Theodore Roosevelt | Page 4

An
Autobiography"; "The Rough Riders"; "Through the Brazilian
Wilderness"; "History as Literature." And for "Theodore Roosevelt and
His Time" by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, in Scribner's Magazine, for
December, 1919.

To Messrs. Harper and Brothers and to Mr. Hermann Hagedorn for
"The Boys' Life of Theodore Roosevelt" by Hermann Hagedorn.
To The Century Company for these books by Theodore Roosevelt:
"The Strenuous Life"; "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail."
To Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons for these books by Theodore Roosevelt:
"American Ideals"; "The Wilderness Hunter."
To Mr. Charles G. Washbura for his "Theodore Roosevelt; the Logic of
His Career." (Houghton, Mifflin Co.)
To Messrs Doubleday, Page & Co. and to Mr. Lawrence F. Abbott for
"Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt" by Lawrence F. Abbott.

CONTENTS
I. THE BOY WHO COLLECTED ANIMALS II. IN COLLEGE III. IN
POLITICS IV. "RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING TRAIL" V.
TWO DEFEATS VI. FIGHTING OFFICE-SEEKERS VII. POLICE
COMMISSIONER VIII. THE ROUGH RIDER IX. GOVERNOR OF
NEW YORK X. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES XI. THE
LION HUNTER XII. EUROPE AND AMERICA XIII. THE BULL
MOOSE XIV. THE EXPLORER XV. THE MAN XVI. THE GREAT
AMERICAN

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

CHAPTER I
THE BOY WHO COLLECTED ANIMALS
If you had been in New York in 1917 or 1918 you might have seen,
walking quickly from a shop or a hotel to an automobile, a thick- set
but active and muscular man, wearing a soft black hat and a cape
overcoat. Probably there would have been a group of people waiting on
the sidewalk, as he came out, for this was Theodore Roosevelt,
Ex-President of the United States, and there were more Americans who
cared to know what he was doing, and to hear what he was saying, than
cared about any other living man.

Although he was then a private citizen, holding no office, he was a
leader of his country, which was engaged in the Great War. Americans
were being called upon,--the younger men to risk their lives in battle,
and the older people to suffer and support their losses. Theodore
Roosevelt had always said that it was a good citizen's duty cheerfully to
do one or the other of these things in the hour of danger. They knew
that he had done both; and so it was to him that men turned, as to a
strong and brave man, whose words were simple and noble, and what
was more important, whose actions squared with his words.
He had come back, not long before, from one of his hunting trips, and it
was said that fever was still troubling him. The people wish to know if
this is true, and one of the men on the sidewalk, a reporter, probably,
steps forward and asks him a question.
He stops for a moment, and turns toward the man. Not much thought of
sickness is left in the mind of any one there! His face is clear, his
cheeks ruddy,--the face of a man who lives outdoors; and his eyes,
light-blue in color, look straight at the questioner. One of his eyes, it
had been said, was dimmed or blinded by a blow while boxing, years
before, when he was President. But no one can see anything the matter
with the eyes; they twinkle in a smile, and as his face puckers up, and
his white teeth show for an instant under his light-brown moustache,
the group of people all smile, too.
His face is so familiar to them,--it is as if they were looking at
somebody they knew as well as their own brothers. The newspaper
cartoonists had shown it to them for years. No one else smiled like that;
no one else spoke so vigorously.
"Never felt better in my life!" he answers, bending toward the man.
"But thank you for asking!" and there is a pleasant and friendly note in
his voice, which perhaps surprises some of those who, though they had
heard much of his emphatic speech, knew but little of his gentleness.
He waves his hand, steps into the automobile, and is gone.
Theodore Roosevelt was born October 27, 1858, in New York City, at

28 East Twentieth Street. The first Roosevelt of his family to come to
this country was Klaes Martensen van Roosevelt who came from
Holland to what is now New York about 1644. He was a "settler," and
that, says Theodore Roosevelt, remembering the silly claims many
people like to make about their long-dead ancestors, is a fine name for
an immigrant, who came over in the steerage of a sailing ship in the
seventeenth century instead of the steerage of a steamer in the
nineteenth century. From that time, for the next seven generations,
from father to son, every one of the family was born on Manhattan
Island. As New