Page images
PDF
EPUB

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND AFRICA

and myself, returned to camp to send out tools, equipment, and men, preparatory to taking care of the great skins and skeletons of the four elephants. He and I sat down under a tree with our luncheon, and for two or three hours we conversed of intimate things. For a number of months the Colonel had seen no one from home except the members of his own party. We were fresh from the United States and there was much to talk of. He spoke much of his family, of Mrs. Roosevelt, and his sons and daughters. It was then that I learned to love Roosevelt.

It is not an easy thing to give expression to the thoughts that come to my mind of this man who has so recently passed beyond our range of vision. What I feel most is that whereas Roosevelt is gone, his influence seems greater

13

than ever. Many of us will feel, with respect to the things that Roosevelt wanted us to do and which we never seemed to have time to do, that now we have time for nothing else.

As to Africa, perhaps no man in modern times has gotten so much out of the "Dark Continent" as did Roosevelt. In the "Foreword" of his African Game Trails he describes Africa in two pages with a vividness others have failed to give in volumes. And no single sentence of it consists of word and phrase merely every bit of it stands for the man's own personal experience and his own intense thinking and feeling. I wish that the African hall of the American Museum might be done as a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. I would have this Foreword on a bronze tablet at the entrance:

Africa-In the Words of Roosevelt

"I speak of Africa and golden joys"; the joy of wandering through lonely lands; the joy of hunting the mighty and terrible lords of the wilderness, the cunning, the wary, and the grim.

In these greatest of the world's great hunting-grounds there are mountain peaks whose snows are dazzling under the equatorial sun; swamps where the slime oozes and bubbles and festers in the steaming heat; lakes like seas; skies that burn above deserts where the iron desolation is shrouded from view by the wavering mockery of the mirage; vast grassy plains where palms and thorntrees fringe the dwindling streams; mighty rivers rushing out of the heart of the continent through the sadness of endless marshes; forests of gorgeous beauty, where death broods in the dark and silent depths.

There are regions as healthful as the northland, and other regions, radiant with bright-hued flowers, birds and butterflies, odorous with sweet and heavy scents, but treacherous in their beauty, and sinister to human.

life. On the land and in the water there are dread brutes that feed on the flesh of man; and among the lower things that crawl, and fly, and sting, and bite, he finds swarming foes far more evil and deadly than any beast or reptile; foes that kill his crops and his cattle, foes before which he himself perishes in his hundreds of thousands.

The dark-skinned races that live in the land vary widely. Some are warlike, cattle-owning nomads; some till the soil and live in thatched huts shaped like beehives; some are fisherfolk; some are ape-like naked savages, who dwell in the woods and prey on creatures not much wilder or lower than themselves.

The land teems with beasts of the chase, infinite in number and incredible in variety. It holds the fiercest beasts of ravin, and the fleetest and most timid of those beings that live in undying fear of talon and fang. It holds the largest and the smallest of hoofed animals. It holds the mightiest creatures that tread the earth or swim in its rivers; it also

1 Quoted from the Foreword of African Game Trails, through the courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons.

holds distant kinsfolk of these same creatures, no bigger than woodchucks, which dwell in crannies of the rocks, and in the tree tops. There are antelope smaller than hares, and antelope larger than oxen. There are creatures which are the embodiments of grace; and others whose huge ungainliness is like that of a shape in a nightmare. The plains are alive with droves of strange and beautiful animals whose like is not known elsewhere; and with others. even stranger that show both in form and temper something of the fantastic and the grotesque. It is a neverending pleasure to gaze at the great herds of buck as they move to and fro in their myriads; as they stand for their noontide rest in the quivering heat haze; as the long files come down to drink at the wateringplaces; as they feed and fight and rest and make love.

The hunter who wanders through these lands sees sights which ever afterward remain fixed in his mind. He sees the monstrous river-horse snorting and plunging beside the boat; the giraffe looking over the tree tops at the nearing horseman; the ostrich fleeing at a speed that none

may rival; the snarling leopard and coiled python, with their lethal beauty; the zebras, barking in the moonlight, as the laden caravan passes on its night march through a thirsty land. In after years there

shall come to him memories of the lion's charge; of the gray bulk of the elephant, close at hand in the sombre woodland; of the buffalo, his sullen eyes lowering from under his helmet of horn; of the rhinoceros, truculent and stupid, standing in the bright sunlight on the empty plain.

But

These things can be told. there are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm. There is delight in the hardy life of the open, in long rides rifle in hand, in the thrill of the fight with dangerous game. Apart from this, yet mingled with it, is the strong attraction of the silent places, of the large tropic moons, and the splendor of the new stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of sunrise and sunset in the wide waste spaces of the earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the slow change of the ages through time everlasting.

[graphic]

Personal Glimpses of Theodore Roosevelt

R

By DAVID STARR JORDAN

OOSEVELT entered Harvard College in 1876 at the age of eighteen, hoping to become a naturalist, having already made a considerable collection of birds, besides many observations as to their habits. His eyesight being defective, however, and not connecting well with magnifying glasses, his early ambition was discouraged by his teachers to whom the chief range of study lay within the field of the microscope. They overlooked the fact that besides primordial slime and determinant chromosomes, there were also in the world grizzly bears, tigers, elephants and trout, as well as song birds and rattlesnakes,-all of which yield profound interest and are alike worthy of study.

So, being discouraged as to work along his chosen line, and in his love of outdoor science, the young naturalist turned to political philosophy, his secondary interests lying in history and politics. He then closed up his private cabinet, giving his stuffed bird skins. (through Professor Baird of the Smithsonian) to me. These I transferred to the University of Indiana where they are now in a befitting glass case in Owen Hall, each skin nicely prepared and correctly labeled in the crude. boyish handwriting which the distinguished collector never outgrew.

Long after all this, I once took occasion to remind Mr. Roosevelt that "they spoiled a good naturalist" in making him a statesman. But the naturalist was never submerged in the exigencies of statesmanship. During an automobile. drive in 1912 across the Santa Clara Valley, Roosevelt displayed a keen interest. in the sparrows and warblers of the thickets along the road. These he could call by their first names and mostly by their second. Once in the Yosemite with John Muir, he noted elements in bird and squirrel life which had escaped even his keen-eyed and sympathetic companion.

In our exploration of Hawaii in 1901, my colleague, Dr. Barton W. Evermann, and I came across a very beautiful fish, the Kalikali, golden yellow with broad crossbands of deep crimson. This then bore the name of Serranus brighami given it by its discoverer, Alvin Seale. But the species was no Serranus; and it was moreover plainly the type of a new genus. This we called Rooseveltia, in honor of "Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist" and in recognition of his services in the promotion of zoological research. With this compliment he was "delighted." "Who would not be?" he said.

In the various natural history explorations undertaken by me-and by others during his administration as President of the United States-we could always count on intelligent and effective sympathy. In so far as scientific appointments rested with him he gave them careful and conscientious consideration. Indeed, during his administration, governmental science reached its high-water mark. In 1905 I was preparing for an exploration of the deep seas around Japan by means of the Fish Commission steamer "Albatross." While I was talking this matter over with Roosevelt he said, pounding the table with his fist: "It was to help along things like this, Dr. Jordan, that I took this job!"

The story of Roosevelt's relation to Tutuila in Samoa has never been told, and though scientific only in part, it may be related here.1

The three islands of Samoa were held for a period of years under the joint protectorate of Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. The general result was unsatisfactory, a condition due mainly to the petty intrigues of German agents. In Stevenson's words, "There was a fresh conspiracy every day," and a good account of this situa

1 This incident is republished by courtesy of The New Republic.-THE EDITOR.

tion was given by "R. L. S." in A Footnote to History.

England at last exchanged her rights here for certain advantages elsewhere, and the islands themselves were divided, Upolu, the center of population, and Savaii, the largest of the group, going to Germany, while Tutuila, with its magnificent harbor at Pago Pago, and little Manua went to the United States. The native Tutuilans took the matter seriously and were much pleased with the new arrangement. The two chieftains, Mauga and Paa Vei, then caused to be drawn up an elaborate document formally deeding the sovereignty of their island to the United States. Now, in the etiquette of the South Seas, to receive a present without acknowledgment is a flagrant insult, but the people saw the United States occupy the island and erect docks, storehouses, and residences without a word of thanks.

When I went to Samoa in 1902, I found the inhabitants of Tutuila much worked up over the matter. Tuamanua, chief of the tiny outlying island, was in a state which, on a larger scale, would be called rebellion. I went before the little congress at Pago Pago and explained to the people that the United States did not wish to take away any of their rights. It had paid the owners for the land occupied as well as for all service required. It had, moreover, through the governor, Captain (later Rear Admiral) Uriel Sebree, taken great pains to safeguard the interests of the people in their relations to traders in copra, the dried meat of the cocoanut which is the principal export of that region. I also called attention to the fact that in the interest of the

people the President had sent Professor Vernon Kellogg (of Stanford University) and me to study the fisheries of the islands to find out all the kinds and what they were good for. I had myself furnished them with a series of paintings of poisonous fishes, some species

having in their tissues a substance analogous to strychnine, which would produce the dangerous and often fatal disease known as ciguatera. In addition, Professor Kellogg had rendered at material service in teaching them how to get rid of the mosquito and thus to abate their two most dreaded scourges, "dengue" and "elephantiasis," both diseases being produced by minute animal organisms carried from person to person by the mosquito.

I also called to their minds the sad fact that just about the time their deed of gift was received at Washington, the President of the United States had been assassinated by an insane ruffian. It was probable that in the confusion which followed, the document had been misplaced and the incoming President, always thoughtful about such matters, had possibly never seen it. I would bring the affair to his attention, sure that he would make a courteous response. This kept the people quiet for the time, and expectant as to the fu

ture.

I then sent a statement of facts to the President, and soon after left the island; but I read in the press in the fall of 1902 that President Roosevelt had sent a gold watch each to Mauga and Paa Vei, also a flag to the little native police corps or Fitafitas, and that in Pago Pago they had had a "red-letter day of rejoicing."

On returning to Washington I found that the deed of gift had been filed under the head of "Docks," Pago Pago, from the official point of view, being merely the water front of a naval station. Fear of precedent had prevented acknowledgment.

McKinley's advisers emphasized this point but Roosevelt characteristically did not care a straw for precedent. He did what a natural man should do. He made it right with the people. He said afterward to me in regard to it, "It always pays for a nation to be a gentleman."

Roosevelt, the Man of Abundant Life1

W

By GIFFORD PINCHOT

E who loved Roosevelt have not lost him. The qualities we treasured in him, his loyalty, his genial kindness, his unwearied thoughtfulness for others, the generosity which made him prefer his friends in honor to himself, his tenderness with children, his quick delight in living, and the firm soundness of his life's foundations, are potent with us yet. The broad human sympathy which bound to him the millions who never saw his face, his clean courage and self-forgetful devotion to his country, the tremendous sanity of his grasp on the problems of the nation. and the world, and the superb simplicity and directness of his life and thought still live as the inspiration and the basis for the new and better world which is to come.

The people loved Roosevelt because he was like them. In him the common qualities were lifted to a higher tension and a greater power, but they were still the same. What he did plain men un

derstood and would have liked to do. The people loved him because his thoughts, though loftier, were yet within their reach, and his motives were always clear in their sight. They knew his purposes were always right. To millions he was the image of their better selves.

Roosevelt was the greatest preacher of righteousness in modern times. Deeply religious beneath the surface, he made right living seem the natural thing, and there was no man beyond. the reach of his preaching and example. In the sight of all men, he lived the things he taught, and millions followed him because he was the clear exemplar of his teaching.

Unless we may except his Conservation Policies2 Roosevelt's greatest service during his presidency was the inspiration he gave young men. To them he was the leader in all they hoped to be and do for the common good. The generation which was entering manhood while he was President will carry with it to the grave the impress of his leadership and personality.

To the boys of America he was all they hoped to be-a hunter, a rider, a sportsman, eager for the tang of danger, keen and confident, and utterly unafraid. There was no part of his example but was good for boys to follow. Roosevelt, half boy till his life's end, yet the manliest of men, of a fineness his best friends best understood, was their ideal, and will not cease to be because he has passed on.

To him the unforgivable sin, and there was but one, was betrayal of the interests of his country. The man who

1 Address at Roosevelt Memorial Meeting, Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia, afternoon of Sunday, February 9.

2 The name of Gifford Pinchot is closely connected with the work in conservation accomplished by Roosevelt, who states the high value he placed on Mr. Pinchot's services in the chapter on "The Natural Resources of the Nation" in his Autobiography (p. 429):

"Gifford Pinchot is the man to whom the nation owes most for what has been accomplished as regards the preservation of the natural resources of our country. He led, and indeed, during its most vital period embodied, the fight for the preservation through use of our forests. He played one of the leading parts in the effort to make the national Government the chief instrument in developing the irrigation of the arid West.

The story of the forestry work of the Roosevelt administration is one of great historical interest. It includes the training of foresters at a newly opened forest school at Yale, the development of our present Forest Service with trained foresters in control of the public lands, the great increase by Executive Order of the area of the national forests, and their opening to settlers under regulation, the calling of the first meeting of governors in this country (May, 1908), and the appointment of a National Conservation Commission with the purpose of making an inventory of all the resources of the nation. Gifford Pinchot was chairman of this commission. All of this work from 1901 to 1909 formed the basis of the country's present practical enlightenment on conservation.-THE EDITOR.

« PreviousContinue »