The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (162 page)

74.
His recorded total for 1884 was 227 kills.

75.
TR.Wks.I.221. TR’s own magnificent account of elk-hunting in the Big Horns is in ib., 212–27. See Put.474–89 for details of the whole expedition. This para. also based on TR.Pri.Di.
passim
.

76.
See TR.Wks.I.483 for TR’s ecstatic reaction to this elk-music.

77.
Merrifield in HAG.Bln.

78.
Mor.82.

79.
The word “cunning” may best be translated as “cute.”

80.
For one of TR’s finest pieces of atmospheric writing, complete with eerie sound-effects, see his description of this ride in TR.Wks.I.96 or Put.488.

81.
TR.Auto.106; Put.490.

82.
Ib.; also 460; Hag.RBL.207–8; Sew.21. Text follows Putnam’s assumption that confrontation occurred before TR’s departure East on Oct. 7, 1884.

83.
Hag.RBL.208 (based on Sewall int. in HAG.Bln.).

84.
Sun
, Oct. 12, 1884.

85.
See Put.492–3. TR also castigated the Governor for hiring a substitute in the Civil War, conveniently forgetting that Theodore Senior had done the same. (Ib., 498.)

86.
“Tell the truth” was Cleveland’s message to his friends. The facts of the scandal are these. On Sep. 14, 1874, Maria Halpin, a pretty 36-year-old Buffalo widow, charged Cleveland with the paternity of a son, whom she named Oscar Folsom Cleveland. Although Cleveland could not be sure he was the father (Mrs. Halpin had simultaneous liaisons with several other men), he took full responsibility, noting that he was the only bachelor involved. He refused, however, to marry Mrs. Halpin. The widow promptly took to drink, became unstable, and had to be relieved of Oscar, who was brought up by foster-parents at Cleveland’s expense. An enquiry by a respected Buffalo clergyman in 1884 found that “After the primary offense … his [Cleveland’s] conduct was singularly honorable.” See Nev. 162 ff. for full details.

87.
Put.493–504 gives a detailed account of TR’s campaign for Blaine.

88.
Put.500 points out that only three of his seven speeches were for the national ticket as such. John Allen Gable, reviewing this manuscript, writes: “I have no quarrel with what you say about the Blaine campaign. But it is really time to make the point about
professionalism
. As of the Gilded Age, professionals came to dominate politics—pushing aside … men who ‘stood,’ rather than ‘ran’ for office—the ‘Mugwump types’ as Richard Hofstadter calls them. TR in 1884 made the choice of being a real professional by being a partisan … You will note that in his 1884 speeches he talks mainly about one
party
vs. the other.” See also note SI, above.

89.
Bigelow, Poultney,
Seventy Summers
(London, 1925) 279.

90.
Mor.83; see p. 268, and Put. 446–7.

91.
TR to B, c. Oct. 30, 1884 (TRB mss).

92.
Sto.129; Put. 501–2; Al Smith in PRI.n.

93.
Sto.131–4. See also Nev.145.

94.
Mor.87.

95.
Ib., 88.

96.
Lod.I.27.

97.
TR.Wks.I.169; Put.508; TR.Wks. I.64. Following account is taken from ib., ff.

98.
Ib., 67.

99.
See Put.497–8.

100.
TR to B, Nov. 23, 1884; TR.Pri.Di. Nov. 18.

101.
TR left the Elkhorn site on Nov. 21, and stayed away for the rest of 1884. Anecdote from TR.Auto.98. Notwithstanding the “beavering,” he eventually became a skilled woodchopper, and kept the practice up all his life.

102.
“I remember the morning we began to put up the walls, the temperature was sixty-five degrees below zero.” Sew.25. This sounds like an exaggeration. Still, it is undoubtedly true, as Sewall says, that “No one suffered much from the heat.” (ib.)

103.
This passage is taken almost verbatim from TR.Wks.I.169.

104.
Sewall in HAG.Bln.; Hag.Boy. 109; PRI.n.

105.
TR.Wks.I.346. See Put.509–17 for more detail on these winter days. For TR’s organization of the LMSA, see ib., and Mattison, “Stockmen’s Association.” The first meeting was held on Dec. 19, 1884; TR was elected Chairman.

106.
TR.Wks.I.341. Note that TR mentions death four times in this passage.

Important sources not in Bibliography:
1.
Bad Lands Cowboy
1884–1886 (microfilm of all known existing copies in TRB).

1.
TR.Wks.I.35.

2.
Hag.RBL.233; Put.518. TR also published in the January 1885 issue of
Century
his first article, “Phases of State Legislation” (reprinted in TR.Wks. XIII.47 ff.). It was an admirably detailed and occasionally very funny review of his three years as an Assemblyman, and so impressed James Bryce that he quoted it in his
American Commonwealth
(1888). See below, Ch. 15.

3.
Mor.89.

4.
See Lor.218–9.

5.
Lodge, Journal, Mar. 20, 1885, qu. Put.506.

6.
Hunting Trips of a Ranchman
is reprinted in TR.Wks.I.1–247.

7.
Put.519. “Mr. Roosevelt’s book is far too sumptuous for the general public,” remarked
The Atheneum
, calling it “one of the most beautiful hunting books ever printed.” (Sep. 19, 1885.)

8.
New York Mail and Express
, Sep. 14, 1895. There were three American editions and one British, within the first year of publication
(New York Tribune
, Oct. 6, 1886). London reviews were especially complimentary.
The Spectator
(Jan. 16, 1886) noted TR’s extraordinary identification with animals outside of the chase, and said that it was “a book to be closed with lingering regret.” (Ib.)
Saturday Review
(August 29, 1885) called it “a repertory of thoughtful woodcraft or prairiecraft,” whose “cultivated” style and “sumptuous” presentation would make it one of the top ten “sporting classics” of Western literature.

9.
Cut.54.

10.
It is amusing to note that TR’s minute description of the Elkhorn ranch interior, with its flickering firelight, antler-hung walls, and well-stocked shelves, was written at a time when Sewall and Dow had not yet put on the roof.

11.
TR.Wks.I.112.

12.
Ib., 119. For TR’s abnormal sensitivity to sound, see ib., pages 12, 13, 14, 35, 45, 48, 49, 57, 58, 59, 65,
66
, 69, 85, 95, 96, 113, 114, 115, 127, 129, 132, 146, 148, 150, 153, 161, 167, 169.

13.
The only explanation satisfactory to the author is contained in the last stanza of Oscar Wilde’s
Ballad of Reading Gaol
.

14.
TR.Wks.I.107.

15.
See Hag.RBL.240–1 and the Book of Job, 30.27; also Put.520.

16.
Hag.RBL.249–52. The next landing was more than a mile away.

17.
TR to B, Apr. 29, 1885 (TRB).

18.
Put.520. Sewall (HAG.Bln.) says they all moved in “at the end of April,” but since he and Dow were away after Apr. 23 the move must have occurred before that. The ranch house was essentially a huge log cabin,
60′
× 30′ × 7′. It no longer exists, but the site is preserved. See Ch. 11, n. 28.

19.
TR.Wks.I.10-11.

20.
Qu. Hag.RBL.240.

21.
An additional purchase of 52 ponies for $3,275 is included in this total of $85,000. See Put.523 and fn. TR to B, May 17, 1885 (TRB mss.).

22.
Put.523; Mor.90; TR.Wks.I.337–8.

23.
Put.520; HAG.Bln.

24.
TR.Auto.100.

25.
Hag.RBL.285; Put.528.

26.
TR.Auto.101-6.

27.
Put.524–5; Lan.184.

28.
TR to B, June 5, 1885; TR.Auto. 107; TR.Wks.I.320; Hag. RBL.289–90.

29.
Three-Seven Bill Jones (not to be confused with Hell-Roaring Bill Jones), qu. Hag.RBL.279.

30.
Lan.185; Put.524; TR to B, June 5, 1885 (TRB mss). TR gives an excellent account of a Badlands round-up in TR.Wks.I.314–340.

31.
St. Paul Pioneer Press
, June 23, 1885.

32.
Trib.
, July 8, 1885.

33.
Sew.41. TR was to suffer occasional spells of “wheezing” and “bronchitis” throughout his life, but at such infrequent intervals he can be said to have effectively conquered his asthma.

34.
Tha.57. See also below, n. 42.

35.
This description of the new house is based on an 1885 photograph in the files of TRB.

36.
Other details from Hag.RF.4, Put.532, and TRB picture files.

37.
The panorama is now blocked by trees, mostly planted by TR in obedience to the family motto (see p. 299). But in 1885 the hilltop was bare.

38.
TR.Auto.328.

39.
Par. 63.

40.
Elliott Roosevelt had married a fragile society beauty, Anna Rebecca Hall, on Dec. 1, 1882. See Las. Ch. 2 for an account of their courtship.

41.
HUN.74: “Well, sir, that man planned his life from the start. He told me a good many times that he expected to get his life work done by the time he was sixty.” In the last months of his life TR told his sister Corinne that at twenty-one he had decided to live “up to the hilt” until he was sixty, and did not care how soon he died after that. Fate allowed him ten extra weeks.

42.
HAG.Bln.; Put.530. “What a change!” commented a reporter who met TR en route. “Last March he was a pale, slim young man, with a thin, piping voice and a general look of dyspepsia … He is now brown as a berry and has increased 30 lbs in weight. The voice … is now hearty and strong enough to drive oxen.”
(Pittsburgh Dispatch
, Aug. 23, 1885, in TR.Scr.)

43.
Hag.RBL.340–1; Put.536.

44.
Ib.

45.
HAG.Bln.; Twe.88.

46.
Bad Lands Cowboy
, May 27, 1885; Put.533.

47.
Ib., 536. For more detail, see Twe.
passim
.

48.
Hag.RBL.342.

49.
New York Times
, Aug. 22, 1885; Hag.RBL.342–4.

50.
Mor.100; Put.533; other details in this and following paras. from HAG.Bln.; also see TR to B, Aug. 30, 1885 (TRB mss.).

51.
TR.Wks.I.30.

52.
Ib., 295–6; Hag.RBL.310–11; Sewall in
Forum
, May 1919.

53.
Photocopy in TRB. See Put.534–5 for details of the LMSA meeting.

54.
Twe.106–7; Dakota clip, n.d., in TRB.

55.
Put.538.

56.
TR.Wks.I.29. Here TR was perhaps being unduly modest. One Badlands veteran told Herman Hagedorn: “Fer a crittur with a squint he were plumb handy with a gun.” HAG.Bln.

57.
Put.537.

58.
Ib.

59.
Wannegan had been hired as a “gofer” in the summer of 1884, and was now night-herder at Maltese Cross. “He was a genial soul, and Roosevelt liked him.” Hag.RBL.169, 338.

60.
Qu. ib., 348. See also Sew.27.

61.
Photostat in TRB.

62.
The actual letter TR sent de Morès has disappeared, along with almost all of the Marquis’s personal papers. It is said to have stipulated “rifles at twelve paces, the adversaries to shoot until one or the other dropped.” (Hag.RBL.348.)

63.
According to Hagedorn the Marquis also invited TR to dine with him at Chateau de Morès after the trial. (Ib., 349.)

64.
See Put.538–542 for a different interpretation.

65.
See TR.Wks.I.269–72 on the aridity of the Badlands.

66.
See TR.Auto.110-11 for an account of firefighting on the prairie.

67.
Put.542; Hag.RBL.350–2.

68.
TR.Wks.I.16. In a New York lecture delivered in January 1886, he was openly contemptuous of the red man. “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.” (Qu. Hag.RBL.355.) In later years this harsh attitude mellowed considerably. See Wag.229–30 and below, Ch. 17.

69.
Text here follows Putnam’s assumption “based on circumstantial evidence” that the trip took place during the first two weeks of Sep. 1885. Put.543.

70.
TR.Wks.I.371–3.

71.
See TR.Auto.54 for TR’s own analysis of courage as something that can be acquired “by sheer dint of practicing fearlessness.”

72.
Qu. Twe.96–7. Also standing trial were the Marquis’s aides and ambush partners, Richard Moore, Frank Miller, and E. G. Paddock. All received the same verdict. See Twe.92 ff.

73.
Put.542. The exact date of TR’s visit to the Marquis (Hag.RBL.344 and Twe.93) is unknown, but Sep. 16 seems almost certain. He was busy with fire-fighting, hunting, and the LMSA before that. He definitely left Medora on Sep. 16, and would have passed through Bismarck that same evening.

74.
See Put.544 ff. for details.

75.
Only once, in Brooklyn on Oct. 17, did he allow himself to make a major speech. Text, which contains a slashing indictment of Democratic race discrimination in the South, is in TR.Wks.XIV. 58–67.

76.
Hag.RF.11; Put.555.

77.
Both descriptions based on contemporary photographs as well as the general portrait of the young Edith in Morr.EKR.

78.
Merrifield to Hagedorn, June 1919, TRB memo; Hag.RF.11; Put.557.

79.
Hag.RF.426.

80.
Sylvia Jukes Morris; see also below, Ch. 13.

81.
“A buffalo is nobler game than an anise-seed bag, the Anglomaniacs to
the contrary notwithstanding.” TR to Lodge, Mor.77.

82.
See TR in
Century
, Jan. 1886, qu.
World
, Oct. 17, 1886; Mor.90.