A Bully Good Fellow

While watching the newest Ken Burns series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, I was reminded of a letter I discovered while going through the Walker family archives. 

Mary Duncan Walker (Polly) was Arch Walker's sister. In 1902, at age 26, she visited Boston with her husband of one year, Fred Weed. After spending a tough day visiting sick children in a hospital, Polly decided to skip dinner and hear Theodore Roosevelt speak at Symphony Hall. She wrote her mother Lilla Abigail Tutherly Walker the following, describing the event.

"I didn’t feel very hungry for supper I can tell you – so as Fred had gone to Swampscott to see Mr. Parsons whose wife died the other day of convulsions while they were up in New Hampshire and their vacation – I decided I would skip dinner and go and see President Roosevelt and hear him speechify. So I got into the crowd and waited from 4:30 til 5 for the doors of Symphony Hall to open and then rushed in- and trust me for getting a good A no. 1 seat where I could see. HE came in at just 6 - a whole hour to wait and then after being introduced by Gov. Crane he spoke on Citizenship and Trusts for 45 minutes. He is certainly a bully good fellow – looks almost boyish. You will read his speech in the Journal. Everyone was wildly enthusiastic about him and the streets were crowded full so you could hardly move. He stood up in his carriage with head bared leaning to right and left all the way from the station. I saw a whole lot. Free. I am awfully glad you went out to Sunapee with the Tuxbury’s – wish you could see Roosevelt at Windsor. Perhaps they will ask you up – if they do, go, for he is a great man.