We had a most interesting two days at Porto Rico. We landed on the south
side of the island and were received by the Governor and the rest of the
administration, including nice Mr. Laurance Grahame; then were given
a reception by the Alcalde and people of Ponce; and then went straight
across the island in automobiles to San Juan on the north shore. It was
an eighty mile trip and really delightful. The road wound up to the high
mountains of the middle island, through them, and then down again to
the flat plain on the north shore. The scenery was beautiful. It was as
thoroughly tropical as Panama but much more livable. There were
palms, tree-ferns, bananas, mangoes, bamboos, and many other trees
and multitudes of brilliant flowers. There was one vine called the
dream-vine with flowers as big as great white water-lilies, which close
up tight in the day-time and bloom at night. There were vines with
masses of brilliant purple and pink flowers, and others with masses of
little white flowers, which at night-time smell deliciously. There were
trees studded over with huge white flowers, and others, the flamboyants
such as I saw in the campaign at Santiago, are a mass of large scarlet
blossoms in June, but which now had shed them. I thought the tree-ferns
especially beautiful. The towns were just such as you saw in Cuba,
quaint, brilliantly colored, with the old church or cathedral fronting
the plaza, and the plaza always full of flowers. Of course the towns are
dirty, but they are not nearly as dirty and offensive as those of Italy;
and there is something pathetic and childlike about the people. We are
giving them a good government and the island is prospering. I never saw
a finer set of young fellows than those engaged in the administration.
Mr. Grahame, whom of course you remember, is the intimate friend and
ally of the leaders of the administration, that is of Governor Beekman
Winthrop and of the Secretary of State, Mr. Regis Post. Grahame is
a perfect trump and such a handsome, athletic fellow, and a real Sir
Galahad. Any wrong-doing, and especially any cruelty makes him flame
with fearless indignation. He perfectly delighted the Porto Ricans and
also immensely puzzled them by coming in his Scotch kilt to a Government
ball. Accordingly, at my special request, I had him wear his kilt at the
state dinner and reception the night we were at the palace. You know he
is a descendant of Montrose, and although born in Canada, his parents
were Scotch and he was educated in Scotland. Do tell Mr. Bob Fergie
about him and his kilts when you next write him.
We spent the night at the palace, which is half palace and half castle,
and was the residence of the old Spanish governors. It is nearly four
hundred years old, and is a delightful building, with quaint gardens
and a quaint sea-wall looking over the bay. There were colored lanterns
lighting up the gardens for the reception, and the view across the bay
in the moonlight was lovely. Our rooms were as attractive as possible
too, except that they were so very airy and open that we found it
difficult to sleep--not that that much mattered as, thanks to the
earliness of our start and the lateness of our reception, we had barely
four hours in which we even tried to sleep.
The next morning we came back in automobiles over different and even
more beautiful roads. The mountain passes through and over which we went
made us feel as if we were in a tropic Switzerland. We had to cross two
or three rivers where big cream-colored oxen with yokes tied to their
horns pulled the automobiles through the water. At one funny little
village we had an open air lunch, very good, of chicken and eggs and
bread, and some wine contributed by a wealthy young Spaniard who rode up
from a neighboring coffee ranch.
Yesterday afternoon we embarked again, and that evening the crew gave
a theatrical entertainment on the afterdeck, closing with three boxing
bouts. I send you the program. It was great fun, the audience being
equally enraptured with the sentimental songs about the flag, and the
sailor's true love and his mother, and with the jokes (the most relished
of which related to the fact that bed-bugs were supposed to be so
large that they had to be shot!) and the skits about the commissary and
various persons and deeds on the ship. In a way the freedom of
comment reminded me a little of the Roman triumphs, when the excellent
legendaries recited in verse and prose, anything they chose concerning
the hero in whose deeds they had shared and whose triumphs they were
celebrating. The stage, well lighted, was built on the aftermost part of
the deck. We sat in front with the officers, and the sailors behind us
in masses on the deck, on the aftermost turrets, on the bridge, and even
in the fighting top of the aftermost mast. It was interesting to see
their faces in the light.
. . . . .
P. S. I forgot to tell you about the banners and inscriptions of welcome
to me in Porto Rico. One of them which stretched across the road had
on it "Welcome to Theodore and Mrs. Roosevelt." Last evening I really
enjoyed a rather funny experience. There is an Army and Navy Union
composed chiefly of enlisted men, but also of many officers, and they
suddenly held a "garrison" meeting in the torpedo-room of this ship.
There were about fifty enlisted men together with the Captain and
myself. I was introduced as "comrade and shipmate Theodore Roosevelt,
President of the United States." They were such a nice set of fellows,
and I was really so pleased to be with them; so self-respecting, so
earnest, and just the right type out of which to make the typical
American fighting man who is also a good citizen. The meeting reminded
me a good deal of a lodge meeting at Oyster Bay; and of course those men
are fundamentally of the same type as the shipwrights, railroad men and
fishermen whom I met at the lodge, and who, by the way, are my chief
backers politically and are the men who make up the real strength of
this nation.