Seymour Eaton

“ When the day was o’er said TEDDY-B,
“Let’s go to-morrow to the Zoo to see
The animals imprisoned there:
The elephant and polar bear,
The lions, tigers, and kangaroos,
And tell them one and all the news:
That July the Fourth is the day that we
Who own and love this country
Do celebrate in smoke and noise,
That we may teach our girls and boys
That this one day of every year
Is given them free to shout and cheer,
CXII
As a safety valve for them and you
To keep things running square and true.”
CXIIISaid TEDDY-G, “I’ll freedom teach
And try to practise what I preach ”

“ CVI
“They strung a wire from tree to tree and then the fellows with TEDDY-B
Put crackers all along the wire, to prepare the field for an army fire.”
CVIIWhile I, if my boys a hand will lend,
Will put a match to the other end.
To reach the flag first, that’s the game,
And the side which wins this piece of fame
Wins all the crackers big or small
Which haven’t gone off when time I call.
If on both sides the armies flunk
Both captains use again their punk.”
When both the sides the rules did know
TEDDY-G called out, “One! two! three! Go!” ”

“ After having rested for the winter in their home in the mountains of Colorado, the Roosevelt Bears, now thoroughly used to the modern ways of civilization, once more become restless, and having a strong desire to see more of the world, start out upon their European tour. ”

“ Till they stepped on board their Pullman train.
Said TEDDY-G, as he lit his pipe,
And bought some apples red and ripe,
And settled down in an easy seat
With a resting-place for both his feet,
“I’m tired of clothes; I’m tired of fun;
When I see the town of Washington
I’m off again for the woolly West;
I like the mountains much the best;
I want to live as free as air;
I’m satisfied to be a bear.”
CXXXVII“But you forget,” said TEDDY-B,
“That all these things we came East to see
Were made by the brains of every clime
To keep folks working all the time.” ”

“ MORE ABOUT THESE BEARS When in the autumn of 1905, I created the characters of TEDDY-B and TEDDY-G I builded better than I knew. I brought these bears out of their mountain den in Colorado and started them on their tour of the East to teach children that animals, even bears, may have some measure of human feeling; that the primary purpose of animals is not necessarily that of supplying sport for the hunter. That this lesson has been abundantly taught is proven by the overwhelming welcome given the Teddy Bears by the boys and girls of the United States ”

“ At the lions’ den TEDDY-G was wild;
A lion had killed a little child:
“I’ll go right in and smash his face.”
But a man who was there to guard the place
Spoke up and said, “That lion in there
Is not afraid of a Roosevelt Bear;
He’s made of wax, and that savage look
He wears all the time like a picture book.”
But TEDDY-G replied that he,
If he owned the place, would let folks see
That lions who did such things as they
Shouldn’t live at all in wax or clay. ”

“ How best to earn some extra chink.
Said TEDDY-B, “I’d like to walk
Around to your club and hear you talk
And make a speech and help along
With dance or story, trick or song.”
“You ought to know,” the lad replied,
“That some months ago a newsboy died.
That night his papers didn’t sell
And he had no home; no one to tell
How cold he was and hungry too,
And he just died; was frozen through.
We mean to give a newsboys’ show
To buy a home where the boys can go.”
CLIV
“They met a newsboy on the street who said the newsboys were to meet that night at six in a nook of theirs.” ”

“ Feeling that their foreign tour would not be complete without a visit to Egypt, they take a trip up the Nile and see the Pyramids and the Sphinx, after which they start back for America, and are greeted upon landing at the steamer pier in New York City by that famous gentleman known throughout the world as “Uncle Sam.” This will undoubtedly be one of the most interesting books of the Roosevelt Bears series.
These books can be procured from all book dealers in the United States and Canada. ”

“ Said TEDDY-G, when he caught his breath,
I thought this call meant certain death.
We armed ourselves with loaded gun
When we struck this town of Washington,
For here ’twas said we’d surely see
The man who chased bears up a tree
And with both eyes shut on darkest night
Could hit a bear and win a fight.”
“To stand your ground,” said TEDDY-B,
“Is the thing that we Bears like to see;
If fighting’s trump or simply fun,
We stand, eyes front, and never run ”

“ While in Boston they visit all the places of historical interest, such as Bunker Hill, Plymouth Rock, Concord and Lexington. They have an exciting scorch in an automobile, which causes their arrest and an uncomfortable night in the Boston Jail. They receive honorary degrees at Harvard University, and afterwards take a canoe trip down Boston Bay and are swept out to sea by a storm and land on an iceberg, where they meet a polar bear who has just come down from the northern seas on his floating ship of ice. ”

“ And Niagara Falls turn upside down,
And the President wear a golden crown;
And ten feet of snow right in July,
And a man discovered nineteen feet high;
And robberies eight and murders ten,
And mosquitoes kill ten thousand men ”

“ It tells how these Bears entertained their animal friends at home, of the exciting race to catch the Pullman train, the eventful night on the sleeping car and the exciting adventures on the Kansas farm. Of the day spent in rollicking fun at the district school, the adventures at the county fair and the overnight trip in the balloon which took them from Missouri to Chicago, where they landed in Lincoln Park and spent some days in entertaining the children of that city, and seeing all the points of interest, including the Athletic Club and a modern department store. ”

“ This trial trip was to prove that day
That machines that fly have come to stay.
When the hour arrived to cut the cord
There wasn’t a man who would go aboard.
The Bears said they would make the trip
And every racing record whip
If they only knew how to steer the ship.
“We’ve sailed before,” said TEDDY-B,
“We hit Chicago down a tree
From an old balloon that brought us there
From a Missouri town at a county fair.”
“I’m not afraid,” said TEDDY-G,
“I’d like to go to the moon to see
If the man up there charges entrance fees
And what he does with all the cheese.” ”

“ On this iceberg white a polar bear;
And the stories he told of a northern pole
Which was never seen by a living soul,
But it carried a flag both night and day,
The stars and stripes of the U. S. A.;
X
And the story tells of the rescue made
And how the steamer crowds hurrahed
As “Yankee Doodle” the brass band played;
And then it tells, this jolly book,
How reporters met them at Sandy Hook
And asked them questions and pictures took ”

“ Said TEDDY-B, in their room that night,
“One fire a day is enough to fight;
I’m stiff and tired and burned and sore;
I’m going to sleep a week or more,
And read in bed and play I’m sick
Till I get tired of doing the trick.”
Said TEDDY-G, as he put out the light,
“You fought one fire; I had two to fight ”

“ While they were seeing the Boston sights.
But the things they did in Boston town
Are done in picture and written down
In Volume One by Teddy’s paw,
The jolliest book you ever saw.
It tells how they captured Bunker Hill
And worked like soldiers with stubborn will;
And how they got lost in Boston squares
Where criss-cross streets run everywheres;
And the time they had at Plymouth Rock
When trying to make forefathers talk;
And the auto ride to Lexington
Which nearly cost them all their fun,
For TEDDY-G would chauffeur be
And he ran that car like sixty-three ”

“ This book will record in picture and in verse their trip across the Atlantic, the tour through Ireland, Scotland and England, where they visit Stratford-on-Avon, the home of Dickens, Oxford University, the Tower of London, and meet King Edward, by whom they are entertained in royal fashion. Then over to Paris and to Holland and Germany, where they encounter Emperor William in the Black Forest From Germany they go to Russia, where they take the Czar out for a carriage ride, and through some mishap land in a dungeon cell. ”

“ Then to Niagara Falls to view the wonders of nature at that place, and next to Boston, where they meet with a rousing reception and are entertained at the home of Miss Priscilla Alden and her brother Will. ”

“ And to try their luck at a target shot,
And to ride bare-backed in the hurdle shute,
Or to join a band with drum and flute,
Or to hear good stories of army fights
After taps are sounded to put out the lights.
So they sent a wire to the cadet to say
That they would call that very day.
XL
“To ride bare-backed in the hurdle shute, or join a band with drum and flute.” ”

“ The Bears were invited by Muddy Pete
To go with him to an East Side street
To visit children who never see
Either grass or field or flower or tree.
They loaded up like old Saint Nick
With bundles piled on high and thick ”

“ Telling of trouble with hunting men.
A letter from the teacher of the Kansas school
With sums worked out and giving a rule
For answering the questions which TEDDY-B
Had given the class in geography.
A letter from the farmer where they spent a day
Asking them sure to return that way.
It said that the bull which scared them blue
Would be tied by the nose when they came through.
A lawyer wrote demanding cash
For the old balloon that went to smash.
XXVI
“A hundred letters for each Roosevelt Bear, from East and West and everywhere.” ”