Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
Page 11
| chum and companion as well as their just judge when occasion demanded, I have caught many a glimpse I wish I might reveal here, but that shall be theirs to keep. The family romps at home, the strolls on forest paths which their father taught them early to love; their gleeful dashes on horseback, he watchfully leading on, the children scampering after, a merry crew; of how at his stern summons to breakfast, “Childrén!” they one and all fell downstairs together in their haste to be there, they speak yet with a tenderness of love that discloses the rarely strong and beautiful soul that was his. It was only the other day that, speaking with an old employee of the Children’s Aid Society, of which the elder Roosevelt was a strong prop, I learned from him how deep was the impression made by his gentle courtesy toward his wife when he brought her to the lodging-house on his visits. “To see him put on her wraps and escort her from room to room was beautiful,” he said. “It seemed to me that I never knew till then what the word gentleman meant.” How little we, any of us, know what our example may mean for good or for ill! Here, after thirty |