."TEDDY."

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 11

."TEDDY."

The rugged side of Mr. Roosevelt's character was (saya "C.H.J." in SI. James's Budget) developed in his youth, when lie was "ranching" in the West. He went to the vast cattle plains a timid youth. The "bull-punchers" made sport of him. He was a tenderfoot ; ho could not kill his man every time he discharged his pistol. Roosevelt rose to the occasion, however. He realised that his first fight hnd come, and he faced it. He spent all his money in ammunition, and learnt to shool bo that he rarely missed his maik ; and when the time came fo. tho struggle he made the chief bully hold up his hands and then thrashed him From that time "Teddy" was the leader of the cowboys in all the feats of daring, and yet, withnl, 'he convinced them that tho drunkenness and brutality which were in those days the most disgraceful features of ranch life were cowardly and discreditable, 'fue gentler side of tho man's character was shown when he adopted an orphan baby, whoso father had been killed in a bnvwl and whose mother had died of a broken heart, sorrowing for the husband who had been thus violently cast out of her life. "Teddy" was nursemaid, and for years the child was his companion. Although a, comparatively poor man then, Mr. Roosevelt raised his adopted child to manhood. To-day that orphan boy is a wealthy and respected citizen of a flourishing western town.