Nation: Malicious Wit

Alice Roosevelt Longworth 1884-1980

She was 17 when she first went to live in the White House in 1901, and they called her Princess Alice, and she, as she later recalled, "looked upon the world as my oyster." When a visiting notable whose dignity had been offended by Princess Alice's sprightly interruptions asked her father whether he could not control his daughter, Theodore Roosevelt gave him a stern answer. "I can do one of two things," he said. "I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both."

When Alice Roosevelt Longworth died last week...

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