Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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| there is much reference to a Warwickshire squire who, when the Parliamentary and Royalist armies were forming for the battle at Edgehill, was discovered between the hostile lines, unmovedly drawing the covers for a fox. Now, this placid sportsman should by rights have been slain offhand by the first trooper who reached him, whether Cavalier or Roundhead. He had mistaken means for ends, he had con-founded the healthful play which should fit a man for needful work with the work itself, and mistakes of this kind are sometimes criminal. Hardy sports of the field offer the best possible training for war; but they become contemptible when indulged in while the nation is at death-grips with her enemies.” |
| One factor in this mental balance, his unhesitating moral courage which shirked no disagreeable task and was halted by no false pride of opinion, had long been apparent. He was known as a good hand for a disagreeable task that had to be done, a reproof to be administered in justice and fairness—I am thinking of how the man kept that promise of the youth, before Santiago, when for the twentieth time he “wrecked a promising career” with his famous |