[Illustration: _© Underwood and Underwood._
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Junior.
He was gassed in the fight at Cantigny, and wounded when making a
charge at Ploisy.]
Kermit, Archibald, Theodore—all have done their duty, but, of course,
death has made the youngest of the Roosevelts dearest to American
hearts. Perhaps, indeed, the death of no other man at the front
has so touched the people as that of young Lieutenant Quentin. He
stands almost like the symbol of young America giving itself up for
freedom. “In the sorrow of his parents,” writes the _Outlook_, “his
fellow-countrymen have felt the sorrow of all who have lost sons in
this struggle. In the pride his parents have simply expressed his
fellow-countrymen have been able to understand in part the pride of
all those who have learned that for his purpose of making mankind
free God has had need of their dearest. In honoring Quentin Roosevelt
Americans honor all those young men who have rendered to their country
their full measure of devotion.”
Part of the special glory of the Roosevelts comes from the fact that
they were watched so closely. Quentin, especially, was known to the
nation from his very childhood. The nation knew him, and it watched
him. Quentin died fighting against odds—a symbol of young American
manhood.
When we think of what Colonel Roosevelt and his sons stood for in this
war there is something soul-stirring in the fact that the father and
his youngest boy have both so suddenly passed away, and in the light of
all this there is a pathetic significance in the answer which Colonel
Roosevelt gave to the man who at a public meeting asked the Colonel why
he himself had not gone across:
[Illustration:
© _Underwood and Underwood._