贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > theodore roosevelt >

第54章

theodore roosevelt-第54章

小说: theodore roosevelt 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




》From Rome he went to Austria; to Vienna first; where the aged Emperor; Francis Joseph; welcomed him; and then to Budapest; where the Hungarians; eager for their independence; shouted themselves hoarse at sight of the representative of American independence。 Wherever he went the masses in the cities crowded round him and the people in the country flocked to cheer him as he passed。 Since Norway had conferred on him the Nobel Peace Prize after the Russo…Japanese War; he journeyed to Christiania to pay his respects to the Nobel Committee; and there he delivered an address on the conditions necessary for a universal peace in which he foreshadowed many of the terms which have since been preached by the advocates of a League of Nations。 In Berlin; the Kaiser received him with ostentatious friendliness。 He addressed him as 〃Friend Roosevelt。〃 Since the Colonel was not a monarch the Kaiser could not address him as 〃Brother〃 or as 〃Cousin;〃 and the word 〃Friend 〃disguised whatever condescension he may have felt。 There was a grand military review of twelve thousand troops; which the Kaiser and his 〃Friend〃 inspected; and he took care to inform Roosevelt that he was the first civilian to whom this honor had ever been paid。 An Imperial photographer made snapshots of the Colonel and the Kaiser; and these were subsequently given to the Colonel with superscriptions and comments written by the Kaiser on the negatives。 Roosevelt's impression of his Imperial host was; on the whole; favorable。 I do not think he regarded him as very solid; personally; but he recognized the results of the power which William's inherited position as Emperor conferred on him。

Paris did not fall behind any of the other European capitals in the enthusiasm of its welcome。 There; Roosevelt was received in solemn session by the Sorbonne; before which he spoke on citizenship in a Republic; and; with prophetic vision; he warned against the seductions of phrase…makers as among the insidious dangers to which Republics were exposed。

His most conspicuous triumph; however; was in England。 On May 6th; King Edward VII died; and President Taft appointed Colonel Roosevelt special envoy; to represent the United States at the royal funeral。 This drew together crowned heads from all parts of Europe; so that at one of the State functions at Buckingham Palace there were no fewer than thirteen monarchs at table。 The Colonel stayed at Dorchester House with the American Ambassador; Mr。 Whitelaw Reid; and was beset by calls and invitations from the crowned personages。 I have heard him give a most amusing account of that experience; but it is too soon to repeat it。 Then; as always; he could tell a bore at sight; and the bore could not deceive him by any disguise of ermine cloak or Imperial title。 The German Kaiser seems to have taken pains to pose as the preferred intimate of 〃Friend Roosevelt;〃 but the 〃Friend〃 remained unwaveringly Democratic。 One day William telephoned to ask Roosevelt to lunch with him; but the Colonel diplomatically pleaded a sore throat; and declined。 At another time when the Kaiser wished him to come and chat; Roosevelt replied that he would with pleasure; but that he had only twenty minutes at the Kaiser's disposal; as he had already arranged to call on Mrs。 Humphry Ward at three…thirty。 These reminiscences may seem trifling; unless you take them as illustrating the truly Democratic simplicity with which the First Citizen of the American Republic met the scions of the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns on equal terms as gentleman with gentlemen。

Some of his backbiters and revilers at home whispered that his head was turned by all these pageants and courtesies of kings; and that he regretted that our system provided for no monarch。 This afforded him infinite amusement。 〃Think of it!〃 he said to me after his return。 〃They even say that I want to be a prince myself! Not I! I've seen too many of them! Do you know what a prince is? He's a cross between Ward McAllister and Vice…President Fairbanks。 How can any one suppose I should like to be that?〃 It may be necessary to inform the later generation that Mr。 Ward McAllister was by profession a decayed gentleman in New York City who achieved fame by compiling a list of the Four Hundred persons whom he condescended to regard as belonging to New York Society。 Vice…President Fairbanks was an Indiana politician; tall and thin and oppressively taciturn; who seemed to be stricken dumb by the weight of an immemorial ancestry or by the sense of his own importance; and who was not less cold than dumb; so that irreverent jokers reported that persons might freeze to death in his presence if they came too near or stayed too long。

All this was only the froth on the stream of Roosevelt's experience in England。 He took deep enjoyment in meeting the statesmen and the authors and the learned men there。 The City of London bestowed the freedom of the city upon him。 The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford gave him their highest honorary degrees。 At the London Guildhall he made a memorable address; in which he warned the British nation to see to it that the grievances of the Egyptian people were not allowed to fester。 Critics at the moment chided this advice as an exhibition of bad taste; an intrusion; if not an impertinence; on the part of a foreigner。 They did not know; however; that before speaking; Roosevelt submitted his remarks to high officers in the Government and had their approval; for apparently they were well pleased that this burning topic should be brought under discussion by means of Roosevelt's warning。

At Cambridge University he exhorted the students not to be satisfied with a life of sterile athleticism。 〃I never was an athlete;〃 said he; 〃although I have always led an outdoor life; and have accomplished something in it; simply because my theory is that almost any man can do a great deal; if he will; by getting the utmost possible service out of the qualities that he actually possesses 。 。 。 。 The average man who is successfulthe average statesman; the average public servant; the average soldier; who wins what we call great successis not a genius。 He is a man who has merely the ordinary qualities that he shares with his fellows; but who has developed those ordinary qualities to a more than ordinary degree。〃

The culmination of his addresses abroad was his Romanes Lecture; delivered at the Convocation at Oxford University on June 7; 1910。 Lord Curzon; the Chancellor; presided。 Roosevelt took for his theme; 〃Biological Analogies in History;〃 a subject which his lifelong interest in natural history and his considerable reading in scientific theory made appropriate。 He afterwards said that in order not to commit shocking blunders he consulted freely his old friend Dr。 Henry Fairfield Osborn; head of the Museum of Natural History in New York City; but the substance and ideas were unquestionably his own。

Dr。 Henry Goudy; 〃the public orator〃 at Cambridge; in a Presentation Speech; eulogized Roosevelt's manifold activities and achievements; declaring; among other things; that he had 〃acquired a title to be ranked with his great predecessor Abraham Lincoln'of whom one conquered slavery; and the other corruption。'〃 Lord Curzon addressed him as; 〃peer of the most august kings; queller of wars; destroyer of monsters wherever found; yet the most human of mankind; deeming nothing indifferent to you; not even the blackest of the black。〃

This cluster of foreign addresses is not the least remarkable of Roosevelt's intellectual feats。 No doubt among those who listened to him in each place there were carping critics; scholars who did not find his words scholarly enough; dilettanti made tepid by over…culture; intellectual cormorants made heavy by too much information; who found no novelty in what he said; and were insensible to the rush and freshness of his style。 But in spite of these he did plant in each audience thoughts which they remembered; and he touched upon a range of interests which no other man then alive could have made to seem equally vital。

On June 18th Mr。 and Mrs。 Roosevelt reached New York。 All the way up the harbor from Sandy Hook; he was escorted by a vast concourse of vessels; large and small; tugs; steamboats

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 2 1

你可能喜欢的