Yale University Lihrary

II I iiiii ;

(';;'¦-

RiS''

ii ill I

liiBSijifi'iilii

lilii

(l/c (StOVtf
o

rHEODORB

kiji..

lUXMIMIUIMftM

"11 Itll

f'^ili'ilillli!!

itlilii
'h,'ih,M!;iii'

ilia

It IB

IP
(' 'I

"GREAT-HEART'

JujL-ft-cCmJL Acrxr^.^'Jy'^-Cf

( (

GREAT- HEART"
The Life Story of
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
By Daniel Henderson

Introduction by
Major-General Leonard Wood
U. S. Army
Illustrated with photographs,
and cartoon by Ding"

FOURTH EDITION

Nevif York
Alfred A. Knopf
MCMXIX

"GREAT-HEART"
The Life Story op Theodobe Roosevei.t
Copyright, 1919, by William Edwin Rudge
Printed in the United States of America
Published May, 1919

Dedicated to
The Fighting Sons
of
Theodore
Roosevelt

"It is as though Bunyan's Mr. Greatheart
had died in the midst of his pilgrimage,
for he was the greatest proved American
of his generation. ' ' EUDYAKD KIPLING

INTRODUCTION
In the following pages Daniel Henderson has
presented in condensed form the life story of
Theodore Roosevelt. The writer has made no
serious effort to go into the details of his official
and political career or to deal with the great
questions of foreign and home policy which came
up during his public career.
Theodore Roosevelt's activities were so varied
and the field he covered so wide, that no work
of this kind can give more than the barest outline.
Nevertheless, the book is so written as to give
those who may read it a general idea of his boy
hood, his youth, and many of the things he did,
his high ideals, his purity of purpose, his intense
patriotism, his love of the outdoor life, and his
understanding not only of towns and cities, but
of the wild places of the world and the people,
animals, and birds who dwell in them.
The story brings out his intense Americanism,
his love of fair play, and his fearless and straight
forward character. He stands out as a man whose
life was characterized not only by devotion to
country and truth, as he saw it, but to the best
interests of mankind. While his spirit was one

of intense Americanism, his sympathies were as
wide as the world.
It is a book especially fitted for the youth of
the coimtry, and the record of achievements
therein will serve as an inspiration to all who
read it.
Theodore Roosevelt was the most inspiring
and, consequently, the most dominant figvu-e in
our national life since Lincoln, and his influence
on American youth and upon our people as a
whole will always be an uplifting one.
His life will always be an inspiration for
greater effort and for higher ideals.
"Great-Heart" is dead buthis influence lives on!
Major General U. S. Army.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
The pui'pose of the writer has been to show
why Rudyard Kipling thought Theodore Roose
velt the incarnation of Bunyan's character
"Great-Heart," and to reflect the romance and
inspiration contained in Roosevelt's life.
The work has been approached from the view
point of one who was not a partisan; of one dis
posed to be critical ; of one who, however, viewing
Roosevelt's career as a whole, was so moved by
its grandeur that he became impelled to play
what part he could in perpetuating the memory
of this inspiring American among his people.
Moreover, there was a natural attraction to
write of him whose career from birth to death
was a panorama of adventure and climax and
achievement; of him whose life had in it those
elements which create literature — that human
stuff that makes immortal such books as Plu
tarch's Lives and Robinson Crusoe.
Full justice to his subject the author could not
hope to render. Powerful indeed will be the pen
that adequately describes Roosevelt's life of
struggle and triumph, with its warfare against
bodUy handicaps and political prejudice; warfare

against wild beasts in dense jungles; warfare
against himger and exhaustion on inconceivably
hard journeys of exploration; warfare against
predatory wealth; warfare against men in high
places who would grind the faces of the poor;
warfare to prepare America to stamp out forever
militarism and bloodshed; warfare to lead the
race to the loftiest goals.
The writer does not therefore promise that
every motive and deed of Roosevelt's life will be
chronicled in this book. He has tried to be faithful
to the main facts, and to so group these facts that
the narrative will be vivid and moving — typical
of the man about whom it is written — so that not
only the few, but also the many, will find enjoy
ment and uplift in the story. The author will be
content if the average man or W9man or boy or
girl, feels beating through these pages the warm
pulses of him who was indeed — "Great-Heart."
Daniel Henderson.

THE CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I "A Reg'lar Boy" 1
II Roosevelt in the Bad Lands 12
III Broncos and Bears 30
IV Champion of Women and Children 47
V Keeping Fit 61
VI Roosevelt's "Cops" 70
VII Roosevelt's Influence on American
Naval Affairs 85
VIII Roosevelt's Rough Riders 99
IX Campaigning in Cuba 110
X The Great Peace-Maker 134
XI Roosevelt's Political Victories 145
XII First Years in the Presidency 160
XIII Good Will Abroad; a Square Deal
at Home 173
XIV The "Bull Moose" 187
XV From White House to Jungle 193
XVI The River of Doubt 208
XVII Roosevelt's Part in the World War 214
XVIII Great-Heart 233

THE ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE
Theodore Roosevelt's Portrait Frontispiece
Roosevelt in the Bear Country 16
Just Before Entering Yellowstone Park 32
Roosevelt, the Fighter 48
Roosevelt, the Man 49
Combination Photograph Showing Roosevelt
in Characteristic Poses 80
Roosevelt Addressing an Interested
Audience 96
Before the Battle of San Juan 112
Hall at Sagamore Hill 128
Family Group Taken While Roosevelt Was
Governor of New York 144
Roosevelt's Cabinet in 1908 160
Roosevelt's Arrival at Gardiner, Mont. 176
Roosevelt as a Grandfather 192
Roosevelt's Home, Sagamore HUl 208
Roosevelt's Service Stars 224
Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill 228
TRl

"A Reg'lar Boy"
IN ROOSEVELT, the statesman, still lived
"Ted," the boy. To see this fact in all its
clearness one has only to let his thoughts go
back to the period when Roosevelt was Presi
dent and follow him on a camping expedition
with his boys and their cousins, come from miles
around to share in the expedition.
The beach is reached ; the fishing poles are put
out; the catch is brought in. Thereupon Roose
velt himself turns cook. It is a big job, for there
are many boys and their appetites are keen; but
the cook is equal to the task. Then night steals
on them. The campfire grows to enormous pro
portions. Around it the boys sit, listening with
breathless interest to the wonder tales of hunt
ing and cow-punching that come from the Presi
dent who for his boys' sake has made himself a
lad again.
As we recall this scene we remember that the
sons of Roosevelt fought for righteousness
in France. We recall, too, that campfires
and roughly cooked food were the order of the
day in the paths^ these and millions of other boys
traveled; and we wonder if, as they bivouacked,
TR2 [1]

2 ] GREAT-HEART

there did not come to them the memory of those
nights when as boys their father led them out on
a hard trail and then, in night-wrapped woods,
stood guard over them as they rolled themselves
in their blankets and fell into that sound sleep
which had no room for the terrible dreams war
engenders. It is when such pictures present themselves to
our minds that we say to ourselves that Bayard
Taylor wrote facts as well as poetry when he
said: "The bravest are the tenderest.
The loving are the daring!"
If a person who knew nothing of Roosevelt's
antecedents were asked to express an opinion as
to the type of boy he was, that person, reasoning
from Roosevelt's great vigor and the intensity
with which he threw himself into outdoor pursuits,
would say that he was a strong, healthy lad-
The reverse, however, is the case. From earliest
infancy Theodore Roosevelt had been subject to
attacks of asthma that weakened him physically
and hindered his growth. He confesses that as a
little fellow he was timid, and that when larger
boys strove to exercise over him that domination
which the boy of an older age thinks himself

GREAT- HEART [ 3

privileged to exercise over a younger lad, he was
backward in opposing them. It was his physical
weakness that prevented him from going to
school and that led him to be placed under the
instruction of various tutors.
"Bill" Sewall, the old woodsman and hunter,
who figures in several of Roosevelt's books, and
who, for over forty years had been a close friend
of Roosevelt, said after the Colonel's death:
"No, Theodore's death did not surprise me.
Men thought that he was strong and robust. He
wasn't. It was his boimdless energy, his deter
mination and his nerves that kept Theodore
Roosevelt turning out the enormous quantities
of work he did. Really, he suffered from heart
disease all his life."
There dwelt in the boy Roosevelt an indomit
able will. He also possessed a love for sports,
travel and adventure such as could only be en
joyed with a strong body. Into his ken came the
heroes of Captain Mayne Reid's novels and also
the heroes of Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstock-
ing Tales." He wanted to be like these men.
Young as he was, he was keen enough to realize
that to enter upon the career of which he dreamed
he must have a sound constitution and overflow
ing energy. His will assumed control of his

4 J GREAT-HEART

feeble body. His mind spurred his heart, limbs
and lungs. He determined that the next bullying
lad would have to contend with a boy with
stronger muscles and heavier frame. Even as he
resolved the springs of bodily vigor became loosed
in the young boy. The town house became too
small to hold him. Jacob Riis relates that a
woman who lived next door to the Roosevelts
told him that one day she saw young Theodore
hanging out of a second-story window, and ran
in a desperate hurry to tell his mother. What
Ted's mother said as she hurried off to rescue her
son made a lasting impression on this woman:
"If the Lord had not taken care of Theodore he
would have been killed long ago."
In addition to the streets of New York beau
tiful Long Island was his for roving, for here
his family spent the summer. He ran races with
his chums; stole rides on his father's mounts;
swam, rowed and sailed on Long Island Sound.
He explored the hills, caves and woods of his
country home. He had sisters, and, of course,
his sisters had girl companions, and of course he
had his special friend among this group of girl
playmates. Naturally, his Southern mother made
it her rule to promote chivalry in her son, and
so Ted played the gallant on many a picnic or

GREAT-HEART [ 5

horseback ride. Soon his parents saw what the
doctors had failed to do the great outdoors was
doing. Strong muscles came to him. He lost the
fatigue which accompanied his first exertions.
His young frame broadened and grew stout
enough to stand the rigors of outdoor life. Na
ture had had little chance with him when he was
shut up in New York among his books, but now
that he had come to her she gave him the rich
blood and the strong nerves which later furnished
him the strength to attain the fulfilment of his
ambitious plans.
Ted was a sheer boy in these days, and a sheer
boy he remained until he went to college. Con
cerning him an old Long Island stage-driver, in
whose stage Ted often rode, remarked to Henry
Beech Needham: "He was a reg'lar boy. Al
ways outdoors, climbin' trees and goin' bird-
nestin'! I remember him particular, because he
had queer things alive in his pockets. Sometimes
it was even a snake !"
Roosevelt met "Bill" Sewall for the first time
when he was eighteen years old. This was when
he first came to Sewall's hunting-camp in Maine,
which is still in existence.
"Be very careful with him," Arthur Cutler,
his tutor, warned Sewall. "Don't take him on

6 ] GREAT-HEART

such tramps as you take yourself. He couldn't
stand it. But he wouldn't let you know that for
a minute. He'd go till he dropped rather than
admit it. He isn't strong, though. You must
watch him carefully."
TOOK A LOT OF WATCHING
"I did watch him carefully," said "Bill"
Sewall. "He took a lot of watching," he added.
"Yes, a lot of watching. He'd never quit. I
remember the time we set out from my place
up at Island Falls to climb Mount Katahdin.
That's the tallest mountain we have in Maine.
We were crossing Wissacataquoik Creek. The
current is very swift there. Somehow Theodore
lost one of his shoes. Away it went downstream.
All he had with him to take the place of shoes
was a pair of thin-skinned moccasins. The stones
and crags on the way up cut his feet into tatters.
But he kept on, with never a mvirmur of com
plaint. That's a little thing, perhaps ; but he was
that way in all things — always."
Later, when Roosevelt had lost his first wife
and also his mother, it was to Sewall, the back
woodsman who, in long walks in the Maine for
ests, had given him his first lessons in the value
of imvarnished democracy, that he turned for

GREAT-HEART [ 7

solace, and it was this Maine guide who went
West with him and helped to lead him out of the
daze that followed these bereavements,
Roosevelt's interest in boxing developed when
he was fourteen, and rose out of the primitive
need of being able to protect himself against boys
who sought to impose on him. At that time he
ventured forth by himself on a trip to Moosehead
Lake and on the stage-coach that bore him there
he met two mischievous boys of his own age who
proceeded to make life miserable for him. Made
desperate by their persecutions, he decided to lick
them, but f oimd that either one singly was more
than a match for him.
Bitterly determined that he should not be again
humiliated in this way, he resolved to learn how
to defend himself, and, with his father's ap
proval, started to learn boxing.
Mr. Roosevelt himself relates how, under the
training of John Long, an ex-prize-fighter, whose
rooms were ornamented with vivid pictures of
ring champions and battles, he first put on the
gloves. For a long period he was knocked around
the ring with no other fighting quality in evidence
but the ability to take punishment. But then,
when his boxing master arranged a series of
matches, he was entered in a lightweight contest

8 ] GREAT-HEART

and entrusted to the care of his guardian angel.
Luckily his opponents chanced to be two
youths whose ambitions greatly exceeded their
science and muscular development, and, to the
surprise of all concerned, he emerged the pos
sessor of the prize cup for his class — a pewter
mug that, though it would have been dear at fifty
cents, was nevertheless a rich compensation for
the knockdowns and bruises he had endured dur
ing his training. ROOSEVELT AT COLLEGE
In his account of Roosevelt as an outdoor man
Henry Beach Needham furnishes this interesting
picture of Theodore in his college days :
"It was a bout to decide the lightweight cham
pionship of Harvard. The heavyweight and mid
dleweight championships had been awarded.
The contest for the men under 140 pounds was
on. Roosevelt, then a junior, had defeated seven
men. A senior had as many victories to his credit.
They were pitted against each other in the finals.
The senior was quite a bit taller than
Roosevelt and his reach was longer. He also
weighed more by six pounds, but Roosevelt was
the quicker man on his feet and knew more of the
science of boxing. The first round was vigorously

GREAT-HEART [ 9

contested. Roosevelt closed in at the very outset.
Because of his bad eyes he realized that infighting
gave him his only chance to win. Blows were ex
changed with lightning rapidity, and they were
hard blows. Roosevelt drew first blood, but soon
his own nose was bleeding. At the call of time,
however, he got the decision for the roimd.
"The senior had learned his lesson. There^after
he would not permit Roosevelt to close in on him.
With his longer reach, and aided by his antago
nist's near-sightedness, he succeeded in landing
frequent blows. Roosevelt worked hard, but to
no avail. The roimd was awarded to the senior.
In the third round the senior endeavored to pur
sue .the same tactics, but with less success. The
result of this round was a draw, and an extra
roimd had to be sparred. Here superior weight
and longer reach began to tell, but Roosevelt
boxed gamely to the end. Said his antagonist:
T can see him now as he came in fiercely to the
attack. But I kept him off, taking no chances,
and landing at long reach. I got the decision, but
Roosevelt was far more scientific. Given good
eyes, he would have defeated me easily.' "
In the summer of 1883 Roosevelt, struggling
through a more than usually serious attack of
asthma, "went West," in the hope that outdoor

10 ] GREAT-HEART

hfe in Dakota would restore him to strength.
Medora, the place to which fortune directed
him, was a little prairie settlement barely inhab
ited except on pay day, when the cowboys
galloped in from the surrounding ranches to
spend their well-earned money in the saloons.
Roosevelt had selected Medora as a possible
haunt of buffalo-hunters, and he inquired eagerly
of the inhabitants as to how he could find a guide
for a bison-hunt.
One of the owners of the Chimney Butte
Ranch, Joe Ferris, chanced to be in town that
day, and while his companions were eyeing the
spectacled "tenderfoot" with amusement or sus
picion, Ferris, attracted by the newcomer's
friendly and honest looks, invited him to his ranch.
Roosevelt gladly accepted this opportunity to
know ranch life at first hand. After a drive of
twelve miles, Ferris led him up to a crude ranch-
house. When Roosevelt entered its door he found
its furniture quite as primitive as was the building.
The place was owned by Joe Ferris and his
brother, Sylvane, who were in partnership with
one Joe Merrifield. The young Easterner han
dled himself in a way that won the esteem of
these hardy, keen-eyed "cow-punchers." They
took him on a trying trip through the desolate

GREAT-HEART [11

"Bad Lands" in search of bison, but Roosevelt
endured the hardships without flinching and in
the end got what he went after — a bull buffalo.
When the trip was over Roosevelt found him
self in love not only with his comrades, but also
with their cattle and ponies and crude outfit. He
bought the ranch ; left Merrifield in charge as his
foreman; and came East to enter upon another
vigorous term in the Legislature.
Two years later, Roosevelt found himself sick
of pohtics, and at odds with life itself. His
adored mother had died, and, a few hours after
her passing, his wife had also died in giving birth
to his daughter Alice. Leaving the child in the
best of care in New York, he went back to
Dakota, resolved to devote himself to ranching.
He selected a site for his new ranch house at
Elkhorn, and his favorite companions, Sewall
and Wilmot Dow, Sewall's nephew, who came
West to join him, had a great deal to do with the
building of this house.
Sewall states that Roosevelt at the time in
tended to take up cattle-raising as a permanent
business, having heard that there was "money
m it.

II
Roosevelt in the Bad Lands
"TTELL-ROARING BILL JONES," a citi-
Xl zen of the forlorn little cattle town of
Medora, possessed four distinctions: He was
sheriff of the county, he was a gun-fighter, he
was a handy man with his fists, and he became
a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, who had now
acquired the two cattle ranches, the Chimney
Butte and the Elkhorn.
There was an election in town. A fight was
threatened. Roosevelt, fresh from his own po
litical battles in the New York Assembly,
heard out on his ranch that one of the parties
would import section hands from nearby rail
road stations to throw their weight into the con
flict. Instantly the place of election became the
only spot in the world for him.
The news had been late in reaching him, and
when he rode into Medora the election was well
under way. Roosevelt inquired if there had been
any disorder.
"Disorder, hell!" said a bystander. "Bill
Jones just stood there with one hand on his
gun and with the other pointing over toward the
new jail whenever any man who didn't have the
[12]

GREAT-HEART [13

right to vote came near the polls. The only one
of them who tried to vote Bill knocked down!
Lord! the way that man fell!"
"Well!" Bill ejaculated, "if he hadn't fell I'd
have walked around behind him to see what was
propping him up!"
It was with men like these, in surroundings
like these, that young Roosevelt had elected to
learn to the full extent the lesson of democracy.
Before his Western trip Roosevelt had al
ready had his manhood and his spirit of brother
hood tested in the hard-waged battles of New
York political life. Now was to come a test in
finitely greater. The former member of the
New York Assembly, the man who had oc
cupied a high place in New York social life,
who in his earlier days was noted for his well-
tailored figure and his eyeglasses, had turned
his back on all this. He told his folks that he
was going West to "rough it" and to mix with
mankind, and both of these he did to the utmost.
LIFE ON THE RANCH
The place he chose for his home ranch was
one of the worst of the undeveloped sections of
the country. The ranch lay on both sides of the
Little Missouri River. In front of the ranch

14 ] GREAT-HEART

house itself was a long veranda, and in front of
that a line of cottonwood trees that shaded it.
The bluffs rose from the river valley; stables,
sheds and other buildings were near. A circu
lar horse corral lay not far from the house. In
winter wolves and lynxes traveled up the river
on the ice, directly in front of the ranch house.
Life at the ranch house was of the most primi
tive nature. Though they had a couple of cows
and some chickens, which supplied them with
milk and eggs, they lived for the most part on
canned fare.
At the roundups and during his long rides
over the range, and on many hunting trips,
Roosevelt had his favorite horse as companion —
Manitou. This horse was so fond of him that
it used to come up of its own accord to the ranch
house and put its head into the door to beg for
bread and sugar.
When it was not a question of roundup or
herding cattle, or driving them to new grazing
lands, the men at the ranch house broke in
horses, mended their saddles and practised with
the rope. Hunting trips broke into regular
ranch life. The primitive little sitting-room of
the Elkhorn Ranch was adorned with buffalo
robes and bearskins of Roosevelt's own killing;

GREAT-HEART [ 15

and in winter there was always to be found good
reading and a cheery fire.
A MAN AMONG MEN
Roosevelt brushed elbows in Medora with
newly arrived hunters from the plains and
mountains, clad in buckskin shirts and fur caps —
greasy and unkempt, yet strong and resolute
men. Then there were teamsters, in slouch hats
and great cowhide boots ; stage-drivers with faces
like leather; Indians wrapped in blankets; cow
boys galloping through the streets. These men
had all come to town to obtain relief from the
monotony of their occupations or from long per
iods of peril and hardship, and the only enter
tainment that awaited them were "flaunting sa
loons and gawdy hells of all kinds," to borrow
Roosevelt's own description. Among them
moved the "bad men," professional thieves and
man-killers, who owed their lives to their ability
to draw their weapons before other men could
draw theirs.
Roosevelt was deeply interested in these im-
usual characters and scenes. Indeed, it was to
drink in this frank, self-reliant spirit that he
had come West. He met these men on their own
ground, fearlessly. They saw that, in spite of

16 ] GREAT- HEART

his eyeglasses, he was a man after their own
kind. Often he found himself in places of dan
ger and saw men killed beside him in drunken
brawls, yet there was something about him that
made bad men pause before they challenged
him. Among Roosevelt's cowboys was a Pueblo
Indian who was a bad lot, a Sioux who was faith
ful and a mulatto who was one of his best men.
The men would carry the "brand" of their ranch
even in their own nicknames. Thus it would
be said that "Bar Y" Harry had married the
"Seven Open A" girl.
It was when he was thrown into contact day
after day with the men of his own ranch that
the most severe test of Roosevelt as a "good fel
low" came.
He came through his initiation into ranch life
the idol of his men, though they never got to the
stage where they would neglect a chance to poke
sly fun at him. He relates how once, when on a
wood-chopping expedition, he overheard some
one ask Dow, a ranchman bred in the Maine
woods, what the total cut had been. Dow, un
conscious that he was within hearing, said:
"Well, Bill cut down fifty-three, I cut forty-
nine and the boss he beavered seventeen."

COPYKIGKT, UMDUWOOD * UNDERWOOD
R008ETELT IN THE BEAR COUNTRY

GREAT- HEART [17

The force of the jest, Roosevelt explains, lies
not in the small number of trees his ax felled,
but in the comparison of his chopping with the
gnawing of the beaver.
At another time Roosevelt, struggling des
perately to mount an unwilling horse, heard be
hind him a cowboy remark to the effect that he
would find it hard to qualify for the job of
"bronco buster."
Roosevelt enjoyed these jokes as much as
those who made them. The West was a bad
place for a coward or a shirker, and the man who
permitted himself to be bullied and made a butt
was in for an uncomfortable existence. On the
other hand, the man who did his work and gave
and took jests in the spirit in which they were
intended quickly made lasting friends.
One of the stories "Bill" Sewall tells of Roose
velt's ranch life is this:
"Once on the cattle ranch in North Dakota
during a roundup, his horse reared, threw him
and then fell on top of him. The spUl broke
Theodore's shoulder-blade. But he was afraid the
cowpunchers might think he was a quitter. So
he stayed out on the roundup for three days,
suffering the intensest pain all the while, but
never saying a word about it to anyone."
TB3

18 ] GREAT-HEART

The men usually carried revolvers, and now
and then an ill temper or an excess of drinking
led to a shooting affray. Roosevelt was witness
to or had first-hand knowledge of several of
these. In his book "Ranch Life and the Hunting
Trail" he tells how a desperado, a man from
Arkansas, had a quarrel with two Irish despera
does who were partners. For several days the
three lurked about the streets of the town, each
trying to get the drop on the other. Finally one
of the Irishmen crept up behind the Ajkansan
as he was walking into a gambling hall and shot
him in the back. Mortally wounded, the man
fell; yet, with the dauntless spirit found in so
many of this class, he twisted around as he
dropped and shot his slayer dead. Knowing that
he had but a few minutes more to live and ex
pecting that his other foe would run up on hear
ing the shooting, he dragged himself on his arms
out into the street and waited. The second part
ner came up at once, to be slain instantly by a
bullet from the revolver of the wounded man.
The victor of this gruesome combat lived just
twenty minutes after his victory.
On another occasion, Welshy, a saloon-keeper,
and a man named Hay had been at odds for
some time. One day Hay entered Wdshy's

GREAT-HEART [ 19

saloon out of temper and became very abusive.
Suddenly Welshy took out his revolver and
fired at Hay. The saloon-keeper almost fainted
with surprise when Hay, after staggering slight
ly, shook himself, stretched out his hand and gave
hack to his would-be slayer the ball. It had
glanced along his breast-bone, gone into the
body and come out at the point of the shoulder,
then dropped down the sleeve into his hand.
Roosevelt thought the story worthy of the pen
of a Wister or a Bret Harte, but the editor of
"The Bad Lands Cowboy" mentioned the event
merely as an "unfortunate occurrence between
two of our most esteemed fellow citizens."
On still another occasion a Scotchman and a
Minnesota man, both with "shooting" records,
had a furious quarrel, and later the Scotchman
mounted his horse, with rifle in hand, and rode
to the door of the American's mud ranch, breath
ing threats of slaughter. The latter, however,
was not caught napping. From behind a corner
of his building he instantly shot down his fool
ish assailant.
Soon afterward there was a cowboy ball held
in the place. Whether or not this was in celebra
tion of the victory is not stated, but a historic
fact in connection with the ball is that Roose-

20 J GREAT- HEART

velt was selected to open the dancing with the
wife of the victor of the shooting affair. The
husband himself danced opposite, instructing
Roosevelt in the steps of the lanciers.
Sometimes Roosevelt found himself involved
in situations that required both a cool head and
a sense of humor. When he entered a strange place
it always took him a day or two to live down the
fact that he wore spectacles, and he found it a
justifiable policy to ignore remarks about "four-
eyes" until it became apparent to him that his
keeping still was being mistaken for cowardice,
on which occasion he went at the aggressor ham
mer and tongs.
An amusing happening in which he was a
central figure occurred when he was out on a
search for a lost horse. He stopped for the night
at a little cow town, but was informed by the
oAvner of the only hotel that the only accommoda
tion left was a room containing two double beds,
and that three men were already occupying
these beds. Roosevelt accepted the offer of the
vacant half bed and turned in.
Two hours later a lantern flashed in his face
and he awoke to find himself staring into the
muzzle of a revolver. Two men bent over him.
"It ain't him!" said one, and the next moment

GREAT-HEART [ 21

his bedfellow was covered by their guns, and one
of them said, persuasively: "Now, Bill, don't
make a fuss, but come along quiet."
"I'm not thinking of making a fuss," said Bill.
"That's right," was the answer, "we don't
want to hurt you; we just want you to come
along. You know why."
Bill dressed himself and went with them. "I
wonder why they took Bill?" Roosevelt asked
naively. "Well," drawled one of his neighbors, "I
guess they wanted him."
Roosevelt heard later that Bill had held up
a Northern Pacific train and by shooting at the
conductor's feet, made him dance. Bill was more
a joker than a train robber, but the holding up
of the train had delayed the mails, and the
United States Marshal had sent for him.
ROOSEVELT MEETS BAD INDIANS
A peril Roosevelt faced arose from his prox
imity to bad Indians. In roaming through the
uninhabited country surrounding his ranch there
was constant danger of meeting bands of young
bucks. These redskins were generally insolent
and reckless, and if they met a white man when
the chances of their detection and punishment

22 ] GREAT-HEART

were slight they would take away his horse and
rifle, if not his life.
One morning Roosevelt had set out on a soli
tary trip to the country beyond his ranch. He
was near the middle of a plateau when a small
band of Indians suddenly rode over the edge in
front of him. The minute they saw him, out
came their guns. Full tilt they dashed at him,
whooping and brandishing their weapons in typ
ical Indian style. Roosevelt reined up and dis
mounted. His horse, Manitou, stood steady as
a rock. When the Indians were a hundred yards
off, Roosevelt threw his rifle over Manitou's back
and drew a bead on the foremost redskin. In
stantly the party scattered, doubled back on
their tracks and bent over alongside their horses
to shield themselves from Roosevelt's gun. Out
of rifle range, they held a consultation, and then
one came forward alone, dropping his rifle and
waving a blanket over his head. When he was
within fifty yards he yelled out: "How! Me
good Indian." Roosevelt returned the "How,"
and assured him that he was delighted to know
that he was a good Indian, but that he would not
be permitted to come closer. The other Indians
came closer, but Roosevelt's rifle covered them.
After an outburst of profanity, they galloped

GREAT-HEART [ 23

away in an opposite direction from Roosevelt's
route. Later in the day Roosevelt met two trap
pers, who told him that his assailants were young
Sioux bucks, who had robbed them of two horses.
In his account of this episode, Roosevelt takes
care to point out that there is another side to the
Indian character, as indeed all America has
found out since the gallantry of our Indian
brothers in the world war. He illustrates this by
telling how, while spending the night in a small
cow ranch on the Beaver, he lay in his bunk lis
tening to the conversation of two cowboys. They
were speaking of Indians, and mentioned a jury
that had acquitted a horse-thief of the charge
of stealing stock from a neighboring tribe,
though the thief himself had openly admitted its
truth. One of these cowboys suddenly remarked
that he had once met an Indian who was a pretty
good fellow, and he proceeded to tell the story.
A small party of Indians had passed the win
ter near the ranch at which he was employed.
The chief had two particularly fine horses. These
so excited the cowboy's cupidity that one night
he drove them off and hid them in a safe place.
The chief looked for them high and low, but
without success. Soon afterward one of the cow
boy's own horses strayed. When spring came

24 ] GREAT-HEART

the Indians went away, but three days after
ward the chief returned, bringing with him the
strayed horse, which he had happened to run
across. "I couldn't stand that," said the narrator.
"so I just told him I reckoned I knew where his
own lost horses were, and I saddled up my bron
co and piloted him to them."
Still another story is cited by Roosevelt in de
nial of the saying, "The only good Indian is a
dead Indian." Once, on visiting a neighboring
ranch, he found waiting there three well-behaved
and self-respecting Sioux. The woman on the
ranch told him that a white man had come along
and tried to run off with their horses. Running
out, they had caught him, retaken their horses,
deprived him of his guns and released him.
"I don't see why they let him go," exclaimed
Roosevelt's hostess. "I don't believe in stealing
Indians' horses any more than white folks' so I
told them they could go along and hang him —
I'd never cheep."
When, many years later, Roosevelt became
President, his knowledge of the condition of the
Indians led him to become their stanch cham
pion. There was then an enormous amount of
fraud practised by white men in obtaining pos
session of Indian lands. Roosevelt used his ex-

GREAT-HEART [ 25

ecutive power to protect Indian rights and ap
pointed as Indian Commissioner Francis E.
Leupp, one of the best friends the Indians ever
had. POLICE WORK ON THE PLAINS
There was much horse-stealing and cattle-kill
ing in this part of the country while Roosevelt
was a resident of it. Under the direction of the
big cattle-owners, vigilantes were organized to
rid the territory of the "rustlers" — ^the cowboys'
name for horse and cattle-thieves.
Roosevelt admitted the need of these strin
gent methods, but his own way of fighting law
lessness was to accept the office of deputy sheriff
for his locality.
It was while filling this office that Roose
velt first made the acquaintance of Seth Bullock,
who later became one of his warmest friends and
greatest admirers, and who served as marshal of
South Dakota under Roosevelt when the latter
became President.
Roosevelt first met Seth when the latter was
sheriff in the Black Hills district. A horse-thief
Seth wanted escaped into Roosevelt's territory
and was captured by him, a matter that led Seth
to give some attention to the young cub of a

26 ] GREAT-HEART

deputy two or three hundred miles north of him.
Later, Bill Jones, Ferris and Roosevelt went
down to Deadwood on business. At the little town
of Spearfish they met Seth, The trip had been a
hard one, and the three travelers were dusty
and unkempt. Seth's reception of them at first
was decidedly stand-offish, but when their iden
tity became known he unbent. "You see," he
explained to the future President, "by your
looks I thought you were some kind of a tin
horn gambling outfit, and that I might have to
keep an eye on you!"
Roosevelt's reputation as an upholder of the
law was further enhanced by his arrest of the
three desperadoes from whom his neighborhood
had suffered. The vigilantes had almost cleared
the country of scoundrels, but there remained
three men who had long been suspected of cattle-
killing and horse-stealing. One was a half-breed,
another was an old German of the shiftless type,
while the leader was a strapping fellow named
Finnigan, with a crop of red hair reaching to his
shoulders. These men, finding the neighbor
hood becoming too hot for them, were anxious to
quit that section of the country. Roosevelt pos
sessed a clinker-built boat that had been used
to ferry his men across the river.

GREAT-HEART [ 27

One day one of the men brought back to the
house news that the boat had been stolen. The
end of the rope had been cut off with a sharp
knife. Near the stream lay a red woolen mitten
with a leather palm. These three desperadoes
were at once suspected. Undoubtedly they knew
that to travel on horseback in the direction they
wanted to go was almost impossible and that the
river offered them the best avenue of escape.
They must also have reasoned that by taking
Roosevelt's boat they would possess the only one
on the river and that, therefore, they could not
be pursued.
They reckoned without Roosevelt's fighting
spirit, however. With the aid of two of his cow
boys, Sewall and Dow, who, coming from Maine
woods, were therefore skilled in woodcraft and in
the use of the ax, paddle and rifle, they turned
out in two or three days a first-class flat-bot
tomed scow. This was loaded with supplies, and
early one morning Roosevelt, Sewall and Dow
started down the river in chase of the thieves. On
the third day of their pursuit, as they came
around a bend, they saw the lost boat moored
against a bank. Some yards from the shore a
campfire smoke arose. The pursuers shoved their
scow into the bank and approached the camp.

28 ] GREAT- HEART

They found the German sitting by the campfire
with his weapons on the ground. His two compan
ions were off hunting. When the two thieves
returned they walked into three cocked rifles.
Roosevelt shouted to them to hold up their hands.
The half-breed obeyed at once. Finnigan hesi
tated, but as Roosevelt walked a few paces
toward him, covering his chest with his rifle, the
man, with an oath, let his own rifle drop and
threw his hands high above his head.
Then came the hardest and most irksome part
of the task — ^getting the prisoners safely to jail.
After many monotonous days and nights, in
which it was necessary to keep a close guard on
the prisoners and at the same time navigate the
river, they came to a cow camp. There Roosevelt
learned that at a ranch fifteen miles off he could
hire a large prairie schooner and two tough bron
cos for the transportation of his prisoners to
Dickinson, the nearest town. This was done. Se-
waU and Dow went back to the boats. Roosevelt
put the prisoners in the wagon along with an old
settler, who drove the horses while he walked be
hind, ankle-deep in mud, with his Winchester
over his shoulder. After thirty-six hours of
sleeplessness the wagon jolted into the main
street of Dickinson, where Roosevelt delivered

GREAT-HEART [ 29

his prisoners into the hands of the sheriff, and
received, under the laws of Dakota, his fees as a
deputy sheriff, amounting to some fifty dollars.

Ill
Broncos and Bears
HUNTING lost broncos was one of the
commonest and most irksome of Roose
velt's ranch duties. On one occasion, when three
horses under his charge had been running lose
for a couple of months and had become as wild
as deer through their stolen liberty, he had to
follow at full speed for fifteen miles, until by
exhausting them, he was able to get them under
control and headed toward a corral.
At other times he and his men were not so
lucky. Two horses had been missing from the
ranch for nearly eighteen months. They were
seen by his men and pursued but the horses of
the pursuers became exhausted and broken be
fore they caught up with the runaways.
On another occasion a horse that had been on
the Roosevelt ranch nine months developed a
case of homesickness, went off one night and
traveled two hundred miles back to its former
roaming grounds, swimming the Yellowstone to
achieve its goal.
Wlien Roosevelt was attending one of the re
cent national political conventions, up came
George Meyer, one of his former ranchmen, with
[30]

GREAT-HEART [ 31

this tale of Roosevelt's roundup days on the
Little Missouri :
"When the Colonel gets into a mix-up like he
is in at this convention the picture comes to me
of the time when he and I started to get two
calves across the river. I singled out the meekest
looking, grabbed it up in my arms, held it while
I managed to get on my horse, and started to
cross the river. Half way across I turned to see
how 'the boss' was getting along.
"He had roped his calf and was dragging it
toward the river. The calf, bleating and bounc
ing, swung round under the horse's tail. This
set the bronco on a rampage. The river bank
was high, but over it he bucked. I saw 'the boss'
clutching the reins with one hand and the calf
rope with the other. The sudden tautness of the
rope as the horse plunged into the water hurled
the calf into the air, landing him beside 'the boss.'
Through the water the horse plunged, and back
of bronco and rider floundered the calf. It ar
rived on the other shore half strangled and half
drowned, but it was still bleating and bouncing
as 'the boss' hauled it to the pen."

32 ] GREAT-HEART

THE BRONCO BUSTER
One of the most interesting tasks of the day
was the breaking in of a new horse. The profes
sional bronco-buster who did this was always an
object of admiration to the strenuous Roose
velt. Roosevelt expressed his respect for these
men in unreserved terms. He described their
calling as a most dangerous trade, at which no
man can hope to grow old. His work was infin
itely harder than that of the horse-breaker in the
East, because he had to break many horses in a
limited time. Horses were cheap on the plains.
Each outfit had a great many, and the pay for
breaking the animals was only $5 or $10.
Giving a keener edge to the work of dealing
with broncos is the peril that confronts the ranch
men from vicious horses. One of Roosevelt's
horses would at times rush at a man open-
mouthed like a wolf, ready to bury his teetii in
the ranchman's flesh if he was not quick enough
to fight him.
Once in a while a wild stallion was caught.
This sort of animal fears no beast except the
grizzly; yet, Roosevelt stated, he has one master
among animals. That creature is the jackass. A
battle between jack and stallions came under

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

JUST BEFORE ENTERING YELLOWSTONE PARK. JOHN BURROUGHS,
THE VETERAN NATURALIST, IS AT THE PRESIDENT'S
RIGHT. SECRETARY LOEB AT HIS LEFT

GREAT-HEART [ 33

Roosevelt's observation. Among the animals of
a certain ranch were two great stallions and a
jackass. The latter was scarcely half the size of
the stallions. The animals were kept in separate
pens, but one day the horses came together, and
a fight between them ensued. They rolled against
the pen of the jackass, breaking it down. In
stantly the jackass with ears laid back and mouth
wide open, sprang at the two horses. The gray
horse reared on his hind legs and struck at his
antagonist with his fore feet, but in a second the
jack had grasped the gray by the throat.
The stallion made frantic endeavors to drive
him off, but the jack kept his hold. The black
stallion now plunged into the scrimmage, attack
ing both the gray and the jack alternately, using
hoofs and teeth in his efforts to kill one or the
other. The jack responded to the new attack
with increased ferocity, and would doubtless
have killed at least one of the stallions had not
the ranchmen, by desperate efforts, separated
the maddened brutes.
Roosevelt, on his first roundup, had enough
experiences with wild broncos to satisfy the most
hardened rough rider. It was impossible to
bridle or saddle single-handed one of his horses.
Another was one of the worst buekers on the
TB4

34 ] GREAT-HEART

ranch. Once it bucked Roosevelt off, resulting in
a fall that broke a rib. Another would balk and
then throw himself over backward, Roosevelt
was once caught under him, and suffered as a
result a broken shoulder.
Roosevelt welcomed roundup work as a re
lief to the monotony of the daily tasks on the
ranch. The spring roundup was the big event
of the season. The bulk of calves were to be
branded then. Out-of-the-way parts of the coun
try where cattle were supposed to have wan
dered had to be searched, so that the roundup
usually extended for six or seven weeks, with no
rest for the herders.
First the captain of the roundup was chosen.
His qualifications were an ability to command
and control the wild rough riders who served un
der him. The rendezvous was set, and from each
ranch a cowboy rode out to meet at this common
starting place. A four-horse wagon carried the
bedding and food. The teamster acted as cook
and was first-rate at both jobs. A dozen cow
punchers accompanied the wagon. Then, to
take charge of the horses, there were two horse-
rangers. When the meeting place was reached, several
days elapsed in making arrangements for the

GREAT- HEART [ 35

roundup. The time was passed in racing, break
ing rough horses or in skylarking. Horse-racing
was a mania with the cow-punchers, both whites
and Indians. The horses were ridden bareback.
Intense excitement preceded the race, and where
the horses participating were well enough
known to have partisans there generally arose
quarrels between the two sides.
The races were short-distance dashes. Down
between two thick rows of spectators, some on
foot and some on horseback, the riders passed.
Some of the lookers-on yelled and shouted en
couragement at the top of their lungs. Some
fired off their revolvers. All waved their hats
and cloaks in encouragement. Naturally, the
excitement made both horses and riders frantical
ly eager to win, and when the goal was reached
they were exhausted with nervous excitement.
The most exciting and dangerous part of the
roundup comes when the cattle are stampeded
by a storm or through fright. Anything may
start them — the plunge of a horse, the approach
of a coyote, the arrival of new steers or cows. In
an instant the herd rises to its feet and rushes
off. Then the work of the cowboys is cut out for
them. No matter how rough the ground or how
black the night, the cow-punchers must ride

36 ] GREAT-HEART

without sparing themselves to head them off and
finally stop them. Even when stopped there is
danger of them breaking again. Sometimes a
man gets caught in the rush of the beasts and is
trampled to death. Roosevelt never experienced
this danger, but he knew the very hardest part
of the work. On one occasion he was for thirty-
six hours in the saddle, dismounting only to
change horses or to eat.
At another time he was helping to bring a
thousand head of young cattle down to his lower
range. At night he and a cowboy stood guard.
The cattle had been without water that day, and
in their thirst they tried to break away. In the
darkness Roosevelt could dimly see the shadowy
outlines of the frantic herd. With whip and
spurs he circled around the herd, turning back
the beasts at one point just in time to wheel and
keep them in at another. After an hour of vio
lent exertion, by which time he was dripping
with sweat, he and his companion finally quieted
the herd.
On still another occasion Roosevelt was out
on the plains when a regular blizzard came. The
cattle began to drift before the storm. They
were frightened and maddened by the quick,
sharp flashes of lightning and the stinging rain.

GREAT- HEART [ 37

The men darted to and fro before them and be
side them, heedless of danger, checking them at
each point where they threatened to break
through. The thunder was terrific. Peal fol
lowed peal. Each flash of lightning showed a
dense array of tossing horns and staring eyes. At
last, however, when the storm was raging in
fury, and when it seemed impossible to hold the
herd together any longer, the corrals were
reached, and by desperate efforts Roosevelt and
his companions managed to turn the herds into
the barns. It was such work as this that brought
Roosevelt self-reliance and hardihood and made
him in later life a firm advocate of horsemanship.
Though Roosevelt's ranch hfe yielded him big
assets in health and experience, financially it
proved a failure. It is estimated that he lost
$100,000 on the venture. "Bill" Sewall testifies
that Roosevelt shared all gains with Dow and
him, who were practically his partners, but that
when the cattle died Roosevelt assumed all losses
without a word of complaint to his comrades.
THE GRIZZLY'S TRAIL
We now enter upon the most adventurous
part of Roosevelt's Western experiences. Of
dash, adventure and excitement he had plenty in

38 ] GREAT-HEART

his life as a ranchman, and yet through it all a
still greater adventure called him. About him
lay the wilderness. In that wilderness lurked
big game. Roosevelt became a hunter. Some
thing of the perils and hardships of the wild life
he was about to enter upon can best be illustra
ted by the story he tells in his book "Ranch Life
and the Hunting Trail" of the experiences of
two starving trappers.
These two men had entered a valley in the
heart of the mountains where game was so abun
dant that they decided to pass the winter there.
As winter came on they worked hard at putting
up a log cabin, killing just enough meat for im
mediate use. Winter set in with tremendous
snowstorms. Game left the valley, abandoning
it for their winter haunts. Starvation stared the
trappers in the face. One man had his dog with
him. The other insisted that the dog should be
killed for food. The dog's owner, who was
deeply attached to the animal, refused. One
night the other trapper tried to kill the dog with
his knife, but failed. The scanty supply of flour
the partners possessed was now almost exhausted.
Hunger was begirming to intensify their bad
feelings. Neither dared to sleep for fear that the
other would kill him.

GREAT-HEART [ 39

Finally the man who owned the dog proposed
that, to give each a chance for life, they should
separate. He himself agreed to take one-half of
the handful of flour that was left and to start off
in an attempt to get home. The other was to stay.
If one tried to interfere with the other after the
separation it meant a fight to the death. For
two days the man and his dog plunged through
snowdrifts. On the second evening, looking
back over a high ridge, he saw his companion
following him. He followed his own trail back,
lay in ambush and shot down the man following
him as if he had been a wild beast. The next
evening he baked his last cake and divided it
with the dog. Only a short stretch of time stood
between them and death. Just then, however,
the dog crossed the tracks of a wolf and followed
its trail. The man staggered after and came at
last to where the wolf stood over the body of a
deer it had killed. The meat of the deer replen
ished the strength of the trapper and dog, and
they continued their journey. A week later they
reached a miner's cabin.
While Roosevelt in his hunting experiences
never had an adventure so harrowing as this, he
nevertheless managed to crowd into his life as
many big moments as most professional hunters

40 ] GREAT-HEART

and trappers find in a lifetime. At fifteen, an
age when most boys are only dreaming of be
coming huntsmen, Roosevelt killed his first deer.
His brother, his cousin and himself were
camping out for the first time in their lives.
Their camp was located on Lake St. Regis. The
other two boys went fishing. Roosevelt was not
overly fond of this sport, so he went off on a
deer hunt. With him went the two guides. Hank
Martin and Mose Sawyer. The first day of the
hunt he not only did not kill a deer — ^he failed
to see one that stood within range; and, on the
way home, shot in mistake for one a large owl
that was perched on a log.
The next day, goaded by the teasing of his
camp mates, he started out again. This time he
had better luck. As his canoe swung out from
between forest-lined banks into a little bay, he
saw, knee-deep among the water lilies that
fringed the shore, a yearling buck. His first shot
killed him.
The youthful adventure helped to stimulate
Roosevelt's ardor for hunting. One of the rea
sons why he went West was that he hoped to
find big game, and when he foimd himself upon
the track of the grizzly he was in his element
indeed.

GREAT-HEART [ 41

We find Roosevelt one day setting out from
his ranch on a hunt for grizzly on the Big Horn
Range. His eagerness to come in close contact
with the grizzly was in no way dampened by the
fact that a neighbor of his, while prospecting
with two other men near the headwaters of the
Little Missouri in the Black Hills country, had
had a terrible experience with one.
The neighbor and two other men were walk
ing along the river. Two of them followed the
edge of the stream. The third followed a game
trail some distance away from them. Suddenly
the second heard an agonized shout from the
third man, intermingled with the growling of the
bear. They rushed to the scene just in time to
see their companion in close contact with a griz
zly. The bear was so close to the man that he
had no time to fire his rifle, but merely held it
up as a guard to his head. The immensely mus
cular forearm of the grizzly, with nails as strong
as steel hooks, descended upon the man, striking
aside the rifle and crushing the man's skull like
an eggshell.
Still another of the Colonel's friends, while
hunting in the Big Horn Mountains, had pur
sued a large bear and wounded him. The animal
turned and rushed at the man, who fired at him

42 ] GREAT-HEART

and missed. The bear closed with him and
passed on, striking only a single blow, yet that
blow tore the man's collarbone and snapped
three or four ribs. The shock was so great that
he died that night.
With his interest stimulated by such accounts
of grizzly hunting, Roosevelt set out. It was
early in September. The weather was cool and
frosty and the flurries of snow made it easy to
track the bears. There were plenty of blacktail
deer in the woods, as well as bands of cow and
calf elk, or of young bull. There were no signs
of grizzly however.
One day Roosevelt and Merrifield separated,
but at last Roosevelt heard the familiar long-
drawn shout of a cattleman and dashed toward
him on his small, wiry cow pony. Merrifield an
nounced that he had seen signs of bears about
ten miles distant. They shifted camp at once
and rode to the spot where the bear tracks were
so plentiful.
As Roosevelt came home toward nightfall
from a vain hunt, walking through a reach of
burned forest, he came across the huge half-
human footprints of a great grizzly which had evi
dently passed a short time before. He followed
the tracks in the fading twilight until it became

GREAT-HEART [ 43

too dark to see them, and had to give up the pur
suit as darkness closed in about him. The next
day, toward nightfall, as the two men were again
returning home without having caught sight of
the grizzly, they heard the sound of the break
ing of a dead stick. It was the grizzly whose
tracks they had seen around the remains of a
black deer that Merrifield had shot. Again they
had to postpone pursuit of him on account of
darloiess, but they made up their minds that
they would get him the next morning.
Merrifield was a skilful tracker, and the next
day he took up the trail at once where it had
been left off. After a few hundred yards the
tracks turned off on a well-beaten path made by
the elk. The beast's footprints were plain in the
dust. The trail turned off into the tangled
thicket, within which it was almost certain that
the quarry could be found.
Still they followed the tracks, advancing with
noiseless caution, climbing over dead tree trunks
and upturned stumps and taking care that no
branches rustled or caught on their clothes. Sud
denly Merrifield sank on one knee, his face
ablaze with excitement. Roosevelt strode past
him with his rifle at the ready. There, not ten
steps off, the great bear rose slowly from his bed

44 ] GREAT-HEART

among young spruces. He had heard his hun
ters, but did not know their exact location, for
he reared up on his haunches and was sidewise
to them. Then suddenly he caught sight of
them and dropped on his fores, the hair on his
neck and shoulders seeming to bristle as he
turned toward them.
Roosevelt raised his rifle. The bear's head was
bent slightly down, and when Roosevelt looked
squarely into the small, glittering, evil eyes he
pulled his trigger. The bear half rose, then top
pled over in the death throes. The bullet had
gone into his brain. He was the first grizzly
Roosevelt had ever seen, and a huge one at that.
Naturally, he felt proud that within twenty
seconds from the time he had caught sight of the
game he had killed it.
Merrifield's chief feeling was one of disap
pointment, not that he had not killed the game,
but that Roosevelt had shot and killed him be
fore the bear had had a chance to fight. Merri
field was reckless. He did not fear a grizzly any
more than he did a jackrabbit. He wanted to
see the bear come toward them in a typical griz
zly charge and to bring him down in the rush.
However, Roosevelt, not so much a veteran at
bear-hunting, was quite contented in looking at

GREAT-HEART [ 45

the monstrous fellow to have brought him down
before his charge commenced.
Lieutenant-Governor William Francis Shee-
han once told a story illustrative of the Colonel's
whole-hearted spirit of adventure. Repeating a
conversation he had with Mr. Roosevelt, Mr.
Sheehan described the former President as
standing before the mounted skin of a monster
grizzly bear which he Jiad shot at close range —
so close that the odds at one instant seemed
greatly in favor of the grizzly. After a descrip
tion of the dramatic fight the Colonel suddenly
turned to Sheehan and said:
"But, Governor, I shall never be satisfied until
I have killed a grizzly bear with a knife !"
When one reads of Roosevelt in such sur
roundings one does not wonder that the Roose
velt home at Sagamore Hill at times resembled
a veritable menagerie. At one time there were
a lion, a hyena, a zebra, five bears, a wildcat, a
coyote, two macaws, an eagle, a barn owl and
several snakes and lizards. Kangaroo rats and
flying squirrels slept in the pockets and blouses
of the Roosevelt children, went to school with
them and often were guests at dinner. While
campaigning in Kansas in 1903 a little girl
brought a baby badger, carried by her brother.

46 ] GREAT-HEART

to Roosevelt's train, whence it was later trans
ferred to the Sagamore Hill menagerie. There
was a guinea-pig named Father O'Grady by the
children, but this proved to be of the softer sex.
One day two of the children rushed breathlessly
into a room where the Roosevelts were entertain
ing mixed company. "Oh! oh!" they cried.
"Father O'Grady has had some children!"
As a result of their closeness to nature Roose
velt's sons became sportsmen and naturalists
worthy of their father.
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., killed his first buck
just before he was fourteen, and his first moose,
a big bull with horns that spread fifty-six inches,
just before he was seventeen. Both of these ani
mals were killed in the wilderness, on hunting
trips which tested to the utmost the boy's endur
ance and skill.

IV

Champion
of Women and Children
ANY people misunderstood Roosevelt.
Seeing the virile, fighting side of his nature,
they came to look at him as representing strength
without tenderness. On the contrary, no man was
more tender to women, children and animals.
He always impressed his close friend, Jacob Riis,
as being as tender as a woman.
One day while Theodore Roosevelt was Assist
ant Secretary of the Navy, he prevailed on Mr.
Riis to go home with him. In those days the
Roosevelt children were little. Instead of rush
ing upon Mr. Roosevelt when he entered the
door, as was their custom later, they waited their
father's coming in the nursery.
Entering the house, Mr. Roosevelt invited Mr.
Riis to go up with him to see the babies. Mrs.
Roosevelt met them in the hall with the warning
that he was not to play bear, that the baby was
being put to sleep. However, when the two ar
rived in the nursery, the baby itself squirmed
out of the nurse's arms and growled and clawed
at the father very much like a little bear cub, and,
[47]

48 j GREAT-HEART

thus incited, the rest of the children flew upon
him with all of the amazing vigor of childhood.
The house was in a turmoil. No menagerie in its
wildest moment gave forth more shrieks, howls
and thumps. As a climax the door opened and
Mrs. Roosevelt, wearing a look of great stern
ness, stood viewing the scene. Thereupon her
husband arose meekly from the floor explaining
that the baby was thoroughly awake when he ar
rived. This story explains the following:
One day, when Roosevelt was Police Commis
sioner, a policeman was ordered before him on
charges. Roosevelt reviewed his past offences
and resolved to dismiss him. The stage was set
for the dismissal; only the formalities remained.
But someone had told the culprit the Commis
sioner's weak side. In the morning as Roosevelt
came from a romp with his babies, the doomed
policeman stood before him surrounded by eleven
weeping youngsters.
Roosevelt's stern expression relaxed to one of
instant sympathy.
"Where is your wife, O'Keefe?"
"Dead, Sir!"
Dead! And this man, left alone with all these
children! Clearly it would be inhuman to dis
charge him. He must be given one more chance.

COPYRIGHT, LE GENDRE

ROOSEVELTj THE FIGHTER

COPYKIGBT, LE GINDII

ROOSEVELT, THB MAN

GREAT- HEART [ 49

Out went the patrolman with his new lease of
life. And his first duty was to return to his neigh
bors in the tenement the nine children he had bor
rowed to accompany his own two in his task of
melting the heart of the Comissioner,
Some years ago, a man Roosevelt had met out
West wrote this letter to him:
"Dear Colonel: I write you because I am
in trouble. I have shot a lady in the eye. But,
Colonel, I was not shooting at the lady. I was
shooting at my wife."
Roosevelt replied to his friend in need that
while he appreciated marksmanship in almost
every form, he drew the line at shooting at ladies,
whether or not they were related to the man who
held the gun.
Roosevelt, much as he understood the char
acter of the Western man, was even more inter
ested in and sympathetic to the Western woman.
It was on the prairie that Roosevelt learned the
doctrine which he afterward preached, that "the
prime work for the average woman must be keep
ing the home and rearing her children." When
with his men on the ranch he listened by hours
to their accounts of the charms and virtues of
their sweethearts, while from his own close obser
vation he acquired a knowledge of the homely
TBS

50 J GREAT-HEART

virtues of the women pioneers of the plains that
led him to show small sympathy in later years
with the idle, luxury-loving women of the big
cities. In his description of frontier types Roosevelt
pictured how the grinding work of the wilderness
drives the beauty and bloom from a woman's
face long before her youth leaves her. She lives
in a log hut chinked with moss, or in a sod adobe
hovel; or in a temporary camp.
Motherhood comes and leaves her sinewy,
angular, thin of lip and furrowed of brow. She is
up early, going about her work in a dingy gown
and ugly sunbonnet, facing her many hard
duties, washing and cooking for her husband and
children; facing perils and hardships and poverty
with the courage her husband shows in facing his
own hard and dangerous lot. She is fond and
tender toward her children. Yet necessity dic
tates that she must bring them up in hardihood.
One of the wives of Roosevelt's teamsters, when
her work prevented her giving personal care to
her flock picketed them out, each child being tied
by the leg with a long leather string to a stake
driven in the ground and so placed that it could
not get into a scuffle with the next child nor get
its hand on breakable things.

GREAT-HEART [51

Independent and resourceful as the frontiers
man became in contact with the desolate prairie,
his wife was no less similarly developed. Roose
velt met one of these women living alone in her
cabin on the plains, having dismissed her erring
husband some six months previously. Her liv
ing she earned by making hunting shirts, leggins
and gauntlets for neighboring cow-punchers and
Indians, and every man who approached her
cabin door was made to walk the straightest kind
of line.
The West had its lewd women — as have our
big cities today — but Roosevelt testified that
the sense of honor and dignity of the average
plainswoman was as high as that found in the
centers of culture. In the cowboy balls, to which
men and women flocked from the surrounding
towns, the greatest decorum was observed, and
those behaving unseemingly were banished and
punished with typical cowboy celerity and vim.
In his later years Roosevelt wrote a vigorous
paper on the parasite woman, appealing therein
to American women to rear strong families for
their country, and to train them to be prepared
for military service if needed. A Michigan
woman of the same brave pioneer stamp de
scribed above formed the conclusion that Roose-

52 ] GREAT-HEART

velt was writing without knowledge of the hard
ships many of her sex were forced to undergo,
and wrote to him this letter:
"Dear Sir: When you were talking of *race
suicide' I was rearing a large family on almost
no income. I often thought of writing to you
of some of my hardships, and now when 'pre
paredness' may take some of my boys, I feel I
must. I have eleven of my own and brought up
three stepchildren, and yet, in the thirty years of
my married life I have never had a new cloak or
winter hat. I have sent seven children to school
at one time. I had a family of ten for eighteen
years, with no money to hire a washerwoman
though bearing a child every two years. Nine —
several through or nearly — of my children have
got into high school and two into State Normal
School, and one into the University of Michigan.
I haven't eaten a paid-meal in twenty years or
paid for a m'ght's lodging in thirty. Not one of
the five boys — ^the youngest is fifteen — ^uses to
bacco or liquor. I have worn men's discarded
shoes much of the time. I have had little time
for reading.
"I think I have served my country. My hus
band has been an invalid for six years — Cleaving

GREAT-HEART [ 53

me the care and much work on our little sandy
farm. I have bothered you enough. To me race
suicide has perhaps a different meaning when I
think my boys may have to face the cannon.
Respectfully. "MRS  "
Roosevelt's reply to her was warmly sympa
thetic, but there was no withdrawing from the
principles he had set forth. The following para
graphs from his reply illustrate that tender yet
just attitude that Roosevelt took toward Ameri
can women, including, of course, the women of
his own household:
"Now, my dear Mrs.  , you have described
a career of service which makes me feel more
like taking off my hat to you, and saluting you
as a citizen deserving of the highest honor, than
I would feel as regards any colonel of a crack
regiment. But you seem to think, if I under
stand your letter aright, that 'preparedness' is
in some way designed to make your boys food
for cannon.
"Now, as a matter of fact, the surest way to
prevent your boys from being food for cannon
is to have them, and all the other young men of
the country — ^my boys, for instance, and the boys
of all other fathers and mothers throughout the

54 ] GREAT-HEART

country — so trained, so prepared, that it will
not be safe for any foreign foe to attack us. Pre
paredness no more invites war than fire insur
ance invites a fire. I shall come back to this mat
ter again in a moment. But I will speak to you
first a word as to what you say about race
suicide. "I have never preached the imposition of an
excessive maternity on any woman. I have al
ways said that every man worth calling such will
feel a peculiar sense of chivalric tenderness
toward his wife, the mother of his children. He
must be unselfish and considerate with her. But,
exactly as he must do his duty, so she must do
her duty. I have said that it is self-CAadent that
unless the average woman, capable of having
children, has four, the race will not go forward;
for this is necessary in order to offset the women
who for proper reasons do not marry, or who,
from no fault of their own, have no children, or
only one or two, or whose children die before
they grow up. I do not want to see Americans
forced to import our babies from abroad. I do
not want to see the stock of people like yourself
and like my family die out — and you do not
either ; and it wiU inevitably die out if the average
man and the average woman are so selfish and

GREAT-HEART [ 55

so cold that they wish either no children, or just
one or two children.
"We have had six children in this family. We
wish we had more. Now the grandchildren are
coming along; and I am sure you agree with me
that no other success in life — not being President,
or being wealthy, or going to college, or any
thing else — comes up to the success of the man
and woman who can feel that they have done
their duty and that their children and grand
children rise up to call them blessed,
"Mrs. Roosevelt and I have four sons, and
they are as dear to us as your sons are to you. If
we now had war, these four boys would all go.
We think it entirely right that they should go
if their country needs them. But I do not think
it fair that they should be sent to defend the boys
who are too soft or too timid 'to face the cannon,'
or the other boys who wish to stay at home to
make money while somebody else protects
them." THE BRINGER OF CULTURE
In the lore of the Middle West brilliantly
stands out the figure of Johnny Appleseed, who
traveled westward distributing apple-seeds to
the farmers and ranchers, from whence sprang

56 ] GREAT- HEART

up the great apple orchards that have blessed
these regions.
It was service of a similar kind that Roosevelt
performed when he went among these primitive
people of the wilderness. Schools were scarce in
those days and opportunity for culture was
almost entirely lacking. But here had come
among them a man who had graduated from
one of the great Eastern colleges, and who had
brought with him a choice library of books that
contained characters and philosophy entirely
comprehensible by these vmtutored minds when
interpreted by such an enthusiastic and sympa
thetic expounder as young Roosevelt.
On the long winter evenings Roosevelt's fire
side became the rendezvous for the ranchers and
their wives. Roosevelt would select a classic
story and begin reading. The tale would be a
familiar one to him, and yet the genius of the
author would again cast its spell over him, and
he would read with interest and expression that
were magnetic. Swiftly the night passed, and
when in the late hours his hearers went to their
rest they lay awake remembering the poetry of
"that chap Browning" or the Rosalind or Lear
of "Mr. Shakespeare," conning them over in
their minds until they became part of their

GREAT-HEART [ 57

beings, to be transmitted later to the minds and
lips of their children, and thus to become a part
of the civilization of their section.
To the women, with their starved existence —
so far as education was concerned — Roosevelt
proved a benefactor indeed; but no less did he
administer to the mental craving of his men com
rades- Monotonous and threadbare grew the conver
sation at a cow-camp. Seldom did the talk vary
from such topics as these, described by him:
"A bunch of steers had been seen traveling over
the buttes to the head of Elk Creek. A stray
horse, with a blurred brand on the left hip, had
just joined the saddle ponies. The red F. V.
cow had been bitten by a wolf. The old mule,
Sawback, was getting over the effects of the
rattlesnake bite. The river was going down, but
the fords were still bad, and the quicksand at
the Caster Trail crossing had worked along so
that wagons had to be taken over opposite the
blasted cottonwood. Bronco Jim had tried to
ride the big, bald-faced sorrel belonging to the
Oregon horse outfit and had been bucked off and
his face smashed in. It was agreed that Jim
'wasn't the sure-enough bronco-buster he
thought himself,' and he was compared very

58 ] GREAT-HEART

unfavorably to various heroes of the quirt and
spurs who lived in Texas and Colorado."
These topics having been exhausted, the
rumor was discussed that the vigilantes had
given notice to quit to two men who had just
built a shack at the head of the Little Dry River,
and whose horses included a suspiciously large
number of different brands, most of them
blurred- Then the talk became more personal.
Roosevelt would be asked to write or post letters
for the cow-punchers. Then his companions,
growing friendly, would make him the confident
of their love affairs, and make him listen for an
hour to the charms of their sweethearts.
Here Roosevelt's books stood both him and
his companions in good stead. No matter what
adverse conditions surrounded the young ranch-
owner, favorite volumes were at hand, and out
they came at the first opportunity.
On one occasion, while hunting on Beaver
Creek for a lost horse, he met a cowboy and
made friends with him. Caught in a heavy snow
storm, they lost themselves, and after eight or
nine hours of drifting, finally came across an
empty hut near Sentinel Butte. Making their
horses comfortable in a sheltered nook with hay
found in an old stack, the two cold and tired men

GREAT-HEART [ 59

sat down to spend the long winter evening to
gether. Out of Roosevelt's pocket came a small
edition of Hamlet. His cowboy companion was
greatly interested in the reading, and Roosevelt
tells us that he commented very shrewdly on the
parts he liked, especially Polonius's advice to
Laertes. His final comment was extremely grati
fying to the man who had introduced to him the
treasures of the world's greatest dramatist, and
would doubtless have given great pleasure to the
immortal bard himself:
"Old Shakespeare saveyed human natur'
some!" On another evening the men at the Roosevelt
ranch began to discuss the English soldiers.
Thereupon Roosevelt got down "Napier" and
read them extracts from his descriptions of the
fighting in the Spanish penisula. He also told
them about the fine appearance and splendid
horses of the cavalry and hussars he had seen.
Thus when the East called Roosevelt home
there was left behind in the minds of the sons and
daughters of the great West not only the recol
lection of a tried and true comrade, but also the
seeds of a culture whose fruitage is still sprii^-
ing forth from the lives he touched.
From a business standpoint Roosevelt's ranch-

60 ] GREAT-HEART

ing venture was a failure. The coimtry was
poorly adapted to cattle-raising. His reviving
interest in politics and his engagement to Edith
Carow came to draw him back to the fields where
happiness and success waited. Sewall and Dow
returned East with him.
The duty of a biographer is to record and not
to speculate, yet as we look at Roosevelt's later
life in his unpretentious home at Sagamore
Hill; when we think of the democratic sewing
circle at Oyster Bay to which Mrs, Roosevelt
goes regularly to sew garments for crippled
children, and when we see the democratic
simplicity with which Roosevelt mingled with
his neighbors and shared their experiences and
confidences; when we read of him or Captain
Archie playing Santa Claus to the village
children, we are led to pronounce this judgment,
which we feel Roosevelt, if he were living, would
heartily second — ^that while he gave to the men
and women of the West the best that was in him,
he also received from their kind hearts and frank
and open natures a deepening and ripening of
his sense of brotherhood that was equivalent in
value to the finest gifts he gave these frontier
folks.

Keeping Fit

IT is a matter of conjecture how far the atti
tude of the doughboy is due to the training
he got in the army, but the fact remains that
boxing and wrestling have been recognized and
practised by our army officers as valuable ad
juncts to military training. Uncle Sam encour
aged the science of fisticuffs on shipboard and in
the training camps, under a committee headed
by no other than the famous ex-champion, James
J. Corbett, because the positions and motions
used in boxing are almost the same as those used
in bayonet practice. The development of game-
ness in the recruit is another important benefit
derived from the sport.
One of the anecdotes that came out of the
trenches has for its hero a short but stocky Yank
who, in an encounter with a huge Prussian,
dropped his rifle and went for his foe with his
fists. He knocked the fight out of the surprised
German and brought him in a prisoner. An
officer who had watched his exploit thought it
proper to caution him as to the danger that lay
in this departure from the rules of attack.
"Danger!" spoke up the Yank, "there isn't a
[61]

62 ] GREAT-HEART

Fritz alive that I can't lick with just my fists!"
Theodore Roosevelt, had he realized his desire
to serve with the colors during the world conflict,
would undoubtedly have been an enthusiastic
spectator at such of the army's ring battles as
were within reach of him. Indeed, had he been
still occupant of the White House it would not
have been surprising to have heard of his inviting
champions from the various cantonments to test
their skill under the White House roof. Mr,
Roosevelt was first drawn to two naval chap
lains. Fathers Chidwick and Rainey, through
his discovery that each of them had bought sets
of boxing gloves and encouraged their crews in
boxing. "While he was President fencing or box
ing were Mr. Roosevelt's favorite indoor exer
cises. He was also intensely interested in jiu-
jitsu, the "muscleless art." To perfect himself
in this exercise he employed one of the best of
the Japanese instructors, and took a course of
twenty lessons.
After learning the various grips, the President
would practise them upon his teacher. He soon
mastered the science, and his enthusiasm over it
led him to introduce jiu-jitsu instruction at
Annapolis and West Point.
When Mr. Roosevelt entered upon his public

GREAT-HEART [ 68

career heavy burdens were laid upon him, and to
keep in condition to meet the hard physical and
mental strain he again turned to boxing and
wrestling for exercise. When Governor of New
York the champion middleweight wrestler of
America came several evenings a week to wrestle
with him. The news of the purchase of a wrest
ling mat for the Governor's mansion at Albany
created consternation on the part of the Con
troller, but was greeted with great enthusiasm
by the red-blooded men to whom the Governor
had become an idol. Many of these would have
paid a great price to have been able to stand
at the edge of the mat and cheer their
champion in his strenuous amusement. To the
middleweight champion the job was a hard one.
Not because he experienced any difficulty in
downing the Governor, but because he was so
awed by the Governor's position and responsi
bilities that he was always in dire anxiety lest
the Governor should break an arm or crack a rib.
This gingerly attitude of his opponent exasper
ated Roosevelt. He didn't feel that it was fair
for him to be straining like a tiger to get a half-
Nelson hold on the champion while the latter
seemed to feel that he must play the nurse to
him. After repeated urgings he managed to get

J GREAT-HEART

the champion to throw him about in real earnest
— ^then he was satisfied.
Colonel Roosevelt relates in his reminiscences
that, while he was in the Legislature, he had as a
sparring partner a second-rate prizefighter who
used to come to his rooms every morning and put
on the gloves for a half hour. One morning he
failed to arrive, but a few days later there came
a letter from him. It developed that he was then
in jail; that boxing had been simply an avoca
tion with him, and that his principal business
was that of a burglar.
Roosevelt was fond of boxing with "Mike"
Donovan, trainer at the New York Athletic
Club, as well as with William Muldoon, tlie
wrestler and trainer. His opponents testify that
the Colonel was handicapped by his poor sight.
He wanted to see his adversary's eyes — to catch
the gleam that comes before a blow. Roosevelt
always maneuvered to see his opponent's face,
and he hked to "mix in" when boxing.
Hard and heavy was the Colonel's method,
and his opponents forced the colonel to adapt
his plan of fighting to theirs. It did not matter
to Roosevelt. It was the striving, not the result,
that interested him.
An illustration of Roosevelt's fondness for the

GREAT-HEART [ 65

Japanese art of wrestling is foimd in this extract
from the diary of John Hay, Secretary of State :
"April 26 — At the Cabinet meeting this morn
ing the President talked of his Japanese wrest
ler, who is giving him lessons in jiu-jitsu. He
says the muscles of his throat are so powerfully
developed by training that it is impossible for
any ordinary man to strangle him. If the Presi
dent succeeds once in a while in getting the better
of him he says, 'Good! Lovely!' "
Lieutenant Fortescue, a distant relative of the
Roosevelt family, sometimes put on the gloves
with the Colonel. One day, feeling in fighting
trim, Fortescue asked the Colonel to box with
him. Finally the Colonel agreed to go four
rounds. According to Joseph Grant, detective
sergeant of the Washington Police Department,
detailed to the White House to "guard" the
President, it was the fastest bout he ever saw.
"The Colonel began to knock Lieutenant
Fortescue right and left in the second round,"
said the detective. "His right and left got to
the army officer's jaw time after time, and the
bout was stopped in the third round to prevent
the army man from getting knocked out. Then
the Colonel turned to me and said: 'I think I
can do the same to you. Put on the gloves!'
TE«

66 ] GREAT-HEART

"I drew them on reluctantly, and I put up the
fight of my life. The best I could do was to pre
vent a decision and get a draw."
It was a sporting rule of the Colonel's not only
to give as good a blow as he could, but also to
take without squirming the hardest blow his
opponent could deliver. The wrestler who hesi
tated to stand him on his head because he was
Governor of New York exasperated him; nor
would he have permitted a man to spar with him
who held back his blows.
Nothing illustrates this rule better than an
episode which the Colonel himself made public.
In October, 1917, in the course of an interview
with newspaper men, he told this story in ex
planation of his relinquishing the gloves :
"When I was President I used to box with
one of my aids, a young captain in the artillery.
One day he cross-countered me and broke a blood
vessel in my left eye. I don't know whether this
is known, but I never have been able to see out
of that eye since. I thought, as only one good
eye was Jeft me, I would not box any longer."
This story was tbo promising for the news
paper men to let drop without endeavoring to
have it amplified by the soldier who delivered
the blow.

GREAT-HEART [ 67

A few days later, in "The New York Times,"
appeared this interview with Colonel Dan T.
Moore, of the 310th Field Artillery Regiment,
79th Division, National Army:
"Colonel Dan T. Moore, of the 310th Field
Artillery Regiment, 79th Division, National
Army, admits he struck the blow that destroyed
the sight of Colonel Roosevelt's eye.
" 'I am sorry I struck the blow. I'm sorry the
Colonel told about it, and I'm sorry my identity
has been so quickly uncovered. I give you my
word I never knew I had blinded the Colonel in
one eye until I read his statement in the paper. I
instantly knew, however, that I was the man
referred to, because there was no other answer
ing the description he gave who could have done
it. I shall write the Colonel a letter in a few
days, expressing my regrets at the serious results
of the blow.
" 'I was a military aid at the White House in
1905. The boxers in the White House gym were
the President, Kermit Roosevelt and myself. The
President went further afield for his opponents
in other sports, but when he wanted to don the
boxing gloves he chose Kermit or myself.'
" 'Tell about the blow that blinded the Presi
dent.'

68 ] GREAT-HEART

" 'I might as well try to tell about the shell that
killed any particular soldier in this war. When
you put on gloves with President Roosevelt it
was a case of fight all the way, and no man in
the ring with him had a chance to keep track of
particular blows. A good fast referee might have
known, but nobody else. The Colonel wanted
plenty of action, and he usually got it. He had
no use for a quitter or one who gave ground, and
nobodj'^ but a man willing to fight all the time
and all the way had a chance with him. That's
my only excuse for the fact that I seriously
injured him. There was no chance to be careful
of the blows. He simply wouldn't have stood
for it.' "
Roosevelt to his last days remained keenly in
terested in ring champions. He numbered among
his prizefighting friends John L. Sullivan, Bob
Fitzsimmons, Battling Nelson and many another
man whose fame was won by strength and skill
in the ring. Among his treasures is the pen-holder
Bob Fitzsimmons made for him out of a horse
shoe, and the gold-mounted rabbit's foot which
John L. Sullivan gave to him for a talisman
when he went on his African trip.
He championed the cause of prizefighters
on many occasions, though never hesitating to

GREAT-HEART [ 69

denounce the crookedness that has attended the
commercializing of the ring. He held that
powerful, vigorous men of strong animal
development must have some way in which their
spirits can find vent. His acts while Police Com
missioner of New York show clearly how he dis
tinguished between the art of boxing itself and
the men who are trying to make money out of it.
On one hand, he promoted the establishment of
boxing clubs in bad neighborhoods in order to
draw the attention of street gangs from knifing
and gun-fighting. On the other hand, finding that
the prize ring had become hopelessly debased and
run for the benefit of low hangers-on, who per
mitted brutality in order to make money out of
it, he aided, as Governor, in the passage of a bill
putting a stop to professional boxing for money.

VI

Roosevelt's "Cops

nv

THE New York Police Department needed
a cleaning up. The force at that time was
under a heavy cloud. There had been a Mayor
alty election. Tammany had made a hard fight
but the Republican candidate. Strong, had
been elected. The vote meant that the citizens
thought the time had come for a New York police
reform. Mayor Strong asked Roosevelt, then
serving on the national Civil Service Commis
sion, to be Police Commissioner,
Roosevelt's friends thought that he was too
big a man to take such a position. He saw a
work that needed to be done.
Proctor, a friend and fellow worker, tried to
persuade him not to undertake the job. Roosevelt
had given the matter earnest thought. He be
lieved himself capable of bringing about the
necessary reforms. He knew that such a work
would be of great benefit to his fellow citizens.
"Proctor," he said, "it is my duty. I am going."
"Go then!" said Proctor. "You must always
have your own way. Yet I believe you are right.
Clean up the city thoroughly!"
Roosevelt faced a bigger job than he knew.
[70]

GREAT-HEART [ 71

The metropolitan police system was in the hands
of corrupt politicians. The Tammany ring exer
cised a tyranny over the policemen. Incompe
tency, immorality and dishonesty honeycombed
the department. Many of the policemen, instead
of being a protection to the people, were a
menace. Promotions went by favor and money. The
man who wanted to become a policeman could
get the job for from $200 to $300. A police
lieutenant could buy his appointment for from
$10,000 up. The men who secured positions in
this way paid the money with the expectation of
getting it back through graft. They had free
rope so long as they delivered to the political
leaders half of their spoils.
If a saloonkeeper wanted to obey the law and
tried to get along without paying tribute to the
policemen of his district, he found that a rival
saloonkeeper was being accorded extraordinary
privileges in order that he himself might be either
ruined or forced to "come across." Gambling
dens, saloons and disorderly houses were free
from punishment so long as they paid toll. Vice
flaunted itself in the face of the law-abiding
element of the city.
The very coming of Roosevelt to Mulberry

72 ] GREAT-HEART

Street was a challenge to the disorderly and cor
rupt elements of the metropolis. His frifends
warned him that other commissioners, with good
intentions, had tried to do what he was about to
attempt, but had found the police force so full
of jealousy, favoritism and blackmail that little
progress could be made.
"Tom" Byrnes, a detective of national fame,
was the head of the New York police at that time.
Roosevelt decided that reform should begin at
the top. He dismissed Byrnes. The latter hurled
at him this challenge:
"The system will break your opposition. You
will give in, for you are only human, after all."
Roosevelt kept on. No one was allowed any
thing to say concerning his appointments and
promotions. Those who were physically and
morally weak he banished from the service. Those
who showed merit and faithfulness he promoted.
He started in at once to acquire an intimate
knowledge of the men who worked under him.
He accomplished this by making personal tours
at night through the various police districts.
Francis E. Leupp, whose previously-mentioned
book, "The Man Roosevelt," will always be a
fruitful source to Roosevelt's biographers, gives
this description of such an expedition :

GREAT-HEART [ 73

HAROUN-AL-RASCHID
"The friend (Leupp) found the Commissioner
at the appointed place and hour, armed only with
a little stick and a written list of the patrolmen's
posts in the district which was to be visited. They
walked over each beat separately. In the first
three beats they found only one man on post.
One of the others had gone to assist the man on
the third, but there was no trace of the third man's
whereabouts. They came upon a patrolman
seated on a box with a woman.
" 'Patrolman,' asked the Commissioner, 'are
you doing your duty on post 27?'
"The fellow jumped up in a hurry. This pedes
trian, though unknown to him, was obviously
familiar with police matters; so he stammered
out, with every attempt to be obsequious: 'Yes,
sir; I am, sir.'
" 'Is it all right for you to sit down?' inquired
the mysterious stranger.
" 'Yes, sir — no, sir — ^well, sir, I wasn't sitting
down. I was just waiting for my partner, the
patrolman on the next beat. Really, I wasn't
sitting down.'
" 'Very well,' said the stranger, cutting him
short and starting on.

74 ] GREAT-HEART

"The officer ran along, explaining again with
much volubility that he had not been sitting down
— he had just been leaning a little againrt some
thing while he waited.
" 'That will do; you are following me off post.
Go back to your beat now and present yourself
before me at headquarters at half -past nine in the
morning, I am Commissioner Roosevelt.'
"Another three blocks and the strollers came
upon a patrolman chatting with a man and a
woman. They passed the group, went a little
way, and returned; the woman was gone, but
the patrolman and the man were still there, and
deep in conversation. The talk was interrupted
to enable the officer to answer the Commissioner's
questions. The man seized the opportunity to
slip off.
" 'They were drimk, sir, a little intoxicated,
sir,' was the patrolman's excuse, as he caught an
inkling of the situation. 'I was just trying to
quiet them down a bit. I'm sorry, sir, very sorry.'
" 'That's enough. Come to Commissioner
Roosevelt's office at half -past nine.'
"In search of the roundsman the Commissioner
started to call him to accoimt for all this laxity
in discipline. The roundsman was found gossip
ing with two patrolmen on another beat.

GREAT-HEART [ 75

" 'Which of you men belongs here?' demanded
the Commissioner, addressing the patrolmen.
"They and their companion met the inquiry
defiantly. One of the trio retorted: 'What busi
ness is that of yours?'
"The Commissioner made no response except
to repeat his question in another form: 'Which
one of you is covering beat 31 ?' "
It was now plain that they were in trouble.
By the light of a neighboring gas lamp the
roundsman recognized the interrogator's face.
He cast a significant look at one of his com
panions, who answered meekly enough: "It's me,
sir." The other told where he belonged and left
quickly for his post, while the roundsman made
a poor fist of explaining that he was "just admon
ishing the patrolmen to move around and do their
duty" when the commissioner came up.
"You may caU on me at half -past nine and
tell me all about it," was the response. "I haven't
time now to listen."
The culprits, when they appeared the next
morning, had every conceivable excuse for their
shortcomings. Many of them pleaded that this
was their first offense.
"Take care that you do not do it a second time,"

76 ] GREAT-HEART

was Roosevelt's response. "I am going to see
with my own eyes how you men employ your
time." On the other hand, where policemen had been
found to have performed their duties well, they
were also ordered to call at headquarters the next
day, but instead of being reprimanded like the
others, they were warmly praised. For the first
time each man had a show for promotion on his
merits. Neither politics nor religion counted. The
man who did a brave deed was promoted. The
man who was found corrupt was "broken." That
was all there was to it. It required no pull or
money to become a member of the police force
when Roosevelt had charge of it. This is illus
trated by his selection of one of his policemen'
from the Bowery branch of the Young Men's
Christian Association. He tells the story that
he had gone to the branch of the association one
night and the secretary informed him that they
had a young man who had just rescued a woman
from a burning building, shovidng great coolness
and courage.
The Commissioner was interested — brave men
always attracted him. He asked to see the young
man, who was a Russian and who had some years
ago come to America during one of the waves

GREAT-HEART [ 77

of persecution in the realm of the Czar. He had
been studying in the association classes for some
time and wanted employment. Physically he
was of the right type, and he passed his examina
tion for the force.
He made one of the best policemen in the city,
and in consequence of his pay he was able to
provide for his mother and his old grandmother
and to start his small brothers and sisters in life.
Said Colonel Roosevelt, "He was already a good
son and brother, so that it was not surprising that
he made a good policeman."
Roosevelt's strenuous and novel methods soon
began to count. Instead of being tools of black
mailers, the men became self-respecting and
"straight." It became a badge of honor to be
known as a "Roosevelt cop."
Mr. Enright, the present Chief of the New
York Police Department and an old member of
the force, testifies to the remarkable executive
ability shown by Roosevelt. "He was the first
Commissioner to inaugurate a strict civil service
examination," said Mr. Enright, "and he sent
out a letter requesting 1,000 young men through
the state to enter the examination and become
members of the force. He tested them very
severely, asking questions on history and geog-

78 ] GREAT-HEART

raphy. One of his questions was to name five
states west of the Mississippi River and give the
capitals. Another was to name five consecutive
Presidents. "He made drastic rules to enforce the excise
law in those days, and on many Sundays used
the whole Police Department in his work by
placing a imiformed patrolman in front of the
door of every saloon."
Another warm admirer of Colonel Roosevelt
is Captain Bourke, who received from Roosevelt
his first promotion after he had arrested Mike
Callahan, owner of a saloon at Mott Street and
Chatham Square, who had been violating the
excise law. Callahan was credited with being
immune to arrest, due to his influence with poli
ticians, and Bourke made the arrest after he had
been only six weeks on the force. It was rumored
that Bourke would be dismissed for his act, but
when Callahan was arraigned and convicted
Bourke was promoted.
Certain elements of the city rebelled against
Roosevelt's rigid enforcement of the excise laws
and organized a parade in protest. A reviewing
stand was built and, unknown to the promoters.
Colonel Roosevelt slipped into the stand. At the
head of a division was a stout German — a veteran

GREAT-HEART [ 79
of the Franco-Prussian War. Roosevelt's en
deavor to deprive him of his Sunday beer had
aroused his wrath and as he passed the platform
he shouted scornfully in German:
"Now, where is that Roosevelt?"
Mr. Roosevelt, leaning over the side of the
stand, queried, also in German :
"Here I am. What will you, comrade?"
The astonished German when it dawned upon
him that Roosevelt had heard him, raised his hat
and shouted: "Hurrah for Roosevelt!" Roose
velt's good humor caught the crowd. The cheer
was repeated and the demonstration turned to
one for the commissioner instead of against him.
On one occasion when Roosevelt was on a night
tour of investigation, he walked around a certain
beat three times without being able to find his
man. Just as he was about to leave, a quarrel
occurred in a cafe and the owner came out on the
sidewalk and knocked with a stick as a signal
that he needed police protection. Three times he
rapped, but the policeman did not come. Roose
velt heard him say:
"Where in thunder is the scoundrel sleeping?
He should have told me that he had given up
sleeping in the barber shop so that I could have
found him."

80 ] GREAT-HEABT

The next morning the policeman received a
summons to headquarters to explain why he had
changed his sleeping place.
It is also told of Roosevelt that an anti-Hebrew
lecturer, intending to denounce Jews, asked for
police protection at a lecture. The protection
was promised and sent — thirty Hebrew police
men, whose presence so awed the speaker that his
lecture became quite tame.
The attachment of members of the Jewish race
for Roosevelt was illustrated at his funeral. The
one man who was permitted to sit alone in the
trophy room at Sagamore Hill, with the body
of the Colonel, was Lieutenant Otto Raphael of
the New York Pohce Force, a Hebrew of the
East side. Mr. Roosevelt, in his biography, de
scribes Raphael as "a powerful fellow with a
good-humored face. He and I were both 'straight
New Yorkers,' to use the vernacular. To show
our community of feeling and our grasp of the
facts of life, I may mention that we were almost
the only men in the Police Department who
picked Fitzsimmons as a winner over Corbett."
Captain William B. Sullivan, now in command
of the Gates Avenue Police Station, Brooklyn,
who served as bodyguard to Roosevelt while he
was Police Commissioner, attests that Roosevelt

?.)
>o o(K O

GREAT-HEART [ 81

was a born policeman. "There wasn't a man in
the department," said Sullivan, "that he didn't
know by name."
While prosecuting his fight for the enforce
ment of the Sunday laws, Roosevelt made the
police enforce a regulation which declared that
ice must not be sold after 10 o'clock in the morn
ing on Sundays. This proved to be a real hard
ship to the masses of the East side. A strong
appeal was made to the commissioner to be less
severe in the prosecution of this law, but he felt
that he was in the right and kept to his course.
Then a reporter wrote a story of the death of
a little girl in a tenement on the East Side. The
narrative said that the mother had gone to buy
ice for her after 10 o'clock on Sunday morning
and that the iceman was arrested for selling it,
and in the mother's absence the child was said
to have died.
This tale proved to be nothing more or less
than a fable, written to show what could happen
under the continued enforcement of this law.
Roosevelt furiously denounced both the reporter
and the editor of the newspaper which published
this story, yet he soon withdrew his opposition
to the selling of ice on Sunday. He said that he
had received more than two hundred letters
TR7

82 ] GREAT-HEAKT

because of the story and that some of the women
who wrote him declared that they would like to
tear him to pieces.
In spite of the many bitter battles Roosevelt
faced as Police Commissioner, he never lost his
kindness of heart. He found one gray-haired
veteran who had saved twenty-eight lives at the
risk of his own. All of the recognition he had
earned from the Police Board for this heroic
deed was the privilege of buying a new uniform
at his own expense, after he ruined his old one
in the rescue of the lives.
The Police Board resolved, at Roosevelt's re
quest, that the clothes ruined in rescuing a life
on duty should be paid for by the department.
Children found him always a warm, helpful
friend. When things happened in their neigh
borhood that did violence to their youthful sense
of justice, they came to him with their complaints
and, if it were at all possible, he adjusted them.
His enemies tried many times to "get some
thing on him." One night they had him shad
owed, thinking to catch him off his guard. News
came to him of their attempt. He bridled with
indignation. "They found me going home to my
babies. Let them make the most of that," he
cried.

GREAT-HEART [ 83

WTiile Pohce Commissioner, Roosevelt acted
also as a member of the Department of Health.
Here, working hand in hand with Jacob Riis, he
did much to make conditions better for the poor.
In those days it was the children that were the
greatest sufferers from the lack of health laws.
While on his night visits Roosevelt went into
dark courts and entered foul tenements to dis
cover for himself the misery that lay within their
walls. At his recommendation, the worst of these
shacks were bought by the city and torn down.
Fire-traps and disease-holes were abolished.
Public playgrounds and parks in the crowded
districts were laid out. Even in such good work
Roosevelt met with opposition. He was sued by
two landlords who had been forced to tear down
their old buildings, but the court upheld his
action. Throughout his term of office he followed the
rule he had inaugurated while Civil Service Com
missioner of giving the widest publicity to every
thing that went on in his department. He gave
full access to newspaper men so that the public
could know exactly what was going on. -Any one
could visit him in his own office and he tried to
help everybody who desired help.
Roosevelt's attitude toward the commercialized

84 ] GREAT-HEART

social evil in the red-light districts was one of
determined and unwavering opposition.
In his autobiography he states that he con
sidered the social evil the saddest part of his
police work. He made it a rule to treat the men
caught in raids on houses of ill fame precisely as
the women were treated. It was his belief that
by treating men and women on an exact equalitj-
for the same act much could be done to minimize
the evil. His judgment was that the same moral
level for both sexes must be achieved by raising
the standard for the man and not by lowering it
for the woman.
As a remedy for these evils Roosevelt advo
cated higher wages for girls, early marriages and
a co-operation of nation, state and municipality
to crush commercialized vice.
The verdict of history was that Roosevelt was
in advance of his time in his battle for righteous
ness within the police ranks of New York. He
did a great work, but the job he had undertaken
would have worn out a hundred Roosevelts.
He resigned from the department on April 17,
1897, to accept an appointment from the Mc-
Kinley administration as Assistant Secretary of
the Navy.

VII
Roosevelt's Influence
on American Naval Affairs
IN 1897 the menace of war hvmg heavy above
America. Spain's barbarous rule in Cuba
had stirred the .American conscience. It became
plain that it was the duty of America to become
the protector of the sunny island that cried out
to it for deliverance from the oppression of the
Old World power.
Cuba, under Spain's management, was a pest
hole of yellow fever. Her government was vile
and corrupt. The Spanish rulers crushed remon
strances with blood and iron.
A new American navy was then being built.
Before it began, Roosevelt himself said, America
was not in a position to fight Spain or anyone
else. Timidly and haltingly, contrasting strongly
with America's present-day naval programme,
the work had been begun by the country. The
need was felt for a man of energetic character,
modern methods and foresight to put the fleet in
condition for war. Roosevelt's work as Pohce
Commissioner had made him famous throughout
the country, and the nation met with hearty
[85]

86 ] GREAT-HEART

approval President McKinley's appointment of
him as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
It was Senator H. C. Lodge, of Massachusetts,
a long and close friend of Roosevelt, who worked
hardest for his appointment. Fifteen years
before, Roosevelt had written "The History of
the Naval War of 1812," and since that time had
taken a deep interest in the navy.
He was a strong opponent of that class of
impractical men typified by a Senator who, in
answer to a question as to what we would do if we
were suddenly attacked by a foreign power,
replied: "We would build a battleship in every creek."
Roosevelt, in his autobiography, thus de
scribes how gingerly the American people went
about the work of building the ships that later
won the battle of Santiago Bay:
"We built some modern cruisers to start with,
the people who felt that battleships were wicked
compromising with their misguided consciences
by saying that the cruisers could be used 'to
protect our commerce' — which they could not be.,
unless they had battleships to back them.
"Then we attempted to build more powerful
fighting vessels, and as there was a section of the
public which regarded battleships as possessing

GREAT- HEART [ 87

a name immorally suggestive of violence, we com
promised by calling the new ships armored crui
sers, and making them combine with exquisite
nicety all the defects and none of the virtues of
both types. Then we got to the point of building
battleships. "But there still remained a public opinion as
old as the time of Jefferson which thought that
in the event of war all our problem ought to be
one of coast defence; that we should do nothing
except repel attack ; an attitude about as sensible
as that of a prizefighter who expected to win by
merely parrying instead of hitting.
"To meet the susceptibilities of this large class
of well-meaning people we provided for the bat
tleships under the name of "coast defence battle
ships,' meaning thereby that we did not make
them quite as seaworthy as they ought to have
been, or with quite as much coal capacity as they
ought to have had. Then we decided to build real
battleships. "But there stUl remained a lingering remnant
of public opinion that clung to the coast defence
theory, and we met this in beautiful fashion by
providing for 'seagoing coast defence battle
ships,' the fact that the name was a contradic
tion in terms being of very small consequence as

88 ] GREAT-HEART

compared to the fact that we did thereby get
real battleships.
"Our men had to be trained to handle the ships
singly and in fleet formation, and they had to be
trained to use the new weapons of precision with
which the ships were armed,
"Not a few of the older officers, kept in the
service under our foolish rule of pure seniority
promotion, were not competent for the task; but
a proportion of the older officers were excellent,
and this was true of almost all the yoxmger
officers, "They were naturally first-class men, trained
in the admirable naval school at Annapolis. They
were overjoyed that at last they were given
proper instruments to work with, and they
speedily grew to handle their ships individually
in the best fashion. They were fast learning to
handle them in squadron and fleet formation;
but when war with Spain broke out they had as
yet hardly grasped the principles of modern sci
entific naval gunnery."
While bearing the title of Assistant to Secre
tary of the Navy John D. Long, Roosevelt's work
was soon felt in every department of the navy.
He found out that many evils had grown up that
would seriously handicap the department if sud-

GREAT-HEART [ 89

denly brought face to face with the problem of
preparing for war. He therefore began a thor
ough overhauling of the various bureaus, cutting
red tape in every direction. The list of merchant
vessels that could be drafted for an auxiliary navy
was incomplete and full of errors. This he
revised. Meanwhile the good offices extended by the
United States to bring about peace between
Spain and the Cubans who had rebelled against
her tyranny were refused by Spain. She even
refused to consider selling Cuba to the United
States. The natives cried to the United States
for help.
The commercial interests of our country in
Cuba also required protection. Public opinion
began to demand armed intervention.
President McKinley, a man wholly inclined to
peace, hesitated. Roosevelt, however, had become
convinced that the interests of humanity required
a declaration of war against Spain. He felt that
Spain should be made to withdraw from Ameri
can soil. He cited the Monroe Doctrine as one of
his chief reasons.
Francis E. Leupp, in his book "The Man
Roosevelt," thus describes Roosevelt's attitude at
this time:

90 ] GREAT-HEART

"One Sunday morning in March, 1898, we
were sitting in his library discussing the signifi
cance of the news that Cervera's squadron was
about to sail for Cuba, when he suddenly rose and
brought his hands together with a resounding
clap. " 'If I could do what I pleased,' he exclaimed,
'I would send Spain notice today that we should
consider her dispatch of that squadron a hostile
act. Then, if she didn't heed the warning, she
would have to take the consequences.'
" 'You are sure,' I asked, 'that it is with un
friendly intent that she is sending the squadron?'
" 'What else can it be? The Cubans have no
navy; therefore the squadron cannot be coming
to fight the insurgents. The only naval power
interested in Cuban affairs is the United States.
Spain is simply forestalling the "brush" which
she knows, as we do, is coming sooner or later.'
" 'And if she refused to withdraw the orders
to Cervera' —
" 'I should send out a squadron to meet his on
the high seas and smash it! Then I would force
the fighting from that day to the end of the
war.' "
The President's Cabinet was divided in its
opinion. The President himself, surrounded by

GREAT-HEART [ 91

men of different views, remained in a quandary.
One day the President learned that Roosevelt
had stated what course he would pursue.
McKinley sent for Roosevelt and heard his plans.
Later in the day, at a Cabinet meeting, Mc
Kinley remarked:
"Gentlemen, not one of you have put half so
much enthusiasm into your expressions as Mr.
Roosevelt, our Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
He has mapped out a programme for the im
pending war!"
"Let's ask him to explain it!" one of the secre
taries said, rather jocosely.
McKinley sent for Roosevelt and asked him
some leading questions. Roosevelt urged that
Spain be warned that she must take the conse
quences if the fleet came to our waters. McKinley
remarked that, as the country was still at peace
with Spain, to interfere with her fleet would be
an act of war. Roosevelt replied that Spa;in
should be made to understand that the sending
of her fleet to America would be considered by us
an act of war. Roosevelt then launched upon his
war plan. With characteristic gestures and ex
pressions he set forth what he would do to Spain
if she did not consent to the just demands of the
United States.

92 ] GREAT-HEART

The members of the Cabinet complimented
him, patted him on the back, and, as he bowed
himself out, wondered whether this was just a
radical young enthusiast or indeed a born leader.
Some of them afterward told of the scene in the
Cabinet chamber, and the tale was gossiped
throughout official circles as a good joke on
Roosevelt. Meanwhile, with the care of the fleet resting
largely on his shoulders, Roosevelt toiled to
secure from Congress appropriations that would
put it in first-class fighting condition.
Interesting, in view of our modern naval
appropriations, is the following incident in
Roosevelt's battles to secure naval appropri
ations: On one occasion he asked for $500,000 for the
purpose of buying ammunition. Congress gave
it to him. A few months later he asked for
$800,000 more. Congress asked what had become
of the first $500,000.
"We spent it for powder and guns used in
target practice," said Roosevelt.
"What will you do with this $800,000?" a
Congressman queried.
"Spend it in the same way," Roosevelt
promptly replied.

GREAT-HEART [ 93

He got the money.
In addition to improving the marksmanship
of the navy Roosevelt also took many other im
portant steps in preparation for war. Feeling
that the United States must soon land troops in
Cuba, he bought and equipped transports. He
found jealousy existing between regular officers
and engineer officers, and worked hard to
remove this. He formed the United States war
ships stationed on the Atlantic into one squad
ron and drilled them so that they could act in
concert if war came. He selected depots for fuel,
provisions and munitions.
When Admiral Dewey found coal and am
munition at Hong Kong at the outbreak of the
war, and was thus enabled to reach Manila a
week ahead of his time, it was due to the fore
sight and energy of Roosevelt that this was
accomplished. There were profiteers in those days, too,
Roosevelt, in buying ships to carry naval sup
plies, found himself forced to do business with
them. Ships were scarce, and sometimes those
available were offered by their owners at exorbi
tant prices. Here is the way Leupp heard Roose
velt handle a lawyer who was representing one of
these extortionate firms :

94 ] GREAT-HEART

"Don't you feel ashamed to come to me today
with another offer after what you did yesterday?
Don't you think that to sell one rotten ship to
the government is enough for a single week? Are
you in such a hurry that you couldn't wait even
over Sunday to force your damaged goods upon
the United States? Is it an excess of patriotism
that brings you here day after day in this way
or only your realization of our necessities?"
"Why our clients"  began the lawyer,
"Yes, I know all about your clients," burst in
the Assistant Secretary, "I congratulate them
on having an attorney who will do work for them
which he woudn't have the face to do for himself.
I should think, after having enjoyed the honors
you have at the hands of the government, you'd
feel a keen pride in your present occupation!
No, I don't want any more of your old tubs. The
one I bought yesterday is good for nothing
except to sink somewhere in the path of the
enemy's fleet. It will be God's mercy if she doesn't
go down with brave men on her — ^men who go
to war and risk their lives, instead of staying
home to sell rotten hulks to the government!"
Finally war came. The battleship Maine on
February 15, 1898, was blown up in Havana
Harbor and 260 American sailors were killed.

GREAT-HEART [ 95

Afterward a court of inquiry met to determine
what had caused the explosion. The jury disa
greed. Be that as it may, the spark had been
applied to the powder magazine. America was
in a convulsion — its voice was for war.
On April 20 President McKinley declared war
on Spain. ROOSEVELT CHAMPIONS DEWEY
Roosevelt had suggested that when war came
it would be wise for the United States to seize
the Phihppine Islands, then under Spanish pos
session. He it was who, when the War Depart
ment proposed to supplant Dewey, successfully
urged that he be retained at the Asiatic station.
"Keep the Olympia! Provide yourself with
coal," he cabled to Dewey at this time.
No sooner had President McKinley declared
war than Roosevelt sent a still more vital message
to Dewey, ordering him to sail into the port of
Manila and to capture or destroy the Spanish
fleet. Those who, at the Cabinet meeting, scoffed at
Roosevelt's plan for a war now remembered that
he had advocated this very act in his programme
and that the officer who had so splendidly cap
tured Manila was the very man Roosevelt had

96 ] GREAT- HEART

managed against strong opposition to keep on
the job.
Roosevelt's reputation as a picker of men was
further illustrated at this time by the interest he
took in Lieutenant Sims, then American naval
attache at Paris.
Sims had written to his superiors letter after
letter pointing out how backward our fleet was
in marksmanship. He had definite plans for
teaching Yankee sailors how to shoot. Those in
authority considered Sims an alarmist, but
Roosevelt grew concerned as he noted the small
proportion of hits tp shots made by our ships. He
then sounded the slogan that "the shots that hit
are the shots that count."
Roosevelt could do little then in support of
Sims, but when he became President he remem
bered Sims and appointed him to lead in revolu
tionizing the fleet's training in marksmanship.
It was due to Sims — now the admiral who has
served this country so well in the present war —
that the fighting efficiency of the navy, as far as
gunnery went, became three times more effective.
The following account and appreciation of
Admiral Dewey's work derives a special interest
from the fact that it was written by Colonel
Roosevelt shortly after the battle of Manila:

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
ROOSEVELT ADDRESSING AN INTERESTED AUDIENCE

GREAT-HEART [ 97

"Admiral Dewey was sent to command the
fleet on the Asiatic station primarily because he
had such a record in the past that the best officers
in the navy believed him to be peculiarly a man
of the fighting temperament and fit to meet
emergencies, and because he had shown his wil
lingness to assume heavy responsibilities,
"For our own sakes, and in particular for the
sake of any naval officer who in the future may be
called upon to do such a piece of work as Dewey
did, let us keep in mind the further fact that he
could not have accomplished his feat if he had
not had first-class vessels and excellently trained
men; if his warships had not been so good and
his captains and crews such thorough masters of
their art.
"A man of less daring courage than Dewey
would never have done what he did; but the
courage itself was not enough. The Spaniards,
too, had courage. What they lacked was energy,
training, forethought. They fought their vessels
until they burned or sank; but their gunnery
was so poor that they did not kill a man in the
American fleet. Even Dewey's splendid capacity
would not have enabled him to win the battle of
Manila Bay had it not been for the traditional
energy and seamanship of our naval service, so
TB8

98 ] GREAT-HEART

well illustrated in his captains, and the excellent
gun practice of the crews, the result of years of
steady training."
Roosevelt never lost his interest in the navy.
Admiral Chadwick wrote a book on the early
period of the American navy. As soon as the
book was published Senator Lodge hurried to
the White House, hoping to surprise Mr. Roose
velt with the news of the publication.
"I see," he remarked, "that Admiral Chad
wick has written a book on the American navy."
"Yes," broke in Roosevelt, "I have read it.
It's bully. I didn't think Chadwick was equal
to it."
Roosevelt felt that his work for the navy was
done at the outbreak of the war.
"I have nothing more to do," he said. "I must
go to war myself."
He was urged to keep his position. The women
of the Cabinet reminded him that he had six
children. "I have done what I could to bring about the
war," he said; "now I have no right to ask others
to fight it out while I stay home."
He resigned to go to the front.

VIII
Roosevelt's Rough Riders
WHEN America went to war with Germany
she was in her typical state of unprepared-
ness. In spite of her handicaps, the world admits
that she did her tremendous job efficiently.
The same state of confusion and imprepared-
ness existed when America went to war with
Spain. The thing that saved the day in both
cases was the latent fighting strength of the
nation. At the beginning of the Spanish war,
just as at the beginning of the war with Germany,
the young men thronged the enlistment centers.
Regiments and ships were besieged with appli
cants. Men who had deserted in peace times
returned, begging for a chance to fight.
ROOSEVELT AND WOOD
Typical examples of this true American spirit
were Theodore Roosevelt and his comrade. Army
Surgeon Leonard Wood. Roosevelt saw in Wood
a man after his own heart. Wood traced his
ancestry back to the "Mayflower"; he was directly
descended from Susanna White, whose son. Pere
grine White, was the first white child born in
New England. Wood was born at Winchester,
[99]

100 ] GREAT-HEART

New Hampshire, on October 9, 1860. His father
was Dr. Charles Jewett Wood, who followed the
profession of a country doctor. The boy Leonard
went to the district school and later attended an
old-fashioned academy at Middleboro.
Upon the death of his father in 1880, Wood
entered the Harvard Medical School. When he
graduated he became an intern at the Boston
City Hospital. At twenty-four he began the
practice of medicine in Staniford Street, Boston.
He was located in a poor neighborhood and had
all he could do to make ends meet.
In 1885 he took an examination for admission
as a surgeon in the army. He passed second in
a competitive class of fifty-nine. His first ser'
vice was at Fort Warren, Massachusetts. From
this post he was ordered to Arizona. Here he
met Captain H. L. Lawton of the Fourth Cav
alry, who later became Major-General Lawton.
The two fought Apaches together. Wood devel
oped into such a good fighting man that before
he had been commissioned three months, and
while he still held the rank of surgeon, he was
given the command of the infantry of the expe
dition. While engaged in this work he announced his
opinion that a well-trained white man could en-

GREAT-HEART [101

dure more than an Indian. It became his ambi
tion to prove this so far as he himself was
concerned. General Miles, in forwarding to the War De
partment his report of Captain Lawton's expe
dition against Geronimo, had this to say of
Wood: "He not only fulfilled the duties of his pro
fession in his skillful attention to disabled officers
and soldiers, but at times performed satisfactorily
the duties of a line officer, and, during the whole
extraordinary march, by his example of physical
endurance, greatly encouraged others, having
voluntarily made many of the longest and most
difficult marches on foot."
After service in Mexico, Los Angeles, New
Mexico and other posts. General Wood was
ordered to duty as an army surgeon in Wash
ington in 1895. He became a friend of President
Cleveland and his family, and later received a
summons from President McKinley to become
the regular medical adviser to Mrs. McKinley
and himself. It was at this time that he met
Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
Their first meeting occurred when they were
guests at dinner of the Lowndes family. They
were at once attracted to each other. They pos-

102 ] GREAT- HEART

sessed the same ideals. They went tramping
together, ran foot races, scaled steep hills, crossed
log bridges and did anything that would increase
their strength and endurance.
When the talk of war with Spain arose, the
two men became so eager to see active service
that President McKinley, who was a close friend
to both Wood and Roosevelt, called them "The
War Party." When Wood visited McKinley,
the latter would ask: "Have you and Theodore
declared war yet?"
General Alger, to whom Wood was also medi
cal adviser, was heartily in favor of the "Rough
Rider" regiment, and when Wood was commis
sioned to raise the regiment and appointed its
Colonel, General Alger gave him a desk in his
office with the injunction: "Now don't let me
hear from you again until your regiment is
raised !"
In the campaign that followed, Roosevelt tes
tified in regard to Wood:
"No soldier could outwalk him, could live with
greater indifference on hard and scanty fare,
could endure hardship better or do better without
sleep." Others who served under Wood testified
that he went through a hail of bullets without
fear, that he would walk erect along the line when

GREAT-HEART [103

his soldiers were hugging the ground, and that
he would 6jalmly caution his men: "Don't swear,
men. Shoot!"
General Wood's work as governor of San
tiago, and later as governor of the whole island
of Cuba, and his still later efforts shoulder to
shoulder with Roosevelt to arouse America's
conscience and to make the American army an
efficient fighting force, is well known to the
American public.
Roosevelt himself, having publicly expressed
the opinion that it was the duty of the United
States to free Cuba, was intensely eager to back
up his words by deeds. The berserker strain in
his blood would not permit him to stay at home.
Having submitted his resignation as Assistant
Secretary of the Navy on April 16, Roosevelt
applied for an appointment on General Fitzhugh
Lee's staff. However, a greater opportunity
arose. Congress had authorized the raising of
three national volunteer cavalry regiments that
were to act independently of the state troops.
Secretary of War Alger offered Roosevelt the
command of one of these regiments. Roosevelt
had had four years membership in the 8th Regi
ment of the New York State National Guard
and had risen to the rank of captain. This was a

104 ] GREAT-HEART

basis for his military career. He told Alger that
after six weeks' service in the field he felt that he
would be competent to handle the regiment, but
that he would not know how to equip it or how to
get it ready for the first action. He recommended
that Wood be given the command, and that he be
allowed to serve under him. Alger laughed at
his modesty, but the matter ended with Wood
being appointed colonel of the regiment while
Roosevelt became lieutenant-colonel. The regi
ment was called the 1st United States Volunteer
Cavalry, but the public soon nicknamed it
"Roosevelt's Rough Riders."
This regiment was to be raised from the states
of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
It was at first limited to 780 men. Later the
number was raised to 1,000. Strong and
picturesque was the company that composed the
contingent. During Roosevelt's stay on his ranch in Dakota
he had learned to value the plainsmen as men of
great courage and resistance, with bodies in splen
did condition for undergoing the hardships of
war. They were skilled horsemen; they knew
how to use their guns, and they were therefore
ideal material for the cavalry. Roosevelt called
to them and they came. Along with these cow-

GREAT-HEART [ 105

boys flocked hunters from the backwoods, trap
pers from the Rockies, Indian fighters and even
redskins themselves. Prominent young clubmen
of New York and Boston; students of Harvard,
Yale, Princeton and other universities; police
men who had served under Roosevelt on the New
York police force clamored for places in the regi
ment. No men were taken, however, until they
proved that they possessed ability as horsemen,
that they were skilled in the use of the rifle and
that they were physically able to endure a strenu
ous campaign.
The officers were generally selected from men
who had been in the regular army, who, having
fought against the Apache or the Cheyenne, had
ended their terms of service and settled in the
Southwest. Other officers were recruited from the
ranks of sheriffs and deputy sheriffs, marshals
and deputy marshals — men who had waged un
ceasing warfare against bad Indians or white
desperadoes. The men in the ranks had careers just as
adventurous. Some had typical Western names :
Cherokee Bill, Happy Jack of Arizona, Bronco
Buster, Smoky Moore and Rattlesnake Pete.
Professional gamblers mingled with Baptist or
Methodist clergymen to the enlightenment of

106 ] GREAT-HEART

each. One of the gamest fighters was a full-
blooded Pawnee named Pollock. Another was
a Cherokee. Some one called the regiment "Roosevelt's
Rough Riders." The name caught the public's
fancy. It spread from coast to coast and made
Roosevelt's name a household word.
Roosevelt had his work cut out for him in weld
ing the various elements under him into a disci
plined unit. He measured fully up to his task. No
man was better equipped than he for such a com
mand. In roundups in the Far West, in hunting
expeditions, in the political districts of New York,
City, in clubs and drawing-rooms and in official
circles he had met all sorts and conditions of
men. He knew how to talk with each class in its
own language. He knew how to be friendly and
intimate, yet at the same time to keep his dignity
and their respect. The men began to obey orders
and assume the military manner in a way that
aroused their officers' warmest commendation.
They comprehended that without discipline they
would be a mere mob, dangerous to themselves
and to their country, and, however tiresome were
the drills and tactics, they performed them
quickly and efficiently.
The relations between officers and men were

GREAT- HEART [107

democratic and friendly, suggesting the relations
of our officers and privates during the present
war. The Colonel, in his book, "The Rough
Riders," gives several instances of this.
Holderman, the cook, announced dinner to the
Colonel and three majors in this way: "If you
fellows don't come soon every thing'U get cold."
No one rebuked him. A sentinel who had just
mastered the manual of arms saluted with great
pride as Roosevelt passed; then he added heartily:
"Good evening. Colonel!" This breach of mili
tary etiquette the Colonel found it wise to over
look. Another sentinel, when mosquitoes were bad,
slapped at them vigorously, with this side remark
to the Colonel:
"Ain't they bad?"
"That they are!" returned Roosevelt, slapping
away in his turn.
The horses for the regiment were brought from
the Western ranges. Some of them were so wild
that the men were compelled to throw them down
and tie them before they could be shod. Others
bucked their riders. The regiment, however, was
not lacking in men who knew how to tame and
handle rebellious broncos, and the splendid horse
manship of the riders resulted in them making

108 J GREAT- HEART

their horses perform each maneuver with speed
and accuracy. However vicious or restless a
horse might be, his rider would force him to stay
in line. Naturally, such horsemen and such horses
gave the regiment an appearance of dash and ease
that excited the admiration of all who saw the
skirmish drills.
Colonel Roosevelt's own mounts came from
Texas. While the price paid for them was only
$50 each — ridiculously low compared to the high
price of horseflesh during the world war — ^they
proved tough and hardy and rendered Roosevelt
excellent service.
Colonel Wood and Lieutenant-Colonel Roose
velt were anxious to get their men to the firing
line. They knew the regular army would have
the most difficult work, and their object was to
train and equip their regiment so that its fighting
efficiency would gain it a place at the very front.
Finally marching orders came. The men cheered
and were off.
A big disappointment — though of a minor
nature so far as military affairs were concerned —
was in store for them. A pity it is to narrate
that this body of men were not allowed to show
their prowess as horsemen. It developed that,
after all, the men were not to be used as mounted

GREAT-HEART* [ 109

soldiers. The blow was an especially hard one to
Roosevelt, who had trained his men in shock tac
tics for use against hostile cavalry. The decision
was also a trying one for some of the men who
were more at home in the saddle than on foot.
However, the men took the order like good
soldiers, and in slouch hats, blue flannel shirtS;
brown trousers, leggings and boots, with hand
kerchiefs knotted around their throats, they
marched off on the first step of their journey to
Cuba.

IX

Campaigning in Cuba
THE Rough Riders, as they left their Texas
encampment for Tampa, Fla., their point
of embarkation for Cuba, humorously changed
their nickname to "Wood's Weary Walkers,"
a title that, through their long marches in the
jungles of Cuba, came to have more truth than
humor in it.
Viewing the Spanish campaign in the light of
the world war, it will be seen that there is a strik
ing similarity between this regiment and the
French Foreign Legion. This parallel is true not
only of the personnel of the contingent, which
included adventurous spirits from all sections of
the country, but also of the fighting spirit of the
men. How to reach the fighting field was the biggest
question that confronted the Rough Riders. They
were among the very last to receive permission
to go, and if it had not been for Roosevelt's
dogged determination they would probably have
been left behind. Even when orders came to en-
tram for Tampa, transportation was refused.
Roosevelt, however, was equal to the emergency.
He jumped aboard the engine of a coal train and
[110]

GREAT- HEART [111

demanded of its crew that they transport his men.
The crew obeyed orders. The regiment reached
Tampa covered with coal dust.
At Tampa the Rough Riders found themselves
without an official assignment to a transport.
Nothing daunted, Roosevelt moved his men im
mediately on board the nearest vessel.
When the landing place in Cuba was reached
the Colonel got his men ashore among the first
and soon after landing began his march to the
front. WTiile Roosevelt's picturesque personality led
to his figuring largely in the newspaper accounts
of the war, yet in all of these movements he was
in close association with Colonel Wood. The two
worked together as one man. While the men had
been intimate before, it was in this campaign that
the friendship was welded that was to last and
deepen until death ended it.
Later in the campaign Colonel Wood was
promoted to the rank of general and Lieutenant-
Colonel Roosevelt become colonel.
The corps to which the Rough Riders were
attached was under the command of Major-Gen
eral Shafter. Major-General Wheeler, a veteran
of the Civil War and a dashing cavalry leader,
commanded the cavalry. Under the latter, as

112 ] GREAT-HEART

commander of the 2d Brigade, was Brigadier-
General Young. Young's brigade was composed
of the 1st and 10th regiments of cavalry. The
10th regiment was composed of negroes and the
1st Regiment of the Rough Riders.
General Wheeler was anxious to strike the first
blow with his cavalry and while Brigadier- Gen
eral Lawton, who commanded the infantry, was
protecting the landing from the enemy. General
Wheeler ordered General Young to advance
early in the morning from the little village of
Siboney toward Santiago and to attack the enemy
wherever he was found. The Rough Riders
were included in this advance.
Two roads about a mile apart, lead from
Siboney to Santiago. General Young advanced
on the eastern road and directed Wood and
Roosevelt to take the western road, which led
over the mountains. The two roads drew together
near the village of Las Guasimas. Here the two
commands were to meet.
On the march from the landing place inland
the troops traveled over rugged hills, covered for
the most part by dense jungles. They camped
on a dusty, brush-covered flat, with jungle on
one side and a disease-breeding pool, fringed with
palm trees, on the other side. The baggage had

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD ft UNDERWOOD
BEFORE THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN. ROOSEVELT ON THE
EXTREME RIGHT, COLONEL WOOD IN CENTER. TO THE
left: major dunn, colonel BRODIE AND
CHAPLAIN BROWN, WITH GENERAL WHEELER
IN THE FOREGROUND

GREAT- HEART [113

not yet come ashore, and the soldiers had only
what food they carried with them. Roosevelt's
equipment consisted of a raincoat and a tooth
brush. They met hundreds of Cuban insurgents —
tattered crews armed with all sorts of weapons,
all of which were in poor condition.
FIGHTING AT LAS GUASIMAS
When the Rough Riders reached the scene of
action they had first to climb a very steep hill.
They went into action with less than five hundred
men. Captain Capron's troop was in the lead, fol
lowed by Colonel Wood. Roosevelt rode close
behind them at the head of the other three troops
of his squadron. The trail was so narrow that at
many places the men had to march in single file.
At other times they had to force their way
through dense, tangled jungles. After marching
for over an hour they came to a halt, but Colonel
Wood announced that the advance guard had
come upon a Spanish outpost.
A minute later Wood gave Roosevelt orders
to deploy three troops to the right of the trail and
advance. A roar in front of them soon announced
that the fight was on.
TB9

114 ] GREAT-HEART

Roosevelt and his officers were searching for
the place from which the smokeless powder of
the Spaniards was pouring Mauser bullets upon
his men.
It was the famous war correspondent, Richard
Harding Davis, who first showed Roosevelt's men
where to direct their fire. He had accompanied
the Rough Riders and had taken a place at the
extreme front of the line, from which place he
spotted with his glasses the exact location of the
Spaniards. "There they are. Colonel!" he suddenly cried.
"Look! Over there! I can see their heads hear
that glade!"
Roosevelt looked across the valley where Davis
was pointing. He, too, discovered the heads of
the Spanish soldiers and directed his sharp
shooters to fire on them.
The Spaniards sprang out of the cover and
ran to another spot. The shots of the Americans
had told. The Spaniards continued to retreat.
The Rough Riders and the other troops pursued.
They were forced to leave the wounded in the
jungle where they fell.
Harry Hefner of G Troop, fell mortally
wounded in the hip. Two of his companions
dragged him behind a tree. He propped himself

GREAT-HEART [115

up and asked for his canteen and his rifle. He
then resumed shooting, and continued firing until
he died.
Roland, a New Mexican cow-puncher, fought
beside Roosevelt. The Colonel noticed blood issu
ing from his side and ordered the trooper to go to
the rear, Roland grumbled, but went back. Fif
teen minutes later he was on the firing line again.
He told the Colonel that he could not find the
hospital. Roosevelt doubted it, but let him stay
until the end of the fight, when it was discovered
that a bullet had broken one of his ribs.
When the scrimmage began some of the men
began to curse. "Don't swear — shoot!" Wood
growled at them.
Toward the end of the engagement Roosevelt
was falsely informed that Wood had been killed.
The command of the regiment for the time being
devolved upon the Colonel. He started to lead
his men toward the main body, but met Wood
himself, who told him that the fight was over and
that the Spaniards had retreated.
In this first scrimmage the Rough Riders lost
eight men killed and thirty-four wounded. They
had taken a Spanish fort, defended by more than
twelve hundred men, and had won from them
complete possession of the entire Spanish
position.

116 ] GREAT- HEART

THE CAPTURE OF KETTLE HILL
Next came the historic battle of San Juan.
When news of the battle reached General Shafter
he was told that the Americans had been cut to
pieces. It was also said that the regiment had
passed the advanced outpost without orders.
Shafter exploded.
"I will send that damned cowboy regiment,"
he said, "so far to the rear that it will not get
another chance."
Later, however, came the news that the cow
boys had been victorious, so Shafter wrote a flat
tering letter to Roosevelt, in command, congratu
lating him on the success of his attack.
There followed a period of inaction. Then the
Rough Riders received orders to proceed against
Santiago. The regiment struck camp and marched to the
front behind the 1st and 10th Cavalry. Every
man carried three days' rations.
Roosevelt's command joined General Wood
at El Paso Hill and camped for the night.
The next morning it was announced that the
main fighting against Santiago was to be done
by Lawton's infantry division, which was ordered
to take El Caney, while the Rough Riders were

GREAT-HEART [117

ordered simply to make a diversion with artillery.
When the firing began shrapnel shells exploded
over Roosevelt's head. One of the shrapnel bul
lets struck his wrist. The same shell wounded
four men of his regiment. He at once led his
men from their exposed position into the under
brush. General Wood then ordered Roosevelt to fol
low behind the 1st Brigade, and the Rough
Rideiji Degan a march toward the ford of the
San Juan River. They reached the ford and
crossed it. In front of them was a rise of ground,
afterward called Kettle Hill. Roosevelt found
the 1st Brigade engaged in a hot battle, so he
halted his men and sent back word for orders.
On top of Kettle Hill were large haciendas,
or ranch buildings. The Spaniards, from their
stations on the hills, poured a heavy fire on the
American troops, who were hidden in sheltered
lanes and along the edge of the San Juan River,
or in patches of jungle grass. Roosevelt, lying
with his troops under this severe fire, sent mes
senger after messenger to General Sumner or
General Wood to secure permission to advance.
He had about determined to go ahead when Lieu
tenant-Colonel Dorst rode up with the command
to "move forward and support the regulars in

118 ] GREAT-HEART

the assault on the hills in front/' The impatient
Roosevelt leaped upon his horse. He had intended
to go into action on foot, but he saw that he would
be unable to run up and down the line and super
intend matters if he were on foot. His men went
eagerly to the attack. The Colonel started in the
rear of his men, as was the custom for a Colonel,
but his ardor soon bore him to the head of the
regiment. As he rode down the line he saw a slacker hid
den behind a little bush. To urge the soldier for
ward he called :
"Are you afraid to stand up while I am on
horseback?" While Roosevelt was speaking, a bullet, evi
dently aimed at him, struck and killed the man
who was hiding.
There has been much discussion as whether
Roosevelt exceeded his authority in the capture
of Kettle Hill. In reviewing the matter it is best
to take the Colonel's own account of what hap
pened. In his book "The Rough Riders" he thus
describes the charge:
"By the time I had come to the head of the
regiment we ran into the left wing of the 9th
Regulars, and some of the 1st Regulars, who
were lying down while the officers were walking

GREAT-HEART [ 119

to and fro. The officers of the white and colored
regiments alike took the greatest pride in seeing
that the men more than did their duty; and the
mortality among them was great.
"I spoke to the captain in command of the rear
platoons, saying that I had been ordered to sup
port the regulars in the attack upon the hills, and
that in my judgment we could not take these hills
by firing at them, and that we must rush them.
He answered that his orders were to keep his
men lying where they were, and that he could not
charge without order. I asked where the colonel
was, and, as he was not in sight, said: 'Then I
am the ranking officer here and I give the order
to charge,' for I did not want to keep the men
longer in the open suffering under a fire which
they could not effectively return.
"Naturally, the captain hesitated to obey this
order when no word had been received from his
own colonel. So I said: 'Then let my men
through, sir,' and rode on through the lines, fol
lowed by the grinning Rough Riders, whose
attention had been completely taken off the Span
ish bullets, partly by my dialogue with the regu
lars and partly by the language I had been using
to themselves as I got the lines forward, for I
had been joking with some and swearing at

120 ] GREAT-HEART

others, as the exigencies of the case seemed to
demand. ""V^Tien I got to where the head of the left
wing of the 9th was lying, through the courtesy
of Lieutenant Hartwick, two of whose colored
troopers threw down the fence, I was enabled to
get back into the lane, at the same time waving my
hat and giving the order to charge the hill on ow
right front. Out of my sight, over on the right.
Captains McBlain and Taylor, of the 9th, made
up their minds independently to charge at just
about this time ; and at almost the same moment
Colonels Carroll and Hamilton, who were off, I
believe, to my left, where we could see neither
them nor their men, gave the order to advance.
But of all this I knew nothing at the time. The
whole line, tired of waiting and eager to close
with the enemy, was straining to go forward;
and it seems that different parts slipped
the leash at almost the same moment. The 1st
Cavalry came up the hill just behind, and partly
mixed with my regiment and the 9th. As already
said, portions of the 3d, 6th and 10th followed,
while the rest of the members of these three regi
ments kept more in touch with the infantry on
our left."
Roosevelt, at the head of his cheering, firing

GREAT-HEART [121

men, galloped toward the hill. Forty yards from
the top he ran into a wire fence and was forced
to dismount from his horse. Little Texas, and
turn it loose.
The Spaniards fled from the ranch buildings
as the Americans approached, and soon the hill
was covered with Rough Riders and the colored
troopers of the 9th, with some men from the 1st.
On the top of the hill was a huge iron kettle, used
probably for sugar refining. From this big pot
the battle derived its name of Kettle Hill,
THE FAMOUS "ROUND ROBIN"
Having aided materially in the capture of
Kettle Hill, Roosevelt and his men looked toward
their left, to where the Spaniards were fighting
in the trenches under the San Juan blockhouse.
General Hawkins' brigade was storming this
blockhovKse and soon captured it. When the
blockhouse fell the Colonel ordered a charge to
a line of hills still further on.
Only four men started with him. Three of
these were shot. Roosevelt gave one of the
wounded his canteen of water and ran back to
find out why the other soldiers had not followed.
He found that nobody had heard his orders.
By this time General Sumner had come up and

122 ] GREAT-HEART

Roosevelt asked of him permission to lead the
charge. Sumner gave his consent and the Rough
Riders stormed the Spanish entrenchment. There
was close fighting, which resulted in the taking of
a few prisoners, and what was more important
to the men, the capture of Spanish provisions.
Later in the day the Spaniards coxmter-
attacked. The Rough Riders were glad of the
chance to fight in the open, and drove back the
Spaniards with laughter and cheers. During this
fight Roosevelt was the highest officer in com
mand at his part of the front.
A rumor went around that the men were to
be ordered to fall back. That evening after the
fight. General Wheeler visited the front and told
Roosevelt to keep himself in readiness to fall
back if necessary. Roosevelt answered:
"Well, general, I really don't know whether
we would obey an order to fall back. We can take
that city by a rush and if we have to move out of
here at all I should be inclined to make the rush
in the right direction."
General Wheeler thought for a moment, then
he expressed his hearty agreement with the Col
onel's sentiments and promised that there would
be no falling back. Wheeler had been ill for a
couple of days, but like the old gamecock he was,

GREAT-HEART [ 123

he had managed to take a strong part in the fight.
It was the opinion of the Rough Riders that
if there had been one in high command to press
the attack that afternoon the Americans would
have gone right into Santiago.
The next day the battle became a siege and
most of the fighting was done from trench works.
The flag of truce was sent to demand the surren
der of the city. Each day thereafter the soldiers
expected to see Santiago surrendered, and what
ever fighting was done was of a minor nature.
During the truce certain military attaches and
foreign officers came out to visit the Rough
Riders. Interesting, in view of the warm relations
between Britain and America during the world
war, was the incident that happened when Prince
X, a Russian, visited Roosevelt. The Colonel
introduced him to one of the regular army offi
cers, a splendid fellow, who yet viewed foreign
relations from a strictly mid- Western viewpoint.
Roosevelt overheard him remark to the Russian,
whom he called "Prince" as familiarly as a Ken-
tuckian called his neighbor "Colonel":
"You see. Prince, the great result of this war
is that it has united the two branches of the
Anglo-Saxon people; and now that they are to
gether they can whip the world. Prince! They
can whip the world !"

124 ] GREAT- HEART

Other army officers, who had not received the
training in diplomacy and international relation
ship that our American officers have received in
the late conflict, had the habit of grouping all of
these foreign attaches under the title of "Dutch
men." When this same Russian was making his fare
well round, a general shook hands with him
heartily, with this parting remark:
"Well, goodby; sorry you are going. Which
are you anyhow — a German or a Russian?"
On the 17th of July, Santiago formally sur
rendered, and the Rough Riders with the rest of
the army were drawn up beside their trenches.
The American flag was hoisted, the trumpets
sounded and the men cheered. Their fighting was
over. After the siege, the army officers in Washing
ton proposed to keep the army stationed around
Santiago. General Shafter tried his best to have
the army ordered home. The health of the troops
was becoming very bad. Yellow fever and mala
rial fever had attacked them. If the soldiers
remained it is possible that at least one-half of
them would have died or have become invalided.
General Shafter's attempts failed and at last
he called a council of his commanders and general

GREAT-HEART [ 125

medical officers and consulted them in the matter.
Roosevelt, while he had command of a brigade,
was only a colonel and did not mean to attend the
conference, but General Shafter sent word to him
that he was wanted particularly, and he went.
The general explained to his officers that he
could not get the War Department to appreciate
their situation and that the public itself was ignor
ant of the ravages disease was making upon their
ranks. He felt that there should be some
announcement issued which would make the War
Department take action before most of the men
were down with sickness.
At this point General Shafter sought Roose
velt's assistance. He explained to him that as he
was a volunteer officer, about to return imme
diately to civil life, he could afford to take risks
which regular army men could not afford to take-
Therefore, he suggested that the Colonel write
a letter or make a statement appealing for a with
drawal of the army from the fever holes of Cuba.
Roosevelt left the meeting with the under
standing that he would give an interview on the
subject to the press. General Wood, however,
hinted to him that it would be better to put his
statement in the form of a letter to General
Shafter. This Roosevelt did. Then he presented

126 ] GREAT-HEART

the letter to General Shafter, who waved it away
and said:
"I don't want to take it; do what you wish
with it!"
The Colonel, however, persisted in handing it
to him. At the same time a "Round Robin"
was in course of preparation by the commanding
officers. This also was addressed to General
Shafter. This document, at the request of the com
manding officers, was written by General Wood,
who being a surgeon, keenly realized the need
of removing the men from their pestilential
quarters, and was signed by Generals Kent,
Bates, Chaffee, Sumner, Ludlow, Ames and
Wood. The Associated Press representative was anx
ious to secure a copy of this "Round Robin," but
Wood told him it was impossible for him to have
it or see it.
Wood then went to General Shafter, handed
him the paper and said :
"The matter is now in your hands."
Shafter said: "I don't care whether this gentle
man has it or not," referring to The Associated
Press correspondent.
The Associated Press representative then

GREAT-HEART [ 127

secured a copy of the dispatch and thus the affair
became public. The result of this publicity
, became immediately felt. Within three days the
army received orders to prepare to sail for home.
On August 7 the Rough Riders embarked on
the transport Miamee. At last the transport
sighted the Long Island coast, and late on the
afternoon of the 14th it entered the waters of
the Sound and cast anchor at Montauk Point.
The Rough Riders stood by their Colonel to
the man. In the United States disparaging
remarks had been made about the Colonel and
his regiment. Some of the officials in Washing
ton, angered at his criticisms of the canned beef
and the short supplies sent to the men, took occa
sion to sneer at his campaign.
In the jungles of Cuba, however, the Rough
Riders saw Roosevelt in his true light. He looked
after their comfort and well-being. He sympa
thized with them in their predicaments. He
understood them and helped them out of many
difficulties. When they broke rules he was as
merciful to them as it was possible to be, and
whatever attitude he assumed toward them was
felt by them to be for their own good.
These were times when battles were won, not
by the side that had the greatest amount of shells

128 ] GREAT-HEART

and shock troops, but by those who displayed a
personal bravery, and Roosevelt fought in such
a gallant manner that those who had accused him
of enlisting for personal motives soon grew
ashamed of their spitefulness.
Roosevelt was not given to profanity, but
when there came times when a soldier could only
be handled by the use of language he knew, the
Colonel did not balk at using that language. It
is said of him that he once confessed to another
officer in a repentant manner: "I swore today."
Then he made this explanation:
"A captain riding off in cool disregard of
orders is enough to make the sweetest-tempered
archangel use 'language.' What I said, or rather
bellowed was: '"What in  are you doing?
Good  , wheel into line !' What I might have
said was : 'Really, my dear sir, do you not observe
that you are acting in direct opposition to my
instructions? I beg that you will not march your
troop into Kamchatka.' Well, one always thinks
afterward of what one might have said."
It is interesting to note that the original idea
for a regiment such as the Rough Riders was
suggested to Roosevelt several years before the
Spanish War by no other man that Baron von
Sternburg of the German Embassy. The baron.

COPYBIOHT, UNDERWOOD » UNDEBWOOD
HALL AT SAGAMORE HILL

GREAT-HEART [ 129

when only seventeen, had served in the Franco-
Prussian War as a hussar. There was no war
with Germany on the American horizon in those
days and the baron spent a week in camp at
Montauk with the Rough Riders upon their
return. On the Sunday before the regiment disbanded
at Montauk, there came an occasion of genuine
surprise to the Colonel. He was asked out of his
tent by Lieutenant-Colonel Brodie and found
the whole regiment formed in a hollow square.
When he entered the square one of the men
stepped forward and presented him with a splen
did bronze of Remington's "The Bronco Buster."'
Roosevelt was deeply touched and deeply appre
ciative of this very appropriate gift. After the
presentation the men filed past and Roosevelt
shook hands with each and bade him farewell.
The next morning the men scattered to their
homes. Some went North and South. Some
went to the great cities of the East. Some turned
to the plains, the mountains and the deserts.
The straight-from-the-shoulder sermon the
Colonel preached to his Rough Riders as they
went out to resume their citizen occupations was
one that made a permanent impression upon their
hves. TRIO

130 ] GREAT-HEART

"Get action; do things; be sane," he said to
them, "don't flitter away your time; create; act;
take a place wherever you are and be somebody!"
Through the remainder of his historic career
the Colonel never reached too great a place to be
out of touch with his Rough Riders, no matter
what humble positions they held. No member of
the regiment ever came to the White House to
see his former chief without Roosevelt breaking
all engagements to shake his hand and talk over
with him the stirring events in Cuba.
It is said that when Senator Shelby M. Cul-
lom, of Illinois, went to call on President
Roosevelt and was forced to wait before he could
get in to see him he asked of the doorkeeper:
"Who is in there?"
"A former Rough Rider," was the reply.
"Then," queried Cullom, "what chance have I,
merely a Senator?"
He turned away, promising to return at a time
when he would not have to compete with such
an attraction.
Roosevelt's experience during the Cuban cam
paign made him deeply sympathetic with the lot
of the soldier. This was in evidence when, while
he was President, our army was engaged in com
bating the guerilla warfare in the Philippines. An

GREAT-HEART [ 131

order was then issued by the War Department
that while the names of officers killed should be
reported by cable, only the numbers of privates
fallen should be sent.
The press of the country announced that a
certain regiment had been engaged in battle.
The War Department was besieged by the
parents of the soldiers for information, but no
news as to who were killed or wounded came
until the lists arrived by mail.
President Roosevelt was at Sagamore Hill
when the facts were reported to him. General
Corbin was present. He asked the general what
the order meant. The general told him that it
had been issued for the purpose of economy, that
each officer had a symbol in the cable code, but
that to transmit the name and regiment of each
private would cost $25 or more for each man.
When this explanation had been made Roosevelt
said: "Corbin, can you telegraph from here to the
Philippines?" The general said that he could and suggested
that he be allowed to do so when he returned from
Washington. "No," said Roosevelt, "we cannot wait. Send
the order to have the names telegraphed at once,

132 ] GREAT-HEART

Those mothers gave the best they had to their
country. We will not have them breaking their
hearts for $25 or $50."
Now that the world war is over and the ques
tion of whether the United States is to depend
on volunteer military organization or on regular
armies has been definitely settled in favor of the
latter view, it is well to admit that the decision
is a wise one. A regiment like the Rough Riders
was exceptional among volunteers. Roosevelt
himself, in his book "The Rough Riders," makes
this comparison between the volunteer regiment
and the regular regiment:
"The regiment was a wholly exceptional volun
teer organization, and its career cannot be taken
as in any way a justification for the belief that
the average volunteer regiment approaches the
average regular regiment in point of efficiency
until it has had many months of active service.
In the first place, though the regular regiments
may differ markedly among themselves, yet the
range of variation among them is nothing like
so wide as that among volunteer regiments, where
at first there is no common standard at all; the
very best being, perhaps, up to the level of the
regulars while the very worst are no better than
mobs, and the great bulk come in between. The

GREAT-HEART [ 133

average regular regiment is superior to the aver
age volunteer regiment in the physique of the
enlisted men, who have been very carefully
selected, who have been trained to life in the
open, and who know how to cook and take care
of themselves generally."

X
"The Great Peace-Maker*
WE HAVE dwelt in this narrative princi
pally upon Colonel Roosevelt's fighting
qualities; perhaps because they are the most
picturesque and appeal more to the imagination
of author and public. Yet the story of Theo
dore Roosevelt's life would be indeed lacking if
it did not emphasize the fact that underneath
his philosophy of conflict for that which was right
there lay an abiding love of peace and a desire
for world brotherhood.
Roosevelt's experiences taught him that in the
era in which he lived war at times was essential
to establish justice. He did not believe in surren
dering to the blusterer, or to the ruler who tried
to overrun his neighbor's boundaries by force.
He trained himself to be a warrior and a hunter
because he believed that a strain of the primitive
man was necessary to combat the too often debili
tating influences of modern life.
His sons, in their manhood, became warriors
like himself, but in their youth he trained them
to love animals and to deal kindly with men.
His advice to them under aU circumstances was
"Be kind!" [184]

GREAT-HEART [ 135

The man who was sneered at by his political
foes as "The Man on Horseback" became "The
Great Peacemaker."
His own words form the best illustration of
his attitude toward world amity:
"Whenever on any point we come in contact
with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always
strive to speak courteously and respectfully of
that foreign power. Let us make it evident that
we intend to do justice. Then let us make it
equally evident that we will not tolerate injustice
being done us in return. Let us further make it
evident that we use no words which we are not
prepared to back up with deeds, and that while
our speech is always moderate we are ready and
willing to make it good. Such an attitude will
be the surest possible guarantee of that self-
respecting peace the attainment of which is and
must ever be the prime aim of a self-governing
people." His acts while President bore out his preach
ing. When The Hague Tribunal of Arbitration
was established, a large part of the work, so far
as this nation was concerned, fell to Roosevelt.
When the old AJaskan boundary dispute be
tween Great Britain and the United States arose
again, at Roosevelt's suggestion the matter was

136 ] GREAT-HEART

settled for all time by a joint commission that
met in London. This commission decided in
favor of America.
Another dramatic crisis arose for Roosevelt's
solution when an American, Ion Perdicaris, and
his English son-in-law were kidnapped from their
home near Tangier, in Morocco, by the Moorish
bandit, Raisuli, on May 18, 1904. The bandit
demanded a ransom and other favors from the
Sultan of Morocco before he would release his
prisoners. Roosevelt ordered the U. S. S. Brook
lyn, Rear- Admiral Chadwick commanding, to go
to Tangier. Admiral Jewell followed with three
warships. British warships joined the American
fleet. "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!" was said
to be the slogan that Roosevelt hurled at the
Sultan. Whether or not he uttered it, the report
rang like Concord's bullet around the world.
A month later the American and Englishman
had been released.
Another example of Roosevelt's desire to keep
the peace of the world was illustrated when, at
the Easter of 1903, there occurred a massacre
of Jews in Kishinef, Russia. The Hebrews of
the United States were greatly aroused at the
atrocities and besought their government to pro-

GREAT-HEART [ 13'3

test to the Czar against these outrages. The Rus
sian government sent word privately to the Euro
pean countries and to President Roosevelt that
the matter was exclusively a domestic one and
that the Russian government would not entertain
any representations upon the subject. The Euro
pean governments took no further steps in the
matter. Roosevelt, however, promised the Jews
of the United States that he would bring their
paper to the notice of the Czar.
Thus a crisis had arisen. Would Russia resent
such a move? If she refused to accept the repre
sentations of the United States, would that be
considered an affront by our government? Was
war on the horizon?
No international troubles occurred. Though
the Russian government refused to receive the
memorial, the American representative at St,
Petersburg visited the Foreign Office with a
letter from Secretary of State Hay, which in
quired as to whether the Russian government
would accept the document. This letter to the
Russian government went on to set forth the full
text of the memorial. The Russian Foreign
Office agreeably accepted it. Its publication in
the press put before the world every word of
the petition of the American Jews. Thus Amer-

138 ] GREAT-HEART

ica, through Roosevelt, had spoken its opinion in
the courts of mankind without bringing about the
war which timid souls predicted.
When Roosevelt became President it was his
rule of peace that dominated our country's rela
tions with other powers and that prevailed in the
new policy of territorial annexation entered upon
in President McKinley's administration and car
ried forward by Roosevelt.
He decided that Cuba should not be taken over
by the United States. Europe expected the
United States to annex Cuba, and many leading
men of his own party advised that this course
be pursued, but he determined that the little
island should be given every opportunity to gov
ern itself as an independent republic. It was by
his inspiration that the American officials who
administered government in the Philippines,
Porto Rico and, during the American occupancy,
in Cuba, devoted themselves to the welfare of the
people in a way that won the commendation of
our sister nations. His course in this respect was
governed by a belief that when it was necessary
for our government to administer the affairs of
the weaker nations under its control that gov
ernment should be, not for the profit of the people
in the United States, but for the people governed.

GREAT-HEART [ 139

Always a sincere seeker of peace, he never
theless exemplified in his statesmanship his motto:
"Speak softly, but carry a big stick!"
This was illustrated when he directed his policy
directly athwart that of the German Kaiser.
Those who remember the Venezuela incident
of 1902 will recall that the German and British
fleets thought it necessary to discipline President
Castro. Germany, early in the proceedings, gave
evidence that she intended to seize a point in
Venezuelan territory and hold it in order to con
trol the approach to the Isthmian Canal. The
watchful Roosevelt perceived this scheme,
sounded out England and found that she had
no stomach for the alliance with Wilhelm's fleet,
and would refuse to help Germany to fight
America if a quarrel arose over Germany's
grasping policy. Thereupon Roosevelt sent
Dewey to the Caribbean Sea for fleet maneuvers
and sent word to Germany through her Ambas
sador that if Germany did not agree to arbitrate
within ten days he would instruct Dewey to resist
her taking possession of a foot of Venezuelan soil.
This meant war, and the President knew it, but
he held resolutely to his purpose. The ten days
dwindled to two days, but no agreement had
come from Germany. Six more fateful hours

140 ] GREAT-HEART

passed. Then Germany agreed to arbitrate.
Thus ended a disagreeable diplomatic episode
that foreshadowed the acts of the present Ger
many, but which revealed that the American
spirit was more than a match for that of the Hun.
The act that won for Roosevelt the enduring
title of "the Great Peacemaker" came during
the Russo-Japanese War. When, in February,
1904, war was declared between Japan and
Russia, Roosevelt showed his deep concern in
the matter by ordering his great Secretary of
State, John Hay, to send forth the famous Hay-
note, which asked the two combatants to respect
the neutrality of China, lest there should be pre
cipitated a still greater catastrophe. Both na
tions agreed to Roosevelt's request.
Then came Roosevelt's nomination to succeed
himself as President. He was elected by the
greatest popular vote ever accorded a Presiden
tial candidate.
Grave domestic problems pressed upon him,
but the Russo-Japanese War continued to occupy
the uppermost place in his thoughts. The time
of his entering upon a new term seemed to him
the right moment to propose to Japan and Russia
that they declare a truce and settle their diffi
culties in conference.

GREAT-HEART [ 141

Japan had already suffered terribly from the
drain upon her men and resources. Even if she
were victorious in the conflict the chances were
that she would lose more than she would gain.
The same was true of Russia.
Roosevelt met with difficulty in getting the
two powers to agree to a common meeting place.
Each, however, finally agreed to send represen
tatives to a conference at Portsmouth, N. H.
Roosevelt received the two delegations at
Oyster Bay on the U. S. S. Mayflower, and then
had them conveyed by the Mayflower and another
naval vessel from Oyster Bay to Portsmouth.
The peace treaty was signed on September 5,
1905, and the world acclaimed Roosevelt the
warrior for his services in behalf of peace.
For bringing the two nations together he was
awarded in the following year the Nobel Peace
Prize. This consisted of a medal and a sum of
$40,000, which, at the time, he turned over to a
board of trustees as a fund to be used in estab
lishing industrial peace. However, when the
World War broke out, without this money hav
ing been expended by the trustees, Roosevelt
requested that the money, now increased, to
$45,000, be distributed to the Red Cross and
other war charities.

142 ] GREAT-HEART

No greater sidelight can be thrown on Roose
velt's influence for world peace than this tribute
paid to him at his death by Baron Makino, the
head of the Japanese Peace Commission, con
vened after the great world war:
"I embrace this opportunity to pay a tribute
to the immortal Roosevelt, whose death is
a sad calamity. He was a superb American,
also a great world's citizen. His services were not
confined to America, but extended to the Orient.
Especially are we grateful to him for the follow
ing reasons :
"First, for his noble services in bringing to a
successful conclusion the Russo-Japanese war.
The Japanese public and the rest of the world
did not comprehend at that time how sturdy were
his efforts to attain the result, but we who knew
the inside facts regarding the war situation in
Manchuria felt that our good friend Roosevelt
secured a just peace — fair to both parties.
"Second, we are thankful for his extraordinary
success in settling the friction between the
United States and Japan over the San Francisco
school incident in 1906.
"Most unusual was it for a President of the
United States to say that he would use every
power within his control to secure a right

GREAT-HEART [143

settlement. The 'gentlemen's agreement' was the
result. "Third, we are deeply appreciative likewise
of the fair appraisal he made of Japan's part in
the World War. Few Americans are apprised
as to the extent of Japan's participation in the
war. But this remarkable man fully compre
hended and in many published articles gave full
credit to the stanch, honest co-operation Japan
gave to her allies and to the United States."
In 1906 Roosevelt again went contrary to the
plans of the German government in the Algeciras
affair. Possessing the pledge of the German Em
peror to accept his decision in this international
dispute, he made a decision that, while just, went
against Germany.
It is an interesting commentary, however,
upon his success as a diplomat that when he came
to settle the war between Japan and Russia he
induced the Kaiser to help him in an appeal to
the rulers of the warring countries.
Later on, when he was touring Europe, Roose
velt had the unique experience of watching the
maneuvers of the German troops, in company
with the Kaiser, whom he had thwarted. On this
occasion he heard himself thus addressed by the
Hohenzollern:

144 ] GREAT-HEART

"My friend Roosevelt, I am glad to welcome
you, a most distinguished American. You are the
first civilian who has ever reviewed German
soldiers."

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD ft UNDERWOOD

FAMILY GROUP, TAKEN WHILE ROOSEVELT WAS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. THEODORE, JR.
APPEARS IN THE BACKGROUND. BESIDE HIM IS ALICE (nOW MRS. NICHOLAS
LONGWORTH). with MRS. ROOSEVELT ARE KERMIT AND ETHEL (nOW
MRS. RICHARD DERBy). THE GOVERNOR HOLDS ARCHIE IN
HIS ARMS. QUENTIN WAS BORN A FEW YEARS LATER

XI

Roosevelt's
PoUtieal Victories
THERE is a phrase, attributed to Napoleon,
to the effect that God fights on the side of
the big battalions. There is a truth in the saying
that apphes to big men, just as well as to big
armies. Fate seemed to battle on the side of Theodore
Roosevelt through every step of his political
career, though a study of the man shows that by
his superhuman energy he himself was almost
always the creator and molder of the circum
stances that seemed to advance him.
When Roosevelt, at twenty-three, determined
to enter politics, the political cards were stacked
against him.
When, moved by a desire to belong to the gov
erning class instead of to the governed, he told his
folks that he wanted to join the Republican Club
as his first step in pohtics, he relates that they
told him that he would meet the groom and the
saloonkeeper there; that in addition politics were
low and that for this reason no gentleman could
TEll [145]

146 ] GREAT-HEART

afford to join with such men in ward affairs.
Roosevelt was as ready then with an answer as
he was in later life. "If that is so," he replied,
according to his close friend, Jacob Riis, "the
groom and the saloonkeeper are the governing
class and you confess weakness. You have all
the chances, the education, the position, and you
let them rule you. They must be better men!"
He went to the Republican Club, leaving his
would-be advisers dolefully shaking their heads.
This opposition overcome, Roosevelt found
another obstacle in his way. He had transferred
his citizenship from Oyster Bay, where he cast
his first vote, to the fashionable Murray Hill
district. He therefore was handicapped by a
"silk stocking" reputation. Immediately he
went to work to show the politicians that, while
he had associated with wearers of silk hose, he
knew how to wear a slouch hat and how to get
down to a shirt-sleeves basis if by doing so he
could make those with whom he mingled feel
easier. Joe Murray, Roosevelt's first political
sponsor, was won to him by the genuine spirit of
democracy he saw in the young aspirant.
Murray was in need of friends just at that
time. He had rebelled against the rule of "Jake"
Hess, the Republican boss of the district. Jake

GREAT-HEART [147

had his own special candidate for the next Assem
blyman from the 21st District. Murray had
become the leader of the anti-Hess faction, but
had no worth-while candidate for the Legisla
ture. He observed that Roosevelt was popular
with the crowd.
"Look here men," Murray said to his adher
ents, "what this district wants is a swell candidate
who can go as a guest to the drawing room and
at the same time be man enough to shake hands
with the butler- Teddy Roosevelt is the one!"
He asked Roosevelt to become a candidate,
Roosevelt refused. Instead he suggested the
names of several men; but Murray kept on per
suading, until at last he drew from Roosevelt a
promise to be his candidate if he could not secure
a better one, Joe at once stopped searching.
"I can't find any better nor as good!" was his
verdict. The matter ended in the nomination of
the youthful-looking collegiate "Teddy," now
thoroughly warm to the campaign. He plunged
into the battle with an intensity that was earnest
of the ardor with which he went into his later
and more important political conflicts.
The next barrier that rose before the candidate
was high license. A trip to the saloons was said
by his political sponsors to be a necessary part

148 ] GREAT-HEART

of the campaign. At Valentine Yoimg's saloon
on Sixth Avenue, Roosevelt opened his campaign.
Mr. Young was against high license. He
expressed the hope that Roosevelt was also
opposed to it. Roosevelt promptly replied that
he was for it, and would advocate it as hard as
he could. The argument became hot; the saloon
keeper made personal remarks. Then and there
Roosevelt quitted the saloon canvass. Murray
and his friends were dismayed, but Roosevelt
appealed to his neighbors. The silk-stocking vote
joined that of the footmen and shopkeepers, who
had become enthusiastic over the scrappy and
democratic young candidate. Roosevelt was
elected and became the youngest member of the
Legislature. ROOSEVELT AND THE GRAFTERS
The next obstruction that confronted young
Roosevelt was the attitude of his party associates
in the Legislature. Many of these men were in
politics for purely commercial reasons. They
frowned on crusaders and tried to squelch any
tendency in Roosevelt toward independence of
thought and action. His part, as they saw it,
was to be merely the smallest cog in the political
machine, moving only when a man higher up
applied the power.

GREAT-HEART [149

Though none of these men realized it at the
time, the appearance of this ardent young man
in the Legislature marked an epoch. The sun
was beginning to set for the spoilsmen. The
better elements of the state needed a force
behind which they could rally. Roosevelt was
that man.
An elevated railroad company had been
exposed in a scandal that involved the Attorney
General of the state and a judge of the Supreme
Court. The public conscience was aroused. The
people grew indignant when the legislators
shelved their petitions. Roosevelt stood waiting
for his elders to act. He could not believe that,
when such charges had been preferred against
one of the judiciary, his associates would seek to
dodge the issue. Convinced at last that nothing
would be done unless he acted, on April 6, 1882,
he demanded from the floor that Judge West-
brook, of Newburgh, be impeached by the
Assembly. He was a David going up against a
Goliath of graft and obstruction, yet he attacked
fearlessly. It took splendid moral courage for Roosevelt
to take this step. Young, idealistic and untrained
in politics as he was, he could not have been blind
to the fact that he was facing consequences that

150 ] GREAT- HEART

would probably be the ruin of his political career.
His speech was distinguished by its boldness
and candor. Before he finished, men with millions
had been branded as thieves and bribers. A judge
and an attorney general were denounced in
terms that startled the public — ^terms that never
theless were potent with truth.
The Republican leader, with huge contempt
for the raw young legislator, answered the charge
patronizingly and with sneers. "I have seen," he
said, "many reputations in the state broken
down by loose charges made in the Legislatiu"e."
He recommended to the Assembly that this reck
less young man be given time to think, by voting
to refuse to act on his loose charges. The legis
lators obeyed the whip. Mainly through his own
party Roosevelt went down to defeat.
The Roosevelt teeth came into evidence then.
Roosevelt's associates actually heard him gritting
them. In spite of the ridicule and sneers of the
previous day Roosevelt returned the next day to
the charge.
The press interviewed him. Moved half by
admiration of the courage of this puny young
chap, half by a desire to furnish amusement for
their readers, they told the public of his fight.
Then, all of a sudden the young David found

GREAT-HEART [ 151

himself vigorously supported. Public opinibn
came to his help in no uncertain way. The state
was aroused. Roosevelt kept up the fight with
renewed vigor. Assemblymen began to hear from
the folks back home. The party leaders trembled
before the man they could not "gum shoe." The
Legislature yielded. By a vote of 104 to 6 Roose
velt carried the day. The committee whitewashed
the accused, but the testimony had more than
vindicated Roosevelt's position. Debauchery in
politics had received a setback. What was worse
for the corrupt politicians, they were now at war
against an adversary who was not to stop fighting
until the whole nation had been won to his ideals
of clean politics.
Back to Albany Roosevelt was sent as an
Assemblyman in 1882 and again in 1883. In the
latter year he became minority leader of the
Assembly, which had now become Democratic
With the coming into power of Grover Cleve
land the Republicans had gone into retirement
as a state force until they could put their house
in order.
In Roosevelt's last two terms in the Assembly
he came into close touch with Grover Cleve
land, then Governor. Representing opposite
pohtical faiths, there was nevertheless a bond of

152 ] GREAT-HEART

sympathy between the two men in their inde
pendence of thought. Cleveland grew to rely on
his young opponent even more than he did on
some of the leaders of his own party. The two
fought shoulder to shoulder in behalf of civil ser
vice. Roosevelt, after recommendations for civil
service improvements had appeared in the Gov
ernor's message, pushed through the Legislature
a state civil service act which was almost parallel
to the Federal act which went into effect about
that time.
Roosevelt's next political fight came in 1884.
Roosevelt was made chairman of the state dele
gation to the Republican convention at Chicago
which nominated Blaine, "The Pluhied Knight,"
as opponent to Cleveland in the Presidential
campaign. Roosevelt, with typical independence
of thought, opposed the nomination of Blaine
and placed in nomination United States Senator
George F. Edmunds.
Then came a crucial point in Roosevelt's
career. He had been classed as a reformer in poli
tics and as one that would not work with the
party organization. Henry Cabot Lodge, of
Massachusetts, a great personal friend, conferred
with him as to what they should do. They decided
that their proper course was to stay with their

GREAT-HEART [153

party; to endeavor by fair means to influence
its decision, but when its nominations were made
to stand by the candidates.
When the Blaine campaign was over Roose
velt retired to his Dakota ranch, where he spent
the next two years. He was called from his ranch
to become a candidate for Mayor of New York
City. Opposed to him was Abraham S. Hewitt.
Roosevelt, because of conditions apart from his
own popularity and standing, met one of his few
defeats. Next followed Roosevelt's membership in the
National Civil Service Commission under Presi
dents Harrison and Cleveland. Roosevelt's six
years in Washington as Civil Service Commis
sioner opened up for him a broader field than he
had up to that time entered. Here he began that
friendship with public men that later was to en
circle the nation.
Little did he expect, however, that there were
coming events that would make him an occupant
of the White House. It would be wrong to say
that he never thought of such a possibihty. Every
American is born a potential resident of the Ex
ecutive Mansion, and Roosevelt admitted to
Henry L. Stoddard that when he was Civil Ser
vice Commissioner his heart would beat a little

154 ] GREAT-HEART

faster as he walked by the White House and
thought that possibly — ^with emphasis on the
"possibly" — ^he would some day occupy it as
President. Then came his appointment in 1895 as presi
dent of the New York Police Board. In 1897
he received his appointment as Assistant Secre
tary of the Navy. The stirring episodes that came
to him during these periods are related elsewhere
in this narrative. Out of them he emerged Gov
ernor of the State of New York.
PLATT KEEPS HIS EYE ON ROOSEVELT
In 1898 Senator Piatt was asked if there was
any doubt as to the renomination of Frank S.
Black as Governor of New York. "Yes, there
is," was his response. "McKinley and Congress
are liable to declare war on Spain at any moment.
That war may develop a hero. Theodore Roose
velt has just resigned as Assistant Secretary of
the Navy and is drilling his Rough Riders in the
West. He may come out pf the war adorned
with such laurels as to compel his nomination."
Piatt was a true prophet. Roosevelt crowned
with military glory, came back from the Battle
of San Juan Hill. Chauncey Depew and others
suggested to Piatt that Roosevelt would be an

GREAT-HEART [ 155

ideal candidate for Governor. Piatt sent Lemuel
Eli Quigg, known as "the Accelerator," to Roose
velt at Montauk Point, where he was camped
with his troops. Quigg's mission was to sound
the Colonel as to his willingness to run for Gov
ernor. Roosevelt was in a receptive mood. He accep
ted the Republican nomination xmconditionally,
but he took pains to announce during the cam
paign that on all important questions of policy
and legislation he would consult with the Repub
lican state leader. Senator Piatt. He made it
clear that he would not act on Piatt's advice if it
were not in accordance with his own ideas of
what was right.
Roosevelt made a dramatic campaign. He
made Richard Croker, the Tammany boss, who
had been pilloried by the Lexow committee, an
issue. The Rough Rider won by over 17,000
plurality. THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO BE SHELVED
Now Roosevelt came to the crisis of his career.
The events of the next few years made him later
President of the United States. Politicians con
spired against him, but Fate fought with him.
He was indeed a "Man of Destiny."

156 ] GREAT-HEART

In spite of his agreement with Senator Piatt
to consult him upon important matters of govern
ment — a pledge Roosevelt faithfully kept — ^he
still became a thorn in the side of Piatt and the
machine politicians.
Immediately after his inauguration Governor
Roosevelt cleaned house in whirlwind fashion at
Albany. Superintendent of Insurance Lou F.
Payn, who was thrown out of a job, ran to Sena
tor Piatt with this cry:
"I warned you that this fellow would soon have
you dangling at his chariot wheel. You would
not believe me. He has begun by scalping mem
bers of your 'Old Guard.' He'll get you, too,
soon." The big dispute between Roosevelt and Piatt
came when Roosevelt determined that corpora
tions must pay a franchise tax. He had bills
drawn up to this effect. His party leaders
rebelled. Roosevelt gritted his teeth and drove
through the Legislature this franchise tax law.
Following this, Roosevelt let it be known that he
would be the candidate for renomination as Gov
ernor. Piatt and his henchmen decided that they had
had quite enough of him. To eliminate him from
state politics they decided to shelve him in the

GREAT-HEART [ 157

office of Vice-President. Piatt and his friends
went to the Republican National Convention at
Philadelphia determined to carry this plan
through. Mark Hanna was opposed to nomina
ting Roosevelt as a candidate for the Vice-Presi
dency. Piatt joined forces with Senator Quay.
Roosevelt discovered the plan to get rid of him,
and gave the newspapers an interview in which
he stated positively that he would not accept the
nomination; that his most valued friends had
advised him against being a candidate, and that
he would follow their advice.
Senator Piatt went on with his plans. He con
ferred with Senator Hanna. Roosevelt came to
Piatt's rooms.
"I shall go to the New York caucus and tell
the delegates that I shall, if nominated for Vice-
President, arise in the convention and decline."
"But you cannot be renominated for Gov
ernor, and you are going to be nominated for
Vice-President," was the retort Piatt claims to
have made.
"I cannot be renominated?" queried Roosevelt.
"No. Your successor is in this room!" said
Piatt, pointing to Chairman Odell.
Facing this situation, Roosevelt let it be known
that he would yield if the convention "took the

158 ] GREAT-HEART

bit in its teeth" and insisted upon nominating
him. The wisdom of the nomination of Roosevelt
as McKinley's running mate was vindicated at
the polls. The McKinley-Roosevelt ticket
smothered that of Bryan and his mate, and New
York State remained in the Republican column.
Senator Piatt went down to Washington for the
inauguration with the remark:
"I am going to see Roosevelt put on the veil."
But Piatt and the men who thought Roosevelt
was safely out of the way were overlooking the
fact that Roosevelt's fortune was in the hand of
a greater power than theirs.
Roosevelt's term as Vice-President proved to
be short. He took office on March 4, 1901, and
presided over the Senate at the succeeding ses
sion. With McKinley and his Cabinet his rela
tions were intimate and cordial.
In September Roosevelt went camping with
his family in the Adirondacks. There he received
the news of the shooting of President McKinley,
who died before the Vice-President could reach
his bedside. Roosevelt took the oath of office as
President at Buffalo on the evening of
September 14.
The new President fuUy appreciated the

GREAT-HEART [ 159

deplorable circumstances under which he became
the head of the nation. He issued this procla
mation: "In this hom* of deep and national bereavement
I wish to state that it shall be my aim to continue
absolutely and without variance the policy of
President McKinley, for the peace, prosperity
and honor of our beloved country." Roosevelt
kept this pledge to the letter.
Afterward Senator Piatt, with true political
sagacity, claimed credit for his insistence upon
the nomination for the Vice-Presidency, since it
had led to Roosevelt becoming President of the
United States. Those, however, who knew of the
anxiety of the New York politicians to get rid of
Roosevelt as a factor in state politics looked the
other way and winked.

XII
First Years
in the Presidency
WHEN Roosevelt was a member of the New
York Legislature, Andrew D. White,
President of Cornell College, who had been keenly
watching his career, remarked to his class:
"Yoimg gentlemen, some of you will enter
public life. I call your attention to Theodore
Roosevelt, now in our legislature. He is on the
right road to success. It is dangerous to predict
a future for a young man, but let me tell you that
if any man of his age was ever pointed straight
for the Presidency, that man is Theodore Roose
velt." Mr. White was not alone in his opinion.
George W. Curtis, who was then editor of Har
per's "Easy Chair," thus answered a man who
sneered at the youth and obscurity of Roosevelt:
"You will know more, sir, later; a good deal
more, or I am much in error. Young? Why, he
is just out of school almost, yet he is a force to
be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation
will be criticizing or praising him. While respect-
[160]

o05

GREAT-HEART [ 161

ful to the gray hairs and experience of his elders,
not one of them can move him an iota from con
victions as to men and measures once formed and
rooted. He will not truckle nor cringe ; he seems
to court opposition to the point of being some
what pugnacious. His pohtical life will probably
be turbulent; but he will be a figure, not a figure
head, in future developments — or if not, it will
be because he gives up pohtics altogether."
These opinions from men who knew Roosevelt
all his life go to show that his course to the Presi
dency was clearly marked for him from the time
he entered New York politics.
Jeremiah Curtin, the historian and philosopher,
was another person who early became impressed
with the idea that Roosevelt was a djoiamic force
for the highest place in the land. Curtin, in his
"History of the Mongols," wrote thus of seeing
Roosevelt as a Civil Service Commissioner:
"All at once, in the large room before us, I saw
a young man, alert to his duties and perfectly
confident. There was no one else in the apart
ment. I told (Congressman) Greenhalge to
look at him.
" 'That man looks precisely as if he had exam
ined the building and, finding it suitable, has
made up his mind to inhabit it!'
TB12

162 ] GREAT- HEART

" 'He is the livmg picture of that pose,' replied
Greenhalge; 'but do you know him? That is
Theodore Roosevelt!' "
The assassination of President McKinley,
which led Roosevelt to the White House, simply
hastened the goal which was already in sight.
From his early days in politics he took a high
moral stand and formed the habit of going to
the people over the heads of the politicians when
ever he thought that the public interest required
such drastic measures. He set for himself a high
standard, yet, when he quitted the Presidency,
that standard had been set even higher than whexi
he made his first campaign for clean politics in the
New York Legislature.
Roosevelt's first notable act on entering the
Presidency was to retain in office all of McKin
ley's subordinates. It had been the habit on the
three previous occasions when Vice-Presidents
succeeded Presidents through the death of the
President to change the personnel of the higher
offices, especially in the Cabinet. Roosevelt did
not think this a wise course. He asked all of
the members of the Cabinet to stay and help him
carry out McKinley's policies.
Some of his friends told him this would make
him only "a pale copy of McKinley." He told

GREAT-HEART [ 163

them that he was not concerned in following or
not following in McKinley's footsteps. What he
wanted to do was to face and solve the new prob
lems that arose.
THE GREAT COAL STRIKE
In the fall of 1902 he adopted a course of
action in regard to labor disputes that, at the
time, called forth much criticism, but which from
the public standpoint was soon justified.
That spring a universal strike began in the
anthracite coal regions. It was continued through
the summer and early fall. The feeling between
the mine operators and the miners was very
bitter, and the big operators had banded together
and refused to yield a point in their dispute with
their workers.
As winter approached a coal famine menaced
the nation. In the East, where anthracite is the
principal household fuel, soft coal proved to be
a very poor substitute.
The Governor of Massachusetts and the Mayor
of New York were among the conservative men
who urged Roosevelt to take action. They
pointed out that if the coal famine continued the
suffering throughout the Northeast would be
alarming and that disastrous riots were liable
to occur.

164 ] GREAT-HEART

Roosevelt delayed interfering as long as pos
sible, though he directed Carroll Wright, head
of the Labor Bureau, to report all of the facts of
the case to him.
The coal operators, knowing that the suffering
among the miners was great, felt confident that
if the government did not interfere, the miners
would be forced to yield. Bent on winning, they
refused to see that the rights of the people were
affected. Roosevelt saw things from the people's view
point and tried to get both sides to submit to a
commission of arbitration, with a promise to
accept its decision. Under this arrangement the
miners were to go to work as soon as the com
mission was appointed, at the old rate of wages.
The miners, headed by John Mitchell, agreed to
this proposition. The operators refused and
Roosevelt confined his efforts to securing an
agreement between the operators and the miners.
On October 3 he called the representatives of
both before him. This time Roosevelt, by sheer
force of will, secured his object. The operators
obstinately held out for the appointment of a
commission of five that did not include even one
representative of labor. Roosevelt insisted that
labor he represented and carried his point.

GREAT- HEART [165

Human rights had triumphed over property
rights. When the battle was over the President stood
clearly before the people as a man who would
champion them against the so-called captains of
industry when it was necessary to do so.
The President let it be known early in his ad
ministration that in the South he would appoint
good Democrats to office rather than bad Repub
licans. It was while the President was making ap
pointments of Democrats to office in the South,
winning praise from those who had never before
praised anything Republican, that the famous
Booker T. Washington incident took place.
It had been through the help of the South that
Washington had been able to accomplish his
great work as a negro educator, but this section
of the country, with the negro as a social problem
very close to it, bitterly resented Roosevelt's
dining with the colored man.
The South took it as an affront, though evi
dently the President had not thought one way
or the other as to the possible consequences. The
criticisms heaped upon him he ignored,
Roosevelt did not long remain in the bad graces
of the Southern people. He did not permit the

166 ] GREAT-HEART

South to forget that his mother was a Georgian
woman, and that her brothers had fought in the
Confederacy, The following incident illustrates
the fine diplomacy with which he won back the
regard of the Southern people :
On one of his Southern trips his train stopped
at Charlotte. N. C. A committee of women led
by Mrs. Thomas J. Jackson, widow of General
Stonewall Jackson, was at the depot to meet
Colonel Roosevelt. AVhen he was introduced he
referred to himself as by right a Soutkerner, and
then being introduced to Mrs. Jackson, he added
a remark which flashed through the South:
"What! The widow of the great Stonewall
Jackson? Why, it is worth the whole trip down
here to have a chance to shake your hand," and
he reminded her that he had appointed her grand
son to a cadetship at West Point.
The South loved a fighter, and Roosevelt put
his knowledge of this fact to good use when he
went on a campaigning tour of that territory.
If there had been anything timorous about him
he would have attacked the Democracy in Min
nesota, where it would be safe to do so. Instead,
he picked out Atlanta, where his audience was
composed almost entirely of Democrats.
The audience tried to roar him down. For five

GREAT-HEART [ 167

minutes the tumult went on. It seemed as if the
meeting could not go on. Roosevelt then made
a characteristically audacious move. There was
a table near him, and he leaped upon it. The
mob was startled into stillness. Before it could
recover from its surprise, he had poured forth a
half-dozen striking sentences, and by that time
his opponents were interested enough to give him
a hearing. A FRANK CANDIDATE
From the date of his entering the Presidency
until after the election of 1904 Roosevelt was
under restraint. Although he knew that his poli
cies had the full approval of the people, he felt
himself to be a President by accident. It is well
known that he desired a nomination and election
in 1904.
"I do not believe in plajdng the hypocrite,"
he said. "Any strong man fit to be President
would desire a nomination and re-election after
his first term. Lincoln was President in so great
a crisis that perhaps he neither could nor did
feel any personal interest in his own re-election.
But at present I should like to be elected Presi
dent just as John Quincy Adams, or McKinley,
or Cleveland, or John Adams, or Washington

168 ] GREAT-HEART

himself desired to be elected. It is pleasant to
think that one's countrymen think well of him.
But I shall not do anything whatever to secure
my nomination save to try to carry on the public
business in such shape that decent citizens will
believe I have shown wisdom, integrity and
courage." From the start his nomination was assured,
although there was already strong opposition to
him on the part of many machine politicians.
No other name than his was seriously consid
ered in the convention. He was nominated for
the Presidency at Chicago on June 23, with
Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, as candidate
for Vice-President. He was elected in November
by a popular vote of 2,523,750 over Alton B.
Parker, the Democratic candidate, and a ma
jority over all candidates of 1,735,403. The vote
in the electoral college was 336 for Roosevelt
to 140 for Parker.
It was the largest popular support that any
President of the United States had ever received.
BUILDING THE PANAMA CANAL
In foreign affairs the most important action
Roosevelt took during the second administration
was in regard to the building of the Panama

GREAT-HEART [ 169

Canal. His action is still termed "unconstitu
tional" by many people, and a bill is now under
discussion to compensate Colombia for the alleged
damages she sustained through the secession of
the State of Panama, and the building of the
canal without her consent.
Roosevelt's defense, and the defense of his
eminent Secretary of State, John Hay, was, to
put it bluntly, "We got the canal."
During the four centuries that had passed
since Balboa crossed the Isthmus, statesmen had
talked of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans by an Isthmus canal. It had been talked
about in Washington for a half -century, but
nothing had come of of it.
Shortly after Roosevelt became President, an
agreement was reached with the French Panama
Company, and the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was
signed, by which the United States acquired
possession, so far as Europe was concerned, which
warranted her undertaking the task.
The logical location for the canal was the line
already begun by the French company in Pana
ma. Panama belonged to Colombia. Colombia
had promised friendly co-operation. Her delegate
to the Pan-American Congress in Mexico had
joined in the unanimous vote which requested the

170 J GREAT-HEART

United States to proceed with building the canal.
Both Colombia and the Isthmus had been
places of frequent revolutions and outbreaks.
Many times United States warships had been
forced to patrol the Isthmus, at times at the
urgent request of the Colombian government.
Through another revolution Colombia had come
under the dictatorship of Marquin, its former
vice-president. Marquin, although he had con
sented to the Hay-Herran Treaty, by which Co
lombia had agreed to the building of the canal,
now made use of his power as a dictator to break
his promise. He summoned a congress especially
to break the canal treaty. This congress, which
Roosevelt describes as "a congress of mere pup
pets," carried out Marquin's wishes. The treaty
was rejected.
The President, through Secretary Hay, had
warned Colombia that grave consequences might
follow her rejection of the treaty. He had infor
mation that the entire population of Panama
felt that it was of vital concern to their pros
perity that the canal be immediately built ; news
paper correspondents predicted a revolution on
the Isthmus.
On November 3, 1903, the revolution occurred.
The Colombian troops stationed on the Isthmus

GREAT-HEART [ 171

joined in the revolution, and there was no blood
shed, except the life of an unfortunate Chinaman.
Roosevelt immediately recognized the Republic
of Panama and the other principal nations did
likewise. A canal treaty was at once negotiated
with the new republic, and, after considerable
debate in the Senate, the treaty was ratified by
that body and the work on the canal began.
Roosevelt's case against Colombia was that,
so long as the Um'ted States was considering the
alternative route through Nicaragua, Colombia
eagerly pressed this country to build a canal
across the Isthmus. When the United States was
committed to this latter course, Colombia, under
her usurper, refused to fulfil the agreement, with
the hope of securing the rights and property of
the French Panama Company, so as to secure
the $40,000,000 the United States had authorized
as payment to this company. John Hay
thus defended Roosevelt's course: "The action
of the President in the Panama matter is not
only in the strictest accordance with the princi
ples of justice and equity, and in line with the
best precedents of our public policy, but it was
the only course he could have taken in comphance
with our treaty rights and obligations."
In November, 1906, the President's interest in

172 ] GREAT-HEART

the work on the canal led him to go in person
to Panama. This act caused a storm of disap
proval in certain quarters, similar to that which
President Wilson met when he decided to attend
the peace conference at Paris. Roosevelt's critics
pointed out that no President had ever gone
beyond the bounds of his country. Roosevelt went
and let his critics howl. Here, in one thing at
least, Wilson and Roosevelt were in agreement,
namely, that where the President of this country
sets foot that place is within the sphere of the
United States.

XIII
Good Will Abroad;
A Square Deal at Home
IN Roosevelt's opinion and in the opinion of
the entire country, his act in sending the fleet
upon its world mission did more to favorably
advertise the United States to the world and to
establish cordial international relations, than any
other of his deeds as President. His object in
sending the battle fleet on this voyage was to
prove to foreign nations that American battle
ships could be assembled in the Pacific Ocean as
well as in the Atlantic, without this movement
assuming the nature of a threat against any
Asiatic or European power.
The impression prevailed among foreign navies
that the American fleet could not pass from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. The English and Ger
man naval authorities thought it impossible to
take their own fleets of great battleships around
the world, and, of course, they did not believe that
the American fleet could make the voyage.
Then, too, Europe was expecting a war be
tween the United States and Japan and thought
that if such a fleet sailed into the Pacific, Japan
[173]

174 ] GREAT-HEART

would think that the United States intended to
attack her, Roosevelt desired to clear up all of
these notions. He wanted to establish friendly
relations with Japan and he wanted more than
anything else to arouse the pride of the American
people in their navy.
All of the President's purposes were accom
plished. The cruise made a deep and favorable
impression abroad, and no single thing in the
history of the new United States Navy did as
much to stimulate the American public's enthusi
asm as this voyage. Everything worked out just
as was thus predicted by the "London Spectator"
when the fleet sailed from Hampton Roads :
"All over America the people will follow the
movements of the fleet; they will learn something
of the intricate details of the coaling and commis
sariat work under war-like conditions, and in a
word their attention will be aroused. Next time
Mr. Roosevelt or his representatives appeal to the
country for new battleships they will do so to
people whose minds have been influenced one
way or the other. The naval programme will
not have stood still. We are sure that, apart
from increasing the efficiency of the existing
fleet, this is the aim which Roosevelt has in mind.
He has a pohcy which projects itself far into the

GREAT-HEART [175

future, but it is an entire misreading of it to
suppose that it is aimed narrowly and definitely
at any single power."
The fleet of sixteen battleships which, though
it may seem small in comparison with the navies
that have been engaged in the world war, was
a large one in those days, went through the Strait
of Magellan to San Francisco. From there
Roosevelt ordered them to sail to New Zealand
and Australia, stopping at the Philippines, China
and Japan, then home through the Suez Canal,
stopping in the Mediterranean. There was never
a hitch or a delay in the schedule. The most
notable incident of the cruise was the warm recep
tion given to the fleet by the Japanese. When the
fleet returned after its sixteen months' voyage,
Roosevelt greeted it in Hampton Roads. The
battleships arrived there on Washington's Birth
day, February 22, 1907.
Roosevelt's views on the success of this expe
dition are best summed up in the following
address, which he spoke on the flagship of the
admiral to the officers and enlisted men:
"Over a year has passed since you steamed out
of this harbor, and over the world's rim, and
this morning the hearts of all who saw you thrilled
with pride as the hulls of the mighty warships

176 ] GREAT- HEART

lifted above the horizon. You have been in the
Northern and Southern Hemispheres ; four times
you have crossed the hne; you have steamed
through all the great oceans; you have touched
the coast of every continent. Ever your general
course has been westward; and now you come
back to the port from which you set sail. This
is the first battle fleet that has ever circumnavi
gated the globe. Those who perform the feat can
but follow in your footsteps.
"The little torpedo flotilla went with you
around South America, through the Straits of
Magellan, to our own Pacific Coast. The armored
cruiser squadron met you, and left you again,
when you were half-way round the world. In all
your long cruise not an accident worthy of men
tion has happened to a single battleship, nor yet
to the cruisers or torpedo boats. You left this
coast in a high state of efficiency and you return
with your efficiency increased; better prepared
than when you left, not only in personnel, but
even in material. During your world cruise you
have taken your regular gunnery practice, and
skilled though you were before with the guns,
you have grown more skilful still; and through
practice you have improved in battle tactics,
though here there is more room for improvement

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

ROOSEVELT ARRIVING AT GARDINER, MONT., ON THE
WAY TO YELLOWSTONE PARK

GREAT-HEART [ 177

than in your gunnery. Incidentally, I suppose
I need hardly say that one measure of yolir fitness
must be your clear recognition of the need always
steadily to strive to render yourselves more fit;
if you ever grow to think that you are fit enough,
you can make up your minds that from that
moment you will begin to go backward.
"As a war machine the fleet comes back in
better shape than it went out. In addition, you,
the officers and men of this formidable fighting
force, have shown yourselves the best of all pos
sible ambassadors and heralds of peace. Wher
ever you have landed you have borne yourselves
so as to make us at home proud of being your
countrymen. You have shown that the best type
of fighting man of the sea knows how to appear
to the utmost possible advantage when his busi
ness is to behave himself on shore, and to make
a good impression in a foreign land. We are
proud of all the ships and all the men in this
whole fleet, and we welcome you home to the
country whose good repute among nations has
been raised by what you have done."
OUR FIRST SHIELD against BOLSHEVISM
Roosevelt's chief service to his country while
President was undoubtedly that of preventing
TR13

178 ] GREAT-HEART

the huge combinations and trusts which threat
ened to gain control of the jcountry during his
administration. For years great business corporations had
been in formation. They controlled" enormous
wealth and their financial power led them to
disregard public opinion, even to the extent of
defying the law. '
Public disapproval was growing stronger and
stronger. Independent newspapers and maga
zines had informed the public of the oppressive
methods of these trusts. A leader was wanted.
Roosevelt became that leader.
The foe was mighty. It had entrenched itself
in Congress, yet Roosevelt won several note
worthy victories and started the nation in the
way of ending this evil.
The warfare against the trusts was continued
throughout Roosevelt's entire administration.
Measures for the control of the trusts were pre
pared and pressed on Congress with Rooseveltian
strenuosity. A railway rate bill was passed, forbidding
under severe penalties the fraud of rebates. A
general pure food law was passed, penalizing
the act of adulteration, and requiring that every
article of medicine or food should be labeled and

GREAT- HEART [179

sold for just what it was. With these and several
other measures, corporation fraud was thus
brought to a halt.
At this period Roosevelt was a flaming fire.
His spirit was as a fierce blaze consuming the
materialism that had crept from the ranks of
business into public life. Popular grievances
against unjust exploitation by leaders of industry
became to him the signal to attack. His ordering
of the suit of dissolution against the Northern
Securities Company subjected him to the enmity
of powerful men, yet before a short time passed
the opinion became general that his decision had
been vital to the public good.
He aroused the bitter opposition of Big Busi
ness by his successful endeavors to control it, but
time proved that by his act on behalf of the
people he had saved the vested interests from
the wholesale division by Congress of such
monopolies had they been formed.
While he was the first of our Presidents to
come into conflict with corporate power, he never
theless favored and promoted legitimate business,
and he stood for the protection of American in
dustries from the cheap labor of Europe.
His suit for the dissolution of the Standard
Oil Company was one of the most significant

180 ] GREAT-HEART

acts of his administration. This suit was not
brought to a successful conclusion until 1911,
but the credit for its prosecution is due mainly
to him.
In all these measures Roosevelt Was simply
carrying out his doctrine of the square deal,
which he began to preach when he assumed public
office and which in different language, but with
unvarying purpose, he preached to the end of his
life. His doctrine of fair dealing is best summed up
in this speech spoken at Dallas, Tex., April
5, 1905:
"When I say I believe in a square deal I do
not mean, and probably nobody that speaks the
truth can mean, that he believes it possible to
give every man the best hand. If the cards do
not come to any man, or if they do come, and
he has not got the power to play them, that is
his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no
crookedness in the dealing. In other words, it is
not in the power of any human being to devise
legislation or administration by which each man
shall achieve success and have happiness; it not
only is not in the power of any man to do that,
but if any man says that he can do it, distrust
him as a quack. . . . All any of us can pretend

GREAT- HEART [ 181

to do is to come as near as our imperfect abilities
will allow to securing through governmental
agencies an equal opportunity for each man to
show the stuff that is in him; and that must be
done with no more intention of discrimination
against the rich man than the poor man, or
against the poor man than the rich man; with
the intention of safeguarding every man, rich or
poor, poor or rich, in his rights, and giving him
as nearly as may be a fair chance to do what
his powers permit him to do ; always providing he
does not wrong his neighbor."
This view he re-emphasized at another place:
"When I say a square deal I mean a square
deal; exactly as much a square deal for the rich
man as for the poor man; but no more. Let
each stand on his merits, receive what is due him,
and be judged according to his deserts. To more
he is not entitled, and less he shall not have."
"This government was formed with, as its
basic idea, the principle of treating each man on
his worth as a man, of paying no heed to whether
he was rich or poor, no heed to his creed or social
standing, but only to the way in which he per
formed his duties to himself, to his neighbor, to
the state. From this principle we cannot afford
to vary by so much as a hand's breadth."

182 ] GREAT-HEART

It would be a mistake to think that while at
tacking the evils of corporate power he did not
also attack those men of Bolshevik tendeiicies
who out of mere discontent, tried to stir up class
feeling. This is what he had to say about these men:
"In dealing with both labor and capital and
the questions affecting both corporations and
trade unions, there is one matter more important
to remember than aught else, and that is the
infinite harm done by preachers of mere discon
tent. These are the men who seek to excite a
violent class hatred against all men of wealth.
They seek to turn wise and proper movements
for the better control of corporations and for
doing away with the abuses connected with
wealth into a campaign of hysterical excitement
and falsehood in which the aim is to inflame to
madness the brutal passions of mankind. . . ."
One shudders to think of what fate would have
befallen the United States if the monopohes
which Roosevelt curbed while he was President
had been allowed to flourish until this era of revo
lution. That the working people of America are
contented and peace-loving today is largely due
to Roosevelt's saving them from exploitation by
the trusts.

GREAT- HEART [183

CONSERVING OUR NATURAL WEALTH
Most important in his own estimation and
from the standpoint of personal credit, was
Roosevelt's work for the conservation of the
natural resources of the country. In May, 1908,
he called a conference of the Governors of all
the states for this purpose.
The natural wealth of the nation was disap
pearing at an alarming rate. The forests were
being destroyed by wasteful methods of lumber
ing and by devastating fires. The coal supply
was being wastefully handled. Ignorance and
greed were exhausting the fisheries. These things
needed wise and honest treatment and the con
ference led to the formation of a National Con
servation Commission to take these matters in
hand. PRESIDENTIAL DIVERSIONS
While President Roosevelt coined many ex
pressive terms that still remain as part of
American speech — such phrases as "Malefactors
of great wealth," "Speak softly but carry a big
stick," "Swollen fortunes," originated with him.
He branded so many men as liars that a news
paper humorist coined the name "Ananias Club,"

184 J GREAT-HEART

and used it to include most of those who had
incurred Mr. Roosevelt's enmity. The name
stuck, but it did not deter Mr. Roosevelt from
going right on calling a spade a spade.
Roosevelt kept his mind fresh in the stifling
pohtical atmosphere of the Capitol by keeping
in touch with his Rough Rider and cowboy
friends. In spite of his strenuous battles, Roosevelt
always found time for play and diversion while
he was an occupant of the White House. He it
was who started the army upon a course of physi
cal training that undoubtedly had a bearing upon
its efficiency in France. Old swivel-chair officers
secretly rebelled against his order that they
should show their physical ability by periodical
long-distance hikes and rides, but when the
President showed that he was willing to lead
the way and undergo the same tests, there was
nothing to do but submit.
SELECTS TAFT TO SUCCEED HIM
Roosevelt was now confronted by the problem
as to whether he should run for a third term. Pre
viously, in a public address, he had made the
statement that he would not be a candidate for a
third term. If he had listened to the pleadings

GREAT-HEART [ 185

of his friends and allowed himself to be nom
inated there is no doubt that he would have been
elected. His answer to the pleas of his admirers and
tp the voice of perhaps his own ambition was to
select William Howard Taft as his successor and
to urge his nomination, taking care to let the
Republican national convention know that he
himself would refuse a nomination. Taft was
nominated on the first ballot.
On March 4, 1909, William H. Taft was inau
gurated as President of the United States. That
day Roosevelt left Washington.

"Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife,
resolute to do our duty well and manfully; reso
lute to uphold righteousness by deed and by
word; resolute to be both honest and brave; to
serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods.
Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or
physical, within or without the nation, provided
we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is
only through strife, through hard and dangerous
endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal
of true national greatness.
Theodore Roosevelt."

XIV
The "Bull Moose"
AFTER more than a year's absence in Africa
jt\. and Europe, Roosevelt returned to the
United States in June, 1910, and again, both by
inclination and the compelling force of circum
stances, took an active interest in politics.
While Roosevelt was himting in Africa, there
came a sharp division in the Republican party.
The conservatives who supported Taft and the
rebels who could see no good in his policies devel
oped into bitter factions, each of which tried to
win the support of Roosevelt when he returned
home crowned with world honors. For a time
Roosevelt kept, silent, hearing both sides of the
matter, weighing the evidence in the dispute,
trying to determine whether it was wise to con
tinue the support he had given Taft formerly,
or to listen to these new but strong voices that
had arisen in his party since he himself left the
Presidency. The first indication of the stand Roosevelt was
to take appeared when he let it become known
that he approved Gifford Pinchot's stand in his
controversy with Ballinger, whom Taft had sup
ported. He also announced that he opposed cer-
[187]

188 ] great-heart

tain treaties with Japan and South America
which Taft was advocating. As the months
passed Taft became the champion of conservative
Republicanism, and the forceful personahty and
progressive spirit of Roosevelt made him the
natural leader of the revolting group.
In 1910 Roosevelt made a tour of the country,
in which he announced the doctrine of the New
Nationalism. He advocated a closer relation be
tween the states and the national government;
making economic opportunity equal; conserving
the resources of the nation; military prepared
ness; and the shifting of the viewpoints of the
courts from too much emphasis on the security of
property and contracts to a greater concern for
the welfare of human beings.
To these principles Roosevelt added, in 1912,
the issues of direct nominations, preferential pri
maries, the initiative, the referendum, and the
recall for judicial decisions as well as for officials.
These reforms he announced as a new Charter
for Democracy and when, in 1912, in answer to
the appeal of seven Governors, he announced that
he would become a candidate for the Presidency,
these doctrines were embodied in the platform
of his party.
Roosevelt made a typically strenuous fight for

great-heart [189

the control of delegates to the national Repub
lican Convention, and when he was defeated he
and his supporters created the Progressive party,
by which at Chicago, he was nominated for the
Presidency. In response to those who criticised
him for seeking a third term when he had pre
viously announced that he would not accept an
other nomination, he explained that he had meant
three consecutive tenns.
It was while he was conducting a whirlwind
campaign for election that he was shot by a crank.
The shooting occurred in Milwaukee. Roosevelt
was entering the automobile that was to drive
him to the meeting place when the fanatic fired
at him. The bullet lodged in his shoulder. With
characteristic daimtlessness, Roosevelt insisted
on going on the platform, where he told the wait
ing multitude that he had been shot, and then
went on to deUver a rousing speech that lasted
over an hour.
When Woodrow Wilson heard of the assault
upon Roosevelt, he chivalrously offered to dis
continue his own campaign, but the Colonel re
fused this concession. After a few days spent in
recuperation he resumed his speaking tour with
undiminished vigor. In the Presidential election
which followed he received eighty-eight electoral

190 ] GREAT-HEART

votes. He had divided the Republican party in
all states. In twenty-eight of the states he re
ceived a majority over Taft. Through this divi
sion in the Republican ranks, Woodrow Wilson
became President. WORLD PEACE
While Roosevelt and Wilson were for the
most part in opposition to each other, some
have wrongly said, with regard to the proposal
for a league of nations, that Roosevelt was back
ward and reactionary in his attitude. This is
directly confuted by the prophetic speech he
delivered at Christiania, Norway, May 5, 1910,
while on his world tour. His utterance there
shows that fundamentally President Wilson and
he were thinking alike on this subject:
"Something should be done as soon as possible
to check the growth of armaments, especially
naval armaments, by international agreement.
No one power could or should act by itself; for
it is eminently undesirable, from the standpoint
of peace and righteousness, that a power
which really does believe in peace should place
itself at the mercy of some rival which may at
bottom have no such behef and no intention of
acting on it.

GREAT-HEART ![ 191

"But, granted sincerity of purpose, the great
powers of the world should find no insurmount
able difficulty in reaching an agreement which
would put an end to the present costly and grow
ing extravagances of expenditures on naval arma
ments. An agreement merely to limit the size of
ships would have been very useful a few years
ago, and would still be of use ; but the agreement
should go much further.
"Finally, it would be a master stroke if those
great powers honestly bent on peace would form
a league of peace, not only to keep peace among
themselves, but to prevent by force if necessary,
its being broken by others.
"The supreme difficulty in connection with
developing the peace work of The Hague arises
from the lack of any executive power, of any
police power to enforce the decrees of the court.
In any community of any size the authority of
the courts rests upon actual or potential force;
on the existence of a police, or on the knowledge
that the able-bodied men of the country are both
ready and willing to see that the decrees of judi
cial and legislative bodies are put into effect.
"In new and wild communities where there is
violence, an honest man must protect himself,
and until other means of securing his safety are

193 ] (SKEAT-HEART

devised, it is both foolish and wicked to persuade
him to surrender his arms while the men who are
dangerous to the community remain there. He
should not renounce the right to protect himself
by his own efforts until the community is so
organized that it can effectively relieve the indi
vidual of the duty of putting down violence.
"So it is with nations. Each nation must keep
well prepared to defend itself until the establish
ment of some form of international police power,
competent and willing to prevent violence as
between nations. As things are now, such powers
to command peace throughout the world could
best be assured by some combination between
those great nations which sincerely desire peace
and have no thought themselves of commit
ting aggressions. The combination might at first
be only to seciu*e peace within certain definite
limits and certain definite conditions; but the
ruler or statesman who should bring about such
a combination would have earned his place in
history for all time and his title to the gratitude
of all mankind."

COPYRIGHT, WALTER SCOTT SHINN
ROOSEVELT AS A GRANDFATHER

XV
From White House
to Jungle
"Oh, our manhood's prime vigor! No spirit
feels waste.
Not a muscle is stopped in its playing
nor sinew unbraced.
Oh, the wild joys of living! The leaping
from rock to rock;
The strong rending of boughs from the fir-
trees; the cool, silver shock
Of the plunge in a pool's living water; the
hunt of the bear.
And the sultriness showing the lion is
crouched in his lair.

How good is man's life, the mere living I
How fit to employ
AU the heart and the soul and the senses
forever in joy!"
TE14 [193]

194 J GREAT-HEART

THESE splendid lines of Browning were
Roosevelt's outdoor creed. His exploits as
a hunter in Africa were merely a development
of his life as a naturalist and out-of-door man.
At Harvard Roosevelt had devoted himself
to a study of natural science, and had even
thought seriously of making it his lifework. Poli
tics claimed him then, but always underlying
Roosevelt the statesman was Roosevelt the
naturalist. Francis Parkman — ^hunter, trapper, horticul
turist and America's most interesting historian —
was Roosevelt's example for his life in the open.
There was a close relation between the careers of
the two men. Parkman was handicapped in
health and bad eyesight. Roosevelt, as a youth,
had a weak frame and his sight was also poor.
Parkman loved Nature and had a passion for
writing. He had an indomitable will that enabled
him to overcome his physical handicaps and to
make a splendid mark in literature. Roosevelt
possessed the same qualities.
It was with Parkman in mind that Roosevelt
scaled the most difficult peaks of the Alps;
plunged in the Canadian wilderness; took up
prairie life. As a result of the trained eye and
trained ear Roosevelt gained through these

GREAT-HEART [ 195

experiences, in his books will be found observa
tions of animal life and bird life, and a knowledge
of plants and trees that is enlightening to even
the experienced naturalist.
John Burroughs, in his book "Camping and
Tramping with Roosevelt," states that when
Roosevelt entered Yellowstone Park he wanted
all the freedom and solitude possible. The Colonel
craved to be alone with Nature. It was evi
dent that he was hungry for the wild and the
aboriginal. It was this hunger that came to him
periodically and resulted in his going forth on
hunting and exploring trips to the Far West,
Africa and Brazil.
As an illustration of the fact that it was love
of nature itself more than love of killing that
drove Roosevelt into the wilds. Burroughs
describes how, at their second camp, which they
reached in mid-afternoon, their attention was
attracted by a strange note in the spruce woods.
The question arose as to whether it was a bird or
a beast. Their guide thought it was an owl.
"Let's run that bird down," said the Colonel
to Burroughs.
They ran across a small open plain and at last
saw the bird on the peak of a spruce. Burroughs
imitated its call, but they could not discern the
species of the bird.

196 ] GREAT-HEART

"Why did we not think to bring the glasses?"
said Roosevelt.
"I will run and get them," said Burroughs.
"No," said Roosevelt, "you stay here and keep
that bird treed and I will fetch them."
Off the Colonel went like a boy, returning
swiftly with the glasses. Then it was discovered
that it was indeed an owl; a pigmy owl, not much
larger than a bluebird. Roosevelt was as
delighted as if he had slain a grizzly. He had
never seen a bird like this before.
At one time Roosevelt and his companions
camped at the Yellowstone Canyon, with the
river four or five hundred feet below them. Moun
tain sheep appeared on the opposite side. The
rules of the park forbade hunting, so the sheep
showed no fear of them. Between the sheep and
the riverbed there was a precipice. The question
arose among the watchers as to whether these
four-footed creatures could pass down this steep
dechvity to the riverbed. Roosevelt asserted that
they could. Then he entered his tent to shave.
When the shaving was half completed someone
shouted that the sheep were going down. Roose
velt rushed out, with a towel around his throat
and one side of his face white with lather. He
watched the sure-footed sheep making their

GREAT-HEART [ 197

descent with great interest. Then he said: "I
knew they could do it."
While Roosevelt was on this trip in the Yel
lowstone he remarked:
"I heard a BuUock's-oriole!"
"You may have heard one," said a man familiar
with the coimtry, "but I doubt it. Those birds
won't come for two weeks yet."
"I caught two bird notes which could not be
those of any bird except an oriole," the Colonel
insisted. "You may have the song twisted," said another
member of the party.
That evening at supper Roosevelt suddenly
laid down his knife and fork, exclaiming, "Look !
Look!" On a shrub before the window was a Bullock' s-
oriole. This vindication of his hearing pleased the
Colonel immensely.
Burroughs, after visiting the Colonel at Saga
more Hill in 1907, wrote that the appearance of
a new warbler in the woods "seemed an event
that threw the affairs of state and the Presidential
succession into the background." He told a
political visitor at that time that it would be im
possible for him to discuss politics then as he
wanted to talk and hunt birds, and for the pur
pose he took his visitor with him.

198 J GREAT-HEART

"Fancy," said Burroughs, "a President of the
United States stalking rapidly across bushy fields
to the woods, eager as a boy and filled with the
one idea of showing to his visitors the black-
throated green warbler!"
Roosevelt told Burroughs that when he was
President he would sometimes go on bird excur
sions in the White House grounds. People pass
ing would stop and stare at him as he stood gaz
ing up into the trees.
"No doubt they thought me insane," he said.
"Yes," added Mrs. Roosevelt, who was present,
"and as I was always with him, they no doubt
thought that I was the nurse that had him in
charge." Roosevelt's effective war on "nature fakirs"
could not have been possible had he not known
intimately the habits and nature of birds and ani
mals, and never was he found wanting. Roose
velt's intense interest in wild animals, it may be
noted in passing, showed itself in his early boy
hood. Of the minister of his church he demanded
to know the nature of a "zeal."
"What is a zeal?" repeated the puzzled parson.
"You read about him in the Psalms," said Ted.
The minister picked up his Bible. There he
found the answer: "For the zeal of thine house
hath eaten me up."

GREAT-HEART [ 199

IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE
How Roosevelt should employ his energy
when he left the Presidency had been a problem
he had thought about for many months before
his second term closed.
Roosevelt was surrounded then by his famous
"Tennis Cabinet." This was an elastic term, for
the cabinet included not only such old Western
friends as Ben Daniels, Seth Bullock, Luther
Kelly — who was formerly an army scout against
the Sioux — and Abernathy, the wolf hunter, but
also men like Leonard Wood, James Garfield,
Secretary of the Interior, and Robert Bacon,
afterward Secretary of State.
One of the chief of the many athletic diversions
of the "Tennis Cabinet" was swimming in the
Potomac. Roosevelt in his autobiography tells
how one day, when the French Ambassador,
Jusserand, was along, the members of the party,
including the Ambassador, took off their clothes
preliminary to swimming in the river.
Just as they were entering the water someone
cried :
"Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Ambassador, you
haven't taken off your gloves!"
The Ambassador promptly replied:

200 ] GREAT-HEART

"I think I will leave them on, we might meet
ladies!" Often big game hunters from abroad were
entertained by Roosevelt and the "Tennis Cab
inet," and when the Colonel mentioned to this
group his ambition to bring his hunting experi
ences to a grand climax in the wilds of Africa he
received the enthusiastic encouragement that one
would expect to come from these hunters and
sportsmen. On March 23, 1909, with his son Kermit, he
sailed from New York to Naples, thence, by way
of Suez, to British East Africa, for a hunting
trip in its jungles.
The Smithsonian Institute had commissioned
him to collect specimens, and the f aimal and floral
trophies he brought back from this almost un
known country show that he fulfilled this part of
his mission with brilliant success.
Roosevelt was on his way to one of the wildest
parts of the earth, yet he did not entirely cut
himself off from the influences of culture. Always
there were books to ease his mind when the stren
uous hunt was over or when the journey into the
jungle grew monotonous. With him he took his
famous "Pigskin library," bound in pigskin that
they might be handled by powder-stained or oil-

GREAT-HEART [ 201

stained hands. This strangely assorted list, which
showed the wide range of Roosevelt's reading,
included the following-named authors and works :
"The Federahst," Carlyle's "Frederick the
Great"; the "Song of Roland," the "Nibelungen-
lied," the Bible and Apocrypha, Homer, Dante,
Spenser and Milton, Shelley, Emerson, Long
fellow, Tennyson, Keats, Poe, Bret Harte,
Bacon, Lowell, Euripides, Froissart, Macaulay,
Shakespeare, Marlowe, Dickens, Thackeray,
Cooper and Scott. "Huckleberry Finn" and
"Tom Sawyer" were included for humor, and
later were added such books as "Alice in Wonder
land," "Tartarin," "Don Quixote" and works of
Darwin, Goethe and Huxley.
The members of the Smithsonian African
Expedition accompanying Roosevelt were Dr.
and Colonel Edgar A. Mearns,U. S.A. (retired)
one of the first field naturalists of the United
States ; Edmund Heller, of Stanford University,
a thoroughly trained naturalist ; J. Alden Loring,
of Oswego, N. Y., a successful collector of birds
and small animals.
Among the white pioneers who had preceded
Roosevelt in the African jungles were such fa
mous men as Livingstone and Stanley. In the
footsteps of these self-sacrificing men came great

202 ] GREAT-HEART

hunters, drawn by the fascination of facing the
lordly lion or the furious elephant or the danger
ous rhinoceros. Among the boldest of these was
Roosevelt, the first great American to track these
savage creatures into the secret places of the
Dark Continent.
Penetrating the jungles of East and Central
Africa, he and his party remained for months
almost entirely cut off from the outside world.
In his book, "African Game Trails," published
by Charles Scribner's Sons, the hunter-naturalist-
author has described fascinatingly the story of
his encounters with lions, buffaloes, rhinoceroses,
and other dangerous animals.
At Heatley's ranch, a place seventeen miles
long and four miles wide, he found the haunts of
the buffalo, a creature it had been his desire for
a long time to shoot. Of these animals he wrote :
"There is no doubt that under certain circum
stances buffalo, in addition to showing themselves
exceedingly dangerous opponents when wounded
by hunters, become truculent and inclined to take
the offensive themselves. There are places in East
Africa where, as regards at least certain herds,
this seems to be the case ; and in Uganda the buf
falo have caused such loss of life and such damage
to the native plantations that they are now ranked

GREAT- HEART [ 203

as vermin and not as game, and their killing is
encouraged in every possible way."
Here is his account of his shooting of his first
buffaloes :
"Cautiously threading our way along the edge
of the swamp, we got within 150 yards of the
buffalo before we were perceived. There were
four bulls, grazing close by the edge of the
swamp, their black bodies glistening in the early
sun rays, their massive horns showing white, and
the cow herons perched on their backs. They
stared sullenly at us with outstretched heads from
under their great frontlets of horn.
"The biggest of the four stood a little out from
the other three, and at him I fired, the bullet tell
ing with a smack on the tough hide and going
through the lungs. We had been afraid they
would at once turn into the papyrus, but instead
of this they started across our front directly for
the open country.
"This was a piece of huge good luck, Kermit
put his first barrel into the second bull and I my
second barrel into one of the others, after which
it became impossible to say which. bullet struck
which animal, as the firing became general. They
ran a quarter of a mile into the open, and then
the big bull I had first shot, and which had no

204 ] GREAT-HEART

other bullet in him, dropped dead, while the other
three, all of which were wounded halted beside
him. "One bull dropped to the shot as if poleaxed,
falling straight on his back with his legs kicking,
but in a moment he was up again and after the
others. Later I found that the bullet, a full
metal patch, had struck him in the head, but did
not penetrate the brain, and merely stunned him
for a moment.
"All the time we kept running diagonally to
their line of flight. They were all three badly
wounded, and when they reached the tall, rank
grass, high as a man's head, which fringed the
papyrus swamp, the two foremost lay down,
while the hindmost turned, and, with nose out
stretched, began to come toward us. He was badly
crippled, however, and with a soft-nosed bullet
from my heavy Holland I knocked him down,
this time for good. The other two rose and though
each was again hit they reached the swamp, one
of them to our right, the other to the left, where
the papyrus came out in a point."
Roosevelt the hunter had faced many danger
ous situations in his adventures in the wilds, but
his first encounter with an elephant brought him
closer to death than he had ever been. It was

GREAT-HEART [ 205

his comrade, F. C. Selous, an able and experi
enced African hunter, who saved the American
on this occasion.
A shot from Roosevelt's party had badly
woimded a great Hon. It had finally taken refuge
in a dense thicket. Selous advised the party that
it would be dangerous to come to close quarters
with it. Roosevelt excited by the chase, plunged
into the thicket in pursuit of the beast.
The party had seen no elephants and were
unaware that any were in their vicinity. Selous,
who, with Kermit, had followed Roosevelt, saw
the Colonel lift his gun hurriedly to his shoulder.
He glanced in the same direction and caught sight
of a herd of elephants led by an enormous tusker.
This animal was less than two hundred feet away.
Selous shouted: "For the life of you, don't
shoot! A bullet will bring a charge of the herd
and we may be trampled to death. Follow me!"
Roosevelt reluctantly lowered his rifle. Selous
led the Colonel and Kermit to a safe spot and
bade them climb a tree. From this position Selous
showed his companions how to aim. Roosevelt
raised his Winchester and sent a half-dozen bul
lets into the leader of the herd.
With a scream of pain, the elephant charged,
but when close to the tree he fell with a tremen-

206 J GREAT-HEART

dous crash. He had received his death wound.
The rest of the herd fled, pursued by Kermit's
bullets. Many a big game hunter has been killed by the
swirling trunk or the trampling feet of a wounded
elephant. If the Colonel had fired from the posi
tion from which Selous rescued him he would un
doubtedly have been crushed to death when the
brute charged.
Roosevelt's exploits in Africa aroused the
intense admiration of the natives, and as a com
pliment to his shooting ability they named him
"Bwana Tumbo," the Great Hunter.
Carl Akeley, head of the elephant hunting
expedition in Africa for the American Museum
of Natural History, met the Roosevelt expedi
tion in Africa and spent several days hunting
with the Colonel.
Mr. Akeley found that while the Colonel took
a huge interest in the hunt for big game, he was
yet so much of a naturalist that he showed a keen
interest in even the most insignificant of wild
creatures. A small rodent had been discovered
on the North American Continent. The discov
ery was of small moment. Few men remembered
it, yet the Colonel was found to know all about it.
i^keley says:

GREAT-HEART [ 207

"I found Colonel Roosevelt one of the most
refreshing and delightful companions I ever had
the pleasure of knowing. He was as ideal and
keen a sportsman as ever lived. The least of his
pleasure was in the killing of animals. He found
infinite joy in studying wild animal life in its
native haunts. His greatest pleasures lay in
seeing and learning, thereby proving himself an
ideal naturalist."

?(ri

XVI
The River of Doubt"

AT Gondokoro, Uganda, Roosevelt ended his
l\. African hunts. He came through his many
perilous situations unharmed. Kermit was also
in the best of health. The latter was praised by
Scout Cunninghame as one of the best shots and
most daring hunters he had ever seen.
The Colonel on his journey back to civilization,
visited first the Congo Free State, where the Bel
gian officers in charge of that colony gave him a
warm welcome.
The journey was then continued by way of the
Nile to Khartum, where the first newspaper men
Roosevelt had seen for months raced up the Nile
to greet him. Here Mrs. Roosevelt and her
daughter met Kermit and him, and there was an
affectionate family reunion. The party then
traveled through Egypt.
In a speech at Cairo the Colonel referred jok
ingly to Wall Street's attitude toward him by
saying that when he left America to himt in
Africa "Wall Street expected every lion to do
its duty."
From Alexandria the Colonel took a steamer
for Italy and, on landing in Naples, found a
[208]

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
Roosevelt's home, sagamore hill, oyster bay

GREAT-HEART [ 209

mountain of letters and cablegrams from America
awaiting him. After a tour of Austria Roosevelt
went to France. Ambassador Jusserand was the
first to greet him. In an address in Paris
Roosevelt spoke these prophetic words:
"Made to understand and love each other, our
two countries have been friends from the begin
ning, and no doubt will always remain friends in
the future. Every civilized man who comes to
France learns something, because France is the
cradle of modem civilization."
The Colonel then visited Belgium, Holland —
the home of his ancestors — ^Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, Germany and England.
Roosevelt arrived in London while Britain was
mourning the death of King Edward. He took
part in the great ceremonial funeral procession,
made a sensational speech in regard to England's
rule in Egypt, became the guest of Sir Edward
Grey, the Biitish Foreign Secretary, and left
England for home with this remark:
"My day in New Forest with Sir Edward
Grey was the crowning experience of the whole
three months."
His landing in Manhattan was marked by one
of the greatest ovations an American citizen had
ever received in New York City.
TK15

210 J GREAT- HEART

THE FATEFUL JOURNEY THROUGH BRAZIL
One day in 1908, when Roosevelt's Presi
dential term was drawing to a close. Father
Zahm, a priest, called on him. The priest had just
returned from a trip across the Andes and down
the Amazon. He proposed that when Roosevelt
left the Presidency he should take a trip with
him into the interior of South America.
Roosevelt's African trip was then uppermost
in his mind, so the subject was dropped. Five
years later, however, Roosevelt accepted invi
tations from Argentina and Brazil to address
certain societies. It occurred to him then that
after making this tour he could come north
through the middle of the continent into the valley
of the Amazon. His plans for the trip were soon
under way. Frank Chapman, curator of the
American Museum of Natural History, New
York, gladly appointed the naturalists George
K. Cherrie and Leo E. Miller to accompany the
party. Both were veterans of thd tropical Ameri
can forests. Father Zahm also agreed to go.
Kermit Roosevelt joined the party.
On December 9 of the same year, as the party
left Asuncion to ascend the Paraguay, Colonel
Rondo and other Brazilians joined the expedi-

GREAT-HEART [211

tion as representatives of the Brazilian govern
ment. In the latter part of the next February the
party started their long descent of the Duvida —
"The River of Doubt." Colonel Roosevelt
describes this voyage interestingly in his book
"Through the Brazihan Wilderness." Many
dangers confronted them. The descent of the
rapids was perilous to men and boats. They were
in danger of being slain through encounters with
Indians. They faced the necessity of long, wear
ing portages or contact with impassabje swamps.
Fever and dysentery were ills that haunted that
region. Starvation, caused by the loss of supplies,
was not beyond the bounds of possibility.
On they went, however, enduring the dangers
and hardships they encountered like the true
explorers they were. They had to wade through
water for days at a time. Their shoes were never
dry. Insect bites became festering wounds in their
bodies. Poisonous ants, biting flies, ticks, wasps
and bees never ceased to torment them.
Under these circumstances the temper of the
men was sorely tried. At last came a tragedy.
Julio, one of their attendants, a powerful fellow
but a rogue, shot Paishon, a good-natured negro
sergeant. The murderer escaped into the wilder
ness and was never found.

212 ] GREAT-HEART

At last, exhausted and almost broken by their
terrible hardships, they reached their destination.
They had put on the map a river of some 1,500
kilometers' length from its highest source to its
confluence with the Amazon,
Some of his statements on the subject of his
explorations and discoveries were twisted and
ridiculed by the press. The fact remains that he
rendered a great service to geographers by loca
ting the mouth of this river exactly. Other
explorers had discovered its source but they pos
sessed neither the courage nor endurance to fol
low it to its mouth. It was a real River of Doubt,
because nobody knew where it led until Colonel
Roosevelt cleared away the mystery.
Colonel Rondo, chief of the Brazilian mission
which had accompanied the Colonel's party, told
later how the Colonel's leg had become infected.
While the party was shooting the rapids in the
River of Doubt, he said, the boat came near being
capsized, and in trying to save it Colonel Roose
velt received a wound in the leg Poison spread
from this to the blood and impeded the Colonel's
walking. When he returned to New York, highly hon
ored by the Brazilian government and praised
for his achievements by explorers who knew the

GREAT-HEART [ 213

greatness of his undertaking, he was a sick man.
Fever burned within him. His constitution was
undermined. He admitted now that he had
waited too long to undertake the hardest and
most perilous task of his life.
These facts lead inevitably to the conclusion
that the trip to South America marked the begin
ning of the end for the Colonel. Friends and phy
sicians point to the fact that from that time began
the series of maladies that attacked him recur
rently until his death. Viewing the terrible hard
ships Roosevelt experienced on this journey of
exploration it is not going wide of the mark to
say that he laid on the altar of science a score of
what would have been his most fruitful years.

XVII
Roosevelt's Part
in the World War
WHEN America entered the world war
Theodore Roosevelt stood among the first
of those who volunteered their services. He had
dealt with the grasping Prussian spirit in the
Venezuelan incident in 1902, and made the sword-
clanking junkers back down. He was fervently
anxious to help do it again.
The Colonel announced that he had asked the
War Department for permission to raise a body
of troops. "In such event, I and my four sons
will go," he said, and added: "I don't want to
be put in the position of saying to my fellow
countrymen, 'Go to war.' I want to be in the
position of saying: 'Come to the war; I am going
with you.' "
Then, after a period of suspense in which the
Colonel was a veritable Paul Revere in urging
the nation to prepare, war actually came. On this
momentous day the former President of the
United States received the news in about the
same spirit that Bill Jones and Henry Brown
and the rest of his Oyster Bay neighbors greeted
[214]

GREAT- HEART [215

it. Colonel Roosevelt forgot that he had been
twice President of the United States. He remem
bered only that America wanted men.
The Colonel felt himself to be fully equipped.
Aside from the fact that he was a retired Com
mander-in-Chief of the United States Army, in
the Santiago campaign he had served in the first
fight as commander, had earned promotion to the
rank of colonel in his regiment and had ended the
campaign in command of the brigade.
The Colonel followed up his previous applica
tion to the Secretary of War, with the telegram
from which these words are quoted :
"To the Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
"In view of the fact that Germany is now actu
ally engaged in war with us, I again earnestly
ask permission to raise a division for immediate
service at the front. My purpose would be, after
some six weeks' preliminary training here, to take
it direct to France for intensive training, so that
it could be sent to the front in the shortest possible
time to whatever point was desired, I should, of
course, ask no favors of any kind, except that
the division be put in the fighting line at the
earliest possible moment,
"Theodore Roosevelt,"

216 ] GREAT- HEART

Meanwhile, while Colonel Roosevelt waited
with the ardor of a boy the answer to this
appeal, applications for military service abroad
under him were pouring in from all sections
of the country. News of his desire to fight
in France had spread like wildfire, and every man
who had served with the Colonel at Santiago, as
well as every man who wished that he had served
with him, wired, wrote and telephoned his appli
cation to serve now. Authors, artists, engineers,
cowboys, clerks, laAvyers, ministers, wanted to go
to France with "Teddy," "Battling" Nelson and
"Kid" McCoy were among the applicants. North
Carolina offered to send a company. This evi
dence of the loyalty of the red-blooded men who
had fought his civic and military battles with him
touched the Colonel deeply and very naturally
increased the anxiety with which he awaited the
answer from the War Department.
Interesting and enthusiastic was this comment
of Colonel Henry Watterson, the famous editor
of "The Louisville Courier- Journal" :
"The proposal of Theodore Roosevelt to enlist
in the world's army of freedom and to go to one
of the fronts in Europe leading a body of Ameri
can soldiers may not be whistled lightly down
the wind as a man who has a positive genius for

GREAT-HEART [ 217

the spectacular. It should be considered very
seriously. Men are reached equally through their
imagination and their patriotism, and except for
the sympathetic and emotional in man there
would be no armies. The appearance of an ex-
President of the United States carrying the Star-
Spangled Banner over a body of American sol
diers to the battlefront would glorify us as will
nothing else. It will electrify the world."
After further correspondence by letter and
wire, through which the Colonel pleaded with all
the fervor of his patriotism and all the strength
of his convictions that he be allowed to muster for
service the older men of the country, who would
not otherwise be called, the Secretary of War
forwarded him, with assurances of appreciation
of the Colonel's patriotic spirit, the recommen
dation of the War College Division of the Gen
eral Staff to the effect that no American troops
be employed in active service in any European
theatre until after an adequate period of train
ing and that only regular officers be put in com
mand of them.
Colonel Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to go
to France with his proposed volunteer division
was undoubtedly the keenest disappointment of
his hfe. President Wilson, in his statement

218 ] GREAT-HEART

declining the offer of the Roosevelt division, did
not fail to pay tribute to the patriotism and cour
age of the great volunteer.
The President said in part:
"I shall not avail myself, at any rate at the
present stage of the war, of the authority con
ferred by the act to organize volunteer divisions.
I understand that this section was added with a
view to providing an independent military com
mand for Mr. Roosevelt and giving the military
authorities an opportunity to use his fine vigor
and enthusiasm in recruiting."
Remarking further that it would be "very
agreeable" to him to confer this honor on the ex-
President, the President added that "to do so
would seriously interfere with the carrying out
of the chief and most important purpose con
templated by this legislation, the prompt creation
and early use of an effective army, and would
contribute practically nothing to the effective
strength of the armies now engaged against
Germany."

GREAT-HEART [ 219

ROOSEVELT'S FIGHTING SONS
"Colonel^ one of these days those hoys of yours
will be putting the name Roosevelt on the map!"
Peter Dunne's remark to Roosevelt,
quoted in the "Metropolitan"
But although the door of active personal ser
vice was thus shut to him, there remained open
four wide avenues through which the war could
come to him and through which he could pour in
the greatest measure the inspiration of his ideals
— his four sons: Theodore, Jr., Kermit, Ai'chie
and Quentin.
Just as the sons of Bill Jones and Henry
Brown were flaming with a desire to get to the
firing line, so these four sons of the Colonel
became dominated with a desire to do their part
to save the world from reverting to the barbaric
ages and incidentally to prove that they were
worthy sons of the man who had led his troops
in the battle of San Juan Hill.
In Germany the Kaiser's six sons, though hold
ing high commands, were so protected that the
royal family was about the only family in all
Germany that had escaped wounds. Debauches,
hunting trips and similar revelries filled the time

220 ] GREAT- HEART

of these princelings. The contrast between them
and the four sons of the ex-President of the
United States was indeed marked.
Sword-rattling and gold braid were foreign to
the nature of this new world breed, and yet, along
with millions of other young Americans, when
the time came they proved their fighting qualities
in a way that put outworn royalty tp shame.
Quentin, the youngest, was a sophomore when
America entered the war. Theodore, Jr., Archi
bald and Kermit were all in business, married and
had children. Each entered at once the officers'
training camp at Plattsburg, seeking no promo
tion or honors that did not come through their
own merits.
Theodore, Jr., after his Plattsburg training,
received from President Wilson his commission
in the Officers' Reserve Corps. He earned his
promotion to the rank of major of infantry and
left Plattsburg with confidential orders to sail to
France. Here he was transferred to the 26th
Regiment of the line; was gassed at Cantigny,
and later wounded. He received a citation for
bravery. After further service with the Army of
Occupation, he returned to America with the
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
Archie, after the same course of training, left

GREAT-HEART [221

Plattsburg with the rank of lieutenant under con
fidential orders to proceed to General Pershing's
headquarters in France. He was later transferred
to the 26th Regiment of the line, and while lead
ing his men in an attack was wounded by a bullet
and lay for fourteen hours unattended in No
Man's Land. For his gallantry he was later
recommended by General Pershing for promo
tion to the rank of captain. He received the
French War Cross while lying on an operating
table. He came- back to Sagamore HUl to re
cover from his wounds, and he was the only one
of the Colonel's sons who was with him when
he died.
Kermit was appointed a captain of the United
States National Army and left Plattsburg to
accept a position in the British army, where, after
serving as a captain and receiving the British
Military Cross, he was transferred, in accordance
with his wishes, to the army in France.
Then there was Quentin — ^the youngest — ^who
derived his name from an ancestor who left
France 225 years ago. Quentin suffered from a
defect of vision, which led to his rejection in the
first officers' training camp. He was wild to get
to the front ; and his next thought was to become
an airman. It was natural that the father, who

222 J GREAT-HEART

had ridden bucking broncos, should be pleased to
see in his youngest a desire to gain mastery over
a bucking airplane. And it was also very natural
that the father should want to try the aerial steed
for himself. Hence it was that early one morn
ing the car of the Colonel, driven by Charley Lee,
his colored chauffeur, shot down Sagamore Hill
to the aviation camp at Mineola, Long Island.
The Colonel's arrival had been anticipated, for
a group of army officers left a nearby hangar and
strode forward to greet him. For a moment the
Colonel was a youth again, keenly interested in
the mechanics of the car and as eager as Quentin
to explore the virgin reaches of space. With non
chalance, yet with a heart that no doubt thumped
with excitement, the Colonel climbed into the
airplane and helped the pilot to buckle him in.
The next moment the former President of the
United States had soared away on his first air
flight. After a forty minutes' ride over and about
Long Island Sound, in which all of the eccen
tricities of aerial travel were demonstrated, the
Colonel was volplaned to the ground. Every
other experience in the realm of sportsmanship
had been his — and now the climactic experience
had been accomplished.
Having met his own boy Quentin on his own

GREAT-HEART [ 223

ground, and having, as a father, learned for him
self just what his son was proposing to do, he
went back to that interview with Quentin, which
resulted in his giving his consent to his enroll
ment in the most dangerous branch of the service.
Quentin was on the verge of applying for enlist
ment in the Canadian Flying Corps when it was
announced that the War Department had accep
ted him in the U. S. Aviation Section. He went
with the first flying unit to France in July, 1917,
reaching France a few weeks after Archie and
Theodore, Jr.
One day, just aftier his brothers, Theodore and
Archie, had gone to France, Colonel Roosevelt
was entertaining about a thousand visitors at a
patriotic rally at Sagamore Hill. An army air
plane soared up the bay. The airman performed
various maneuvers that thrilled the throng but
the father did not know till days afterward that
the daring aviator was Quentin.
It was one of the ironies of life that not long
after this episode there came an overseas cable to
Colonel Roosevelt which brought the war home
to him in a way that can only be realized by the
man who has lost a son.
Mr. PhiUp E. Thompson, a newspaper man
stationed at Oyster Bay, has thus described how
the Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt bore the news
of their loss :

224 ] GREAT-HEART

"At 7 :30 on the following morning the news
paper man at Oyster Bay rang the bell at Saga
more Hill. The Colonel came to the door. There
was no need to speak.
The two walked to the old-fashioned veranda
of the Roosevelt house. And there, with the
early morning breezes sweeping from the Sound,
the Colonel heard the positive confirmation of the
tragedy of the trenches — that the previous night's
cablegrams had been too cruelly verified.
For a long space the Colonel walked in silence,
his brow furrowed. Then, turning to his com
panion, he said:
"But — Mrs. Roosevelt! How am I going to
break it to her?"
It was of his wife and not of himself that the
Colonel thought and pondered.
Abruptly he turned back to the house — ^to face
the hardest task of his life. For the first time
death had entered the intimate Roosevelt family
circle. A few hours later the newspaper man saw the
Colonel again. With him was Mrs. Roosevelt,
with eyes bright and voice steady. Yet it was
plain that she had been told.
Thus, with telegrams and cablegrams of sym
pathy flooding the little Oyster Bay office by

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD ft UNDERWOOD
ROOSEVKLT^S SERVICE STARS

GREAT- HEART [ 225

thousands, the father and mother of the boy
who had given his life above the lines — received
the news that their youngest born would never
return. ' '
The only public statement Colonel Roosevelt
made concerning Quentin's death was in every
way typical of the man:
"Quentin's mother and I are very glad that he
got to the front and had a chance to render some
service to his country and show the stuff that
was in him before his fate befell him."
Quentin lies buried in France. There his body
will remain. No formal treaty our country could
make with France would be as eloquent of the
good will that exists and will continue to exist
between these two great republics as the fact
that in French soil lie the bodies of Americans
who fought and died in the common cause of
humanity. Thus Quentin's father thought; thus
the world thinks. The following letter from
Colonel Roosevelt to General March, while re
specting the wishes of those parents who want
the bodies of their boys brought home, carried a
message of comfort and agreement to those
parents who desired their dead soldier sons to
remain in the resting places prepared for them
near the field of battle by their comrades:
TE16

226 ] GREAT-HEART

My Dear General March:
The inclosed clipping states that all the Ameri
can dead will be taken home after the war, ac
cording to orders received by the army chaplains.
I do not know whom to write to in the matter,
so I merely ask that you turn this over to whom
ever has charge of it.
Mrs. Roosevelt and I wish to enter a most
respectful but most emphatic protest against the
proposed course so far as our son Quentin is
concerned. We have always believed that
Where the tree falls.
There let it lie.
We know that many good persons feel entirely
different, but to us it is painful and harrowing
long after death to move the poor body from
which the soul has fled. We greatly prefer that
Quentin shall continue to lie on the spot where
he fell in battle and where the f oemen buried him.
After the war is over Mrs. Roosevelt and I
intend to visit the grave and then to have a small
stone put up saying it is put up by us, but not
disturbing what has already been erected to his
memory by his friends and American comrades
in arms.
With apologies for troubling you.

Very faithfully yours,
Theodobe Roosevelt.

GREAT-HEART [ 227

It seems strange that up to the very time of
America's participation in the war there should
be people in this country who did not realize the
self-sacrificing work for the national cause done
by the Colonel, yet such was true.
At a mass meeting in Madison Square Garden
Roosevelt was talking about the part the United
States should take in the war, when a man
shouted: "Why aren't you over there yourself?"
Some men cried, "Put him out!" But Roose
velt raised his hand for silence and said, "No,
don't put him out. Let him stay. I want to
answer him."
When the audience was still he went on:
"I couldn't go myself, but I did send my four
sons, every orte of whose lives is a thousand times
dearer to me than my own. There, you creature,
that is, my answer to any man who dares to ask
an American father why he isn't engaged in
this war."
The scorching anger of the Colonel and the
scorn of the audience made the heckler slink away
with a rebuke he will always remember.

228 ] GREAT-HEART

DEMOCRACY IN THE ARMY '
Long before the United States entered the
war Roosevelt with his friend, Major-General
Wood, vigorously advocated a policy of national
preparedness, urging universal military training
for the nation's youth. In explanation of his
desire to see universal military service prevail
the Colonel said:
"I want to see Mrs. Vanderbilt's son and Mrs.
Astor's son, with Pat and Jim of Telegraph Hill,
sleeping under the same dog tent and eating
the same food. I want to see the officers selected
from among them on the strict basis of merit,
without regard to anything else. Then we will
have a democratic system."
Roosevelt took a great deal of pride in the
five-star service button he wore. In a conver
sation with newspaper men some months after
his boys had gone abroad, he told them that he
had received news that Theodore had been in
action and a bullet had struck his trench helmet
and glanced off. Theodore wrote home, his father
said, that he regretted he had not been wounded,
just for the experience. Later, Theodore was to
receive his full share of such experiences.
At the time of this conversati(Mi public an-

COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD ft UNDERWOOD
COLONEL ROOSEVELT AT SAGAMORE HILL

GREAT-HEART [ 229

nouncement had just been made that "Archie"
had been promoted in rank from second lieu
tenant to captain. Roosevelt told his hearers that
"Archie" had led a raiding party out into No
Man's Land at night and that the promotion had
been won by gallantry under fire during this raid.
The Colonel said further that Kermit, with the
Anglo-Indian forces in Mesopotamia, as the
leader of "a troop of Whirling Dervishes," In
dian cavalry, had also been in action.
Later the Colonel's pride in his family's war
record was to extend to include the women of
his family. Mrs. Roosevelt, in the heart-breaking
trials she passed through, had proven herself a
true heroine. Her daughters and daughters-in-
law proved in many ways their devotion to their
country's cause. Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,
did especially effective work.
She was the first American woman sent abroad
for war service by the Y. M. C. A, She arrived
in Paris a few weeks after Pershing. There she
conducted a French class for Americans, with
ambulance drivers for pupils. Then she worked
in the first canteen in Paris, and was in charge
of all the women's work in establishing the first
American officers' hotel.
When she had been in Paris six months the

230 ] GREAT-HEART

army created "leave areas" for the American
soldiers. These areas were put under the control
of the Y. M. C. A., whose officials gave Mrs.
Roosevelt charge of the women's part of the
work.

Requiem
"Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea.
And the hunter home from the hill."
— Robert Louis Stevenson.

XVIII
"Great-Heart"
SINCE Roosevelt's death there have been
many suggestions made for a memorial to
him. Many of the projects are highly commend
able and well worthy of popular support, yet the
fact remains that Roosevelt's own works will
bring coming generations their best remembrance
of him.
Fortunately for posterity, this great American
was a faithful recorder of his own works, and
libraries and book stores are full of his writings
or those of authorized biographers that give us
a full range of his extraordinarily active life.
Fortunately, too, for the world is the fact that
Roosevelt recognized the film as another effective
medium for bringing him in touch with the
people, and authorized before his death the rep
resentation of his life and work in motion pictures.
The deep and permanent impression Roosevelt
made on the people of his time — which will ex
tend far into the future to influence coming gen
erations of Americans, is due not only to his
personal acts but also to his literary work. As
an author and as an editor, the Colonel contrib
uted historical writings and entertaining narra-
[233]

234 ] GREAT-HEART

_i_

tives to the literature of our country that earned
him brilliant distinction and made his name and
works familiar to all who read. His work as a
historian led to his election in 1912 to the Presi
dency of the American Historical Association,
and also to his admission into the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. Roosevelt served
"The Outlook" as contributing editor from 1909
to 1914 and then joined the staff of the "Metro
politan Magazine," remaining on its staff as con
tributing editor until his death. His contributions
to these magazines on contemporary subjects
were always interesting, forceful and construc
tive, and exercised a profound influence on the
life and development of the nation.
That Roosevelt was born to be an author as
well as a statesman is proven by the fact that no
matter how busy he was he always found time
to write. In college and while he was reading law
in his uncle's office, he found time to write "The
Naval War of 1812," a standard work on the
subject. He wrote his "Life of Thomas Hart
Benton" and his "Hunting Trips of a Ranch
man" while he was pursuing his arduous career
as a rancher. When his duties as Civil Service
Commissioner at Washington were pressing
upon him he yet found time to write several

GREAT-HEART [ 235

books on hunting, as well as part of his splendid
work "The Winning of the West." Thus it was
throughout his career. Greater and greater grew
the demands upon his time, yet the number of
volumes to his credit mounted steadily.
Since his cattle-raising venture had failed, and
since he knew the income from any public posi
tions he should hold would be inadequate to the
expenses of the office and generally uncertain,
he determined that his pen should support him.
The fact that, when he died, his income from his
writings was about one hundred thousand dollars
a year shows how well he kept his resolution.
Mr. J. H. Whigham, publisher of the "Metro
politan Magazine," thus interestingly describes
the way in which Roosevelt formed and kept his
literary decisions:
"His flrst coming to the 'Metropolitan' was in
keeping with all the Colonel said and did. The
thing that worried him most in making a connec
tion was whether he could faithfully carry out
his part of the bargain. I had known Roosevelt
first in Cuba when I lived for some weeks with
the Rough Riders and shared the precarious but
precious potatoes of the Colonel's own mess. It
didn't require much perspicacity to see that he
was the sort of leader to tie to and cherish. Nat-

236 j GREAT-HEART

urally, therefore, when the 'Metropohtan Maga
zine' came into my control I looked around for
Roosevelt. He was contributing editor of 'The
Outlook' then, and there is no need to say that
he couldn't be weaned away from his allegiance
to the Abbotts, for whom he always had the
greatest affection. I managed, however, to get
him interested in what we were trying to do with
the 'Metropolitan,' and he promised to let me
know if he ever changed his plans.
"When the war broke out I came back from
Europe to find that the Colonel's time with 'The
Outlook' was up. Before I could see him, he had
begun to publish some syndicated newspaper
articles in which he denounced the invasion of
Belgium. Hurrying over to his office, which
was then in Forty-second Street, I caught him on
the verge of closing a year's arrangement with
the syndicate. I reminded him of my prior claim
which he freely granted. He couldn't see, how
ever, how he could deliver full value to a monthly
magazine. The syndicate could publish two or
three times a month and so get back their money.
I told him that was our affair. We wouldn't
worry about not getting our money's worth. But
the Colonel said that he coiddn't avoid worrying.
He didn't like being in the position of not being

GREAT-HEART [ 237

able to deliver full value. He had never been in
that position before, and he didn't propose to be
there now. I gave him excellent reasons, as I
thought, why he would be worth as much to us
as to any newspaper syndicate, and he was nearly
convinced but not quite. I left him feeling pretty
sure that he would decide against us. But I was
determined not to lose him. After wracking my
brains for two or three hours for a new argument
I suddenly remembered that I had mentioned no
period for the proposed association. Suppose
that I offered him a three years' contract instead
of one, would not that give us a greater and more
exclusive value and so satisfy the Colonel that
both parties would profit by the agreement? It
was late at night and I had difficulty in getting
the number of his private wire at Oyster Bay.
Nevertheless I finally brought him to the tele
phone and made my new proposal. He laughed;
and said, 'You seem to want me pretty badly.
I'm sure I can't think why. It's true your new
offer puts a new complexion on the matter. Come
out and see me tomorrow at nine. I have to
decide this business by ten in the morning.'
"I went, and it was decided in our favor. We
never regretted it and I'm thankful to say the
Colonel never regretted it either."

238 ] GREAT-HEART

The Colonel at the time of his death was also
a regular contributor to the "Kansas City Star."
ROOSEVELT AT HOME
So far as his private life is concerned, Roose
velt will be recorded in history as being thor
oughly representative of that love of family,
domestic simplicity, and devotion to the duties
of married life, which go to make a great race.
These traits were of course largely influenced by
Mrs. Roosevelt herself. She exercised a restrain
ing power upon his impulsiveness. Before enter
ing on any enterprise, he always asked himself,
"What wiU she think of it?"
She was noted for her graceful mastery of
every social situation, and as Mistress of the
White House, she cultivated and preserved those
traditions of hospitality that belong to that high
place. Roosevelt was a devout member of the Dutch
Reformed Church. A friend thus describes the
Colonel's attendance at a little church of his faith
in Washington: "He came in quietly, unat
tended, went well up front, bowed a moment in
prayer and was ready for the service. The ser
mon was a good plain gospel sermon and he
seemed to enjoy it. His singing and responses

GREAT-HEART [ 239

to the Scripture readings were like his talks to
Congress — clear and energetic, as if he didn't
care who heard him as long as he knew he was
right. Throughout the sermon he gave the most
earnest attention. He impressed one as being a
man who believed in exercising the same sincerity
in religious matters as in any others, and I got a
new light on his now famous 'squara deal' prin
ciples." After the service Roosevelt said:
"The services this morning were enjoyable.
The sermon was good and I agreed with him in
the points he made that the home is the chief
foundation stone of the republic and the hope
of the church. The 'Holy, Holy, Lord God Al
mighty' is one of the grandest of hymns; after
a week spent on perplexing problems and in
heated contests it does so rest my soul to come
into the house of the Lord and worship and to
sing, and mean it, the 'Holy, Holy, Lord God
Almighty,' and to know that He is my Father,
and He takes me up into His life and plans, and
to commune personally with Christ who died for
me. I am sure I get a wisdom not my own and
a superhuman strength in fighting the moral
evils I am called to confront."
A man with this behef can pass from this

240 ] GREAT- HEART

world unafraid and eager for the adventures of
the higher world beyond him. Thus went the
Colonel. Warrior though he was his end was
peaceful; he approached his grave:
"Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
The historian will draw many great lessons
from the life of Roosevelt. His devotion to public
duty, his advocacy of the square deal, his hundred
per cent. Americanism, his superhuman activity
in many fields, will be outstanding features of
every biography.
Perhaps, however, the following extract from
a memorial tribute made by Dr. Newell Dwight
Hillis sums up his characteristics as well as
anything that can be said in a few words:
HOPE FOR RICH MEN'S SONS
"One of the logical inferences from the suc
cessful career of Roosevelt," said Dr. Hillis,
"is that even the richest man's son can succeed
in this republic. In the republic, for some strange
reason, a prejudice has grown up in favor of the
poor boy and against the son of the palace and
the private car. Little by little, extreme wealth
has become a handicap, and the child of the

GREAT-HEART [ 241

millionaire is out of the race before he enters it.
It is a real obstacle for a man who aspires to
political office and honor to fall heir to enormous
wealth. The favorites of fortune are those who
drive the mule along the canal path or in their
teens support a widowed mother, or come from
a log cabin to the great city.
"Now and then, however, there is a youth who
uses his wealth instead of abusing it. Mr. Roose
velt's entire career is an incentive to rich men's
sons. Bom in a great house; a graduate of
Harvard — rich man's college; traveled abroad;
a Civil Service Commissioner with George
WiUiam Curtis, an intellectual aristocrat; Pohce
Commissioner of New York; a cattle man on
the plains of Montana; leader of the Rough
Riders in Cuba; Governor of New York; Vice-
President and President of the United States —
all this represents a long and brilliant career.
But Lincoln did not work harder; Garfield was
not more industrious ; McKinley was not as close
a student; Henry Clay was not more democratic;
and among Mr. Roosevelt's closest friends were
untaught men, illiterate ranchers, who were full
of latent intellect and sound sense. His capacity
for friendship was one of the ex-President's most
striking characteristics. By his patience, his

242 ] GREAT-HEART

industry, his hunger for knowledge, his mingling
with all sorts and conditions of men, his incessant
travel, Mr. Roosevelt overcame every handicap
imposed by wealth and became a hero to the rich
and poor, the cultivated and the untaught, and
a guide and friend and standard for all classes,
in all countries,"

On January 8, 19"19, Theodore Roosevelt was
buried on the hillside of the Oyster Bay Ceme
tery, near the blue waters of the Soimd he loved
so dearly and close to the trees and hills he had
roamed among from boyhood. On his grave was
dropped a wreath from an aviator who had been
a friend of "Quentin, the eagle" — the hero son
who had died in France.
Two months later, "Bill" Sewall came down
from the Maine woods to visit the resting place
of the man who had been his companion on many
a journey into the wilderness, "It's just the
kind of place Theodore would hke to be buried!"
he said, THE END.

THE LONG TRAIL

YALE UNIVERSITY

»03Ib

1

ili J I'iPiii

Si'ii*

liiyl 

ml

ii I

"'ill ill

4'
iiiiiiisi
Ii!!! ill