Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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that, I had a notion that it would hurt his career. I think I told of it in “The Making of an American” when it was all long over. I certainly did not tell him. I knew better. But I argued all through a long evening into the midnight hour, until I had to grab my hat and run for the train, that he should not permit it. I argued myself to an absolute stand-still, for I remember his saying at last impatiently:
“If it had only been a man she killed—but another woman!” and I, exasperated and illogical: “Anyway, you are obliged to admit that she tried hard enough to kill a man.”
After I got back home he sent me a letter which I may not print here. But I shall hand it down to my children, and they will keep it as one of the precious possessions of their father, long after I have ceased to live and write. One sentence in it I have no right to withhold, for it turns the light on his character and way of thinking as few things do:
“Whatever I do, old friend, believe it will be because after painful groping I see my duty in some given path.”
So it was always with him. His duty was made clear when the commission of experts he
