American Boys Life of Theodore Roosevelt | Page 5

a doorstep,
crying bitterly.
"What is the matter, my little man?" he asked.
"I lost me money; it dropped down into de sewer hole!" sobbed the
ragged urchin. "Every cent of it is gone."
Mr. Roosevelt questioned the lad and found out that the boy had no
home and that his only relative was a longshoreman who was hardly
ever sober. He gave the lad some money to replace the amount lost, and
the next day sent word to Mr. Brace that he would do all he possibly
could toward establishing the waifs' shelters that were so much needed.
The Newsboys' Lodging House of New York City is one of the results
of Mr. Roosevelt's practical charities. He also did much to give
criminals a helping hand when they came from prison, stating that that
was the one time in their lives when they most needed help, for fear
they might slip back into their previous bad habits.
In 1853 Theodore Roosevelt the elder married Miss Martha Bullock, of
Roswell, Cobb County, Georgia. Miss Bullock was the daughter of
Major James S. Bullock and a direct descendant of Archibald Bullock,
the first governor of Georgia. It will thus be seen that the future
President had both Northern and Southern blood in his make-up, and it
may be added here that during the terrible Civil War his relatives were
to be found both in the Union and the Confederate ranks. Mrs.
Roosevelt was a strong Southern sympathizer, and when a certain
gathering, during the Civil War, was in progress at the Roosevelt city
home, she insisted upon displaying a Confederate flag at one of the
windows.

"I am afraid it will make trouble," said Mr. Roosevelt; and he was right.
Soon a mob began to gather in the street, clamoring that the flag be
taken down.
"I shall not take it down," said Mrs. Roosevelt, bravely. "The room is
mine, and the flag is mine. I love it, and nobody shall touch it. Explain
to the crowd that I am a Southern woman and that I love my country."
There being no help for it, Mr. Roosevelt went to the front door and
explained matters as best he could. A few in the crowd grumbled, but
when Mrs. Roosevelt came to the window and looked down on the
gathering, one after another the men went away, and she and her flag
remained unmolested.
Theodore Roosevelt, the future President, was one of a family of four.
He had a brother Elliott and two sisters. His brother was several years
younger than himself, but much more robust, and would probably have
lived many years and have distinguished himself, had he not met death
in a railroad accident while still a young man.
In the years when Theodore Roosevelt was a boy, New York City was
not what it is to-day. The neighborhood in which he lived was, as I
have already mentioned, a fashionable one, and the same may be said
of many other spots near to Union Square, where tall business blocks
were yet unknown. The boys and girls loved to play in the little park
and on the avenue, and here it was that the rather delicate schoolboy
grew to know Edith Carew, who lived in Fourteenth Street and who
was his school companion. Little did they dream in those days, as they
played together, that one day he would be President and she his loving
wife, the mistress of the White House.
Mr. Roosevelt was a firm believer in public institutions, and he did not
hesitate to send his children to the public schools, especially his boys,
that they might come in direct personal contact with the great outside
world. So to a near-by institution of learning Theodore and Elliott
trudged day after day, with their school-books under their arms, just as
thousands of other schoolboys are doing to-day. But in those days there
were few experiments being tried in the schools, and manual training

and the like were unknown. The boys were well grounded in reading,
writing, and arithmetic, as well as spelling, history, and geography, and
there was great excitement when a "spelling-bee" was in progress, to
see who could spell the rest of the class or the gathering down.
It is said upon good authority that Theodore Roosevelt was a model
scholar from the start. He loved to read Cooper's "Leatherstocking
Tales," and works of travel, and preferred books above anything else.
But when he found that constant studying was ruining his constitution,
he determined to build himself up physically as well as mentally.
In the summer time the family often went to the old Roosevelt "out of
town" mansion on Long Island. This was called "Tranquillity," a fine
large place near Oyster Bay, set in a grove of