Afoot in England | Page 3

the responsibility which is yours.
There may be little Ciceronian grace about these passages, but there is
unmistakable verbal power. So many words of one syllable and of
Saxon derivation are used as to warrant the opinion that the speaker
possesses a distinctive style. That it is an effective style was proved by
the response of the audience, which greeted these particular passages
(although they contain by implication frank criticisms of the British
people) with cheers and cries of "Hear, hear!" It should be remembered,
too, that the audience, a distinguished one, while neither hostile nor

antipathetic, came in a distinctly critical frame of mind. Like the man
from Missouri, they were determined "to be shown" the value of Mr.
Roosevelt's personality and views before they accepted them. That they
did accept them, that the British people accepted them, I shall endeavor
to show a little later.
There are people who entertain the notion that it is characteristic of Mr.
Roosevelt to speak on the spur of the moment, trusting to the occasion
to furnish him with both his ideas and his inspiration. Nothing could be
more contrary to the facts. It is true that in his European journey he
developed a facility in extemporaneous after-dinner speaking or
occasional addresses, that was a surprise even to his intimate friends.
At such times, what he said was full of apt allusions, witty comment
(sometimes at his own expense), and bubbling good humor. The
address to the undergraduates at the Cambridge Union, and his remarks
at the supper of the Institute of British Journalists in Stationers' Hall,
are good examples of this kind of public speaking. But his important
speeches are carefully and painstakingly prepared. It is his habit to
dictate the first draft to a stenographer. He then takes the typewritten
original and works over it, sometimes sleeps over it, and edits it with
the greatest care. In doing this, he usually calls upon his friends, or
upon experts in the subject he is dealing with, for advice and
suggestion.
Of the addresses collected in this volume, three--the lectures at the
Sorbonne, at the University of Berlin, and at Oxford--were written
during the winter of 1909, before Mr. Roosevelt left the Presidency; a
fourth, the Nobel Prize speech, was composed during the hunting trip
in Africa, and the original copy, written with indelible pencil on sheets
of varying size and texture, and covered with interlineations and
corrections, bears all the marks of life in the wilderness. The Cairo and
Guildhall addresses were written and rewritten with great care
beforehand. The remaining three, "Peace and Justice in the Sudan,"
"The Colonial Policy of the United States," and the speech at the
University of Cambridge were extemporaneous. The Cairo and
Guildhall speeches are on the same subject, and sprang from the same
sources, and although one was delivered at the beginning, and the other
at the close of a three months' journey, they should, in order to be
properly understood, be read as one would read two chapters of one

work.
When Mr. Roosevelt reached Egypt, he found the country in one of
those periods of political unrest and religious fanaticism which have
during the last twenty-five years given all Europe many bad quarters of
an hour. Technically a part of the Ottoman Empire and a province of
the Sultan of Turkey, Egypt is practically an English protectorate.
During the quarter of a century since the tragic death of General
Gordon at Khartum, Egypt has made astonishing progress in prosperity,
in the administration of justice, and in political stability. All Europe
recognizes this progress to be the fruit of English control and
administration. At the time of Mr. Roosevelt's visit, a faction, or party,
of native Egyptians, calling themselves Nationalists, had come into
somewhat unsavory prominence; they openly urged the expulsion of
the English, giving feverish utterance to the cry "Egypt for the
Egyptians!" In Egypt, this cry means more than a political antagonism;
it means the revival of the ancient and bitter feud between
Mohammedanism and Christianity. It is in effect a cry of "Egypt for the
Moslem!" The Nationalist party had by no means succeeded in
affecting the entire Moslem population, but it had succeeded in
attracting to itself all the adventurers, and lovers of darkness and
disorder who cultivate for their own personal gain such movements of
national unrest. The non-Moslem population, European and native,
whose ability and intelligence is indicated by the fact that, while they
form less than ten per cent. of the inhabitants, they own more than fifty
per cent. of the property, were staunch supporters of the English control
which the Nationalists wished to overthrow. The Nationalists, however,
appeared to be the only people who were not afraid to talk openly and
to take definite steps. Just before