CAMPING WITH THE PRESIDENT 61 



tions of prominent political leaders, or foreign rulers, 

 or members of his own Cabinet; always surprising by 

 his candor, astonishing by his memory, and diverting 

 by his humor. His reading has been very wide, and he 

 has that rare type of memory which retains details as 

 well as mass and generalities. One night something 

 started him off on ancient history, and one would have 

 thought he was just fresh from his college course in 

 history, the dates and names and events came so 

 readily. Another time he discussed palaeontology, and 

 rapidly gave the outlines of the science, and the main 

 facts, as if he had been reading up on the subject that 

 very day. He sees things as wholes, and hence the 

 relation of the parts comes easy to him. 



At dinner, at the White House, the night before we 

 started on the expedition, I heard him talking with a 

 guest, an officer of the British army, who was just 

 back from India. And the extent and variety of his 

 information about India and Indian history and the 

 relations of the British government to it were extraor- 

 dinary. It put the British major on his mettle to keep 

 pace with him. 



One night in camp he told us the story of one of his 

 Rough Riders who had just written him from some 

 place in Arizona. The Rough Riders, wherever they 

 are now, look to him in time of trouble. This one had 

 come to grief in Arizona. He was in jail. So he wrote 

 the President, and his letter ran something like this : 



" DEAR COLONEL, I am in trouble. I shot a lady 

 in the eye, but I did not intend to hit the lady; I was 

 shooting at my wife." 



And the presidential laughter rang out over the 

 treetops. To another Rough Rider, who was in jail, 



