MR ROOSEVELT AS AN ATHLETE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7371, 24 January 1902, Page 4

MR ROOSEVELT AS AN ATHLETE.

A football match was played at Philadelphia on .December 31st between the U.S. Naval Academy and the Military Academy, the latter winning by eleven points to five. There were 30,000 spectators, including President .Roosevelt and his Cabinet. Mr Roosevelt, as an old player, is very keen on football, and he got so excited that he left his private box, leaped over the low fence, and ran across the field to the players' bench. The crowd applauded enthusiastically when it saw the President of the United States leaping the fence with his silk hat in his hand.

A great deal of comment has been excited by Mr Roosevelt's attendance and enthusiastic behaviour at the great football match at Philadelphia. Many people profess to be scandalised at such a breach of the Presidential dignity. There is a popular impression that the President should always appear in public in a frock ooat and top hat, and comport himself with a grave and dignified demeanour. Mr McKinley owed a great deal cf his popularity to his careful observance of tbe Presidential dignity. Congressman Wachter is among those who condemn Mr Roosevelt for his patronage of football. Mr Waohter, who is of German descent, denounces the game as brutal and barbarous. He intends to introduce a Bill in tbe House of Representatives prohibiting aIP future matches between the United States Naval and Military Academies.