Minister who stood near him and pleased even the tenors of
the opera by repeating something that was both cordial and
appropriate.

Altogether, no guest in Denmark ever left such an impres-
sion of strength, of sincerity, of power as Mr. Roosevelt left.
On my leaving Denmark last year, King Christian, formerly
the Crown Prince said, most pleasantly: "Assure Colonel
Roosevelt of my affectionate esteem. He is a man."

Until Minister Egan gave me the foregoing
description, while I was preparing this chapter,
I was unaware that I had any standing higher than
that of Secretary of Legation while on this journey.
If I had only known that he had conferred upon me
the brevet and temporary honour of a plenipoten-
tiary rank it would have saved me .perhaps one
very embarrassing experience !

On the day when we arrived in Christiania a
luncheon, followed by a reception, was given at
the house of the American Minister, Mr. Peirce.
They were attended both by the King and by Mr.
Roosevelt. King Haakon of Norway is a fine
specimen of a man, six feet or a little over in height,
of a well-shaped and athletic-looking figure; and
his frank, open face bears the marks of strength, re-
finement, and good health. His Queen is the
daughter of King Edward of Great Britain. Hav-
ing served in the British Navy, King Haakon spoke
English perfectly. I left the reception early and



242 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

went up to the sitting room or salon in the suite
assigned to Mr. Roosevelt in the palace and began
to work with Harper on the mail and other matters
connected with the journey. Before long the door
opened and the King entered. I recognized him
because I had just seen him at the reception;
but he had taken off his frock coat, abandoned his
high hat, and appeared in an ordinary suit of tweed
■ — what we should call in this country abusiness suit.
I rose, of course, and he began to talk to me about
some details of Mr. Roosevelt's further journey to
Stockholm for which the King wished his private
saloon railway carriage to be employed. In his
hand he had a letter about it which he gave me
with some instructions.

Just then the door opened again and in blew
Mr. Roosevelt — I do not know what other verb to
use to describe the refreshing breeziness which
was characteristic of his unexpected appearance
on any occasion. He still had on his frock coat
and carried his high hat in his hand, for he had to
stay at the reception until it was all over.

The King was almost visibfy embarrassed. It
was as though he were saying to himself: "Now
what shall I do to entertain this apostle of the
strenuous life!" He remarked after a slight pause:
"Colonel Roosevelt, wouldn't you like a cup of



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 243

tea ? " With real enthusiasm the Colonel answered :
"By George, your Majesty, the very thing I
should like!" While Roosevelt punctiliously ob-
served all the proprieties in his royal visits, he
was perfectly natural, and as I have already re-
marked, the kings apparently enjoyed for once
having a free, natural, man-to-man relationship
with a fellow-being. The King disappeared and in
a few moments the folding doors were opened and
there in an adjoining room was a pleasant tea-table,
set in the English fashion, round which we all
gathered.

Mr. Roosevelt — and he was one of the best table-
talkers and raconteurs that I have ever listened
to — told stories of his frontier life in the West. I
remember that he gave an account of meeting his
friend Seth Bullock over the dead body of a des-
perado whom they — as sheriff and deputy sheriff —
were both pursuing during his ranching days.
"Your Majesty," he said, "is sufficiently familiar
with grouse shooting in England to realize that
we met in the attitude of 'My bird, I believe'."
He told other tales of Seth Bullock, whom he
greatly liked and respected, and said that he
wished the King could meet Bullock as a fine type
of western American. I rather think the King did
meet him, for — and perhaps this afternoon tea



244 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

suggested the idea to Roosevelt — he cabled to Seth
Bullock to join him in London. This Bullock did;
and there, with Roosevelt as friend and cicerone,
he met many of the distinguished people of the
day.

Now that night a splendid state dinner was given
in the palace in honour of Mr. Roosevelt. The
guests, one or two hundred in number, under the
direction of the Court Marshal, gathered at their
places in the great state dining room. It was a
fine company, for the Scandinavians are splendid
physical specimens. There were, of course, many
army and navy men in uniform and government
officials resplendent with orders.

At the high table, arranged like the speakers'
table at an American banquet, sat the royal party
consisting of the King with Mrs. Roosevelt and
the Queen with Mr. Roosevelt. This table was
on my right. We had reached the fish course,
I think, when a liveried footman came to my
left side, as was proper, and began to speak to
me in Norwegian. Of course I did not under-
stand a single word, but I saw that the man
was labouring under some excitement. I wondered
whether he could be warning me not to put any
gold spoons into my pocket! I swung around —
the better to hear him — with my back almost



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 245

toward the royal table, when a gentleman down
the table a little — my immediate companions not
being able to speak English — leaned forward and
said : " He is trying to tell you that the King wishes
to drink a glass of wine with you." I thereupon
hastily turned around toward the royal table and
saw the King smiling, with his wine glass charged,
prepared to go through the Scandinavian ceremony
of drinking a health. Fortunately I had been in
Scandinavia before and I knew what this ceremony
was, but I did not know whether I ought to follow
my instinct and rise from my seat. Such a procedure,
I felt, would make me a marked man, and whatever
I may be at home I certainly was shy on this oc-
casion. I wondered whether one with so low a
rank as that of Secretary was entitled to rise. Of
course, all this flashed through my mind far more
quickly than I can describe it, and I determined
to rise only half way, so that I should be only half
wrong, in any event. This with bended and
quaking knees I did, and proceeded to bow and
smile and say "Skol". When the ceremony was
finished I fell back in my chair with embarrassment
and did not eat much for a course or two.

Presently I saw another footman approach a
gentleman in civilian dress, but with a brilliant
order on his shirt front, at the opposite long table.



246 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

This gentleman rose, and it was apparent that he
wished he had been eight feet high. He clicked
his heels together and with perfect precision went
through the health-drinking ritual. I realized my
mistake. I should have stood erect like the Minister
Plenipotentiary — which it now seems I really was,
by the grace of Dr. Egan !

After dinner the company adjourned to one of
the fine and spacious reception rooms where we
were, or some of us were, presented to the King.
As I had been standing almost shoulder to shoulder
to him that afternoon, and am about six feet in
height myself, I determined to apologize for my
awkwardness at dinner, so I said: "Your Majesty,
I appreciate the honour which you did me by
drinking a glass of wine with me at dinner, and
if you saw a rather short man rise when you ex-
pected to see a rather tall man I must explain that
I have not been long enough in your hospitable
country to know whether any one under the rank
of an admiral or a general is entitled to rise on such
an occasion; so, in my embarrassment of modesty,
I rose only half way, and must have looked about
as much out of place as a bent pin." Possibly
the American frankness of it all amused the King.
At all events, he laughed cordially and once or twice
in later correspondence with Mr. Roosevelt sent



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 247

some kind of a friendly message to "the bent
pin"!

Perhaps the most notable incident of this Euro-
pean tour, at any rate in the light of subsequent
history, was Roosevelt's meeting with the Kaiser
in Berlin. His visit to the Prussian capital had
been arranged before he left America, and was
made for the purpose of delivering a lecture at
the University of Berlin. This lecture did not
particularly interest me. It was entitled: "The
World Movement. ,, I can't help feeling that
Roosevelt subconsciously strove to impress the
university pedants of Germany that an American
democrat could be as scholarly and academic as
they were and could deal in abstract ideas as
ponderously as they could. The address — in my
judgment — does not compare in style, in content,
or in effectiveness with his speeches at the Sorbonne
and the Guildhall or with the extemporaneous
address to the undergraduates of Cambridge. Nor
was the ceremony itself as human and interesting
as that at the Sorbonne, although it was much more
elaborate and formal. It is true that a chorus
of students — dressed in the rather theatrical and
bizarre costumes of their various "corps" — sang,
as only Germans can sing, finely harmonized ar-
rangements of "Hail Columbia" and "The Star-



248 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Spangled Banner." But the professors in their
academic gowns struck me as rather stodgy. The
Kaiser, dressed in what I supposed to be a Hussar's
uniform, was in the audience; and, much as I
despise his course in the European war, I must
admit that he had a very marked attractiveness
of personality and manner.

On the day of his arrival in Berlin Roosevelt
lunched with the Emperor at the palace in Potsdam
and I had the good fortune to be one of the party.
We went out from Berlin by special train and with
a brilliant company of army and navy officers and
government officials. Chancellor von Bethmann-
Hollweg was of the party. Everything had been
done by the Kaiser to make it evident that he
wished to treat Roosevelt with special honour.
For example, the day following the luncheon, the
Kaiser invited Mr. Roosevelt to review with him
some remarkable field manoeuvres of the German
troops and they spent in this operation five hours
together on horseback.

Ex-Ambassador Henry White, who was the
only civilian present except Kermit Roosevelt,
described the scene to me that evening. The
Emperor was dressed in the uniform of a general
of his army, Mr. Roosevelt in a simple riding suit
of khaki and a black slouch hat. As they sat side



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 249

by side in the saddle, responding together to the
salutes of the officers and troops who passed by in
review, the scene must have been of dramatic in-
terest — the only difference in their station being
indicated by the fact that the Emperor was dressed
in uniform while Mr. Roosevelt wore the dress in
which he would ride across country at home, and
by the manner of their salutes, the Emperor as
commander-in-chief touching his visor, Mr. Roose-
velt as private citizen raising his hat. During the
review the Emperor, with his body-guard of officers
in brilliant uniform gathered about him, raised his
helmet and, turning to Roosevelt, said in German :
" Roosevelt, mein Freund, I wish to welcome you in
the presence of my guards; I ask you to remember
that you are the only private citizen who ever
reviewed the troops of Germany." Those who are
familiar with the strict military procedure of the
German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II and who
understand the intimacy of the German expression
"mein Freund," can understand the real intention
of the Kaiser to impress his officers and the country
with his desire to confer what he believed was a
mark of distinction upon Roosevelt.

Roosevelt appreciated these courtesies but I
think he rather felt the element of medievalism
and artificiality in them. At all events, they did



250 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

not turn his head as similar flatteries turned the
heads of some American exchange professors to
Germany during the European war, for at the
very outset he denounced the invasion of Belgium.
In its issue of September 23, 1914, the Outlook
published an article by him, which had been written
at least ten days previously, in which he said :

When once Belgium was invaded, every circumstance of
national honour and interest forced England to act precisely
as she did act. She could not have held up her head among
nations had she acted otherwise. In particular, she is en-
titled to the praise of all true lovers of peace, for it is only by
action such as she took that neutrality treaties and treaties
guaranteeing the rights of small Powers will ever be given any
value. . . . What action our Government can or will
take, I know not. It has been announced that no action can
betaken that will interfere with our entire neutrality. . . .
Neutrality may be of prime necessity in order to preserve our
own interests and maintain peace in so much of the world as
is not affected by the war. . . But it is a grim comment
on the professional pacifist theories as hitherto developed
that our duty to preserve peace for ourselves may necessarily
mean the abandonment of all effective effort to secure peace
for other unoffending nations which through no fault of their
own are dragged into the war.

When this article was being written I was en-
deavouring, although not a Wilson man, to give
support to the President as the representative
of the whole country in a time of crisis. At my
request Roosevelt put into the article some caveats



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 251

as to Mr. Wilson's policy of neutrality in the
hope that Wilson might slowly come to see the
need of defending Belgium. These caveats, taken
from their context, some of his unscrupulous
political antagonists tried to employ later to show
that at the outbreak of the war he did not feel
about the rape of Belgium as he did later in the
struggle. For this error of judgment, which was
due to my desire to be loyal to the Government
as well as non-partisan, I am afraid Roosevelt
never forgave me, although he never alluded to it
in criticism or blame. From the very beginning
his own sentiments expressed in private conversa-
tion were those uttered in the following telegram,
sent on December 28, 1916, to Mr. W. J. Hand,
a lawyer and citizen of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
who was chairman of a Belgian Protest Meeting
held in the town hall of that city:

I wish all success to your meeting. Every American
worthy of the name should join in indignant and emphatic
protest against the hideous wrong-doing committed by Ger-
many in Belgium. Righteousness comes before peace, and
neutrality between right and wrong is as immoral now as in
the days of Pontius Pilate.

This whole episode I have described fully in an
article which was published in the Outlook of
March 29, 191 6. My interpretation was con-



252 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

firmed by an editorial in the Kansas City Star of
March 31st:

The Star can add confirmatory evidence. Colonel Roose-
velt spoke in Kansas City, Kansas, on September 21, 1914.
To at least one member of the Star staff at that time
he expressed forcibly his views regarding the duty of the
United States toward Belgium, and added that he did not
know how much longer he was going to be able to keep from
speaking out on this subject. A few weeks later he made his
first public declaration in criticism of the Administration's
attitude.

But to go back for a moment to the luncheon
at Potsdam. It was perfectly appointed and
managed and the etiquette of precedence was
scrupulously observed. It was served at small
round tables in one of the state dining rooms to a
company of, I should say, fifty or sixty ladies and
gentlemen, including Mrs. Roosevelt, the Empress,
and ladies of the Court. On leaving the table
we adjourned to a great reception room known as
the Muschelsaal, so called because the artist who
built it in Frederick the Great's time stuck the
yet-soft plaster full of iridescent mussel shells with
the typically Prussian notion of aesthetics that
this would form a decoration of beauty. It is
hardly necessary to add that it does not. Colonel
Roosevelt and the Kaiser withdrew to one corner
of the great Mussel Salon and entered into a lively



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 253

conversation. The rest of the party remained at
the other end of the room chatting as a group of
guests would do anywhere at a special luncheon.

After some time had elapsed I noticed the mili-
tary commander in charge of the affair — I think
it was General von Plessin — go up and whisper
to Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg. The two
pulled out their watches and then consulted Baron
Schon, the Minister of the Interior. The three
next went to the Empress and talked with her in
low voices. Their agitation was so marked and
so out of keeping with what had been the precision
thus far observed that I turned to a young captain
of infantry whose acquaintance I had made coming
out on the train and who spoke English perfectly
and knew my official relation to Roosevelt, and
said: "May I ask if anything has gone wrong?"
He replied: "Yes, the special train returns to
Berlin at four o'clock. It is now twenty minutes
to four and we are afraid that we shall not reach
the station in time." Of course in those days if a
German railway train, especially a royal railway
train, was delayed the entire operation of the em-
pire was apt, temporarily at least, to go to pieces.
But the exacting and all-powerful domination of
the Kaiser was such, and the officers of his Court
had been so trained from their earliest youth,



254 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

that there was not one person in that room — not
even the Prime Minister of the Empire, not even
the Empress herself — who dared step across the
floor and remind the Kaiser of an important en-
gagement. No one could leave the room until he
gave the signal.

By and by he came out of the hypnotic influence
which seemed to be exercised by the "Colonel of
the Rough Riders" (as the Kaiser liked to call him)
and gave the necessary intimation that we were to
go. We were rushed to the station, piling into
the vehicles with very little attention to the pre-
cedence which had been scrupulously observed
when we came from Berlin in the morning, and
barely got our train. This incident seemed amus-
ing to me at the time, but I now think that it was
much more than amusing, that it had an important
significance. It was a symptom of that kind of
idolatory which led the German people to follow the
Kaiser and his Potsdam circle into the greatest
national disaster of history.

But the Kaiser and his Court ought not to form
the final recollection of the continent of Europe
which this journey affords. And it shall not.

I return to Brussels for a moment to pay a tribute
of respect and admiration to King Albert and
Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. They entertained




©Daily Mirror, London

Colonel Roosevelt and his party arriving in England from
Germany where they had been entertained by the Kaiser.
This was in 1910



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 255

Mr. Roosevelt and his party at a delightful
dinner at the Palace of Laeken, which lies in
a beautiful park in the suburbs of the capital.
Their genuineness, simplicity, and cordiality were
of a kind which has been proved to be characteristic
of the three personages who, in the history of the
European war, will stand out supremely, I think,
for nobility of character and heroism of action.
The third is the Belgian Cardinal, Mercier.

Queen Elizabeth is of a German royal family but
she threw in her lot with her husband and adopted
his people in a way that entitles her to an honour
far higher than can be conferred by any coronet
or hereditary rank. She is not only a woman of
noble character but of high intelligence. She had
studied medicine and I was told practised philan-
thropically not a little among the poor of Brussels
by whom she was fairly idolized.

During the evening, after dinner, learning that I
was Secretary to Mr. Roosevelt, she sought me
out and engaged me for some time in a conversa-
tion about his personality and career. She was
much interested in the political situation in the
United States at the time, and I explained to her
as well as I could some of the policies and move-
ments which Roosevelt had espoused and led, and
which on the one hand drew about him as great



256 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

a company of devoted admirers, and on the other
hand ranged against him as strong and vigorous
an opposition, as the political history of the United
States had ever displayed. Her grasp and under-
standing of such questions seemed to me to be
quite extraordinary in a foreigner. But King Albert
had visited the United States some years before
in quite an informal way and made a study of
our institutions. Both the King and the Queen,
democratic and human by nature, looked with
especial interest upon the development of demo-
cratic institutions in America.

From Berlin Roosevelt went to England. Many
of his experiences there have been set forth in other
chapters. The chief object of his visit when he
left America was to give the Romanes lecture at
Oxford and to receive from that celebrated univer-
sity the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law.
Regarding this occasion I may quote from an
introduction which I contributed to the volume
of his "African and European Addresses ":

The Romanes lecture at Oxford University was the last
of Mr. Roosevelt's transatlantic speeches. I can think of no
greater intellectual honour that an English-speaking man can
receive than to have conferred upon him by the queen of
all universities the highest honorary degree in her power
to give, and in addition, to be invited to address the digni-
taries and dons and doctors of that university as a scholar



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 257

speaking to scholars. There is no American university man
who may not feel entirely satisfied with the way in which
the American university graduate stood the Oxford test on
that occasion. He took in good part the jokes and pleas-
antries pronounced in Latin by the Chancellor, Lord Curzon;
but after the ceremonies of initiation were finished, after the
beadles had, in response to the order of the Chancellor, con-
ducted " Doctorem Honorabilem ad Pulpitum," and after the
Chancellor had — this time in very direct and beautiful Eng-
lish — welcomed him to membership in the University, Mr.
Roosevelt delivered an address the serious scholarship of
which held the interest of those who heard it and arrested
the attention of many thousands of others who received
the lecture through the printed page.

As I have been writing these words I have also
been looking over again this Oxford-Romanes
lecture. I find in it a passage which strikes me
with new force. It confirms, I think, the inter-
pretation of his internationalism which will be
found at the conclusion of the chapter on Stat ss-
manship :

The foreign policy of a great and self-respecting country
should be conducted on exactly the same plane of honour,
of insistence upon one's own rights, and of respect for the
rights of others, that marks the conduct of a brave and hon-
ourable man when dealing with his fellows. Permit me to
support this statement out of my own experience. For nearly
eight years I was the head of a great nation, and charged es-
pecially with the conduct of its foreign policy; and during those
years I took no action with reference to any other people on
the face of the earth that I would not have felt justified in
taking as an individual in dealing with other individuals.



258 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

If I were to try to put in a single phrase the
impression which Roosevelt made upon Europe I
should say it was that of personal magnetism.

This magnetic quality of Roosevelt's, which
acted as a kind of electrical stimulant upon those
who came in contact with him, was remarked upon
in a striking way by the physician who attended
him in London. Unceasing private conversations
and innumerable public and semi-public speeches
during his journey tore his voice literally to pieces.
In Berlin he was under the care of a throat specialist
and for a day or two it was a question whether he
himself would be able to read his address at the Uni-
versity of Berlin. In London, while he was staying
at the house of his friend Sir Arthur Lee, one of the