Words of Wisdom from SharLeigh
TEDDY’S BEAR SWEEPS
THE NATION
Did you know that the Teddy Bear was born in America? It all started in 1902 when our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, traveled to Mississippi to settle a border dispute between Louisiana and Mississippi. Being an avid hunter, an excursion was set up for him to bag a bear while he was down south. But, as luck would have it, the hunting was so poor that the hosts captured a bear and staked it down for the President to kill. President Roosevelt refused to kill the helpless creature stating, “Spare the bear!” The President’s reaction may have gone unnoticed if Clifford Berryman’s cartoon “Drawing the Line in Mississippi” had not been printed in The Washington Post. It showed the comparison between drawing the line concerning the border incident and drawing the line in refusing to kill the bear. The cartoon, which portrayed the bear as a cuddly cub rather than a fierce bear, became widely popular as other newspapers across America printed it. Morris and Rose Michtom, who owned a candy and stationary store in Brooklyn, New York, viewed the cartoon and then made and displayed “Teddy’s Bear” in their store window. It became an instant hit. It did not take long for the Teddy Bear craze to sweep the nation. Many American manufacturers started to turn out Teddy Bears in all shapes, sizes and colors. Since then, the Teddy Bear has held on to its popularity, and today it is one of the most popular Valentine’s gifts. Why? Because a Teddy Bear is cute, cuddly and affordable – all one has to do is look into that sweet and innocent face, and they are hooked. It’s hard to believe that the public’s reaction to a cartoon, printed over a century ago, about a president and a failed hunting expedition, could create such a lasting piece of American culture – the Teddy Bear.