CHAPTER XXIV ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART W E found the parallel for Theodore Roosevelt in the Hercules of classical antiquity. We see his counterpart in the Great Heart of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in his masterful memorial oration uses as his peroration a quotation from Bunyan's allegory. He likens Roosevelt to Valiant-for-the-Truth, whom the author represents as holding the sword, with which he fights for the right, so firmly that it became cemented to his fingers and seemed to grow out of his hand as a part of it. But the real hero of the second part of Pilgrim's Progress was Great Heart. His tender regard for women and children was such that he devoted his time and energy in helping them up the pathway of life, and in clearing away its difficulties and dangers. He was a Hercules who braved lions in the path, drove them out of the way of the women and children and fought and slew the robbers and giants that undertook to harm them. It was Great Heart who led Christiana and her four sons along the dangerous pilgrimage of life up to the delectable mountains and the land of Beulah. He presents an exact picture of the tender regard Theodore Roosevelt always had for the women and children of America, especially for the helpless ones. From the very beginning of his public life till the day of his death he did everything in his power to improve the condition of women and children, and to promote their progress, usefulness and happiness. The laws on the statute books safe-guarding the interest of the women and children, especially those of the poor, were many of them put there by Mr. Roosevelt's influence. The other day I went over on the East Side to see a very old woman, Mrs. Mary Ledwith, who said she was born in 1830, and hence was 89 years of age. She said that she went to live in the home of Mr. Charles Carow, the father of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, before Lincoln's election. She was in the family when Mrs. Roosevelt was born; she put her first dress upon her and remained in the family until the time, when she went, as a nurse, into the home of Colonel Roosevelt, when Miss Ethel Carow was married to him. She remained in the family until a few years ago. She said there never was a nicer little girl than Ethel Carow, and no finer woman than Mrs. Ethel Roosevelt. She is so lovely to me now, comes to see me and on Christmas always brings me some nice present, generally a garment that she has made with her own fingers. This nice one she gave me this last Christmas. I had the chance to see Colonel Roosevelt at close range and there was never a finer man. He also has been so tender and good to me, visiting me, and always came to see me when I was sick. All those pictures on the wall of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt and the children were given to me by him. The last time he was here he spent some considerable time looking over them and said, "This one was taken at Albany, that one in New York, this other one in Washington and this at Oyster Bay." Those pictures are mighty good company to me and they seemed to be to him that day. Quite an amusing incident occurred one day. I had lived on the second floor of this building and had moved to the third, where I am now. And Colonel Roosevelt, running up the first stairway, rushed into the apartment I formerly occupied and frightened the tenant nearly out of her wits. Mrs. Weisman resented the insolence and Colonel Roosevelt told her who he was, begged her pardon and said he was looking for Mrs. Ledwith. He then came upstairs just as full of life as a boy and laughed heartily as he said, "You got me into a lot of trouble by not notifying me that you had moved upstairs, for I got into another person's house and did not know but that I would be arrested as a burglar." Mrs. Ledwith said she was very sorry that her memory had failed her, as she had so many delightful experiences in being in the home of so great and good a man as Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt's tender regard for Mrs. Ledwith was an illustration of that affection and care which he had for the aged man and woman. Almost the greatest characteristic of Mr. Roosevelt's life was his love for children and the deep interest he took in their welfare. No wonder the boys in America idolized him. He knew them so well and was so much of a boy himself. During the Barnes trial in Syracuse the Colonel kept up his horseback exercise. One afternoon a prominent Syracusan looked up from his newspaper on the front porch and called to his wife upstairs: "There goes Theodore Roosevelt on horseback." At the moment the six-year-old son of the house was in the bathtub. He heard his father, rushed scampering and spattering downstairs, out of the front door and right down the walk to the middle of the street, hoping for a glimpse of his great idol. |