THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

THE MAN AND THE CITIZEN. If there is any fault to find with Professor Riis' picture of his friend the President of j the United States it is that he lays on the colour rather heavily. On an early page of his book, "Theodore Roosevelt" (Hodder and Stoughton), he says.that his hero "pos : i sesses to an extraordinary degree the faculty i of concentrating all his mind upon the sub- j ject in hand. ... Napoleon had the ; same gift." But in reading this record ofi a strenuous and versatile life one is reminded rather of the Admirable Cricbtoa or of Mr, Gladstone than of the First Emperor, As a boy, though he was by no means robust, young Roosevelt held his own, and more than his own. "He passed his schoolfellows and led in their games." He himself says: "In life, as in football, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul; and don"fc shirk— hit the line hard." At Harvard University "he played polo, did athletic "stunts, and drove a twowheeled gig. . . . Play was part of the college life, but work was the bigger part, and he did not shirk it, or any of itHe early picked out the history "of men and things." '■■.-■' BeSore he had completed his college course he had earned some 'distinction as an author. There are now some two dozen books standing to his credit most of them are interesting books and some possess a real value. TWO YOUNG "SILK STOCKINGS." But it is not as an author that Theodore Roosevelt will be judged or will seek for judgment, but as a politician, a reformer, and a statesman. His entry into political life occurred in the year that saw the death of President Garfield. " New York," says Professor Riis, "witnessed the unusual sight of two young ' silk stockings* mnning for office in a popular election. One was the representative of vast inherited wealth, the other of the bluest of the. old Knickerbocker blood William Waldorf Astor and ; Theodore Roosevelt." Astor was beaten, and Roosevelt won his election "because of his faith in the people." At a subsequent trial of strength his party was defeated, and young Roosevelt retired to his ranch®' in North Dakota. Here he gave himself up to the horse and the gun. MULBERRY-STREET. He re-entered public life with the determination of reforming the Civil Service. He distinguished himself as Chief of the Police Department in New York City. The nolice system of New York " so far had teen invincible. It had broken many a .man who got in its way. 'It will break you,' was the greeting which Roosevelt received from ' Byrnes, the Big Chief,' at Mulberrystreet," the headquarters of the New York police. But it was the Big Chief and his system which were broken. "Roosevelt conquered politics," observes Professor Riis, "and he stopped lawbreaking; but his biggest victory was over the cynicism of a people who didn't dream that it could be done." NAVAL MANOEUVRES. Roosevelt's next move was a naval manoeuvre. "War, he knew, would come. They all knew it; it was his business to prepare for it; the first and hardest blows (at Spain) must be struck at sea. „ . . He bought ships and fitted them out.. He recruited crews and shot away fortunes with big guns." "Thorough" was his motto. Having completed his preparations for a naval campaign he decided that he would be of most use, as a fighting man, on land. "I have got to go into this fight myself," he declared. So he started off for. Cuba with his picturesque Rough Riders, and ere lon& the United States, "one bright and blessed July morning," was reading the glowing accounts of the charge on San Juan Hill. A RACE WITH DEATH. Professor Riis, in a headlong chapter, tells the dramatic story of Theodore Roosevelt's ride from Mount Marcy to the bedside of i President McKinley. 'Roosevelt had gone j to join his children in the Adirondacks I, with the assurance of the doctors that Mc- | Kinley was not in danger. Then came the | telegraphic message: " The President's conj dition has changed for the worse." Roosej velt started off from his mountain retreat i instantly, and "when the steaming horses ' drew up at the railroad station at North Creek the Secretary, Loeb, came down bareheaded and said, '"The worst has happened j —the President is dead.' " \ THE GIRL ON THE CAR. Professor Riis' book is full of interesting glimpses of Theodore Roosevelt, the paragon and the President. He tells many an anecdote illustrating the grit, the good nature, the wisdom, and the simplicity of the man who rules that marvellously incongruous hundred millions whi inhabit the United States. One day the President and his biographei travelled'in a crowded elevated street car. A factory girl got into the -:ar, and Roosevelt the* Man rose and gave hei his seat. "1 confess," says Professor Riis, "1 itched to tell hei who'he was, but he let me have i nc chance."—T.P.'s Weeklv.