i

96   My Brother Theodore Roosevelt   I

still dominated the little circle from the standpoint of intellect, writes that same July: "I have no power to write sensibly today. If I were writing to Theodore I would have to say something of this kind, `I have enjoyed Plutarch's last essay on the philosophy of Diogenes excessively."' In his early college days, however, he seems temporarily to put the "philosophy of Diogenes" aside, and to become a very normal, simple, pleasureloving youth, who, however, always retained his earnest moral purpose and his realization that education was a tool for future experience, and, therefore, not to be neglected.

He writes on November 26, 1876: "I now belong to another whist club, composed of Harry Minot, Dick Saltonstall and a few others. They are very quiet fellows but also very pleasant. Harry Minot was speaking to me the other day about our making a collecting trip in the White Mountains together next summer. I think it would be good fun." The result of that collecting trip will be shown a little later in this chapter. On December 14 he writes again: "Darling Pussie [his pet name for me]: I ought to have written you long ago but I am now having examinations all the time, and am so occupied in studying for them that I have very little time for myself, and you know how long it takes me to write a letter. My only excitement lately has been the dancing class which is very pleasant. I may as well describe a few of my chief friends." He then gives an account of his specially intimate companions, and speaks as follows of one whose name has become prominent in the annals of his country's history as able financier, secretary of state, and colonel in the American Expeditionary Force-Robert Bacon: "Bob Bacon is the handsomest man in the class and is as pleasant as he is handsome. He is only sixteen, but is very large." He continues to say that he would love to bring home a few of his friends at Christmas time, and concludes: "I should like a party very much if it is perfectly convenient." The party proved a delightful Christmas experience, and the New York girls and Boston boys fraternized to their hearts' content. On his return

to Cambridge after these Christmas holidays he writes one of his amusing, characteristic little notes, interspersed with quaint drawings. "Darling Pussie: I delivered your two notes safely and had a very pleasant journey on in the cars. To drown my grief at parting from you all, I took refuge, not in the flowing bowl, but in the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine-not to mention squab sandwiches. A journey in the cars always renders me sufficiently degraded to enjoy even the love stories in the latter magazine. I think that if I was forced to travel across the continent, towards the end of my journey, I should read dime novels with avidity. Good-bye darling. Your loving Tedo."

The signature was followed by accurate representations of Harper's Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and the squab sandwich, which he labels "my three consolations" !

A letter dated February 5, 1877, shows the Boston of those days in a very pleasant light. He begins: "Little Pussie: I have had a very pleasant time this week as, in fact, I have every week. It was cram week for `Conic Sections' but, by using most of my days for study, I had two evenings, besides Saturday, free. On Wednesday evening, Harry Jackson gave a large sleighing party; this was great fun for there were forty girls and fellows and two matrons in two huge sleighs. We sang songs for a great part of the time for we soon left Boston and were dragged by our eight horses rapidly through a great many of the pretty little towns which form the suburbs of Boston. One of the girls looked quite like Edith only not nearly as pretty as her ladyship. We came home from our sleigh ride about nine and then danced until after twelve. I led the German with Harry Jackson's cousin, Miss Andrews. After the. party, Bob Bacon, Arthur Hooper, myself and some others, came out in a small sleigh to Cambridge, making night hideous with our songs. On Saturday I went with Minot Weld to an Assembly (a juvenile one I mean) at Brookline. This was a very swell affair, there being about sixty couples in the room. I enjoyed myself very much

College Chums

97