The Days of a Man 1904 



toward the rest of us, who had not read it. Whenever 

 the train stopped he stepped to the rear and talked a 

 few moments to the people crowding enthusiastically 

 to see him. Usually he referred to the contrast 

 between this visit to Texas and his former one to 

 secure recruits for the " Rough Riders." To us he 

 said: 'I shall not make the mistake that Dewey did, 

 of believing that all this clamorous crowd want to 

 vote for me as President!" In the State House at 

 Austin he delivered the best speech I ever heard him 

 give. His topic was 'The Square Deal," in which 

 phrase he embodied his intention to see that the 

 railroads of the country were fairly treated. On the 

 one hand they should not be allowed to oppress the 

 people, nor on the other should the people be per- 

 mitted to "cinch" them. 



Roosevelt was never an easy speaker, although an 

 effective one; his sentences seemed to be hammered 

 out by hard mental effort, and to make them strike 

 home required considerable pounding with the fist. 

 It also seemed to me at times, especially after he left 

 the presidency, that he confounded vehemence with 

 enthusiasm and used epithets as a substitute for 

 argument. 1 



On the evening before my Austin address, the 



faculty of the State University had an animated 



discussion on the question of serving wine and beer 



at a dinner they were to give me in the Club House. 



man The "wets" contended that I was a "man of the 



w"? world." "What will he think of a club in which wine 



is not served?" The "drys" won, however, by a 



single vote. But two or three professors stayed 



away from the lecture in order to fill the rooms with 



1 See Vol. I, Chapter xm, pages 305-3 12; also Vol. II, Chapter XL, page 419. 

 I 152 3 



