The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-02-23
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

rI dependence which says "all men are
lECV created free and equaP' and has
T-Sl--yX1 elected more than one President be-
cause he was born in log cabin"
~ or some such humble dwelling place,
there have been times when it has
not been averse to limitations of royalty in af-
fairs of government. It has accepted dictator
ships and despotisn-sometmes benevolent and
sometimes not so-in fact If not in name, and
in various other ways it has departed rather far
from the tradition of pure democracy
1t would resist to the utmost the comforting of
any such title king or emperor" upon its
Chief Executive, but upon time it con-
ferred the unofficial title of princess upon the
daughter of a President and rejoiced in doing so.
And for a time princess Alice" daughter of
President Theodore Roosevelt, was symbol in
the minds of the American people quite as much
as the prince of Wales is a symbol in the minds
of the English. The reasons which could be as
signed to that fact are various
Perhaps the best one lies in the fact that she
appeared on the scene at the turn of the cen
tury" when, as one writer has expressed it,
america was just beginning to feel it's interna-
tional oats,' so 1.-THE public that idolized her ia
Their made of Princess Alice heroine after the
pattern of it's own desires and Dreams And
they felt somehow justified in comforting royalty
upon the daughter of their President when
few years later she went on a grand tour Of
the Orient and everywhere was received like a
crown princess ami presented with lavish gifts"
Another possible explanation lies in the fact
that like her father, she was vivid personality
which naturally attracts attention to itself but
withal remains unspoed by much lime-lighting
and keeps the common touch" without condo
scending So the American public accepts such
a personality as lone of our own kind" and then,
paradoxcally, exalts it to pedestal of hero-wor-
ship or invests it with robes of royalty.
When Alice Roosevelt a child she could
spend hours of time pretending was fiery
horse preferably cream-colored, like Cinderellas
horses, able at bound to cover vast regions of
the earth, and also able at will to turn into some
thing quite different, such as princess with
very long hair extremely martial prince"
There's something bit prophetic about that, for
in her future career she to cover some of
those regions, to become a princess" by popu-
lar acclaim to talk with cowboys and kings,
emperors and expresses and gypsies to behold
multitude of pageants and all sorts of people
and things" So it's quite appropriate that she
should choose for the title of her "reminiscences
the two words Crowded Hours" and that book,
published recently by Charles Scribner's Sons,
is a record of the crowded hours In the life of
Alice Roosevelt Longworth, she who was-and
still is to many Americans Princess Alice"
To some extent political history of the Unit
ed States during the last quarter of a century.
in that she has been participant in, as well as
an observer of that history during that length of
time "Crowded Hours is more interesting
as a lively memoir of the great and near great
whom she has encountered in that center of all
political activity Washington, d. O. Before her
father had left the White House she had mar
ried man destined for future political impor-
tance-Nicholas Longworth, congressman from
Ohio later speaker of the house of representa-
tives and man whose friendships among all po-
20 otto ado i'm as
the .'reign of Princess Alice" continued long
after her father had left the White House.
'sPrincess Alice" was initiated into politics
when she was only six. Her father was appoint
ed federal civil service commissioners and she
was taken to the White House to meet the first
President she was to Knoxville small, bearded
Harrison; and later | have memory of Mrs.
Cleveland there-young lovely and friendly"
Some of her characterizatons of later Presidents
and their First Ladies are not so kindly, but
they are the opinions of strong personality
strong in dislikes as well as likes-and interest
ing because Of that as well as because they are
based upon first-hand knowledge.
The first of the vivid memories of PRINCESS
Alice's' crowded hours are Of the Spanish-Amer-
lean war, which was sort of glorihed picnic
to Alice and the other young Roosevelts. visit
to Camp Wyckoff, where her fathers regiment
was stationed, was an exciting experience In
more ways than one "At fourteen and half.
If / was in love with one Rough Rider. was In
love with twenty, even though did have pig
tain and short dresses"