The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-06
There's an Atmosphere Sufficiently
Impressive for All Corners to Feel.
Even to the Souvenir Hunters
and the Merely Curl
Gus Visitors

terribly disappointed. Even then W
never thought 1t was only q few
days later that he died.
More birds you could hardly fnd
in one grove than there are near the
long rising aisle OF the Sycamore Hill
drive. Across the ravine 1t follows
one woodthrush was singing, singing
as they do only in wild places. They
come into suburbs like robins. but the
music is not the same. Two catbirds
pantomimed an aerial cockfight
voicelessly for a wonder. over the
bank where the red lilies grow, and
pewee's soft sigh reminded them
that 1t was the peaceful tide OF after
, noon. A vireo was talking to him
self A black and white warbler crept
around a tree trunk. AS rule I
don't think much OF freighting copy
with birds special names; those
birds among others were there. and
they were his friends. We came to
the mulberry, came within sight of
the house with its broad roofs and
broad veranda. the pair of antlers
nailed up in the gables peak, and
down across the lawn in the edge OF
the woods were people in black and
khaki burning brush. and We with
drew in more haste than my kindly
cicerone said there was any need of.
Too many sightseers were not with
drawing.
Surprisingly Unpretentious.
1t isn't such an awesome house. coma
to look at it coolly. now. Often stran-
| aSfn 20
tentious it is. The most modest of
the summer homes along the Cove
road out-pretends It, Still, II was not
on their account that the Mayfiower
used to lie in the bay at anchor, or
from them that the telephone wires
| hummed to Portsmouth Navy Yard
late one August night, with the con-
sequence that two empires made a
| peace
And the seduction OF those golden
woods Of his might have held q
! weaker man at home made OF him a
| recluse and poet. He did come near
writing poetry once or twice, for all
the rough and ready muscularity OF
his style. In one OF his books Is a
passage about hooking birds song
| by moonlight.
Back at the cemetery, with the sun
below the trees and Reynolds, the day
| guard, always on his feet, unobtrus-
lively eating sandwiches for supper.
! the people still came and came. An
| elderly clergyman with white side
burns, noted tennis player, two
s0vart Sicilians in their Sunday best,
family party after family party, a
| solid citizen of oyster Bay conducting
n visitor from Nebraska and one from
| California, tonneau load Oft should
think movie actors a little boy alone.
a middle aged blind man whose
friends placed him at the foot OF the
grave and told him how 1t looked
out OF one group came the German
language in undertones. That last
I did not mention TO Reynolds, who
had reprehensible feelings on the sub
| ject.
The birds left on their vespers one
by one, and called drowsy goodnight
from their nests and roostins.
branches. Long before the days last
visitor showed up had to go. A TAFT
man from Kansas with an Adams ap-
pie was leaving too. and he said-N
may read like cheap invention, bot
IL happened-that Teddy ought TO
have lived, the country needed him.
and that this would be a famous spot
in a hundred years or SO. An Oyster
Bay man told me OF the burial, which
he had seen, and how a big distin-
guished looking gentleman in a top
hat had found 1t hard to see the path
when the party came away Wasn't
any one there felt worse than Mr.
Taft did, l can tell you.'
The night guard was to relieve az
s o'clock. Sometimes, they say, there
are visitors after that, What is NOR
tai Of Theodore Roosevelt is not lonely
on that knoll.