Figure 1.--On one of their trips to Europe, James was enrolled in a German public school. He was 12 years old and attended school in Dresden during 1866. He wore a tam with with a jacket long trousers and the traditional German leather book satchel.

On one of the Roosevelt's many trips to Europe, James was enrolled in a German public school. He was 12-years old and attended school in Dresden during 1866. A portrait shows how he was dressed. He wore a tam with with a plain jacket, long trousers and the traditional German leather book satchel. I am not sure if he was outfitted like this because it was how the German boys were dressed for school. Rosy hated the school and years later remembered it as one of the worst experiences of his life. Rosy had beenb tutored at home and had never attended any school ptrviously. He was thus used to special treatment. He did speak Germnan very well. I'm not sure just how well, but apparently he had some degree of fluency. The first day was a disaster. The other boys teased him for not knowing the songs they sang. He was reportedly terrified and came back home crying. He trembled the next day about going back because his teacher had told the boys that he was going to buy a new cane as he had worn out his old one one on last years' boys. Presumably he was teasing the boys, but the humor was apparently lost on Rosy. Only afew days later, Rosy came home with a bloody nose from fight. His father wrote home, "Of course, my first question was if he whipped his antagonist and felt quite satisfied with being informed that his foe retired with a loosened tooth." [Ward, pp. 40-41.]

Sources

Ward, Geoffrey. Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882-1905 (Harper and Row: New York, 1985), 390p.