131 206
192
●
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. Partly-printed Document Signed, as President,
appointing Edwin M. Coates Brigadier General retired. Countersigned by Acting Secretary
of War Robert Shaw Oliver. 14x20 inches; few small holes at fold intersections, docketing
at upper left, seal intact; matted and framed.
NOT EXAMINED OUT OF FRAME
. (MRS)
Washington, 21 May 1904
[500/750]
192
“I KNOW PRETTYWELL ABOUTTHE COUGAR IN AWILD STATE”
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ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. Typed Letter Signed, as President, to Ellen Velvin,
thanking her for sending her book,
Wild Creatures Afield
, and in a postscript, disabusing her
of the view that the stories of naturalist [William Henry] Hudson are any more than fables
where they concern the cougar. 1
1
/
2
pages, 4to,White House stationery, written on the first
and terminal pages of a folded sheet. (TFC)
Oyster Bay, 27 July 1905
[700/1,000]
“
. . . I have read your piece on the puma in ‘Wild Creatures Afield.’ But my dear Miss Velvin,
in writing it I am sure you have been misled by reading Hudson’s really absurd fables—fables
which it is incomprehensible to me that any trained, scientific man could have written.What are
your own personal experiences . . . of cougars in captivity? . . . Mr. Hudson’s stories are only fit
for a modern Aesop, though they are very charming reading. I know pretty well about the cougar
in a wild state.”
193