Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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| for the kingdom that is to come, and nowhere is there another plan provided for doing it. |
| So, then, it is understood that I am absolved from routine, from chronology, and from statistics in writing this story. I am to have full leave to “put things in as I think of them,” as the critics of my books say I do anyhow. A more absurd charge was never made against any one, it has always seemed to me; for how can a man put things in when he does n’t think of them? I am just to write about Theodore Roosevelt as I know him, of my own knowledge or through those nearest and dearest to him. And the responsibility will be mine altogether. I am not going to consult him, even if he is the President of the United States. For one thing, because, the only time I ever did, awed by his office, he sent the copy back unread with the message that he would read it in print. So, if anything goes wrong, blame me and me only. |
| And now, when I cast around for a starting-point, there rises up before me the picture of a little lad, in stiff white petticoats, with a curl right on top of his head, toiling laboriously along with a big fat volume under his arm, |