440 
ROOSEVELTS RETURN TO CIVILIZATION 
beast doubtfully, he swayed backward and forward as the tall creature 
jerked itself upward on its long legs, and clung on for dear life when 
the full altitude was reached. Surveying the members of his family 
from this point of vantage, he exclaimed: 
“1 think I’d rather try a rhino.” 
At the government school he made a brief address, exhorting 
them to be good citizens and good Christians, and to do their duty to 
the government that had replaced the old savagery of that land with 
the blessings of civilization. Later in the day, the one preceding St. 
Patrick’s day, he appeared with a sprig of shamrock in his hand, 
one of a bunch which a patriotic Irishman had sent him. 
“I always wear the shamrock on St. Patrick’s day,” he said. 
March 17, St. Patrick’s day, the natal day of the patron saint of 
Ireland, was the final day of the Roosevelt party in Khartum. The 
Colonel kept it by gathering around him at a lunch in the palace the 
remaining members of his hunting enterprise, among the guests being 
Sir Alfred Pease, his first host in Ireland, Clayton Bey, of the Sirdar’s 
staff, and Captain Meredith, commander of the steamer Dal. 
He tried to make the occasion as lively as possible, but was much 
moved when the time came to shake hands in farewell to those with 
whom he had been so long and pleasantly associated. Meanwhile 
Mrs. Roosevelt and Ethel had been packing up preparatory to their 
departure and attended none of these functions. At 9 o’clock that 
night they all took the train and bade farewell, as they rolled away 
from the station, to the frontier city where they had spent three very 
active days and had been so agreeably entertained. 
