The
Roosevelt Bears
spend a day at
ATLANTIC CITY
How the Bears got out of the box that day
Was never known, the children say;
But that afternoon, about half-past four,
They engaged fine rooms on the seventh floor,
About half-way up and half-way down,
Of the best hotel there was in town;
And there they stayed, enjoying a rest
And eating things the very best,
And seeing reporters and playing pool
And learning things not taught in school.
“There they stayed enjoying a rest, and eating things the very best.”
Said TEDDY-B one morning bright,
After spending a hot and sleepless night:
“The weather’s warm and sticky too
For fellows dressed like me and you;
I move we take a little run
Down to the shore for some ocean fun.
I’ve heard it said that the bathing there,
With sandy bottoms everywhere,
Is quite a fad with men of wealth,
Who go there simply for their health.”
“My health is good,” said TEDDY-G;
“And I’ve wealth enough for you and me;
But if bathing’s fun, that’s what I need;
My health consists of fun and feed.”
So off they went that very day
To try Atlantic City spray
Copyright, 1907, by Edward Stern & Co., Inc.
“Across the sand in running dash,
They struck the breakers with a splash.”
They took a ferry to Camden town
And got a train which shot them down
Across New Jersey and to the sea
So quick they scarce had time to see
The porter boy who brushed their clothes
And told them that hotels in rows
Lined every street and the ocean front
So thick they wouldn’t have to hunt.
And bathing houses, a score or more,
He said they’d find them near the shore.
They walked the boardwalk to and fro
And took a peep at every show;
They heard bands play and auctioneers
Make speeches which reduced to tears
The crowds of buyers who bargains sought
But didn’t need the goods they bought.
They took a turn with a wheeling chair
Of double size, to fit a bear,
With TEDDY-B, the lazy kind,
And TEDDY-G, the man behind.
A palmist read their paws to see
How long they’d live and what would be
Their fortunes in the years to come
When as millionaires they’d be going some.
They saw the fish-haul on the pier
And the loaded net with fishes queer.
They rode the donkeys on the sand
And held some children by the hand
While rides they took on donkey back
And made the bathers clear the track.
They went below with shivery feel
In a little boat where the water-wheel
Went splashing round with all its might
And pushed their boat into darkest night.
And then to a boardwalk place they went
Two colored bathing suits to rent.
They dressed themselves like thousands more
Who were walking up and down the shore;
And across the sand in running dash
They struck the breakers with a splash.
Of all the fun of every sort,
Since Columbus sailed from Genoa’s port,
That the old Atlantic ever had
With ocean bathers, good or bad,
With buccaneers or pirate crafts,
Or shipwrecked crews on lonesome rafts,
With fishermen in ocean wave,
Or boats sent out their lives to save,
Or tourists bound for foreign clime
With dinners upset all the time,
With ocean fish of every form
Which swim the same in calm or storm,
With Admiral Drake or Captain Kidd
Who stole some gold and got it hid,
Or with careless boys of whom you’ve read
Who sometimes fall in over head,—
This fun the Atlantic had that day,
Some fifty thousand bathers say,
Beat every record for a thousand years
And made waves laugh themselves to tears.
For the Roosevelt Bears had nerve and pluck
And as they faced each wave to duck
They plunged right in and got upset
Head over paws and awful wet.
They took boys out in water deep
And made them from their shoulders leap;
And rescued swimmers, four or five,
And brought them back to shore alive;
And when they tired of the ocean’s whirls
They played on the sand with boys and girls,
And ran and danced and had lots of fun,
And dried themselves in the mid-day sun.
When back they went to get their suits,
To put on trousers, coats and boots,
Said TEDDY-G from his little house,
“This bathing suit wouldn’t fit a mouse;
It’s shrunk all up like a lady’s glove
And won’t come off by pull or shove.”
Said TEDDY-B from the box next door,
“Why didn’t you put on three or four?”
But TEDDY-G didn’t see the joke
And said he’d rip the thing or choke.
And rip he did from end to end
In a way no stitch would ever mend.
“It came off that way both smooth and nice,”
Said TEDDY-G when he asked the price.
They went that night by lucky chance
To an ocean pier where a cake-walk dance
Was on in style with couples six
Who knew full well the cake-walk tricks.
“All four danced with toe and paw the smartest cake-walk you ever saw.”
Two pickaninnies won the prize;
They beat all records for their size;
And as they did their last encore
The Roosevelt Bears went on the floor,
And all four danced with toe and paw
The smartest cake-walk you ever saw.
The dancing finished with laugh and cheer
Then all the children on the pier
Shook hands with TEDDIES-B and G
And asked them both to come to see
A children’s dance, a pretty sight,
Which they would give the following night.
But the Bears replied with much regret
That Philadelphia they had not seen yet;
They must go back and crackers buy
To celebrate Fourth of July,
For they were bound to show the world
That when stars and stripes were first unfurled
And liberty rang sweet and loud
For warriors brave and patriots proud,
This flag and bell, right then and there,
Meant freedom for both man and bear.