Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
Page 317
| glad I sat five seats behind Mr. Roosevelt during the rest of the service, and that he knew nothing of “Susie’s” doings; for if he had turned his head and given me as much as one look, I should have broken right out laughing and made a scandal. |
| When we drove back to the village that November day I caught him looking back once or twice toward the house in its bower of crimson shrubs, and I saw that his heart was there. You would not wonder if you knew it. I never go away from Sagamore Hill without a feeling that if I lived there I would never leave it, and that nothing would tempt me to exchange it for the White House, with all it stands for. But then I am ten years older than Theodore Roosevelt; though it isn’t always the years that count. For I think if it came to a vote, the children would carry my proposition with a shout. Not that Sagamore Hill has anything to suggest a palace. Quite the contrary: it is a very modest home for the President of the United States. On a breezy hilltop overlooking field and forest and Sound, with the Connecticut shore on the northern horizon, its situation is altogether taking. The house is comfortable, |