t confession from himself) impossible to guess, for, as I have
said, he was already, though present almost a half-mythical person to
the men of the north-western prairie country.

What vexed me no little at the time was that it was with some effort
that I could get his name right. I could not remember whether it was
Teddy Roosevelt or Roosy Teddevelt. The name now is familiar to all the
world; but then it struck strangely on untrained English ears and to me
it seemed quite as reasonable whichever way one twisted it round. Mr.
Jacob Riis (or Mr. Leupp) has protested against the President of the
United States being called "Teddy" and we have his word for it that Mr.
Roosevelt's own intimates have never thought of addressing him otherwise
than as "Theodore." Doubtless this is correct (certainly I know men who
assure me that they call him "Theodore" now) but at least the more
friendly "Teddy" has, as is proved by that confusion in my mind of a
quarter of a century ago, the justification of long prescription. Nor am
I sure that it has not been a fortunate thing both for Mr. Roosevelt and
the country that his name has been Teddy to the multitude. I doubt if
the men of the West, the rough-riders and the plainsmen, would give so
much of their hearts to Theodore.

It is not easy to estimate the value, or otherwise, of Mr. Roosevelt's
work in that capacity in which he has of late come to be best known to
the world, namely as an opponent of the Trusts; but it is a pity that so
many English newspapers habitually represent him as an enemy of all
concentrated wealth. He has been called "the first Aristocrat to be
elected President." Whether that be strictly true or not, he belongs
distinctly to the aristocratic class and his sympathies are naturally
with that class. His instincts are not destructive. No one, I have
reason to believe, has a shrewder estimate of the worthlessness of the
majority of those politicians who use his name as a cloak for their
attacks on all accumulated wealth than he. It is only necessary to read
his speeches to see how constantly he has insisted that it is not
wealth, but the abuse of it, which he antagonises: "We draw the line not
against wealth, but against misconduct." He has many times protested
against the "outcry against men of wealth," for most of which he has
declared "there is but the scantiest justification." Again and again he
has proclaimed his desire not to hurt the honest corporation, "but we