Colonel Roosevelt (159 page)
Authors: Edmund Morris
86
he had a violent
Rondon,
Lectures
, 117; Millard,
The River of Doubt
, 332–33; KR diary, 14, 15 Apr. 1914 (KRP).
87
an old black fisherman
Rondon,
Lectures
, 119; Cherrie diary, 15 Apr. 1914 (AMNH).
88
“But is he truly”
Rondon,
Lectures
, 119. (Retranslated from the Portugese original, 100.)
89
When Roosevelt
Rondon,
Lectures
, 119.
90
Dr. Cajazeira was
Millard,
The River of Doubt
, 322–23; KR diary, 16 Apr. 1914 (KRP); Kermit Roosevelt,
Happy Hunting Grounds
, 48; TR,
Works
, 6.306; Cherrie diary, 21 Apr. 1914 (AMNH).
91
It took another
Cherrie diary, 26 Apr. 1914 (AMNH).
92
Early in the
Rondon,
Lectures
, 67–68.
93
The lieutenant had
Rondon,
Lectures
, 167; Cherrie diary, 26 Apr. 1914 (AMNH); TR,
Works
, 6.318–19. Pirineus was the officer who lost part of his tongue to a piranha, in the anecdote told by TR on 309.
94
It was agreed
Despite Rondon’s efforts, the Rio Roosevelt quickly became known as the “Rio Téodoro,” which was easier for Brazilians to pronounce. TR himself preferred the more informal name, and allowed it to be engraved in the map of South America prepared for his book
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
. See the frontispiece to TR,
Works
, 6. The river’s official name remains Rio Roosevelt.
95
The dedicatee seemed less moved
KR diary, 26 Apr. 1914 (KRP).
96
When the American
Vivieros,
Rondon
, 421; Cherrie diary, 28 Apr. 1914 (AMNH). He added, “Col. Roosevelt does not improve nor gain strength as rapidly as we had hoped.”
97
Roosevelt’s estimate
TR,
Works
, 6.320; TR to Anthony Fiala, 8 July 1915 (AMNH).
98
“some small achievement of worth”
See 346.
99
At 2:30
P.M
. Cherrie diary, 29, 21 Apr. 1914 (AMNH); KR diary, 28 Apr. 1914 (KRP). According to Rondon, TR was in such pain during this voyage that he spent most of it lying facedown—“not a position in which he could write his notes.” Vivieros,
Rondon
, 421.
100
Each man to his
TR,
Works
, 6.308.
101
Roosevelt did not
Vivieros,
Rondon
, 421–22; KR diary, 29 (actually, 30) Apr. 1914 (KRP).
102
“Father about”
KR diary, 30 Apr. 1914 (KRP).
103
Arrangements were made
Ibid., 1, 5 May 1914 (KRP);
The New York Times
, 6 May 1914.
104
Before leaving
Cherrie diary, 1 May 1914 (AMNH);
The New York Times
, 19 May 1914.
105
Dear Arthur
TR,
Letters
, 7.761.
106
two abscesses
TR tended to belittle his ailments. KR speaks of “a veritable
plague of deep abscesses,” and Rondon describes them as “numerous.” He was also suffering from malnutrition, and the lingering aftereffects of malaria.
107
We have put on the map
TR,
Letters
, 7.761. See ibid., 7.759–60, for TR’s telegram from Manáos to Lauro Müller, tersely summarizing the trials and triumphs of the
Expediçào Scíentifica Roosevelt-Rondon
. KR did not accompany his father back to New York, but remained in Belém preparatory to departure for Madrid.
108
He was profoundly
Rondon appears to have chartered, or commandeered, the
Cidade de Manáos
to get him to Belém ahead of TR. Cherrie diary, 2–3 May 1914 (AMNH).
109
“I hope and pray”
Vivieros,
Rondon
, 422 (trans. author).
17: A W
RONG
T
URN
O
FF
A
PPEL
Q
UAY
1
Epigraph
Robinson,
Collected Poems
, 231.
2
The first published
Middletown (N.Y.)
Times-Press
, 20 May 1914;
The New York Times
, 20–21 May 1914.
The Times
printed side-by-side photographs to show how dramatically TR had aged since leaving the United States six months before.
3
He claimed that
The New York Times
and
The Washington Post
, 20 May 1914. George Cherrie reported TR’s fever attack.
4
The President had
WW to TR, 23 May 1914 (WWP); TR to WW, 23 May 1914 (TRC).
5
At three o’clock
The Washington Post
, 27 May 1914.
6
Wilson had been
Morris,
Theodore Rex
, 18.
7
Roosevelt had always
“Woodrow Wilson is a perfect trump.” TR,
Letters
, 3.275.
8
“What is”
D. H. Elletson,
Roosevelt and Wilson: A Comparative Study
(London, 1965), 61; Link,
Papers of Woodrow Wilson
, 12.262.
9
When Wilson became
Link,
Papers of Woodrow Wilson
, 12.454; Heckscher,
Woodrow Wilson
, 76–77; “Dr. Woodrow Wilson Defines Material Issues,”
The New York Times
, 24 Nov. 1907.
10
Roosevelt’s reciprocal
TR,
Letters
, 8.836; Sullivan,
Our Times
, 4.137. “No American ever knew where he was during the many months I have been on this coast,” Sir Christopher Cradock, the local British naval commander, wrote Cecil Spring Rice from Vera Cruz on 30 May 1914. “They stand fools to the world” (CSR).
11
“morality and not expediency”
WW at Mobile, Ala., on 27 Oct. 1913, quoted in
The New York Times
, 28 Oct. 1913. See also Cooper,
Woodrow Wilson
, 140–41.
12
So he had lifted
Cooper,
Woodrow Wilson
, 242.
13
Wilson had gone before
The New York Times
, 21 Apr. 1914.
14
Chronic wrongdoing
Fourth Annual Message (Dec. 1904), TR,
Works
, 17.295, 299.
15
In a development
Thomas A. Bailey,
A Diplomatic History of the American People
, 8th ed. (New York, 1969), 558–59.
16
Roosevelt had thrilled
According to Rondon, the ailing TR had been avid to get home in case of war, exclaiming, “Oh, Mexico! Oh, Mexico!” Rondon-Naylor interview,
The New York Times
, 6 Jan. 1929.
17
For a while
Henry J. Forman oral history, “So Brief a Time” (1959–1960), conducted by Doyce B. Nunis, Young Research Library, UCLA, 228. In 1914, Forman was a reporter for the New York
Sun
, covering the White House. See also Cooper,
Woodrow Wilson
, 243–45.
18
“I never went”
Speech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 11 May 1914,
The New York Times
, 12 May 1914.
19
Booth Tarkington’s
Penrod
Tarkington had once been a student of WW’s at Princeton.
Penrod
was a bestseller in 1914, and gave rise to many sequels and cinema adaptations. TR was seen absorbed in it, one foot tucked under him, on his train journey south, while hovering Progressives competed for his attention. (The
New York Times
, 27 May 1914.) There is also an amusing photograph in TRC of him reading the book with an intensity that threatens to scorch the pages.
20
the Colonel’s latest
Life-Histories of African Game Animals
(New York, 1914), is not included in any of the editions of TR’s collected works. Advertised as the first categorical survey of the large fauna of any continent outside the United States, it was praised for its readability in
The New York Times Book Review
, 24 May 1914. “Latin binomials do not clutter the book with italics.… The treatment [of zoological data] is especially direct and lucid, and the vast amount of information which he [TR] has gathered at first hand [is] of inestimable service to our all too small fund of knowledge of animal psychology.” The book received scientific sanction in a major review by C. Hart Merriam in
American Museum Journal
, 16.3 (Mar. 1916). It proved to be a disappointment to Scribners, slowly selling only 2,000 copies. Publisher’s memo to William H. Bell, 1933 (SCR).
21
When Roosevelt rose
The Washington Post
and
The New York Times
, 27 May
22
“He is a great”
Joseph P. Tumulty,
Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him
(New York, 1921), 287–88.
Historiographical Note:
This first meeting of TR and WW in the White House has escaped the attention of historians. Consequently, the President’s famous remark, quoted by Tumulty, has always been ascribed to TR’s second call upon him, in the spring of 1917. Tumulty was present at both meetings, but when writing his memoir in 1921, remembered only the later, which he called the “one and only.” He said, further, that it took place entirely in the Red Room. The author believes that Tumulty simply forgot about the first, and conflated his memories. The secretary was wrong, e.g., in stating that in 1917, TR and WW “had not met since they were political opponents in 1912.” That could only be true of their encounter in the spring of 1914. Tumulty was far more likely to have asked the President
then
what he thought of his visitor, and WW more inclined to have found TR irresistible
then
than three years later, when their relations were strained. It is a matter of record that TR, on the earlier occasion, was in a boyish mood
(vide
the hat-bopping incident, and the copy of
Penrod
in his pocket). Tumulty was, however, correct in recalling that the substance of the 1917 visit was TR’s desire to command a division of volunteer troops in World War I. See 486–87.
23
It was still hot
The Washington Post
and Middletown (N.Y.)
Times-Press
, 27 May 1914;
The New York Times
, 7 May 1914. See also Millard,
The River of Doubt
, 337–39.
24
Veteran observers
Trenton
(N.J.)
Evening Times
, 27 May 1914.
25
“I’m almost regretful”
A stenographic transcript of TR’s address was printed in
The Washington Post
and other major newspapers on 27 May 1914.
26
Again and again
The Washington Post
, 27 May 1914.
27
a
pium
-like swarm
Gus Karger of the
Cincinnati Times-Star
attended TR’s meeting with the Progressives and got the feeling that “in cold blood … he was contemplating the best method of ‘dumping them’ if their canine loyalty should become uncomfortable to himself.” Quoted in O’Toole,
When Trumpets Call
, 258.
28
Edith Roosevelt, who
Sylvia Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 403: “The reason
for her not going is obscure. Analysis of the evidence available, from thyroid pills and frequent depressions, indicates that [EKR] was undergoing menopause.” Another factor may have been the fact that Belle was the daughter of a prominent Democrat, EKR being politically much more partisan than her husband. Belle, in addition, like countless brides before and since, had to compete with a mother’s passion for a favorite son.
29
Their initial meetings
For an awkward hour the previous day, TR and Alfonso had breakfasted back-to-back on the same train from Paris to Madrid. There had been no qualified intermediary to reintroduce them, so they pretended to be unaware of each other.
The New York Times
, 9 June 1914.
30
Roosevelt treated
TR to EKR, 11 June 1914 (KRP).
31
Plainclothes detectives
The New York Times
, 9, 10 June 1914.
32
To Roosevelt’s mild irritation
TR to EKR, 11 June 1914 (KRP);
The New York Times
, 9 June 1914.
33
A guest list drawn
KR to ERD, 1 June 1914 (ERDP);
The New York Times
, 16 July 1914; KR to ERD, 4, 30 Apr. 1913 (ERDP). EKR did not record the wedding in her otherwise conscientiously kept diary.
34
“I believe”
TR to EKR, 11 June 1914 (KRP).
35
He stopped in Paris
The New York Times
, 7 June 1914; Straus,
Under Four Administrations
, 360. Herrick, who had known TR since the early days of the McKinley administration, was impressed with the balance of his political views and the ease with which he held his own in conversation with members of the French Academy. Herrick wrote afterward to his son, “I believe it to be an undeniable fact—that Roosevelt is one of the greatest, if not the greatest man of the time.” T. Bentley Mott,
Myron T. Herrick: Friend of France
(New York, 1929), 103–4.
36
Paris that June
Owen Wister visited Paris at the same time, and was struck by its air of dilapidation and self-doubt (“The French face … too often a face of worried sadness, or revolt”) in contrast with Germany’s clicking efficiency and “contentment.” (Wister,
The Pentecost of Calamity
, 54.) See also Ecksteins,
Rites of Spring
, 46.