24 
House & Garden 
TRIBUTES TO ROOSEVELT 
HEODORE ROOSEVELT once wrote “The life of the State 
rests and must ever rest upon the life of the family and the 
neighborhood." It is fitting, then, that a magazine such as House & 
Garden, devoted to the betterment of the surroundings of the family, 
should print these two announcements. The first explains the work 
of the Roosevelt Memorial Association; the second, the plans of the 
Woman’s Roosevelt Memorial Association. 
I MMEDIATELY after the death of Theodore Roosevelt, there 
sprang up all over the country a demand for a memorial to this 
ardent patriot and great man. It seemed to be the opinion of people 
of every class and interest that while his place in history was assured, 
and his place in the hearts of his countrymen could never be lost, there 
should be erected, without loss of time, a memorial to express the 
affection in which he was held and to perpetuate for the benefit of 
future generations the ideas and ideals for which he stood. 
'Lhe result of this demand was the formation of the Roosevelt Me¬ 
morial Association, with headquarters at No. 1 Madison Avenue, New 
York City, a non-partisan organization in the creation of which per¬ 
sonal friends of the late ex-President took the lead. This Associa¬ 
tion met in March and decided by formal vote to conduct a campaign 
to raise $10,000,000 by popular subscription, to erect in Washington, 
seat of the Government and scene of Colonel Roosevelt’s most im¬ 
portant labor for the public good, a national memorial monument; and 
to create at Oyster Bay, his home for so many years, a park which 
may ultimately include his estate of Sagamore Hill, to be preserved 
like Mount Vernon and the Lincoln home at Springfield. 
Out of the thousands of suggestions for fitting memorials that came 
from Roosevelt’s friends and admirers, it seemed that these two forms 
were most nearly significant of his life and personality. Washington, 
the capital of the country, where Roosevelt had spent so many of his 
years in work that left its impress on the history of the nation, could 
be left out of no plan for a permanent memorial to him. There is the 
most appropriate setting for a lasting tribute to him as a statesman 
and leader and servant of his fellow-countrymen. 
Equally fitting for a memorial to Roosevelt as a man and as a lover 
of nature is the scene of his ideally happy home life at Oyster Bay. 
In his lifetime he loved it all, its woods and fields, the shores of Long 
Island Sound, the flowers and the birds. He loved the outdoor life 
and he wanted others to love and 
share and benefit by it. During 
his lifetime in fact he endeavored 
to obtain an outdoor park for his 
friends and neighbors at Oyster 
Bay, but did not live to see the 
accomplishment of his wish. With 
his passing, a wider significance 
will be given to this cherished 
aim of his. The creation of a 
park will give his fellow-citizens 
opportunity for rest and recrea¬ 
tion and upbuilding of mind and 
body; the inclusion of his home, 
with its fields and woodlands, its 
furnishings, its library and tro¬ 
phies and gifts from all over the 
world will make it particularly 
a spot associated with his memory 
and a Mecca for all Americans. 
The officers of the Roosevelt 
Memorial Association in¬ 
clude men and women of national 
reputation, friends and associates 
of Roosevelt from all over the 
country and from all walks of 
life. 
LIE association is strictly 
non-partisan, for its purpose 
is to honor the memory of Theo¬ 
dore Roosevelt as a great Ameri¬ 
can. So it is the earnest desire 
and hope of its members to enlist 
the co-operation of every Ameri¬ 
can in this tribute of apprecia¬ 
tion to Roosevelt as a man, a 
citizen and a patriot. 
The campaign for the fund to establish the memorial will be held 
in every state during the week of October 20-27, and will be directed 
from the offices of the Association, at 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 
The dates were selected as having a particular aptness, as the last 
day of the campaign will fall on Colonel Roosevelt’s birthday. Or¬ 
ganizations have already been completed in all the states and in the 
various sub-divisions in which the canvass for subscriptions to the 
memorial will be made. 
Every penny subscribed for the memorial fund will go into the 
fund, as generous personal friends of Colonel Roosevelt have under¬ 
taken to defray all the expenses incidental to the campaign. No 
effort will lie spared to reach every American who would like to be 
represented, be it by ever so small a contribution in the making of 
a memorial that will be commensurate with the achievement of Mr. 
Roosevelt and the widespread esteem and affection in which he was 
held throughout his country. It is, in fact, the hope of the Associa¬ 
tion that the number of contributors to the fund will be a gratifying 
index of the hold he had on the affections of Americans, North and 
South and East and West. 
T HE Woman’s Roosevelt Memorial Association has acquired 
Colonel Roosevelt's birthplace at 28 East Twentieth Street, New 
York City, and the adjoining house at 26 East Twentieth Street. 
The two buildings will be connected and together will form Roose¬ 
velt House. 
His birthplace is to be restored and the interior reproduced with 
the original furnishings, family portraits and other heirlooms. 
It will be a repository of records and other intimate mementoes of 
this great partiot, in order that it may be visited by all who loved 
him and by those who would study the influences which shaped his 
career. 
The whole Roosevelt House is to be not merely a museum but a 
living influence. 
There will be a free Circulating Library containing all the writ¬ 
ings of Colonel Roosevelt and many other books on travel, nature 
study, history, and the lives of great men. 
Classes will be held for teaching English and the History of the 
City and of the Nation. 
In the Assembly Hall lectures will be given on all these subjects 
and also on the life of Theodore 
Roosevelt. 
A million dollars is needed. 
The women of America pur¬ 
chased and restored Mount Ver¬ 
non. The women of America 
helped to preserve the home of 
Lincoln. The women of America 
are asked now to restore and per¬ 
petuate the birthplace of Theo¬ 
dore Roosevelt. 
To establish a p e r m a nent 
school of citizenship and to keep 
this birthplace year after year a 
center where the boys and girls 
of America, and the men and 
women as well, will come together 
to learn the duties and privileges 
of citizenship. 
W E in America pride our¬ 
selves on our recognition 
of wholesomeness, courage and 
straight thinking, qualities which 
Theodore Roosevelt possessed in 
a superlative degree. The loss 
which America suffered with his 
passing we are realizing now, but 
only the future will bring realiza¬ 
tion to the full; he was a man 
who could ill be spared at any 
time, but especially during the 
series of national crises through 
which we have been passing. For 
each of us to do his or her bit 
to keep his memory vividly alive 
is a national as well as a per¬ 
sonal privilege. 
THE GRACE of LITTLE GARDENS 
Great gardnis have a glory though it does not come my way, 
The lure of little gardens is a grace for every day. 
In the white radiance of the dawn, the tenderness of dusk, 
There’s magic in the mignonette, and witchery in musk. 
Just underneath my window sill the shy violas grow, 
Their wise, wee faces tell me half the things I want to know. 
The foxgloves know when fairies pass, an ancient story tells 
They hear the Little People ring the Canterbury bells. 
Among my roses linger smiles that faded long ago — 
A crimson rambler stooped, and bared her heart to tell me so. 
While secrets whisper still in tall anemones and phlox, 
That stand in stately rows behind my border line of box. 
With golden rod and clematis the year is growing old, 
A page from Summer’s breviary, dim garlanded with gold. 
There is a benediction in a little garden’s grace, 
A chalice filled with wonder at the heart of commonplace. 
Where homely colors gleam and glance like stars upon the sod, 
The grace of little gardens is the eternal grace of God. 
Florence Bone. 
