Theodore Roosevelt

nasium, and still more his outdoor expeditions, and hunting trips in Maine, had made a well man of him. H

What he did during his life, in adding to men's knowledge of the habits of animals, would have gained him an honorable place in the history of American science, if he had done nothing else. So with his writing of books. He

ver written by any man,-Tennyson's "Ulysses." And in this

s to pause, t

nish'd, not t

o breathe

d, not to sit back and criticize. It was to do disagreeable work if it had to be done, not to pick out the soft jobs. It was to be afr

what most of his friends and associates called "simply crazy." That young men of good education no longer think it a

and wondered if he were "the real thing." Thirty-nine years later Mr. Thayer looked back over the career of his college mate, and knew that he had talked that day with one of the grea

t. The nice folk liked to sit at home, sigh, and say: "Politics are rotten." Then they wondered why politics did not instantly become pure. They demanded "reform" in politics, as Roosevelt said, as if reform were something which could be handed round like

ked. If it were said that he had been seen with a politician they disliked, or that he ate a meal in company with one, they were sure he had gone wrong. They seemed t

strict Republican Club, and later when he ran for the New York State Assembly from th

men, a larger number who were neither good nor bad, but went one way or another just as things happened to influence them at the moment. Finally, there were some bad men indeed. He found that the bad men were not

om other men's crooked actions. He soon announced this discovery, which naturally made such men furious with him. They pursued him with their hatred all his life. Some people really think that great wealth

mittees. One story, which he tells, is of two Irish Assemblymen, both of whom wished to be leader of the minority. One, he calls the "Colonel," the other, the "

and the Judge went on, "I'd like to know if the gintleman has ever personally seen the Catholic Protectoree?" "No, I haven't," said his astonished opponent. "Then, phwat do you mane by talking about its being unconstitootional? It's no more unconstitootio

oked at him majestically for a moment, and said, "You'll excuse my mentioning, sorr, that the gintleman who has just sat down knows more law in a wake than you do in a month; and more than that, Mike Shaun

ican Idea

ere state of mind. He usually came to the meetings in this mood, as a result of having visited the bar, and taken a num

of sending the chairman fast asleep bolt upright. But in a minute or two, as the man warmed up to his work, he gave a peculiar resonant howl which waked the Colonel up. The latter came to himself with a jerk, looked fixe

n you bef

not," sa

Colonel, with sudden ferocity. "You've a

the man; but the Col

tee twice. The committee stands adjourned." And with that he stalked majestically out of the

ican Idea

bly a man whom Mr. Roo

he Legislature was organized, or had adopted any rules; and each day the only business was for

Misther

e gentleman f

a point of ordhe

There are

in I objec

re are no rule

y recovering himself.) Thin I move that

obiograp

ed. This astonished the Assembly, for the judge had powerful and rich friends. His own party advised the twenty-three years old Assemblyman to sit down and shut his mouth. The jud

on the eighth day, his motion was carried by a vote of 104 to 6. The politicians saw to it that the judge escaped, but i

by a courageous and honest Governor, named Grover Cleveland. Thomas Nast, America's great cartoonist of th

ngs in the single living room of a family in a tenement. In one house which he investigated himself, there were two families, and a boarder, all living in one room, while one or more of the men carried on the ma

there were persons who found that the law was against their interests. They succeeded in getting the Court of Appeals to s

lasses of people with whom they had no contact They knew the law; they did not know life. The decision blocked