The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 17, 1902, Page 15

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THE SUNDAY CALL. 13 g INDIVIDUALITY OF THE ROOSEVELT CHILDREN. Much has been written of the Roosevelt family, but they are always inter- time since Miss Alice Roosevelt was but a child, moving with quiet grace over the lawns of Sagamore Hill, Now she is a resplendent young lady in soclety, known to all the world—Kings, Queens. Emperors_and royalty—yet she is not spolled, and the hard good sense that gives iife to the Roosevelt name will blood 2nd fron in his makeup. he next, is 1 with fiying of the household. | | esting and will grow more interesting as the years. roll by. How short is the ‘ | n her to the end. Next comes young Theodore, a truly strenuous lad of His brother Kermit is 13 and Bthel, and Archie, who floats over the hills on the picturesque pony, ane and streaming tail, is 8% years old. Little Quentin, with his Spanish name and laughing, dancing eyes, is 5, and the sunlight and joy | RS o B is just like his father, & strenu- ous, manly young person, this eight-year-old Archibald Bullock Roosevelt, who gallops over the country on his dancing Shetland pony. He is a fearless rider, enthusias- tic and full of eager blood for the chase. Like his father, he is never troubled ebout what others are saying or how well others may ride. He believes in himself, and even in Washington the crowds were nothing to him when the groom came with his pony for g morning ride. He mounted the sprightly little beast, shin- ing In a mass of silken mane, before all eves and dashed away like 2 young thor- oughbred Before “Archie” had a pony to ride he emused himself by riding the big banis- ters in the Executive Mansion, where 50 many Presidents have tried to ride public opinion, and some of them were not half as successful as young Archibald. As a matter of fact, be and his brother “Ted- dy” Jr. could ride almost anything, frow 2 butterfly to a camel, If once they se- cured a good seat in the saddle. The public read the other day how, when the President resumed his hard rid- ing over the hills of Oyvster Bay, young Archie followed after him on his Shet land pony. If the boy had had a long legged little Kentucky racer he undoubt- edly would have overhauled his strenu- ous father in about three ship lengths after the race began, for the boy's ambi- tion was equal to the task, but his little pony’s Shefland legs were too. short. However, like the President of the United States, he did his best and followed at top pony speed through the wild storm, through forest and glade/ as if the witches were after him, broomsticks and all. The youngster made remarkabie time and came in second best at the end of the race. It is the finest place in the world to rough it, out there at Oyster Bay, where the hills are unexpected and In some Disezs you can’y exactly tell where you if you were on a bucking horse and thrown—whether in the bay or against some Long Island mountain, to crack your head like a watermelon. The.other day young Roosevelt had an adventure right in the heart of the vil- He had galléped to the postoffice to mail an important letter. was an urgent letter of state. negro called Levi, who had se- of San Jian Hill when he returned from the Cuban war? It has been an extraordinary changs for the strenuous young Roosevelts, this transformation from the quiet country life of Oyster Bay to the dazzling, be- wildering atmosphere of the national cap- fta). The White House is no longer a colonfal mansion of a third or fourth rate power. It is now the executive headquar- ters of the greatest of natlons, and since Dewey salled into Manila Bay and gun- powder was burned at San Juan, and in- cidentally at Santiags, the eyes of all the world are on this White House and the President within. But, according to all accounts, not a single Rooseveit head has been turned fu the flerce light that beats upon the SRR S e e cure= a policeman’s uniform, had stopped the boy on the street and said he would take charge of the pony. The boy saw that the negro wag out his mind and dréve him away. Then he hurried to the postoffice with his letter. On his réeturn to the street he found the crdzy negro had run back, captured the pony and was making for the woods. The boy gave the alarm. Bankers and town officials rushed to the rescue and overhauled the colored man, Who was sent back to the King’'s Park Asylum, whence he had es- caped. The Roosevelt boys think nothing of the roughest life, that the Long Island prairies and hills can offer. They rida, shoot, swim, run races, box, climb trees, head first or feet first, and, best of all, they are courageous, honest, manly and full of fun. No wonder the President is proud of them. How he smiles when they greet him with a Rough Rider welcome on his return from a trip. Who can ever forget their grand reception to the hero American throne. The Roosevelt young- sters have remained the same unanimous, typical Americans that they were before they left their home on Sagamore Hill. Of .all the fathers in the coun- try it is doubtful if there 1is one more devoted to his children and at the same time a more in- flexible master. =~ He romps with them, makes them his companions—in fact, is one of the boys for the time being. But when play is over and the time comes for work, study or béd, they bow to the discl= pline of the Roosevelt household. While naturally proud of his children, Mr.Roose- velt is the last to parade their good qual- ities before friends or strangers. Of Mr. Roosevelt’s Teticence, paradoxical as it may seem to the superficial and superflu- ous, it has been written: “The famlly life of Mr. Roosevelt has always been closed to the newspapers. Mr. Roosevelt himself appears to be as radically opposed as his wife to anything like a display of his domestic virtues or the juvenile charms of his children for the admiration and entertainment of the world that reads and looks at pictures. “The reticence may not be exactly what one would expect of a man whose life and standards of conduct are generally ac- cepted as Western. But Theodors Roose- velt i3 only Western in affairs of broncos, lariats and firearms. In his home he is a Roosevelt, with the dignified ethics of the old Dutch of New York. “‘I couldn’t tell you much about the Roosevelt children, however much I might want,’ sald an intimate friend of the family, ‘because I see very little of them, although I frequently visit at their home. It is like this. When Mr. Roosevelt has his friends to see him he wants to talk to them. He always has something to talk MOUNT V" about, and he starts with it as soon as he catches you; and while you are there he doesn’t want to be bothered with his chil- dren. When he wants to romp with his children he doesn’t want to be interrupted by his friends. That's the whole case in a nutshell.’ “Evidently the children are being brought up under a commendably old fashioned regime, not unlike that which produced in colonial New York such men as Philip Schuyler, or for that matter in accordance with the old English rule that little folks should be seen, not heard. “Mrs. Roosevelt plainly expressed her disapprobation of anything which would have a tendency to make the children think themselves of any special Impor- tance to the public. That they have profit- ed by this sensible view of their position is evident to all who have come in con- tact with them. They are reported on all bands to be simply hearty, healthy young Americans, entirely without self-con- sclousness or even a suspicion of ~any Tight to claim anything on the score of being their father's children. “It is a fact not always remembered by the many admirers of Mr. Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, that he himself was a pigeon-chested, asthmatic youngster who could not keep up with children of his own age, even in their play or at school tasks. This may be a great consolation for the weaker omes among his many juvenile admirers. It has probably had much to do with his insistence on plenty of open air for his boys. “When he blays with them he becomes for the time one of them—just as In the Cuban trenches he worked with a pick among his men, oblivious for the time of his regimental rank.” Here is a paragraph that throws much light on the character of the Roosevelt boys, for they are much alike. It was written while they were in Albany. An academy boy In that city, who is never tired of singing the pralses of his school, was asked, “Is it true that Teddy Roose- velt Jr. 18 & member of your school? Tell me about him." “Yes,” said the boy. *“He does go to our school, but there is mighty little to say of him. You might be with him ever so often’ and never know him from anything that he would say that he was the Governor's son, and if there was any- thing stuck up about him the boys never knew it. He was always ready for a scrap, and seemed to enjoy it.” There is this to be said in regard to the President’s attitude toward the public. He is perfectly willing to have the boys pho- tographed on horseback or in.any proper ion if it is for a legitimate and need- rpose, but he objects to mere curio~ ¢ seekers and amateur. photographers overrunning the place and Interfering with his privacy and business. The time was when Mrs. Roosevelt ob- Jected under all circumstances to having yeung folk photographed for publications, but now that the family in a way is & part of the Government the public’s inter- est In them is recognized. “Mr. Roosevelt is a notable'type of the sincere, big-hearted, enthusfastic Ameri- can, and he expects to be treated accord- ingly,” say his friends. The excellent pictures of young Archibald published herewith were faken by a Call-Herald photographer by appointment, while the young gentleman was riding his favor- ite pony. — Cruel Sheriff and Kindly Tramp. Texas,” said the tramp as he hunted through his pockets for a cigar stub, “and it was a Sheriff who dished me out of it. Down there they have the most severe laws in any State, and when I was arrested one day I was ehagged with be- ing a tramp, a vagrant, a homeless per- son and a suspicious character. On top of that I had built a roadside fire, asked for food and thrown stones at a dog. I was convicted on every charge, and after figurin’ for a minit the Judge called out: “‘I find the prisoner guilty on all counts and he is sentenced to jail for seventy years.’ “I was lookin’ for a long rest when ‘the Sheriff took me over to the jail, but [ hadn’t been in the place fifteen minutes when he handed me a crowbar and point- ed to the wall and said: “ ‘Dig out of this as soon as you can.” “‘But I'm here for seventy years’ HHAD a good thing of it once In rays L ‘“‘You ain’t here for seventy minutes If you ain’t out before supper time, I'll come in with a club and break your neck! D'ye 'spose I'm goin’ to have you bangin’ around here for any seventy years? Git to work.' wouldn't do it,” said the tramp, “not wishin’ to work myself out of a long job, and when that Sheriff. saw I wouldn’t he jest hitched up his hoss and buggy, run me out on a prairie fifteen miles from anywhere and dumped me out. It took me two days to get back to jail again, and I hadn’t scarcely kicked on the door when he put two bullets through my hat and flung me out 50 cents, and I had to let g0 and head for Dallas. That seventy vears in jail would have been a pat hand for me, but luck was ag'in’ my sittin’ in the game, and I don’t expect to ever tumble over another good thing while X v

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