Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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| But about himself. You know how he looks. To my mind, he is as handsome a man as I ever saw; and I know I am right, for my wife says so too, and that settles it. Which reminds me of the time I lectured in a New York town with a deaf man in the audience who was no friend of Roosevelt. The chairman introduced me with the statement that he had heard that the Governor called me “the most useful man in New York.” My friend with the ear-trumpet did n’t quite catch it, and was in high dudgeon after the meeting. |
| “Did n’t I tell you Teddy Roosevelt ain’t got no sense?” he cried. “The idea of calling that man Riis the most beautiful man in New York! Why, he is as plain as can be.” |
| By handsome I do not mean beautiful, but manly. Stern he may, indeed, appear at times, though to my mind nearly all his portraits do him hideous injustice in that respect. I have seen but two that were wholly himself. One was a pen sketch of him on horseback at the head of his men, climbing some mountain ridge. There he had on his battle face, the dark look I have seen come in the middle of some pleasant chat with gay friends. I knew |