But at both Berlin and Oxford,
Mr. Roosevelt showed that he could deal with scholarly subjects in a
scholarly fashion. It may be that he desired on these two occasions to
give some indication that, although universally regarded as a man of
action, he is entitled also to be considered as a man of thought. The
lecture at the University of Berlin was a brilliant and picturesque
academic celebration in which doctors' gowns, military uniforms, and
the somewhat bizarre dress of the representatives of the undergraduate
student corps, mingled in kaleidoscopic effect. One interesting
feature of the ceremony was the singing by a finely trained student
chorus without instrumental accompaniment, of _Hail Columbia_ and _The
Star-Spangled Banner_, harmonized as only the Germans can harmonize
choral music. The Emperor and the Empress, with several members of the
Imperial family, attended the lecture. Those who sat near the Emperor
could see that he followed the address with genuine interest, nodding
his head, or smiling now and then with approval at some incisively
expressed idea, or some phrase of interjected humor, or a
characteristic gesture on the part of the speaker. In one respect the
lecture was a _tour de force_. On account of a sharp attack of
bronchitis, from which he was then recovering, it was not decided by
the physicians in charge until the morning of the lecture that Mr.
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