38 CAMPING WITH THE PRESIDENT 



"I will not fire a gun in the Park; then I shall have 

 no explanations to make." Yet once I did hear him 

 say in the wilderness, " I feel as if I ought to keep the 

 camp in meat. I always have." I regretted that he 

 could not do so on this occasion. 



I have never been disturbed by the President's 

 hunting trips. It is to such men as he that the big 

 game legitimately belongs, men who regard it from 

 the point of view of the naturalist as well as from that 

 of the sportsman, who are interested in its preserva- 

 tion, and who share with the world the delight they 

 experience in the chase. Such a hunter as Roosevelt 

 is as far removed from the game-butcher as day is 

 from night; and as for his killing of the "varmints," 



bears, cougars, and bobcats, the fewer of these 

 there are, the better for the useful and beautiful game. 



The cougars, or mountain lions, in the Park cer- 

 tainly needed killing. The superintendent reported 

 that he had seen where they had slain nineteen elk, 

 and we saw where they had killed a deer, and dragged 

 its body across the trail. Of course, the President 

 would not now on his hunting trips shoot an elk or a 

 deer except to " keep the camp in meat," and for this 

 purpose it is as legitimate as to slay a sheep or a steer 

 for the table at home. 



We left Washington on April 1, and strung several 

 of the larger Western cities on our thread of travel, 



Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, St. Paul, Minne- 

 apolis, as well as many lesser towns, in each of 

 which the President made an address, sometimes 

 brief, on a few occasions of an hour or more. 



He gave himself very freely and heartily to the peo- 

 ple wherever he went. He could easily match their 



