This is
true. But it is also true that there was a great deal of real and
honest fun poked at him throughout his life, and that it added to
the public enjoyment of his career. The writers of comic rhymes,
the cartoonists, and the writers of political satire had a chance
which no other President has ever given them. Many of our
Presidents--wise and good men--and many Senators, Governors,
Cabinet officers and others, have gone about as if they were all
ready to pose for their statues. Roosevelt never did this. He bore
himself in public with dignity, and respect for the high offices
to which the people elected him. But he did not suggest the old
style of portrait, in which a statesman is standing stiffly, hand
in the breast of his coat, a distant view of the Capitol in the
background. He had too keen a sense of fun for anything of the
sort.
Nobody laughed at the jokes about him more heartily than he did
himself. When "Mr. Dooley" described his adventures as a Rough
Rider, and spoke of him as "Alone in Cubia," as if he thought he
had won the war all by himself, he wrote to the author:
"Three cheers Mr. Dooley! Do come on and let me see you soon. I am
by no means so much alone as in Cubia. ..."
"Let me repeat that Dooley, especially when he writes about Teddy
Rosenfelt has no more interested and amused reader than said
Rosenfelt himself.
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