Read Online The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Douglas Brinkley
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his livestock. “We saw a brutal conveyance of lambs,” he wrote. “They were tied by their legs and swung across a donkeys back. We saw also a young vilain who swung a poor animal around.” 57
Three weeks later, young Theodore was horrified by the way Italians treated their animals. “It seemed as if we would never get out of Napleswhich I was very anxius to do,” he wrote, “to avoid seeing the cruelty to the poor donkeys in making them draw heavey loads and nearly starving them.” 58 In Rome he bragged that “we saw a beautiful big huge dog and I was the only one he shook hands with and I am proud.” 59 Paradoxically, other entries from the same European trip extol the thrill of what hunters call the chase. Sometimes Roosevelt would patrol the streets of Rome pursuing wild dogs, cornering them so he could watch them snap and snarl up close, taunting them with his gun muzzle to provoke them to show their wolflike teeth. In prose he used dramatic imagery (indeed, clichés) about “trapping wild dogs” that were “growling furiously,” stray mongrels that “thrust into his face.” 60
At other times during his European tour, Roosevelt sketched animals in the zoos he visited. This practice may have been inspired by his meeting Professor Daniel G. Elliot, one of the world’s foremost naturalists, in Florence on March 1. Well-to-do, Elliot came from New York but had been embraced in European scientific circles as an ornithologist and mammalogist of rare talent. Some claimed, in fact, that Elliot had been put on earth to study a wide range of species including Californian salmon and American bison. Writing and often illustrating numerous books, Elliot was considered the leading expert on cats, both wild and domestic. But what most captivated Roosevelt was that Professor Elliot had undertaken to produce two volumes on North American birds in 1869, covering the numerous species that the great Audubon had missed. 61 An easy touch, the critic Roosevelt deemed Elliot’s The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of the Birds of North America a “beautiful” accomplishment of lasting integrity.” 62
Warmed by the glow of spending time with Elliot, T.R. sought out more books by naturalists. He started carrying around illustrated volumes by Alexander Wilson and Thomas Nuttall. At the zoological garden in Florence, he got to feed the bears and sketch them in a notebook. Even when Roosevelt toured the drafty stone museums of Europe, he would try to find a link to animals, noting, for example, that an ornate sleigh resembled a “crouching leopard.” The last entry in young Theodore’s European diary was made on their westbound ship before the family disembarked in New York. After complaining that he hadn’t seen any birds or fish, his luck turned. “In the afternoon we saw some young whales,” he wrote, “one of whom came so near the boat that when it spouted some of its water came on me.” 63
IV
Upon returning from Europe, fatigued from touring Catholic cathedrals and German dance halls, Roosevelt was flushed with the ambition of seeing the American West with his own eyes. Smitten with the whole idea of “Go West, young man!” once promulgated by Horace Greeley, he wanted to straddle the Continental Divide clad in buckskin, riding off into the wild Rockies. Roosevelt’s parents, however, preferred the thick woodlands of northernmost New York and Vermont instead of places with names like Dead Man Gulch or Hellville. Proximity, one supposes, played a large role in his parents’ decision about the itinerary. All T.R. could do was nod in acquiescence; at least the Hudson River valley was better than being seasick on another voyage to Europe. During the summers of 1870, 1871, and 1872 the Roosevelt family rented country houses along the Hudson River valley—in Dobbs Ferry (George Washington’s headquarters before the march to Yorktown in 1781) and Spuyten Duyvil (near Riverdale). 64 The Hudson enchanted
Three weeks later, young Theodore was horrified by the way Italians treated their animals. “It seemed as if we would never get out of Napleswhich I was very anxius to do,” he wrote, “to avoid seeing the cruelty to the poor donkeys in making them draw heavey loads and nearly starving them.” 58 In Rome he bragged that “we saw a beautiful big huge dog and I was the only one he shook hands with and I am proud.” 59 Paradoxically, other entries from the same European trip extol the thrill of what hunters call the chase. Sometimes Roosevelt would patrol the streets of Rome pursuing wild dogs, cornering them so he could watch them snap and snarl up close, taunting them with his gun muzzle to provoke them to show their wolflike teeth. In prose he used dramatic imagery (indeed, clichés) about “trapping wild dogs” that were “growling furiously,” stray mongrels that “thrust into his face.” 60
At other times during his European tour, Roosevelt sketched animals in the zoos he visited. This practice may have been inspired by his meeting Professor Daniel G. Elliot, one of the world’s foremost naturalists, in Florence on March 1. Well-to-do, Elliot came from New York but had been embraced in European scientific circles as an ornithologist and mammalogist of rare talent. Some claimed, in fact, that Elliot had been put on earth to study a wide range of species including Californian salmon and American bison. Writing and often illustrating numerous books, Elliot was considered the leading expert on cats, both wild and domestic. But what most captivated Roosevelt was that Professor Elliot had undertaken to produce two volumes on North American birds in 1869, covering the numerous species that the great Audubon had missed. 61 An easy touch, the critic Roosevelt deemed Elliot’s The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of the Birds of North America a “beautiful” accomplishment of lasting integrity.” 62
Warmed by the glow of spending time with Elliot, T.R. sought out more books by naturalists. He started carrying around illustrated volumes by Alexander Wilson and Thomas Nuttall. At the zoological garden in Florence, he got to feed the bears and sketch them in a notebook. Even when Roosevelt toured the drafty stone museums of Europe, he would try to find a link to animals, noting, for example, that an ornate sleigh resembled a “crouching leopard.” The last entry in young Theodore’s European diary was made on their westbound ship before the family disembarked in New York. After complaining that he hadn’t seen any birds or fish, his luck turned. “In the afternoon we saw some young whales,” he wrote, “one of whom came so near the boat that when it spouted some of its water came on me.” 63
IV
Upon returning from Europe, fatigued from touring Catholic cathedrals and German dance halls, Roosevelt was flushed with the ambition of seeing the American West with his own eyes. Smitten with the whole idea of “Go West, young man!” once promulgated by Horace Greeley, he wanted to straddle the Continental Divide clad in buckskin, riding off into the wild Rockies. Roosevelt’s parents, however, preferred the thick woodlands of northernmost New York and Vermont instead of places with names like Dead Man Gulch or Hellville. Proximity, one supposes, played a large role in his parents’ decision about the itinerary. All T.R. could do was nod in acquiescence; at least the Hudson River valley was better than being seasick on another voyage to Europe. During the summers of 1870, 1871, and 1872 the Roosevelt family rented country houses along the Hudson River valley—in Dobbs Ferry (George Washington’s headquarters before the march to Yorktown in 1781) and Spuyten Duyvil (near Riverdale). 64 The Hudson enchanted
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