Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: over and nearly drenched him. The wind was fast gaining force. The officer moved back. Mr. Roosevelt gripped the rail harder and set his teeth. Then he saw another wave coming, bigger than the first, and behind that still mightier ones. Suddenly he let go and bolted after the officer, just in time to escape the waters which crashed against a hastily shut door. I decided to make this retreat the feature of my story for the next day—for I was on a Democratic paper. At the end of the trip out the vessel was halted while the Vice-President and the Governor addressed the "jackies," who lined up on the rear deck. The Vice-President's first words were: "I have the right to claim to be one of you. I well remember the pleasant associations we had with the men of the navy in the days before Santiago. (He pronounced it " Santi-ey-go," the American sailors', not the correct Spanish way— a diplomatic thing to do, I thought.) I met the gallant commanders under whom most of you have served. You should all be proud, as you doubtless are, of having fought in a navy which, in so brief a time, achieved so many glorious victories," and so forth. After the speeches, as the boat was turning for the homeward trip, and he was chatting with a group of officers, we reporters began discussing whether we should interview Mr. Roosevelt about the Schley-Sampson matter. "He wouldn't talk about it for publication," said one. '' I tried him at the hotel. He 'd be pleas- He let go and LoLcJ afler the o.liccr Ptige 2ju ant enough, but there 'd be nothing doing in the way of a real interview.'' '' Of course not,'' added another. '' A Vice-President can't talk, any more than the President can. He might have to be the whole thing himself at any time, you know. If someone should hit Mac in the h...