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LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN
LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN THEODORE ROOSEVELT These early letters are marked by the same quality that distinguishes
all his letters to his children. From the youngest to the eldest he
wrote to them always as his equals. As they advanced in life the
mental level of intercourse was raised as they grew in intelligence
and knowledge but it was always as equals that he addressed them. He
was always their playmate and boon companion whether they were
toddling infants taking their first faltering steps or growing
schoolboys or youths standing at the threshold of life. Their games
were his games their joys those of his own heart. He was ready to
romp with them in the old barn at Sagamore Hill play "tickley" at
bedtime join in their pillow fights or play hide-and-seek with them
either at Sagamore Hill or in the White House. He was the same chosen
and joyous companion always and everywhere. Occasionally he was
disturbed for a moment about possible injury to his Presidential
dignity. Describing a romp in the old barn at Sagamore Hill in the
summer of 1903 he said in one of his letters that under the
insistence of the children he had joined in it because: "I had not the
heart to refuse but really it seems to put it mildly rather odd for
a stout elderly President to be bouncing over hayricks in a wild
effort to get to goal before an active midget of a competitor aged
nine years. However it was really great fun."
It was because he at heart regarded it as "great fun" and was in
complete accord with the children that they delighted in him as a
playmate. In the same spirit in January 1905 he took a squad of
nine boys including three of his own on what they called a
"scramble" through Rock Creek Park in Washington which meant
traversing the most difficult places in it. The boys had permission to
make the trip alone but they insisted upon his company. "I am really
touched" he wrote afterward to the parents of two of the visiting
boys "at the way in which your children as well as my own treat me as
a friend and playmate. It has its comic side. They were all bent upon
having me take them; they obviously felt that my presence was needed
to give zest to the entertainment. I do not think that one of them saw
anything incongruous in the President's getting as bedaubed with mud
as they got or in my wiggling and clambering around jutting rocks
through cracks and up what were really small cliff faces just like
the rest of them; and whenever any one of them beat me at any point
he felt and expressed simple and whole-hearted delight exactly as if
it had been a triumph over a rival of his own age."
When the time came that he was no longer the children's chosen
playmate he recognized the fact with a twinge of sadness. Writing in
January 1905 to his daughter Ethel who was at Sagamore Hill at the
time he said of a party of boys that Quentin had at the White House:
"They played hard and it made me realize how old I had grown and how
very busy I had been the last few years to find that they had grown so
that I was not needed in the play. Do you recollect how we all of us
used to play hide and go seek in the White House and have obstacle
races down the hall when you brought in your friends?"
Deep and abiding love of children of family and home that was the
dominating passion of his life. With that went love for friends and
fellow men and for all living things birds animals trees flowers
and nature in all its moods and aspects. But love of children and
family and home was above all. The children always had an old-
fashioned Christmas in the White House. In several letters in these
pages descriptions of these festivals will be found. In closing one
of them the eternal child's heart in the man cries out: "I wonder
whether there ever can come in life a thrill of greater exaltation and
rapture than that which comes to one between the ages of say six and
fourteen when the library door is thrown open and you walk in to see
all the gifts like a materialized fairy land arrayed on your special
table?"
His love for the home he had built and in which his beloved children
had been born was not even dimmed by his life in the White House.
"After all" he wrote to Ethel in June 1906 "fond as I am of the
White House and much though I have appreciated these years in it
there isn't any place in the world like home--like Sagamore Hill where
things are our own with their own associations and where it is real
country."
Through all his letters runs his inexhaustible vein of delicious
humor. All the quaint sayings of Quentin that quaintest of small
boys; all the antics of the household cats and dogs; all the comic
aspects of the guinea-pigs and others of the large menagerie of pets
that the children were always collecting; all the tricks and feats of
the saddle-horses--these together with every item of household news
that would amuse and cheer and keep alive the love of home in the
heart of the absent boys was set forth in letters which in gayety of
spirit and charm of manner have few equals in literature and no
superiors. No matter how great the pressure of public duties or how
severe the strain that the trials and burdens of office placed upon
the nerves and spirits of the President of a great nation this
devoted father and whole-hearted companion found time to send every
week a long letter of this delightful character to each of his absent
children.
As the boys advanced toward manhood the letters still on the basis of
equality contain much wise suggestion and occasional admonition the
latter always administered in a loving spirit accompanied by apology
for writing in a "preaching" vein. The playmate of childhood became
the sympathetic and keenly interested companion in all athletic
contests in the reading of books and the consideration of authors
and in the discussion of politics and public affairs. Many of these
letters notably those on the relative merits of civil and military
careers and the proper proportions of sport and study are valuable
guides for youth in all ranks of life. The strong vigorous exalted
character of the writer stands revealed in these as in all the other
letters as well as the cheerful soul of the man which remained
throughout his life as pure and gentle as the soul of a child. Only a
short time before he died he said to me as we were going over the
letters and planning this volume which is arranged as he wished it to
be: "I would rather have this book published than anything that has
ever been written about me."
THE LETTERS
IN THE SPANISH WAR
At the outbreak of the war with Spain in the spring of 1898 Theodore
Roosevelt who was then Assistant Secretary of the Navy in
association with Leonard Wood organized the Regiment of Rough Riders
and went into camp with them at Tampa Florida. Later he went with his
regiment to Cuba.
Camp at Tampa May 6th '98.
BLESSED BUNNIES
It has been a real holiday to have darling mother here. Yesterday I
brought her out to the camp and she saw it all--the men drilling the
tents in long company streets the horses being taken to water my
little horse Texas the colonel and the majors and finally the
mountain lion and the jolly little dog Cuba who had several fights
while she looked on. The mountain lion is not much more than a kitten
as yet but it is very cross and treacherous.
I was very much interested in Kermit's and Ethel's letters to-day.
We were all horses and men four days and four nights on the cars
coming here from San Antonio and were very tired and very dirty when
we arrived. I was up almost all of each night for it happened always
to be at night when we took the horses out of the cars to feed and
water them.
Mother stays at a big hotel about a mile from camp. There are nearly
thirty thousand troops here now besides the sailors from the war-
ships in the bay. At night the corridors and piazzas are thronged with
officers of the army and navy; the older ones fought in the great
Civil War a third of a century ago and now they are all going to
Cuba to war against the Spaniards. Most of them are in blue but our
rough-riders are in brown. Our camp is on a great flat on sandy soil
without a tree though round about are pines and palmettos. It is very
hot indeed but there are no mosquitoes. Marshall is very well and
he takes care of my things and of the two horses. A general was out to
inspect us when we were drilling to-day.
Off Santiago 1898.
DARLING ETHEL:
We are near shore now and everything is in a bustle for we may have
to disembark to-night and I do not know when I shall have another
chance to write to my three blessed children whose little notes
please me so. This is only a line to tell you all how much father
loves you. The Pawnee Indian drew you the picture of the little dog
which runs everywhere round the ship and now and then howls a little
when the band plays.
Near Santiago May 20 1898.
DARLING ETHEL:
I loved your little letter. Here there are lots of funny little
lizards that run about in the dusty roads very fast and then stand
still with their heads up. Beautiful red cardinal birds and tanagers
flit about in the woods and the flowers are lovely. But you never saw
such dust. Sometimes I lie on the ground outside and sometimes in the
tent. I have a mosquito net because there are so many mosquitoes.
Camp near Santiago July 15 1898.
DARLING ETHEL:
When it rains here--and it's very apt to rain here every day--it comes
down just as if it was a torrent of water. The other night I hung up
my hammock in my tent and in the middle of the night there was a
terrific storm and my tent and hammock came down with a run. The
water was running over the ground in a sheet and the mud was knee-
deep; so I was a drenched and muddy object when I got to a neighboring
tent where I was given a blanket in which I rolled up and went to
sleep.
There is a funny little lizard that comes into my tent and is quite
tame now; he jumps about like a little frog and puffs his throat out.
There are ground-doves no bigger than big sparrows and cuckoos almost
as large as crows.
YOUTHFUL BIBLE COMMENTATORS
(To Miss Emily T. Carow)
Oyster Bay Dec. 8 1900.
The other day I listened to a most amusing dialogue at the Bible
lesson between Kermit and Ethel. The subject was Joseph and just
before reading it they had been reading Quentin's book containing the
adventures of the Gollywogs. Joseph's conduct in repeating his dream
to his brothers whom it was certain to irritate had struck both of
the children unfavorably as conflicting both with the laws of common-
sense and with the advice given them by their parents as to the proper
method of dealing with their own brothers and sisters. Kermit said:
"Well I think that was very foolish of Joseph." Ethel chimed in with
"So do I very foolish and I do not understand how he could have done
it." Then after a pause Kermit added thoughtfully by way of
explanation: "Well I guess he was simple like Jane in the
Gollywogs": and Ethel nodded gravely in confirmation.
It is very cunning to see Kermit and Archie go to the Cove school
together. They also come down and chop with me Archie being armed
with a hatchet blunt enough to be suitable for his six years. He is a
most industrious small chopper and the other day gnawed down or as
the children call it "beavered" down a misshapen tulip tree which
was about fifty feet high.
FINE NAMES FOR GUINEA PIGS
(To E. S. Martin)
Oyster Bay Nov. 22 1900.
Mrs. Roosevelt and I were more touched than I can well say at your
sending us your book with its characteristic insertion and above all
with the little extract from your boy's note about Ted. In what Form
is your boy? As you have laid yourself open I shall tell you that Ted
sings in the choir and is captain of his dormitory football team. He
was awfully homesick at first but now he has won his place in his own
little world and he is all right. In his last letter to his mother in
response to a question about his clothes he answered that they were in
good condition excepting "that one pair of pants was split up the
middle and one jacket had lost a sleeve in a scuffle and in another
pair of pants he had sat down in a jam pie at a cellar spread." We
have both missed him greatly in spite of the fact that we have five
remaining. Did I ever tell you about my second small boy's names for
his Guinea pigs? They included Bishop Doane; Dr. Johnson my Dutch
Reformed pastor; Father G. Grady the local priest with whom the
children had scraped a speaking acquaintance; Fighting Bob Evans and
Admiral Dewey. Some of my Republican supporters in West Virginia have
just sent me a small bear which the children of their own accord
christened Jonathan Edwards partly out of compliment to their
mother's ancestor and partly because they thought they detected
Calvinistic traits in the bear's character.
A COUGAR AND LYNX HUNT
Keystone Ranch Colo. Jan. 14th 1901.
BLESSED TED
From the railroad we drove fifty miles to the little frontier town of
Meeker. There we were met by the hunter Goff a fine quiet hardy
fellow who knows his business thoroughly. Next morning we started on
horseback while our luggage went by wagon to Goff's ranch. We started
soon after sunrise and made our way hunting as we went across the
high exceedingly rugged hills until sunset. We were hunting cougar
and lynx or as they are called out here "lion" and "cat." The first
cat we put up gave the dogs a two hours' chase and got away among
some high cliffs. In the afternoon we put up another and had a very
good hour's run the dogs baying until the glens rang again to the
echoes as they worked hither and thither through the ravines. We
walked our ponies up and down steep rock-strewn and tree-clad
slopes where it did not seem possible a horse could climb and on the
level places we got one or two smart gallops. At last the lynx went up
a tree. Then I saw a really funny sight. Seven hounds had been doing
the trailing while a large brindled bloodhound and two half-breeds
between collie and bull stayed behind Goff running so close to his
horse's heels that they continually bumped into them which he
accepted with philosophic composure. Then the dogs proceeded literally
to /climb the tree/ which was a many-forked pinon; one of the half-
breeds named Tony got up certainly sixteen feet until the lynx
which looked like a huge and exceedingly malevolent pussy-cat made
vicious dabs at him. I shot the lynx low so as not to hurt his skin.
Yesterday we were in the saddle for ten hours. The dogs ran one lynx
down and killed it among the rocks after a vigorous scuffle. It was in
a hole and only two of them could get at it.
This morning soon after starting out we struck the cold trail of a
mountain lion. The hounds puzzled about for nearly two hours going up
and down the great gorges until we sometimes absolutely lost even the
sound of the baying. Then they struck the fresh trail where the
cougar had killed a deer over night. In half an hour a clamorous
yelling told us they had overtaken the quarry; for we had been riding
up the slopes and along the crests wherever it was possible for the
horses to get footing. As we plunged and scrambled down towards the
noise one of my companions Phil Stewart stopped us while he took a
kodak of a rabbit which sat unconcernedly right beside our path. Soon
we saw the lion in a treetop with two of the dogs so high up among
the branches that he was striking at them. He was more afraid of us
than of the dogs and as soon as he saw us he took a great flying leap
and was off the pack close behind. In a few hundred yards they had
him up another tree. Here I could have shot him (Tony climbed almost
up to him and then fell twenty feet out of the tree) but waited for
Stewart to get a photo; and he jumped again. This time after a couple
of hundred yards the dogs caught him and a great fight followed.
They could have killed him by themselves but he bit or clawed four of
them and for fear he might kill one I ran in and stabbed him behind
the shoulder thrusting the knife you loaned me right into his heart.
I have always wished to kill a cougar as I did this one with dogs and
the knife.
DOGS THAT CLIMB TREES
Keystone Ranch Jan. 18 1901.
DARLING LITTLE ETHEL:
I have had great fun. Most of the trip neither you nor Mother nor
Sister would enjoy; but you would all of you be immensely amused with
the dogs. There are eleven all told but really only eight do very
much hunting. These eight are all scarred with the wounds they have
received this very week in battling with the cougars and lynxes and
they are always threatening to fight one another; but they are as
affectionate toward men (and especially toward me as I pet them) as
our own home dogs. At this moment a large hound and a small half-breed
bull-dog both of whom were quite badly wounded this morning by a
cougar are shoving their noses into my lap to be petted and humming
defiance to one another. They are on excellent terms with the ranch
cat and kittens. The three chief fighting dogs who do not follow the
trail are the most affectionate of all and moreover they climb
trees! Yesterday we got a big lynx in the top of a pinon tree--a low
spreading kind of pine--about thirty feet tall. Turk the bloodhound
followed him up and after much sprawling actually got to the very
top within a couple of feet of him. Then when the lynx was shot out
of the tree Turk after a short scramble took a header down through
the branches landing with a bounce on his back. Tony one of the
half-breed bull-dogs takes such headers on an average at least once
for every animal we put up a tree. We have nice little horses which
climb the most extraordinary places you can imagine. Get Mother to
show you some of Gustave Dore's trees; the trees on these mountains
look just like them.
THE PIG NAMED MAUDE
Keystone Ranch Jan. 29 1901
DARLING LITTLE ETHEL:
You would be much amused with the animals round the ranch. The most
thoroughly independent and self-possessed of them is a large white pig
which we have christened Maude. She goes everywhere at her own will;
she picks up scraps from the dogs who bay dismally at her but know
they have no right to kill her; and then she eats the green alfalfa
hay from the two milch cows who live in the big corral with the
horses. One of the dogs has just had a litter of puppies; you would
love them with their little wrinkled noses and squeaky voices.
ADVICE AND NEWS
Oyster Bay May 7th 1901
BLESSED TED:
It was the greatest fun seeing you and I really had a satisfactory
time with you and came away feeling that you were doing well. I am
entirely satisfied with your standing both in your studies and in
athletics. I want you to do well in your sports and I want even more
to have you do well with your books; but I do not expect you to stand
first in either if so to stand could cause you overwork and hurt your
health. I always believe in going hard at everything whether it is
Latin or mathematics boxing or football but at the same time I want
to keep the sense of proportion. It is never worth while to absolutely
exhaust one's self or to take big chances unless for an adequate
object. I want you to keep in training the faculties which would make
you if the need arose able to put your last ounce of pluck and
strength into a contest. But I do not want you to squander these
qualities. To have you play football as well as you do and make a
good name in boxing and wrestling and be cox of your second crew and
stand second or third in your class in the studies is all right. I
should be rather sorry to see you drop too near the middle of your
class because as you cannot enter college until you are nineteen
and will therefore be a year later in entering life I want you to be
prepared in the best possible way so as to make up for the delay. But
I know that all you can do you will do to keep substantially the
position in the class that you have so far kept and I have entire
trust in you for you have always deserved it.
The weather has been lovely here. The cherry trees are in full bloom
the peach trees just opening while the apples will not be out for ten
days. The May flowers and bloodroot have gone the anemonies and
bellwort have come and the violets are coming. All the birds are here
pretty much and the warblers troop through the woods.
To my delight yesterday Kermit when I tried him on Diamond did
excellently. He has evidently turned the corner in his riding and was
just as much at home as possible although he was on my saddle with
his feet thrust in the leathers above the stirrup. Poor mother has had
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