We shall hear
grate on the coast of Britain the keels of the Low-Dutch sea-
thieves whose children's children were to inherit unknown
continents. ... Beyond the dim centuries we shall see the banners
float above armed hosts ... Dead poets shall sing to us of the
deeds of men of might and the love and beauty of women. We shall
see the dancing girls of Memphis. The scent of the flowers in the
hanging gardens of Babylon will be heavy to our senses. We shall
sit at feast with the kings of Nineveh when they drink from ivory
and gold. ... For us the war-horns of King Olaf shall wail across
the flood, and the harps sound high at festivals in forgotten
halls. The frowning strongholds of the barons of old shall rise
before us, and the white palace-castles from whose windows Syrian
princes once looked across the blue AEgean. ... We shall see the
terrible horsemen of Timur the Lame ride over the roof of the
world; we shall hear the drums beat as the armies of Gustavus and
Frederick and Napoleon drive forward to victory. [Footnote:
"History as Literature," p. 32, et seq.]
Here is one of Mr. Roosevelt's anecdotes of an incident in the
White House. It shows why the people were interested in that house
while he lived in it:
"No guests were ever more welcome at the White House than these
old friends of the cattle ranches and the cow camps--the men with
whom I had ridden the long circle and eaten at the tail-board of a
chuck-wagon--whenever they turned up at Washington during my
Presidency.
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