44 
Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 
the New World he gave me from memory an almost complete 
bibliography of the works discussing the slavery question in the 
United States, from the books of Anthony Benezet in 1762 to those 
of Olmsted in 1861. Once, when the then Provost of Oriel called 
and lunched, and was rather perversely Hellenistic in his lore, 
Roosevelt, with a twinkle in his eye, turned the subject to the 
Tatar invasion of Eastern Europe in the thirteenth century, and 
gave us a really remarkable sketch of its chief incidents and ulti- 
mate results. 
It would be a great mistake to represent this great man as one 
who monopolised the conversation in public or in private. On the 
contrary, he was a rarely good and encouraging listener to anyone 
who had something to say, and singularly courteous about not 
interrupting. Indeed, he drew out good conversation in those around 
him, besides being an exceptionally interesting talker himself. 
As a writer on zoology Roosevelt is best known by his African 
Gouic Trails and African Game Animals, but his Outdoor Pastimes 
of an American Hunter (igo8) is well worth reading, both for 
letterpress and illustrations. Through the Brazilian Wilderness gives 
a truthful, though not always exhilarating, description of the Bra- 
zilian forest and grassy plains. But there is another side to Theodore 
Roosevelt, and many an instance of his versatilit\-. in the five volumes 
of his " Presidential Addresses and State Papers." Probably no 
head of a State in history has uttered so much sound sense with 
so much originality of diction and illustration. In Roosevelt we 
had for the first (and. so far. the only) time a great ruler who 
was also an adept in the modern sciences, a student and an exponent 
of the New Bible, a statesman who was extraordinarily well .versed 
in geography — prehistoric, historical, political, physical, and com- 
mercial — who was strongly interested in botany, ethnolog}'. zoology, 
philology, modern history, sociolog}. and questions of hygiene and 
the struggle for the supremacy of man over recalcitrant Nature. He 
gave a great impulse to the research into the causes of yellow fever, 
and the means of eliminating it from Cuba and Panama. If we 
only had the luck to acquire a Prime Minister with the learning, the 
driving force, and the sincerity of Roosevelt, what might not be the 
after-history of the British Empire, could such a Premier direct its 
destinies and the education of its governing classes for seven years? 
But. alas ! Politics in Britain do not breed Roosevelts.* 
* Reprinted, by permission of Sir Harry H. Johnston, and the Editor, from 
Nature, Vol. 102, pp. 389-390, January 16, 1919. 
