You probably figured this one would feature. Nothing jumps up and down and screams "Hey! I'm a Symbol!" like the phrase "celestial crown."

This allusion to Pilgrim's Progress is Teddy Roosevelt's big operating metaphor in his quest to get journalists to lay off the muck a little. The muckraker is our friend the journalist, the muck is the cavalcade of problems facing the U.S. of A., and the celestial crown is a vague sense of goodness—hope, optimism, puppies, warm positive feelings, and stuff like that.

He's concerned with America's mood and he wants a little bit less muck and a little bit more celestial crown. (Ugh. Don't we all?)

It's actually an interesting twist on the metaphor's original context, where the muckraker is too transfixed on earthly vices and sin to notice the promise of God's kingdom above him. Funnily enough, Teddy Roosevelt's use of the phrase completely eclipsed its original context—journalists took up the title of muckraker proudly and turned it into a household name.

And even for journalists, it's quite a feat to turn a phrase that means "poop shoveler" into a synonym for "hard-hitting journalism."