Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician's Quest for Recovery in the American West by Roger L. Di Silvestro

Author:Roger L. Di Silvestro [Silvestro, Roger L. Di]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, General, United States, 19th Century
ISBN: 9780802778451
Google: Sw-iAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2011-03-15T00:12:48.422523+00:00

The day after he signed the contract, Roosevelt left for New York in the company of Wilmot Dow, who was visiting Maine long enough to marry and to bring back, along with his new bride, Sewall’s wife and sixteen-month-old daughter.93 On the way to New York, Roosevelt suffered a few interviews with reporters, who seemed ever fascinated with him. They discovered a new, post-roundup Roosevelt who, it was immediately apparent, was no longer the wan, sickly man of only two months before. Their repetitious heralding of his profound physical change suggests a turning point in his long quest for good health. He was now, according to a reporter for the Pioneer Press, “rugged, bronzed and in the prime of health” as he “passed through St. Paul yesterday, returning from his Dakota ranch to New York and civilization. There was very little of the whilom dude in his rough and easy costume, with a large handkerchief tied loosely about his neck; but the eye glasses and the flashing eyes behind them, the pleasant smile and the hearty grasp of the hand remained.… The slow exasperating drawl and the unique accent the New Yorker feels he must use when visiting a less blessed portion of civilization have disappeared, and in their place is a nervous, energetic manner of talking with the flat accent of the West.”94

A Pittsburgh Dispatch reporter agreed, telling readers, “What a change! Last March he was a pale, slim young man, with a thin, piping voice and a general look of dyspepsia.… He is now brown as a berry and has increased 30 lbs in weight. The voice which failed to make an echo in the seven million dollar capitol [in Albany] when he climbed upon his desk and shook his little pocket handkerchief and piped ‘Mistah Speakah,’ is now hearty and strong enough to drive oxen.”95

Roosevelt had a newly “sturdy walk and firm bearing,” wrote a reporter who met him in New York City.96 The St. Paul Dispatch on June 22, 1885, reported an interview in which Roosevelt’s words, even on the printed page, seemed to crackle with energy:

“Yes, I am a regular cowboy, dress and all”—and his garb went far to prove his assertion, woolen shirt, big handkerchief tied loosely around his neck, etc. “I am as much of a cowboy as any of them and can hold my own with the best of them. I can shoot, ride and drive in the round up with the best of them. Oh, they are a jolly set of fellows, those cowboys; tip-top good fellows, too, when you know them, but they don’t want any plug hat or pointed-toe shoes foolishness around them. I get along the best way with them.” Also, “Do I like ranch life? Honestly I would not go back to New York if I had no interests there. Yes, I enjoy ranch life far more than city life. I like the hunt, the drive of cattle and everything that is comprehended in the frontier life. Make no mistake; on the frontier you find the noblest of fellows.

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