His fondness for all of them was in constant evidence--in the way he joked with them and in the complete absence of restraint in their attitude toward him.
"They were told that I would be a hard man to get along with in the field," Colonel Roosevelt said, "but we've had a perfectly splendid time together." I asked him whether he had been receiving newspapers, and, if not, whether he would like to see some that I had received from home.

He answered that he had not seen any and really didn't want to see any.
"I don't believe in clinging to the tattered shreds of former greatness," he said, laughing.
He had not heard that Governor Johnson, of Minnesota, had died, and when we told him he said that Johnson would undoubtedly have been the strongest presidential candidate the Democrats could have nominated the next time.

He wanted to know where he could address a note of sympathy to Mrs.Johnson.
Later, in speaking of a prominent public man who loudly disclaimed responsibility for an act committed by a subordinate, he said: "It would have been far better to have said nothing about it, but let people think he himself had given the order.

Very often subordinates say and do things that are credited to their superiors, and it is never good policy to try to shift the blame.

Do you remember the time Root was in South America?
Well, some president down there sent me a congratulatory telegram which reached Washington when I was away.