ROOSEVELT STORIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2490, 4 December 1901, Page 69

ROOSEVELT STORIES.

BEING THE ANECDOTAL LHFE OF AMERICAS NEW PRESIDENT.

As> a young child President Roosevelt differed much from the average small boy. He was very devoted to his younger brother and sister, and although rarely enjoyed good health, being almost an invalid in his youth, they looked up to him as the leadei in all their amusements and pleasures. Even at the age of ten he ti&ed to delight in giving lectures, which were full of well-turned phrases, and noteworthy tor their facility of delivery. He attended M-Mullin School, New York, at this age, and, delicate though he was, refused to let himself be " put upon "by older boys. One day Teddy made his appearance in a new sailor uit, altogether too neat and tidy to suit the tastes of his companions. They calied him a " dude." and attempted to mob him on the way home. With only one chum, however. " Teddy " went for the :rowd, and came out, after a brief but severe struggle, somewhat drshevelled but triumphant, leaving a body of well-thumped boys behind him. Every day for a week did young Roosevelt have to defend his new suit of clothes, and so fond did he get of doing it that one morning after an unusually hard battle he suggested to his chum. " Let r go around the building, and come back to fight 'em again." Although proud of this particular suit, he was by no means always so ;areful with his clothes, and at hen, a jear or two afterwaids, he wrote to his father from boarding school, his wardiobe appeared to be in a very dilapidated condition. Instead of being cro?s, Roosevelt senior appeared to treat the matter as a huge joke, and laughingly remarked to a uiend: "Ted says his clothes are in pretty good condition, except that one pair of trousers is split up the middle, the sleeve torn out of one jacket, another jacket wrecked in a melee, and a fourth article spoiled by sitting down in a pie involuntarily at a cellar supper. I wonder what he is wearing?''

The coolness and apparent unconcern of President Roosevelt are bywords in the moutb >f every American. Early in the evening of the day "apon which he wn-. elected Governor of New York, it seemed ;i« if lie would be returned by a majority of ovei fifty thousand. Gradually, however, his opponent began to -reap up to him, and his advantage steadily diminished, until it almost looked as if the election would end in defeat for him. When at last the result was declared, some xewspaper men rushed oft to his house to apprise him of his victory. It wa« nearly 2 o'clock before they reached there — to find, to their surprise that he had actually gone to bed without knowing whether he had won 01 not. They rang him up, and he made hisappealnnne in a red dressing-gown, ond ask:d, "What's the matter?" " You're elected by eighteen thousand, " was the lesponse. "Oh. good! Am I? That's great!"' said Roosevelt, and he asked them in for a few minutes' chat, then declaring thai he was too tired to sit up any longei. Even on the day of the national election he took

more interest m a fooih?ll ccorc th\n in tie way the voting was progressing. Yeais of roughing it in the Missouri cattle ranches, have made him indifferent to till suits of weathei. While staying at a New York hotel, he had occasion to go to the house of a f lit'iid one pouring wet day. "How fai is stieet?" ue asked of the hotel clerk.

"Six buildings," wa^ the answer. "One minute, Governor! Let me get you an umbrella?"

"No thanks '.'" baid Roosevelt. " Why, the rain and I have been fatt friends for ovei thirty years, my boy !" And. turning up the collar of his coat, he passed out into one of the heaviest lainstorma of the year.

Similarly, hi* ranching experience^, coupled with Ins strong love of hunting, and getting into all sort*- of inaccessible places, have made his tastes in food of tlit simplest. Steaks or chop?, rice, or othei milk puddings, are his favouiite dishes, whi'e rich and spiced foods of all descriptions he abominate*. His dress, too, is simplicity itself, and he loves the delights of the woods and forests far more than the most Insurious attractions of town. Although he knows the note of every bird that sings, he Ins. absolucely no ear for music, the only tune which he can recognise, and which he never fails to take ofi his hat to, being '" The Star-spangled Ban-

ner." When he went to Albany as Governor, Mr Roosevelt inquired the custom of the Government with regaid to newspaper men. He was informed that notes of the principal acts were handed to them at internals, and that, if any of the reporreis wished to ask the Governor anything specially. he was usually allowed to do so. "I don't Ike that at all," said Roosevelt. "I think it would be better to ?ee all the newspaper men twice a day, and tell them things they should not publish as well is things they may." The correspondent he was conversing with suggested that it Mould be a rather dangerous thing to take a 'ot of reporters into his confidence. " I wJI try it. anyway," he said. " I believe most men are honest."

So every tlav at 11 and 5 he held audience of two dozen or more news-paper men, who were allowed to af-k him ques-tions, which Mere freely answered; and although many of them were of such a natiire that a premature disclosure of information would have been a serious matter, lie never once had cause to complain of his Iru^t being abused.

There is probably no man in the Un ; i<=d States who has ihe railway lime-tables more thoroughly at his lingers' ends, or v. ho can travel a greater distance in a shorter space of time than President Roosevelt. In the last national campaign, however, be employed a special train to get over the ground m still greater speed, leceivnv; delegates at different towns as he pasred through. A " smart ' young man in charge of the tiain thought it was funny to show one delegation into an empty saloon, and lock the door behind them. At the nexf stopping place Mr Roosevelt was informed of what had taken place, and, fending foi the young man. he told him pretty pianolas opinion of his conduct. The youi.^ superintendent was so overcome that I 3 fainted shortly after leaving his presence. Upon being informed of the fact. Mr Roosevelt said grimly : " See to it that he is not resuscitated !"

Shortly after becoming President of the New York Police Board, Mr Roosevelt had suspicions that the night dirty men were not performing their work satisfactorily, so he made a series of surprise visits in various districts On one beat, where there should have been twenty policemen, he found only one, and he was fast asleep. He woke him up. "Is this your usual time for sleeping?' " What business is that of yours?"' retorted the policeman, who was ignorant ol Roosevelt's identity.

'" I'll make it my btniness !" he said, sharply. " You report at headquarters at 9 o'clock this morning. Ask for the president, of the board."

When the man arrived he was horrorstricken to find the president of the board was the very man he had been rude to during the night. Mr Roosevelt gave him a scathing lecture, and ended by saying : "I won't give any policeman an oppor-

tunity to say I took an unfair advantage of him. I'll give you one more trial, but the next time I catch you asleep you'll

Until Roosevelt's time, if a New York

[policeman spoiled his uniform while engaged iin rescuing a person from drowning, he had

to replace his clothes at hi 9 own expense. j,The present president,, however, soon altered all that, and ordered that every uniform spoiled in this way should be replaced at the expense of the city. Moreover, down

at New York docks was an old policeman ■who had saved twenty-nine lives. " Him, •Roosevelt caused to be made a sergeant, and he celebrated his promotion by saving bis thirtieth life the following week. The President has a plain, blunt manner of telling people what he thinks of them without fear or favour. In the old Missouri days the ranches lost hundreds of Sieads of cattle yearly through thieves. The sheriff decided to call the ranch owners together, among them being Mr Roosevelt. After a lengthy harangue, in which he called all sorts of dire vengeance down upon the thieves, the sheriff asked the ranchers to give their opinions. Roosevelt's was the first and only one delivered : " There ought to be no great difficulty in carrying out your suggestions, Mr Sheriff ; but *I have a strong impression "that you will not be the one lo carry them out. for I am convinced, and I think every other mail in this room is, that you have had more to do with the cattle-stealing than any other man in ; the country. The sheriff resigned next day, and left the district ; and there were no more cattle stolen.

While he is always ready to listen to anybody who has anything' to say worth saying. Mr Roosevelt hates anything in the shape of "'flowerices,*." A visitor who came to see him recently started to tell him how much he respected and admired him. "That's all right," snarled Roosevelt, " never mind about that. Just come to the point and fay what you came to say." To the autograph fiend he is ever-indul-gent, and keeps a laige stock of signatures by him. written whenevei he has a few minutes to spare. He is always willing, too, to inscribe a sentiment in' an album or underneath a photograph, and among the many trite phrases he will hand down to posterity is one he wrote at the request of ft small boy : '' Be brave and honest ; be fearless and tender ; and have common

Just fifrer the " Rough Riders '" arrived in Cuba at rhe beginning of the Spanish-Ame-rican war. one trooper war. given a guardJiruise sentence for a serious infraction of discipline. At this time the guaidhouse consisted of a private with a gun slung 1 over his shoulder, who followed the pilsoner wherever he ivent. When the order came to go forward, and the engagement, which ended in the famous ascent of San Juan Hill, began, this prisonei went to Colonel Roosevelt and begged to be let off long enough to take part in the fight. _ The colonel bit his lip, and said : " All right. I will suspend your sentence during the action. There is no man in the regiment I would rather see shot !"'

Oue day last autumn, at a little western town, a big brown-skinned cowboy jumped on to Mr Roosevelt's private railway carriage, and, pushing past the men who' stood between him and the Governor, grasped him by both hands, and said :

'•' Bless me, but I'm glad to see you, Colonel!"

Roosevelt returner] his greeting in much the same way, and then, turning to a friend, said :

" This is the man I was telling you about the other day." "What!" exclaimed the cowboy, "you ■haven't been tellin' that .story abo\it us at Santiago?"

" Yes," answered the Governor

The Westerner turned to Roosevelt's friend. "Maybe he didn't tell you all of it. Perhaps he didn't tell you 'that that night, when we were lying in the trenches in the rain, he came out from his tent and gave me his blanket ; and perhaps he didn't tell you that he took off 'his poncho and gave that to another man."

. A tinge of red overspread the Governor's and he said, " Why, did I really? Did I do that? I had forgotten -11 about .it." *