So far this trip has been a great success, and I think Mother has really
enjoyed it. As for me, I of course feel a little bored, as I always do
on shipboard, but I have brought on a great variety of books, and am at
this moment reading Milton's prose works, "Tacitus," and a German
novel called "Jorn Uhl." Mother and I walk briskly up and down the deck
together, or else sit aft under the awning, or in the after cabin, with
the gun ports open, and read; and I also spend a good deal of time on
the forward bridge, and sometimes on the aft bridge, and of course have
gone over the ship to inspect it with the Captain. It is a splendid
thing to see one of these men-of-war, and it does really make one proud
of one's country. Both the officers and the enlisted men are as fine a
set as one could wish to see.
It is a beautiful sight, these three great war-ships standing southward
in close column, and almost as beautiful at night when we see not only
the lights but the loom through the darkness of the ships astern. We are
now in the tropics and I have thought a good deal of the time over eight
years ago when I was sailing to Santiago in the fleet of warships and
transports. It seems a strange thing to think of my now being President,
going to visit the work of the Panama Canal which I have made possible.
Mother, very pretty and dainty in white summer clothes, came up on
Sunday morning to see inspection and review, or whatever they call
it, of the men. I usually spend half an hour on deck before Mother is
dressed. Then we breakfast together alone; have also taken lunch alone,
but at dinner have two or three officers to dine with us. Doctor Rixey
is along, and is a perfect dear, as always.