not OH the
American History which he prepared in COL
laboration with Henry Cabot Lodge, but On
the four stately tones of his most energetic
and ambitious undertaking. the story of The
Winning of the West which he began early
in his manhood, and which he was always
hoping to carry further
cat the end of the foreword to "A Book
Lovers Holidays there is noble pas
sage which calls for quotation here as an
example of Roosevelt's command Of nervous
English. measured and cadencod Ii is pro
posed in proof of the assertion that the
JOY Of living is his WHO has the heart TO
demand it:
THE beauty and charm of the wilder
ness are his for the asking, for the edges
Of the wilderness lie close beside the beaten
roads of present travel. He can see the
red splendor of desert sunsets and the
earthly glory of the afterglow ON the bat
Elements of desolatc mountains. In sapphire
CULTS Of ocean he can visit islets, above
which the wings of myriads of seafowl make
a kind of shifting cuneiform script in the
air. He ride along the brink Of the
stupendous clif-walled canyon, where eagles
soar below him and cougars make their
lars on the lodges and harry the big horned
sheep. He can journey through the north
ern forests, the home of the giant moose.
the forests of fragrant and murmuring life
in summer, the ironbound and melancholy
forests of winter
"Theodore Roosevelt had the heart TO
demand it, and the JOY of living was his"