"Darling sister mine: At Gondokoro I found yourr welcome letter; and on the steamer, descending the iioo miles3 to Khartoum, bumping into sand banks, and doing various oodd things, I send you this line of answer.
"Joe Alsop [my only daughter had just becomee engaged to Joseph Wright Alsop, of Connecticut] represents to) me what I like to think of as the ideal American citizen prettty strong praise, and I mean every word of it. I should be oveerjoyed if Ethel married a man like him. He is the big, bravee, strong, good man of sound common sense, who works hard in : the country, who does his duty in politics, who would make a. fine type of soldier in civil war. I have always put him in the same class with Bob Ferguson, and with Pinchot, Garfield, Cooley(, and the rest of the `Tennis Cabinet.' "
His "Tennis Cabinet" shared the same warm cornner of his heart in which his "Rough Riders" were firmly ensconnced !
aHis last letter from the White Nile, March 14, r9ito, has in it the foreboding of what was to come. "Ugh!" he wriites, "tell Douglas that I hate the prospect of being dragged intco politics t home. I don't like the political outlook." Even 1 then, although regretting the probability, he realized the immninence of being "dragged into politics at home."
His wonderful reception in Egypt and the admiring; recognition shown him by kings and potentates when he emergged from his year of seclusion in the jungle are well known to thhe world. Emperors and monarchs and presidents vied with eacch other to do him honor, and never was there a more triumphaant progress than that of Citizen Theodore Roosevelt through tthe great countries that had known him as President of the Uniteed States. His tales later of the various potentates were amusingg to the last degree; everything he recounted was told in the moost goodnatured, although humorous, spirit, and in many cases the spoke with warm regard and even affection for the rulers who wvelcomed him so warmly to their homes and lives. He referred to tthe King of Italy as "a very intelligent and really good man." He had
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never felt that the Emperor of Germany was a great man, nor did he change his opinion, in spite of the many courtesies shown him by the Kaiser, although he enjoyed his experiences in Germany and was much interested when asked to review the great German army by the Emperor. Of all the reigning monarchs, he seemed to think with the most affection of the King of Norway, to whom he paid the characteristic compliment of saying that he "would enjoy having him settle down quietly near him at Oyster Bay," and he also spoke with regard of Alfonso of Spain. He gave an especially interesting account of the funeral ceremonies of King Edward VII, to which ceremonies he was appointed special envoy; but most of all he wrote with keen delight of his "bird walk" through the New Forest and over the adjacent lowlands and uplands with that fellow bird-lover, the secretary for foreign affairs, then Sir Edward, now Earl, Grey. Nothing could have been more characteristic of Theodore Roosevelt than the way in which that walk had been arranged.
Before he left America to plunge into the African jungle, he wrote to Lord Bryce in England to the effect that on his return, practically a year and a quarter from the date on which he wrote, he would like some one versed in the bird-songs of England to walk with him for a day at least to acquaint him with the notes of the British feathered singers. He knew, he said, the appearance and habits of every English bird, but had never had the chance to match the bird to the song, and he was very anxious to do so. Lord Bryce happened to meet Sir Edward Grey, the secretary for foreign affairs, and laughingly mentioned the desire on the part of President Roosevelt to make this somewhat premature engagement, and expressed uncertainty as to whom he could choose for the President's companion. Sir Edward immediately offered himself, saying that the knowledge of bird song and lore happened to be one of his assets, but even Sir Edward felt that the experiences with the mighty creatures of the jungle, the excitement of the political furor aroused by a certain speech of Theodore Roosevelt's in Cairo, and the triumphal
My Brother Theodore Rooseveltt
