The Vice-President

     THE “erratic” Mr. Roosevelt has again disappointed those who dislike him. His actions since the day of the crime at Buffalo have been the perfection of sympathy, delicacy and tact. He has sought and kept the background [sic], while presenting himself where most needed, with a fine sense of the fitness of things. And notwithstanding all that has been said by a few persons as to the “danger” of the accession of such an energetic individual to the Presidency it is remarkable that the whole country contemplated the possibility without the suspicion of a qualm. This demonstrates that the people know the real Roosevelt and have not been deceived by exaggerations about him. He acted with prompt decision in an emergency. He acted just right and with a proper conception of his possible immediate responsibilities, yet with a modesty that has the exactly sufficient manly charm. No one’s conduct could be freer from pose. And in a silent but none the less effective fashion the people’s confidence in Mr. Roosevelt has been shown by the absence of any echo of the malignantly disparaging criticism which affected to see in him a character unstable and romantically irresponsible. The Vice-President has borne himself in such a manner as to prove him worthy of association with a President who has met misfortune with a gentle stoicism and a noble forgetfulness of self in thought for his country and friends.