Theodore Roosevelt

t. But he was in political office over twenty years of his life, always interested and active in politics, and the vigor wh

made to turn his efforts in useful directions. But the man who takes no interest at all in the government of his city, state or nation, who is so feeble that he cannot even take the time to v

a chance for useful work or for good fun. He had a perfectly "corking time," he said, when he was President, and the words shocked a number of good people who

get happiness out of every minute. He did not engage in drinking and gambling for his amusements. He did not adopt a priggish attitude on these matters,-he simply knew that there were other things which were

s, and in books. In these things he was marvelously wise or marvelously fortunate. Some men's lives are spent indoors, in an office or in a

e good fun that is in books they deny themselves much pleasure, and take refuge in calling "hi

he knew the keen pleasure of books. So when he returned to America after his marriage in 1886, he built a house on Sagamore Hill at Oyster Bay on Long Island. Here he could ride, shoot, row, look after his farm,

feated for reelection by the Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison. The new President appo

king out merely for his own ambitions, for his own success in politics, is careful of the position he takes, careful to keep out of offices where there are many chances to make enemies. The Civil Service Commission was, of all places at that time, th

party, was firmly established. Men and women were not appointed to office because they knew anything about the work they were to do, but because they were cousins of a Congressman's wife, or political heelers who had helped to get the Congressman elected. N

l fought, secretly or openly. Congressmen tried to ridicule it, to hamper it by denials of money, and to overrule it in every possible way. A powerful Republican Congre

ars in the Commission. When he retired he had made a good many enemies among the crooked politicians, and some friends and admirers among well-informed men who watch

s a Hunter in h

k City. It was one which had been fatal to political ambitions, and was almost certain to end th