American Boys Life of Theodore Roosevelt | Page 6

beautiful trees. The
journey to "Tranquillity" was in those days a tedious one, but the
Roosevelt children did not mind it, and once at the old place they were
certain of a good time so long as their vacation lasted. Here it was that
Theodore Roosevelt learned to ride on horseback and how to handle a
gun. And here, too, the boys would go boating, fishing, and bathing, to
their hearts' content.
Mr. Theodore Roosevelt the elder was a member of the Dutch
Reformed Church, and the religious teaching of his children was not
neglected. At an early age the future President became a member of
that denomination and has remained a member ever since. The church
was on the East Side, and had high-backed pews, and here were
delivered sermons that were as long as they were full of strength and
wisdom. That these sermons had their full effect upon the future
President is shown by his addresses delivered before the Young Men's
Christian Association of New York City and a church community of
the West, years later. In addressing the Young Men's Christian
Association Mr. Roosevelt, who was then governor of the State, said:--
"The vice of envy is not only dangerous, but also a mean vice, for it is
always a confession of inferiority. It may provoke conduct which will
be fruitful of wrong to others; and it must cause misery to the man who
feels it. It will not be any the less fruitful of wrong and misery if, as is
often the case with evil motives, it adopts some high-sounding alias.

The truth is, gentlemen, that each one of us has in him certain passions
and instincts which, if they gain the upper hand in his soul, would mean
that the wild beast had come uppermost in him. Envy, malice, and
hatred are such passions, and they are just as bad if directed against a
class or group of men as if directed against an individual."
Golden words, well worth remembering. A person who believes in
them with all his heart cannot go far wrong in his actions, no matter
what his station in life.
CHAPTER II
NICKNAMED TEDDY--GOES TO HARVARD
COLLEGE--MEMBER OF MANY CLUBS--DEATH OF MR.
ROOSEVELT--ANECDOTES OF COLLEGE LIFE
The instincts of the hunter must have been born in Theodore Roosevelt.
His first gun was given to him when he was ten years of age, and for
the time being his books and his studies were forgotten, and he devoted
his whole time and attention to shooting at a target set up in the garden
of the country home and in going out with the older folks after such
small game as were to be found in that vicinity.
The horses on the place were his pets, and he knew the peculiarities of
each as well as did the man who cared for them. Riding and driving
came to him as naturally as breathing, and the fact that a steed was
mettlesome did not daunt him.
"My father often drove four-in-hand," he has said. "I liked very much
to go with him, and I liked to drive, too."
Theodore Roosevelt's schoolboy days were not far out of the ordinary.
He studied hard, and if he failed in a lesson he did his best to make it
up the next time. It is well said that there is no royal road to learning,
and even a future President must study just as hard as his classmates if
he wants to keep up with them. Sometimes he was absent from school
on account of sickness, and then it was a sharp struggle to keep from
dropping behind.

"In those days nobody expected Teddy Roosevelt to amount to a great
deal," some one has said. "He was thin, pale, and delicate, and suffered
with his eyes. But he pulled through, and when he took to athletics, it
was wonderful how he got stronger."
By his intimate companions, and indeed by nearly everybody who
knew him, he was called Teddy, and this nickname clung to him when
he went forth into the great world to become a governor and a president.
How the nickname came first into use is not known.
Since those schoolboy days Mr. Roosevelt has been asked this
question:--
"What did you expect to be, or dream of being, when you were a boy?"
"I do not recollect that I dreamed at all or planned at all," was the
answer. "I simply obeyed the injunction, 'Whatever thy hand findeth to
do, do that with all thy might,' and so I took up what came along as it
came."
In 1876, while the great Centennial Exhibition was being held at
Philadelphia in commemoration of one hundred years of national
liberty, Theodore Roosevelt took up his residence at