MEETING COLONEL ROOSEVELT 139 



ever, as they had received no answer to the letter 

 sent several days before to Mr. Akeley and conse- 

 quently did not know positively that his party had 

 reached the plateau. 



The colonel asked about George Ade, com- 

 mented vigorously and with prophetic insight on 

 the Cook-Peary controversy, and read aloud, in ex- 

 cellent dialect, a Dooley article on the subject, which 

 I had saved from an old copy of the Chicago 

 Tribune. He commented very frankly, with no 

 semblance at hypocrisy, on Mr. Harriman's death, 

 told many of his experiences in the hunting field, 

 and for three hours, at lunch and afterward, he 

 talked with the freedom of one who was glad to 

 see some American friends in the wilderness and 

 who had no objection to showing his pleasure at such 

 a meeting. 



He talked about the tariff and about many pub- 

 lic men and public questions with a frankness that 

 compels even a newspaper man to regard as being 

 confidential. Our safari was the only one he had 

 met in the field since he had been in Africa, and it 

 was evident that the efforts of the protectorate 

 officials to save him from interference and intrusion 

 had been successful. 



Arrangements were then made for an elephant 

 hunt. Colonel Roosevelt was working on schedule 

 time, and had planned to be in Sergoi on the seven- 

 teenth. He agreed to a hunt that should cover the 

 fifteenth, sixteenth, and possibly the seventeenth, 

 trusting that they might be successful in this period 



