How The
Roosevelt Bears
reached
NEW YORK
The Roosevelt Bears were born out West
In a big ravine near a mountain crest,
Where they lived as cubs and had such play
As Teddy Bears have every day.
But they learned some things as years went by
Of cities great and buildings high,
And trains that run at rapid speed,
And schools which teach folks how to read,
And circus clowns and phonograph
And other things which make folks laugh,
And big hotels where meals they say
Are served in style both night and day.
They had heard of men of great renown
Who lived and died in Boston town;
Of rulers brave and statesmen bold
And millionaires with barrels of gold;
Of men who work just day by day
For boys and girls and daily pay;
And of one they heard who works for fun:
The President at Washington.
These bears some travel books had found
Which told them the world is round.
They made up their minds that they would see
And learn about geography
And visit cities everywhere
And introduce the Teddy Bear.
They found some gold in a cave one day
Which they could use to pay their way.
“They found some gold in a cave one day.”
So one bright morn they said good-bye
To cave and creek and mountain high,
To an old bobcat with a bandaged knee,
To a young cougar and squirrels three,
To a big-horn sheep and a mountain deer,
And to other friends that lived quite near;
And with bags on backs and sticks in hand
They started their tramp across the land.
The black bear’s name was TEDDY-B;
The B for black or brown, you see.
And TEDDY-G was the gray bear’s name;
The G for gray; but both bears came
For “Teddy” because
Children called them Teddy Bears.
The “Teddy” part is a name they found
On hat and tree and leggings round,
On belt and boot and plates of tin,
And scraps of paper and biscuits thin,
And other things a hunter dropped
At a mountain camp where he had stopped.
The story tells how these Teddy Bears
Scattered forever all blues and cares,
And made fun and frolic and mischief too,
And did some tricks for bears quite new;
And how some boys, the stories tell,
Liked these two Teddy Bears so well
That they made a million for the stores to sell:
Some quite little, for children small,
And some as big as the bears are tall;
The brown ones looking like TEDDY-B,
And the white as funny as TEDDY-G.
Copyright, 1907, by Edward Stern & Co., Inc.
“With bags on backs and sticks in hand,
They started their tramp across the land.”
The story goes on to tell how far
These two bears rode in a Pullman car,
And the tricks they played on folks that night
When the colored porter put out the light;
And how TEDDY-G wouldn’t sleep upstairs
“On a shelf,” he said, “too small for bears.”
He wanted a window; he wanted to see;
And he kept folks awake till half-past three.
And the story tells of other tricks
In the dining car, and of a mix
When TEDDY-G pulled a rope on top
And brought the train to a sudden stop;
And how the two were put off the train
On a Kansas farm in a shower of rain.
The fun they had from that time on
Fills every page of Book Number One.
They started by learning the famous trick
How farmer boys get ahead so quick.
But the things they did would take your breath,
For they scared the farmer half to death.
The horses were put at gathering eggs,
And pigs walked round on two hind legs,
And sheep were given the corn to hoe
And potatoes to plant and wheat to sow.
The story tells how an angry bull
Made a pasture field look pretty full
And chased the two bears round a stack
And over the top and down and back.
From there to a district school they went,
On mischief and education bent,
Where things were done by TEDDY-B,
Who hit the desk and said that he
Would make letters dance and figures fly
And good boys laugh and bad boys cry;
The questions he gave; and the boys, their look;
They had never seen them in a book:
If a camel can go without water a week
How long can he go if he owns a creek?
And this, to bound the moon and sky,
And name the capital of by-and-by;
And a hundred more as hard and tough,
Till the children said they had enough;
But when they left the school that day
The children were happy, the farmers say.
The story tells how in railway style
They ran an engine for a mile
And spent a day at a county show
And helped the boys to make things go;
How they walked on ropes drawn good and tight
And jumped through hoops and landed right;
And of the ride in an old balloon
Which took them half-way to the moon;
And things that happened in the sky that night
And the way the world went out of sight;
And how they landed in Lincoln Park
In Chicago town just ’fore dark,
And the big hotel on a busy street
Where waiters brought them things to eat.
How they rang for bell boys, just for fun,
To give them a quarter and see them run;
And the fun they made in vaudeville;
Children are laughing about it still.
And the bargain sale; TEDDY-G got lost;
And the things they bought and what they cost;
And their trip to Niagara Falls that night,
And what they thought of Niagara’s height,
And the picnic boys and the boating stunt
When they shot the rapids in a punt;
And how the boys made cheering go
When the train pulled out for Buffalo.
The story tells of their further jaunt
And of TEDDY-G at a restaurant;
How he missed his train and lost his mate;
For TEDDY-B had risen late;
And the jolly crowds the bears to greet
To cheer them all along the street
As they rode from station to Common green
In Boston town like king or queen;
And of the home on Beacon Hill
Where Priscilla Alden and her brother Will
Entertained them gladly days and nights
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;
It didn’t run; he made it sail
And landed himself and his mate in jail.
The story tells of their Harvard tricks,
Where they got themselves in another mix
In getting degrees, a double-L-D,
Which didn’t fit well on TEDDY-G;
It tells about the talking machine,
The funniest thing they had ever seen;
How they danced a two-step and sang as well
And heard Uncle Josh his stories tell;
It tells of the time when they went to see
Where the Boston patriots made good tea
In seventeen hundred and sixty-three;
And then of their sail in a little skiff,
And how a storm hit them a biff
And sent them out on the ocean wide,
Half-way across to the other side;
And how at noon there came in sight
A tower of ice all glistening white;
And how they met away out, there
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.;
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;
And of New York and its buildings high,
And how the bears made money fly,
And dressed in style to see the town,
To do Fifth Avenue up and down;
And the guide they hired, wee Muddy Pete,
A lad whose home was on the street,
And his little dog, a terrier white,
Pete’s boon companion day and night.
The story tells of the circus show
Where the two bears helped to make things go;
How like heroes of a hundred fights
The Roosevelt Bears in colored tights
Stepped in the ring to dance or sing,
To ride or tumble or anything.
So these Teddy Bears are here to stay:
They came from the West one summer’s day
And journeyed East from town to town
And gathered fame and much renown.
Book Number One (boys know it well)
The pictures show and the stories tell
Of how they crossed the U. S. A.
(And made folks laugh both night and day)
To New York City, there to be told
That Teddy Bears in the shops were sold.
But the bears in the shops are only toys
Made to please good girls and boys.
These Roosevelt Bears, TEDDIES-B and G,
Are as full of mischief as you or me;
They laugh and talk and sleep and eat
And go around on two hind feet
And ride on cars and wear good clothes;
And the things they do, dear only knows,
For they read from books and music play
And lose themselves nearly every day.
But the story here and these pictures new
Tell things about them just as true
As the things that happened, children say,
From West to East along the way.