never concerned himself about the choice of routes. He was then
asked, according to Mr. Gorman, all about the steamship lines
from America to Europe; then came questions in geology, and
finally in chemistry. The Commission thereupon turned the bright
young applicant down. The Senator's speech was masterly. It must
have made the spoilsmen chuckle and the friends of civil service
reform squirm. It had neither of these effects on Roosevelt. It
merely exploded him into action like a finger on a hair-trigger.
First of all, he set about hunting down the facts. Facts were his
favorite ammunition in a fight. They have such a powerful punch.
A careful investigation of all the examination papers which the
Commission had set revealed not a single question like those from
which the "bright young man," according to Mr. Gorman, had
suffered. So Roosevelt wrote to the Senator asking for the name
of the" bright young man." There was no response. He also asked,
in case Mr. Gorman did not care to reveal his identity, the date
of the examination. Still no reply. Roosevelt offered to give to
any representative whom Mr. Gorman would send to the Commission's
offices all the aid he could in discovering in the files any such
questions. The offer was ignored. But the Senator expressed
himself as so shocked at this doubting of the word of his
brilliant protege that he was unable to answer the letter at all.

Roosevelt thereupon announced publicly that no such questions had
ever been asked. Mr. Gorman was gravely injured by the whole
incident. Later he declared in the Senate that he had received a
"very impudent letter" from the young Commissioner, and that he
had been "cruelly" called to account because he had tried to
right a "great wrong" which the Commission had committed.
Roosevelt's retort was to tell the whole story publicly, closing