Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/457

 Huston, the architect, who was a warm enthusiast and elate with the success of his production, caused to be made a gold key for the main door of the capitol, to be used as the symbol of the transfer, which he presented and inscribed to me. One of Roosevelt's attendants proposed to carry off this key as a memento for the President, but I interfered and prevented its accomplishment. It was before the dinner which I gave to Roosevelt at the executive mansion that Penrose came to me and asked me whether I would not send an invitation to Charles Emory Smith, explaining that they wanted to try to get him in line and evidently expecting me to object. I replied: “Certainly,” and sent the invitation. Smith, although he was daily printing falsehoods about me, promptly accepted. At the dinner Penrose came to Roosevelt, who sat on my right, and said:

“Now, Mr. President, won't you talk to Smith?”

“I will do what I can with him,” was the answer.

I escorted Smith up to the head of the table and they had a long conference.

On the 17th of September, accompanied by the adjutant general and the staff, I went to Antietam, Maryland, to accept the monuments of the Third, Fourth, Seventh and Eighth Pennsylvania Reserves. On one of my official visits to Antietam an unusual and rather poetic little incident occurred. From the midst of the marching troops a rabbit ran out and jumped up upon the rostrum. In my speech I contrasted it as a symbol of peace and safety where forty years before destruction raged.

And now we come to the end. The final message made some comments on conditions, but no suggestions, leaving those to my successor. The newspaper correspondents at Harrisburg, regardless of the policies of the journals they represented, had grown to be my friends, and this, despite of the fact that I had never granted any unusual favor. The time had come when attention could not be misunderstood, and on January 3, 1907, I invited them to a dinner at the Rh