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Show 507. enthusiastic," so William Howard Taft could tease Muir as the two men walked down from Glacier Point in 1909. Muir was capable of absorbing as well as giving r i d i c u l e . He could bend, and did. In f a c t , I believe that Muir's careless and innocent demeanor was p a r t of a calculated charm. William Kimes recounts an incident which took place during Roosevelt's visit to Yosemite. Muir had received a l e t t e r from Charles Sprague Sargent which commanded Muir to get some l e t t e r s from the President which might be of use to Muir and Sargent on their anticipated world t o u r . Muir simply handed Sargent's letter to Roosevelt, apparently forgetting that Sargent had commented in the l e t t e r that Roosevelt "takes a sloppy unintelligent i n t e r e s t in f o r e s t s , although he i s altogether too much under the influence of that creature Pinchot. . . . " What could Roosevelt do, but laugh at Muir's disarming naivete? At times l i k e these, Muir must have seemed t o t a l ly unself-conscious and u n e g o t i s t i c a l . But i t is probably fair to say that t h i s was a conscious and calculated s t y l e . He recognized and admired in E.H. Harriman the "wonderful manager of men." He suspected t h a t there was a greatness in Harriman's ability to touch so many l i v e s . And Muir's series of l e t t e rs to William Colby, w r i t t e n while both men worked for so many years to save Hetch Hetchy, are a testament to Muir's a b i l i ty to support and encourage an a l l y through the ups and downs °f a long p o l i t i c a l b a t t l e . In a similar manner, Muir constantly gave Robert Underwood Johnson credit for many of the a c t i v i t i e s which the two men had conceived in common. |
