Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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| Some of the party told me of the reception that followed, and of the little fellow who squirmed and squirmed in the grasp of the President’s hand, twisting this way and that, in desperate search of something, until Mr. Roosevelt asked him whom he was looking for. |
| “The President,” gasped the lad, twisting harder to get away, for fear he would lose his chance. And then the look of amazed incredulity that came into his face when the man who still had him by the hand said that he was the President. He must have felt as I did when I first met King Christian in Copenhagen, and learned who the man in the blue overcoat was, with whom I had such a good time telling him all about my boyish ambitions and my father and home, while we climbed the stairs to the picture exhibition in the palace of Charlottenborg. The idea of a real king in an overcoat and a plain hat! I had had my doubts about whether he took off his crown when he went to bed at night. |
| That is the boy of it, I suppose; and they are all alike. If any, you would think the precocious youngster from the East-side Jewry would be excepted; but he is not. I have a |