Colonel Roosevelt (137 page)

34
The foreign secretary approved
Grey,
Twenty-five Years
, 2.92. EKR and ARL worried about TR overplaying his role as an outsider. “Don’t try and talk through your nose and say ‘
Amurika
,’ ” they begged—in vain. Teague,
Mrs. L
, 137.

35
By then, Roosevelt
Lee,
A Good Innings
, 1.416; TR quoted in Joseph Bucklin Bishop,
Theodore Roosevelt and His Time: Shown in His Own Letters
(New York, 1920), 2.260. Seth Bullock, asked why TR had no patience for kings, said he thought the Colonel “preferred aces.” Kenneth C. Kellar,
Seth Bullock: Frontier Marshal
(Aberdeen, S.D., 1972), 165.

36
On 26 May
The New York Times
, 27 May 1910; Lorant,
Life and Times of TR
, 532–33; TR,
Letters
, 7.407. For TR’s improvised speech at the Cambridge Union, see TR,
African and European Addresses
, 143ff. It was a humorous response to a poem about his penchant for preaching, published in
The Gownsman
in advance of his arrival:
Oh! We’re ready for you, Teddy, our sins are all reviewed, / We’ve put away our novels and our statues in the nude. / We’ve read your precious homilies, and hope to hear some more / At the coming visitation of the moral Theodore
.

37
Coincidentally, he
EKR diary, 28 May 1910 (TRC); Lee,
A Good Innings
,
1.423–24; TR,
Letters
, 7.405. See also [Harold Begbie],
The Mirrors of Downing Street: Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster
(New York, 1921), 77–80.

38
“All I would do”
TR,
Letters
, 7.405. See
King Henry IV, Part I
, act 3, scene 1.

39
The most distinguished of them
[Begbie],
Mirrors of Downing Street
, 61–69; Kenneth Young,
Arthur J. Balfour: The Happy Life of the Politician, Prime Minister, Statesman, and Philosopher, 1848–1930
(London, 1962).

40
“predestined to succumb”
Dugdale,
German Diplomatic Documents
, 2.54. In a letter written shortly before Balfour’s speech, Cecil Spring Rice cited Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Italy as being especially nervous, along with Austria. “These small states … are useful indicators, like the birds which stir and fuss when the tiger is on the move.” Gwynn,
Cecil Spring Rice
, 2.145.

41
Was the Tory
Shortly before leaving Germany, TR had told the German Chancellor that “The mood of the British was such that an unforeseen event might lead to war. He criticized very sharply in this connection Mr. Balfour’s famous election speech.” Bethmann-Hollweg memo, 14 May 1910, quoted in Dugdale,
German Diplomatic Documents
, 3.413.

42
“So it is”
TR,
Letters
, 6.962–63.

43
“It would be a fitting”
Young,
Balfour
, 283.

44
For some reason
Although the Balfour memorandum was marked “Not sent to Roosevelt,” Young surmises that the proposal itself did reach TR. There is, however, no copy in TRP, and no sign of a reply from TR in either TRP or AJB. The copy seen by Young is cited only as being in a set of “Royal papers,” which supports the supposition that it was intended for Edward VII’s eyes. Its wording and topical references further suggest that it was prepared later in 1909 than Young assumes—possibly even in early 1910. Balfour may have intended discussing his plan orally with TR, when they met at Chequers. Unfortunately neither man, nor Arthur Lee (who was responsible for sending Balfour’s book to TR in 1908), left a record of what they actually did discuss that weekend.

45
Arthur Lee was delighted
Lee,
A Good Innings
, 1.422; Gwynn,
Cecil Spring Rice
, 2.115; TR,
Letters
, 6.1241, 7.403. The ambassador’s other nightmares included Slavs advancing west and Huns advancing north. See Burton, “Theodore Roosevelt and His English Correspondents.”

46
“I never heard a man”
J. S. Sandars to “E,” 29 May 1910 (AJB).

47
felt it his duty
TR,
Letters
, 7.402–3.

48
He said he had just
All quotations from TR’s Guildhall speech are taken from TR,
African and European Addresses
, 157ff. Extra details, including audience reaction, are from
Manchester Guardian
, 1 June 1910.

49
“This will cause”
Lee,
A Good Innings
, 1.425. At one point in TR’s address, Balfour emitted “an audible ‘Haw haw!’ ”—presumably his Etonian way of enunciating “Hear, hear!” Otherwise, he and Grey presented stiff faces during the speech—Grey so much so that an American reporter was convinced that he disapproved. The foreign minister, however, later wrote: “I listened to it with a glow of satisfaction.”
The New York Times
, 1, 4 June 1910; Grey,
Twenty-five Years
, 2.91.

50
“I just
love
that man”
Lee,
A Good Innings
, 1.425. See also Whitelaw Reid to Philander Knox, 31 May 1910 (WR): “Arthur Balfour and Lord Cromer made no secret of their delight.… Edward Grey was equally pleased (although under more necessity to conceal it).” TR was even franker to a group of Irish nationalist M.P.s, who met with him the following day and were disappointed to hear that he by no means favored Home Rule. “I think they were too lenient with you,” he genially informed Arthur Alfred Lynch, who had deserted the British army in South Africa but been forgiven by the British government. “If I had been in their place I would certainly have had you hanged.” Lee,
A Good Innings
, 1.426.

51
“Well, the attitude”
TR to ABR, 3 June 1910 (ABRP).

52
Liberal newspapers
The New York Times
, 1, 3, 4 June 1910;
Manchester Guardian
, 1 June 1910. See also
Literary Digest
, 11 June 1910.

53
Conservative reactions
TR,
African and European Addresses
, vii;
The Times
, 1 June 1910; Abbott,
Impressions of TR
, 160. For John St. Loe Strachey’s White House visit in 1902, see Morris,
Theodore Rex
, 181, 188.

54
George Bernard Shaw
Shaw quoted in
Chicago Tribune
, 3 June 1910; Stead in
Manchester Guardian
, 2 June 1910. TR reciprocally considered Shaw to be “a blue-rumped ape.” Wagenknecht,
Seven Worlds
, 137.

55
“I was an auditor”
TR,
Letters
, 7.403.

56
“I should have thought”
Ibid., 7.404.

57
lunching with a grateful King
For an account of this
haut-bourgeois
luncheon, see ibid., 7.414–15. TR also dined with Robert Scott on the eve of the latter’s last voyage to the Antarctic.

58
“He has enjoyed himself”
Gwynn,
Cecil Spring Rice
, 2.151.

59
STATEMENT INCORRECT
TR,
Letters
, 7.87.

60
One last public appearance
The following account of TR’s honorary degree ceremony at Oxford is based on reports in
The New York Times
, 8 June, and
The Times
, 9 June 1910. See also TR,
Letters
, 7.406–7 and Sullivan,
Our Times
, 4.431. Quotations from the proceedings are taken from TR,
African and European Addresses
, 175–249.

61
For once, Roosevelt was
Among the scholars whom TR consulted in preparing his lecture were Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, and James Bryce, the former regius professor of modern law at Oxford, and current British ambassador to the United States. After a blue-pencil review of the draft manuscript, which contained specific comparisons of two moribund European monarchies to the
megatherium
and
glyptodon
, Osborn wrote: “I have left out certain passages that are likely to bring on war between the United States and the governments referred to.” (Pringle,
TR
, 519.) For the long and eventually strained relationship of TR and Bryce, see Burton, “Theodore Roosevelt and His English Correspondents.”

62
Behold, Vice-Chancellor
This translation seems to have been written by Curzon himself.

63
More than ever
TR,
Works
, 14.66. For the complete text of TR’s Romanes Lecture, see ibid., 65–106.

64
Roosevelt was using
According to Douglas Harper’s
Online Etymology Dictionary
, the word
ethnic
acquired racial overtones only in American English, ca. 1945.

65
“It would appear”
Nicholas Murray Butler,
Across the Busy Years: Recollections and Reflections
(New York, 1939), 1.321. The “longitude” of TR’s text, running to almost 12,000 words, was apparent even to the speaker. According to one report, his voice began to fail, and he dropped whole chunks of text toward the end. Even so, TR spoke for an hour and a quarter.
The New York Times
, 8 June 1910.

66
attended by the heads
Prime Minister Herbert Asquith; Chief Justice Lord Alverstone; Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury.

67
“at the time of the singing”
Grey,
Twenty-five Years
, 2.90.

68
the two men took a preliminary hike
This account of TR’s expedition with Grey is based on his own narrative in TR,
Works
, 22.364–69, and a detailed map of the expedition route in
The New Forest Commemorative Walk
(Nature Conservancy of Britain, 1979). See also Paul Russell Cutright, “TR Listens to the Music of British Birds,”
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
, Spring 1987. In the summer of 2006, the author retraced TR’s steps with a British ornithologist, Mr.
Richard Pennington, who identified twenty-eight of the species seen and heard in 1910.

69
Roosevelt listened and watched
TR,
Works
, 22.365–67.

70
the unstoppable mockingbird
See TR’s rapturous description in
Works
, 2.61–62. Grey wrote years later that he “had one of the most perfectly trained ears for bird songs that I have ever known.” Cutright, “TR Listens to the Music.”

71
“the woods and fields”
TR,
Works
, 22.369. The Forest Park Hotel, where TR and Grey stayed, still operates in Brockenhurst, Hampshire.

72
“Take care of him”
Kipling to Brander Matthews, 10 June 1910, quoted in Bishop,
TR
, 2.259.

73
Similar imagery
The New York Times
, 9 June 1910;
The New Age
, 16 May 1910;
Literary Digest
, 18 June 1910.

74
eight thousand letters
Chicago Tribune
, 10 June 1910. Most of these letters were mailed after TR’s Guildhall speech.

75
a spokesman for
The New York Times
, 5 June 1910.

76
“I have had”
WHT to TR, 26 May 1910 (WHTP). TR replied evasively to WHT, in a letter unlikely to reach America before he did. “As to your more than kind invitation that I should visit the White House, I shall ask you about this to let me defer my answer until I reach Oyster Bay, and to find out what work is in store for me.” TR,
Letters
, 7.88–89.

77
passengers saw little of him
The phrase, and all other details in this paragraph, come from
The New York Times
, 19 June 1910.

78
But she knew him well enough
In Mar. 1898, TR had been ready to go to war in Cuba, even as EKR lay at the point of death with an abdominal abscess. “I shall chafe my heart out if I am kept [
sic
] here instead of being at the front,” he wrote. Sylvia Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 170–71.

79
“I love Father”
ERD to Edith Gregori, 8 Aug. 1910 (ERDP).

80
He agreed to speak
William Bayard Hale, “The Colonel and John Bull,”
World’s Work
, Aug. 1910.

81
Later in the day
Ibid.

1
Epigraph
Robinson,
Collected Poems
, 359.

2
Joseph Youngwitz
Youngwitz identified himself and described his purchase to a reporter during the course of the day. (The
New York Times
, 18 June 1910.) His name appears in the U.S. Census for 1910.

3
Straw boaters undulated
Some of the boaters, sold by street vendors, were banded with the word “DEE-LIGHTED.” New York
World
, 19 June 1910; Eleanor Butler Roosevelt,
Day Before Yesterday: The Reminiscences of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr
. (Garden City, N.Y., 1959), 49.

4
At 7:30
A.M
. The following description of TR’s return to New York is based on accounts in
The New York Times
, New York
World
, and
New York Evening Post
, 18, 19 June 1910; “TR’s Return to New York,” newsreel in
Theodore Roosevelt on Film
, Library of Congress; and photographs in Lorant,
Life and Times of TR
, 538–39. The
World
estimated the total crowd at one and a half million. By all accounts, it was the greatest individual welcome ever accorded by New York City, until the parade for Charles Lindbergh in 1927.