Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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| and he acted at once upon the impulse to go to his aid. Before Mrs. Roosevelt could put in a word of warning, he was out on the veranda in the moonlight, his white shirt bosom making a broad target for the frenzied man who had a cocked pistol in the buggy. He whipped up his horse when he saw the President, and made straight for him, but before he had gone a step the secret service man had him down and safe. I joined Mrs. Roosevelt the next day in demanding the President’s promise that he would not do it again, and he gave it good-humoredly, insisting that he had been in no danger. “But,” said he, “he was fighting my fight, and he was alone. Would you have had me hide, with him, perhaps, one against two or three?” It was a hard question to answer. We could only remind him that he was the President, and not simply Theodore Roosevelt, and had the whole country to answer to. |
| I think I never knew a man who so utterly trusts a friend, once he has taken him to his heart. That he does not do easily or offhand; but once he has done it, there is no reservation or secret drawback to his friendship. It is a splendid testimony to the real worth of human |