The rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [417]
103. This passage is taken almost verbatim from TR.Wks.I.169.
104. Sewall in HAG.Bln.; Hag.Boy. 109; PRI.n.
105. TR.Wks.I.346. See Put.509–17 for more detail on these winter days. For TR’s organization of the LMSA, see ib., and Mattison, “Stockmen’s Association.” The first meeting was held on Dec. 19, 1884; TR was elected Chairman.
106. TR.Wks.I.341. Note that TR mentions death four times in this passage.
12: THE FOUR-EYED MAVERICK
Important sources not in Bibliography: 1. Bad Lands Cowboy 1884–1886 (microfilm of all known existing copies in TRB).
1. TR.Wks.I.35.
2. Hag.RBL.233; Put.518. TR also published in the January 1885 issue of Century his first article, “Phases of State Legislation” (reprinted in TR.Wks. XIII.47 ff.). It was an admirably detailed and occasionally very funny review of his three years as an Assemblyman, and so impressed James Bryce that he quoted it in his American Commonwealth (1888). See below, Ch. 15.
3. Mor.89.
4. See Lor.218–9.
5. Lodge, Journal, Mar. 20, 1885, qu. Put.506.
6. Hunting Trips of a Ranchman is reprinted in TR.Wks.I.1–247.
7. Put.519. “Mr. Roosevelt’s book is far too sumptuous for the general public,” remarked The Atheneum, calling it “one of the most beautiful hunting books ever printed.” (Sep. 19, 1885.)
8. New York Mail and Express, Sep. 14, 1895. There were three American editions and one British, within the first year of publication (New York Tribune, Oct. 6, 1886). London reviews were especially complimentary. The Spectator (Jan. 16, 1886) noted TR’s extraordinary identification with animals outside of the chase, and said that it was “a book to be closed with lingering regret.” (Ib.) Saturday Review (August 29, 1885) called it “a repertory of thoughtful woodcraft or prairiecraft,” whose “cultivated” style and “sumptuous” presentation would make it one of the top ten “sporting classics” of Western literature.
9. Cut.54.
10. It is amusing to note that TR’s minute description of the Elkhorn ranch interior, with its flickering firelight, antler-hung walls, and well-stocked shelves, was written at a time when Sewall and Dow had not yet put on the roof.
11. TR.Wks.I.112.
12. Ib., 119. For TR’s abnormal sensitivity to sound, see ib., pages 12, 13, 14, 35, 45, 48, 49, 57, 58, 59, 65, 66, 69, 85, 95, 96, 113, 114, 115, 127, 129, 132, 146, 148, 150, 153, 161, 167, 169.
13. The only explanation satisfactory to the author is contained in the last stanza of Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol.
14. TR.Wks.I.107.
15. See Hag.RBL.240–1 and the Book of Job, 30.27; also Put.520.
16. Hag.RBL.249–52. The next landing was more than a mile away.
17. TR to B, Apr. 29, 1885 (TRB).
18. Put.520. Sewall (HAG.Bln.) says they all moved in “at the end of April,” but since he and Dow were away after Apr. 23 the move must have occurred before that. The ranch house was essentially a huge log cabin, 60′ × 30′ × 7′. It no longer exists, but the site is preserved. See Ch. 11, n. 28.
19. TR.Wks.I.10-11.
20. Qu. Hag.RBL.240.
21. An additional purchase of 52 ponies for $3,275 is included in this total of $85,000. See Put.523 and fn. TR to B, May 17, 1885 (TRB mss.).
22. Put.523; Mor.90; TR.Wks.I.337–8.
23. Put.520; HAG.Bln.
24. TR.Auto.100.
25. Hag.RBL.285; Put.528.
26. TR.Auto.101-6.
27. Put.524–5; Lan.184.
28. TR to B, June 5, 1885; TR.Auto. 107; TR.Wks.I.320; Hag. RBL.289–90.
29. Three-Seven Bill Jones (not to be confused with Hell-Roaring Bill Jones), qu. Hag.RBL.279.
30. Lan.185; Put.524; TR to B, June 5, 1885 (TRB mss). TR gives an excellent account of a Badlands round-up in TR.Wks.I.314–340.
31. St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 23, 1885.
32. Trib., July 8, 1885.
33. Sew.41. TR was to suffer occasional spells of “wheezing” and “bronchitis” throughout his life, but at such infrequent intervals he can be said to have effectively conquered his asthma.
34. Tha.57. See also below, n. 42.
35. This description of the new house is based