Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-12
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Edward Root Tells Of Characteristic
Of Roosevelt and Companion Re-
cites Strange Lapse on the Part
Of Woodrow Wilson
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE

tne party, Edward hoot, tell to remlnisclne
about that great exponent of vital energy
Theodore Roosevelt.
As his fathers son. Edward Root would
have had ample opportunity to observe
Roosevelt from a very near and intimate
position down in Washington; but quite
apart from being Elihu Roots son, Edward
Koot is an observer with whom notable per
sons would be themselves, and themselves at
their best l think The fact of his deafness
has in sense set him little apart, and
that he is composed and thoughtful and
shrewdly humorous has, I fancy, given him
the role of confidant rather than adviser or
defender or executant for elder men. He
has face that tells no tales. and yet now
and then there is n smile that is Illuminating
as to his sweet tempered view of life, so
that one is piqued to know what he thinks
and then charmed into voicing ones own
opinion.
Curiously enough, with that power to
gain the confidence of other people he has
not followed in his fathers footsteps and
become II, lawyer, but has turned to teach
ing. somewhat along the lines that Ruskn
followed, the ethics of beauty in art or the
ethics of art in beauty, whichever way one
choose to define a lectureship that teaches
the appreciation of art.
What he said about Roosevelt was from
the standpoint of an artist observing n man
of action, and was valuable as throwing vet
more light on that already vividly illum-
hulVh heults
A PROPOS Of Roosevclt's gestures. he said
"A that they were like his voice effective
from their very vehcmence. He called
Roosevelt's voice that terrible little voice"
that was shouted out with such force that
the reiterated sound of it alone could bring
an audience to its feet in excited enthu-
siasm. His gestures had like power of
exciting snd moving one, though in an or
dinary man they would have seemed over
emphasized. He had sense Of crowds and
of distance and of momentum in what he
dld with his body to carry his meaning 80
that whether he was bidding his successor
to the presidency good-by on the day of his
inauguration on the terrace of the Capitol
before that vast crowd representing the Ma
tlon or whether he was waving his hat to
the children and wife Of the engineer of his
private train as it roarcd past their house
on the outskirts Of a town, what he felt was
carried without loss Of power.
His hand grasp of Taft as he left to make
his train while the inaugural speech was
still in full tide said so much of what he
expected of Taft and what the Nation be-
hind him expected, that Taft's speech was
interrupted by an uproar of applause and
farewell which followed Roosevelt out of the
Capitol and down the great steps to his
waiting motor; the way he rose from his
writing on the private car when his secre-
tary, Loeb, mentioned to him that the train
MuS hDoul 10 pass tne nome OF the
driving the train, his quick snatching up of
his hat-always by the top of 1t. never by
the 6rim--his pumping it up and down with
quick jerks, as some powerful animal might
jerk something in his great set jaw, all
reached the waving woman and her children
and told them that he felt the power that
her husband welded for him, and admired it.
EDWARD ROOT said that that sense of
~ the public and of his position as in a
way symbolizing the power the public dele
gated never left him. He used it as one
would use sixth sense as part Of his re-
Sponsibility toward men. His power of cor
relating facts with people and using that
knowledge quickly and to the point was
natural with him a9d was also consciously
cultivated aS part OF his duty as President
Edward Root went on to say that Paul
Narburg had once remarked on 1t to him.
and to illustrate how facle the President
could be. told him that on the return of
President Roosevelt from Panama the ship
carrying the presidential party had drawn
up at the same wharf in the same harbor
in one of the West Indies alongside Of an
outgoing ship on which Warburg was a pas
senger, and for n brief moment on docking
the gang planks of both vessels were nm
proximntely close. Warburg had the mercst
acquaintance with Roosevelt then and was
surprised at the quick recognition that he
got, and more than surprised to have the
President call out heartily, "Our boys are
classmates in Harvard, and my son thinks
your son is fine ~
The cleverness Of the whole quick recoe-
milton OF the potentialities Of the encounter
struck a man. like Warburg more than the
fact of the cordiality even.
AS Edward Root said. he excited ones
imagination by the vitality Of his power TO
master an opportunity.
LNROM that point the conversation of our
i group flashed sdelghts on one man or
another in the public eye who had or who
had not that gift of turning situation to
dramatic account.
Some one said that Wilson had had il TO
marked degree both in his private and
public encounters, and some one else agreed
that he had at times this public sense of
being the central figure. and then again
strangely lapsed from it, failing both politi-
cally and artistically to remember thot what
he did counted immeasurably in the success
of his plans.
And then a man whose name T am NOT
at liberty to quote but who had been in
sense participator in the following episode
told of one OF those curious lapses.
DURING the war the Red Cross was piven
- control of what is known in Washing
ton as the Presidential Suite in the J'ni"n
Railroad Station for the use of the soldiers
that were being transferred TO the Walter
Reed Hospital and other convaIescing cen. cen.
terS.
The woman in charge on the day thot Tho
President and his party were TO snil ON tbo
George Washington for the first trip 70 Paris
was the wife Of one of the high nm naval
officers, and her sense Of drill and discinIino
made her feel that as the presidential party
passed through the waiting room on the way
to the private train there should be as much
ceremony on the part of the wounded SOL.
ders as was possible in their crippled con.
ditiOn Cots and stretchcrs and wheel
chairs were arranged hurricdly so as to make
clear passageway from door to door, and
at the last minute when the warning came
that the President was coming, those that
could were got on to their feet to stand ot
attention, and those that could not riso got
ready to salute. They were all in uniform
all palpably sufferers from the great ordeal
through which they had come.
And the President passed from door n
door without apparently seeing one man NJ
them. with face intent on some inward
thought
Strange lapse, indeed, He went from
there to be hailed by all of Paris In a frenyv