?^ |£||N^ SS£ p^i^VB W E^^ -^^. ^^^Pl w m m m ^ Class. Book. Copyright N^ COPyRIGHT DEPOSm jCi >c!»*ii*?:35^r/-^ ■mdm- ^^ m iflj^f/,^ 1^ m wi^ ^1 1^^ fjSS ^ w% i^ ^ ^ ^m M^[^J Ss¥v) ^i^ys s^. :«..i'-v7^^5?^' COPYRIGHT 1900, BV G. G. ROCKWOOD THEODORE ROOSEVELT X HEODORE Roosevelt Patriot and Statesman THE TRUE STORY of an IDEAL AMERICAN Youngest President of the United States Complete Account of his Ancestry; Home Training; Education— College Life; Political Career— As Member New York State Assembly, Civil Service Commis- sioner, Police Commissioner of New York City, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, Vice-President and Presi- dent of the United States; His Military Career— Organizing the Famous Rough Riders, His Spanish War Record; His Literary Work'. By ROBERT C. V. MP.YIRS 'M/VJ Author of " WjrIJ-Famous Women," "Victoria Queen and Empress," " The Story of South Africa," '' The Colonel's Christmas Morning, Etc., Etc. BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED P. W. ZIEGLER & CO. PHILADELPHIA, r\ . AND CHICAGO, ILLS. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Cofie* Receiveo SEP 24 1903 Copyright Entry /Class O- xxc n« COPY B, Copyright by Robert C. V. Meyers, 1902. PREFACE THEODORE ROOSEVELT, the twenty-sixth President of the United States, occupies a unique position in the country over which he presides. The youngest man who has ever occupied the chair of chief magistrate of the Union, his personahty makes him the most prominent figure in the Western hemisphere. The man and his individuality are spoken of, but after all little is known about him by the general mass of readers. He has been before the public of his native city and State since his twenty-second year when he became assemblyman, while his services as colonel of the regiment of Rough Riders during the Spanish war made him a popular hero. But what of the man, his life, and the trend of affairs that led to his nomination for the Vice-Presidency in 1900, with strong indications that 1904 would see him chosen for the Presi- dency? The terrible crime that deprived the counti-y of William Mc- Kinley while at the zenith of his fame and placed in Theodore Roosevelt's hands the reins of government could hardly make him an accidental President, for he was on the way, fully equipped, to a ' pli'.y probable assumption of the office four years later, the whole . :;ucal aspect pointing in his direction. That he was the organizer of the Rough Riders and is now President is largely what the majority of the people know about him, and they wish to know more. S PREFACE. Every item concerning him is eargerly read in the newspapers, and stories of him are listened to with avidity. He is endeared to the people for the little that is known of him, his bravery in battle and his thorough Americanism as the head of his party. But there are other sides to his character which go to make up a man perhaps the most remarkable the country has ever produced — a student, an author, a political reformer, a statesman of unquestionable ability, the exposition of all this must prove interesting reading to the millions who know so few facts concerning the man. The scope of :his book is to present a full and authentic exposition of the varied parts that go to make up a character that is plain, strong, unaffected and fearless. Born to wealth, of exceptional abilities, from his earliest manhood he has gone onward with a steadiness of purpose that has proved in his case that wealth is no bar to action, that an American citizen should drop all prerogatives of social prestige and stand before his fellows for what he is himself, and not for what he has of material well being. In his short life of a little over two score vears Theodore Roosevelt has had an experience varied as few other lives can boast of. The statesman of old is a statesman only, or at best a cultivated, gifted man who has developed his talents upon certain lines that have finally made for his oratory, his logic and his philosophy. A brave soldier may have as much said of him, or a politician, a reformer, and any other leader of men. But in the sub- ject of this volume we see first a student and author, whose writings stamp him as an original man in whom are excellences that lead to fame. Then there is the politician understanding to the fullest the complexities of party faction and the clarification of party spirit. PREFACE. 7 Again the statesman expounding statecraft and the relation of nation to nation with a simplicity and power that are rarely surpassed. Also the reformer, energetic in crusades against corruption in office and bad legislation that hamper the freedom of the citizens and keep the poor and defenseless in subjection. Together with these, there is the man of war, insisting upon his country's honor being upheld, patriotic in his love for the flag, and doing deeds of daring and bravery with the single impulse to actuate them — the duty he owes to the land of his birth. At the same time this man of many parts is a hunter, a plainsman in the great West, bringing down big game and teaching the meaning of civilization in explorations of the wild country. The life of such a man must mean much to those who study it. Such a biography as is here presented must point a lesson of im- portance to -^s all — that in no man are the limitations of character, if in the man are the incentives to excel in whatsoever his hand finds to do. The history of an exceptional man, the narration here set forth should impress every loyal citizen with the signal worth of the first miagistrate of the United States — Theodore Roosevelt, the typical American of strong manly attributes. What his early years promised has been fulfilled, and he stands before the w^orld to-day as one of the foremost worthies that ever shaped a nation's destiny. Un- affected, incorruptible, as statesman and ruler; brave and loyal as politician and soldier; upright and gentle as husband and father, and always, and preeminently so, an American of the best and highest type. That this biography of our President, from his youth down to the present day, will be of wide interest cannot be doubted. The 8 PREFACE. history of the man is woven closely with the history of his times and the poHtical parties of the country, and this history is here told with majiy facts heretofore not set forth in print. The book is placed before you; Theodore Roosevelt tells his own life in his acts ana deeds, and the faithful narration of these acts and deeds comprise the contents of a volume which it is believed will prove as entertaining as a story as it is valuable as a creed for true American thought and feeling. COISTTEISTTS CHAPTER I. Heredity — Progenitors — Eight Generations of the Family ^^siclents of New York City — Family of Americans — Great-Grandfather and the Revolution — Grand- father one of the Wealthiest Men in New York— Theo- dore Roosevelt, Sr., one of the Leading Men of his Day — Early Training and Outdoor Life — Harvard — Athlete and Student— College Men and Politics— Duty of Educated Men ^7 CHAPTER H. Graduated at Harvard— Entrance into Political Life— Mem- ber of New York Assembly— At Albany— Reform Char- ter for New York — Married — Various Honors •^ Assemblyman — Death of his Mother and his Wife — State Legislation— Duties of Citizens to Attend Primaries— Bribe-taking — "Bosses" — Corrupt Politics the Fault of Citizens at Large— Machine Politics — Leaving the Assembly — Literary Work 3/ CHAPTER HL In the West— Ranch Life— Horse Hunting— A Roundup- Enjoyment of the Freedom of Outdoor Life — Activity on the Ranch— Stampede of Cattle— Writer on the Plains— Terrible Cold— Arduous Duties of the Ranchman— Line Riding— "Hamlet" in the Ranch- house— Winter of 1886-87— Fine Descriptive Powers— News from the East— Out of Public Life, but Studying the Questions of the Day 5/ CFL\PTER IV. Americans and Mexicans on the Plains— The "Bad Man" of the West— Claim-jumpers— Horse-thieves— A Noted Desperado— Opening a Cowboy Ball— The Frontier n 10 CONTENTS. and Women — Character of the Cowboy — Indians — An Indian Adventure — Organizing a Troop — Loss of Boat — Capture of Boat-thieves and Taking them to the Sheriff — Dogged Determination a Character- istic ' CHAPTER V. Antelope and the Manner of Hunting Them — The Black-tail of the Mountains — Still-hunting — Deer Hunting with Hounds — Coursing Jack-rabbits, Swifts and Foxes — Round-horn Elks — A Hunt of Elks — Big-horn Sheep — Experiences with Them — Wonderful Speed — Habits of Bighorn Sheep — White Goats of the Rockies — Praise of Hunting — Instincts of Born Hunter — Adaptability of Character — Back to Politics 97 CHAPTER VI. Republican Candidate for Mayor — Largest Republican Vote for Mayor ever Polled in New York — Civil Service Com- mission— How he "Ruined Himself" — Duties of Civil Service Commission — Abolishment of Abuses in Politics — Paper on Civil Service Reform — Case before LIII. Congress — In Office Six Years — Resignation to Accept Office as Police Commissioner of New York. . 1 13 CHAPTER VII. Department of Police — Augury of Defeat — No Sentiment for Professional Politicians^ — Enforcement of Laws— Im- proving Police Force — Gaining Respect — Opposi- tion— Strike Leaders — Abuse Stopped — At- tacked by Certain Newspapers — Adverse Criticisms — Methods Reviled — Forging Ahead ^TiZ CHAPTER VIII. Tidal Wave of Reform — Blackmailing Tariff — Detectives — Methods of Restoring Order — Rewards and Punish- ments— Police and Citizens — Sunday Liquor Law — Saloonkeepers and Politicians — Report of Inter- views— Wealth from Corruption — Sunday Law Enforced — Increase of Police Force — Examinations — Best Policemen — Honest Elections — Premiums for Merit — Tramp Lodging-houses — Bertillon System — Good Results of Reform '53 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER IX. Assistant Secretary of Navy— Foresees Spanish War— Per- sonnel Bill in Navy— Pushing Repairs of Ships— $800,000 and $500,000 for Powder and Shot— Story of Old-time Buffalo Hunting— Washington's Majcim— Address Before Naval War College— War of 18 12 Recalled— Need of a Reconstructed Navy— Necessary to Proceed at Once— Stirring Peroration— War Actually Declared Resignation from Naval Department — "Roosevelt's Rough Riders" Organized ^75 CHAPTER X. The Rough Riders— Mustering Places of Regiment— Colonel Wood and Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt — Men from Colleges, Clubs, Police Force, Cowboys, Miners, Indians— Personnel of Some of the Men— x\ppre-^^ ciation of Colonel Roosevelt— "Remember the Maine"— Trouble in Getting Matters Organized— Drilling- grounds— Uniform of Rough Riders— Impatient to go into Action— Orders to Move ^99 CHAPTER XI. From San Antonio— For Tampa— On the Way— OfT to Cuba —On Landing at Daiquiri— On the March— "Forward"— General Young's Fight— Rough Riders in Battle for the First time — "Don't Swear, Shoot" — Death of ^ Fish and Capron — Colonel Roosevelt Charges — Incidents — Colonel Roosevelt in Command— Army Food- Money for Food out of Colonel's Pocket — In Camp — Waiting for Santiago - ^9 CHAPTER XII. On to Santiago— El Poso Hill— General Wheeler— El Caney —Through the Lane— Kettle Hill— A Ruse to get to the Front— The Colored Troopsr— The Catlings— In Charge of Parts of Six Regiments — Taking the Trenches— San Juan Hill Taken— Only Forward Move- ment of the Spanish— Acts of Gallantry— Digging Trenches — Opposing Forces — Waiting to Take Santiago ^39 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. Before Santiago — Men in the Trenches — Continuous Firing —Spanish Guerrilla Warfare— Lack of Medicine and Food Red Cross Kindness — Cessation of Flostilities — Devotion of Rough Riders to their Colonel — Fort Roosevelt— Sharp-shooters— End of Truce— Fighting On Storm and Privation— The Refugees— Surrender of Santiago — Stars and Stripes over the City — Return of Refugees— Helped by the Rough Riders 257 CHAPTER XIV. Suffering of the Soldiers— Bad Commissariat— Yellow Fever Scare — Troops not to go Home — Meeting of Officers — Famous Letter to General Shafter — Troops Or- dered Home— On the "Miam.i"— Talk to Men— At Home — Regiment Mascots — Present for the Colonel — Festiv- ities before Disbanding — Farewell to the Rough Riders — Incidents of the Campaign — Colonel Roosevelt's Estimate of his Men - 275 CHAPTER XV. Governor of New York — Exciting Campaign— Takes the Stump — Speeches— In Office — Appointments— Final Day of Legislature, 1899— Pressing Measures— Original Methods — Tenement Houses — Needs of the Poor — Charities — Labor Unions — Labor Leaders — Self Help — Philanthropic Work — Young Men's Christian Associa- tion— Public School Teachers — College Settle- ments— Governor in Fullest Sense 295 CHAPTER XVI. Convention of 1900 — Senator Hanna and Mr. Quay — Senator Depew — Governor Roosevelt Seconds the Motion Nom- inating Mr. McKinley for President — McKinley and Roosevelt — "In the East we call him Teddy" — "For Vice-President, Theodore Roosevelt"— Colonel^ Young Nominating Roosevelt — Enthusiasm and Excitement — For the Campaign — Speeches — the Cotmtry Knows the Man — His Work and his Christian Manliness — A Tribute — Vice-President of the United States 3^5 13 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. The Office of Vice-President Unique— History of the Office— Electoral College— Distrust of Party Government —The Vice-President's Theory of Vice-Presidency— Examples Cited— List of Books Written by Roose- velt—Address in Minnesota— Life of Effort— Right Start- Law and Prosperity— Amassing Fortune— Say what you Mean— Dealings with Cuba— Essential of Civili- zation—President McKinley Shot o37 CHAPTER XVIII. President McKinley at Buffalo-At the Zenith of His Fame —His Popularity— His Hopes— The Address at the Pan- American Exposition— A Famous Speech— A i^arewell Benediction— At Niagara Falls-The Reception at the Exposition, September 7th— 'The President is Shot! — Foreiving his Assassin— Hopes of Recovery— A Turn for the Worse- Tt is God's Way"-Last Scenes —The Whole World Anxious— The End not Far Ott— September 14th— President McKinley is Dead! 301 CHAPTER XIX. In the Adirondacks-Start for Buffalo-Ride Through Storm —At Buffalo— Crowds Silent— Dismisses Military Escort —Visit to Mrs. McKinley— The Oath of Office— Funeral of Mr. McKinley— Christian Manliness of Mr. McKinlev— President Roosevelt's First Cabinet— Cabinet to Remain— An Estimate of Chances Made by a Change of Presidents— First Proclamation of Presi- dent Roosevelt-Young Rulers of the World-Roose- velt the Youngest President— No Doubt of Him 38 j CHAPTER XX. Home Life- Tranquillity" on Oyster Bay-Rule of Simplic- ity—Mrs. Roosevelt— A Gracious and Good Woman- Ideal Wife and Mother-"$300 a Year Enough for a Woman to Dress On"— The Roosevelt Children— "Swashbuckler Americanism"— Honors conferred at Yale College— Resume— The Country is Assured— The Good Work will Go On-The President's Attitude on Affairs of State-The Country will Continue to Speak with Pride the Name of Theodore Roosevelt '^ ' 14 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. The Negro Problem in America — Booker T. Washington, the Ablest Man of His Race — The Colored People to Develop On Their Own Lines — President Roosevelt's First Message to Congress — An Era of Peace and Good Feel- ing— Anarchy — Business Interests — Trusts — Exclusion of Cheap Labor— The Tariff— Reciprocity— Gold Standard — Hawaii, Porto Rico, Cuba — The Philippines — Monroe Doctrine — Army and Navy — Merit System — In- dian Tribes — Postal Service — "Open Door" — Our Policy to Continue Unbroken 43 1 CHAPTER XXII. Schley Court of Inquiry — The Miles Incident — President Roosevelt's First New Year's Reception — German Emperor Wishes Miss Roosevelt to Christen Yacht — Prince Henry of Prussia to Come — Changes in the Cabinet — Ad- miral Schley's Appeal — Illness of President's Son at Groton — Admiral Sampson Retired from Active Service — President's Decision in the Appeal — Moody Succeeds Long — Open- ing of the Charleston Exposition — Unveiling of Monument in Arlington Cemetery — The Address There — New Eng- land Tour — Accident to the President — Southern Trip^ — The President Tries to Adjust the Strike of the Miners — Com- pletion of First Year of the Presidency 487 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Theodore Roosevelt Frontispiece Roosevelt as a Boy 21 Mrs. Edith Carow Roosevelt 44 Vice-President Roosevelt and President Milburn at Buffalo. ... 53 President Roosevelt's Church and his Pastor 64 Roosevelt in Hunting Costume, taken in 1885 73 Mr. Roosevelt at Twenty-eight 84 Roosevelt in "Cow-Boy" Costume 93 The First Cougar Killed 120 Mr. Roosevelt in his Garden at Oyster Bay 129 Mr. Roosevelt Campaigning in New York o 140 Mrs. Roosevelt and Baby Ouentin 149 Night Inspection 160 At the Convention, Philadelphia, 1900 160 Yale Bi-Centennial Procession 196 The Roosevelt Children in 1898 205 Air. Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy 216 A Roosevelt Family Group, taken in 1895 225 Colonel Wood and Lieut. Colonel Roosevelt 236 Colonel Roosevelt and His Officers 245 Colonel Roosevelt and his Favorite ]\Iount 272 President Roosevelt at his Desk in the White House , . . 281 Mrs. Roosevelt's Church and her Pastor 292 Mr. McKinley and Mr. Roosevelt 301 15 16 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Mr. Roosevelt arriving at the Capitol, March 4, 1901 312 Colonel Roosevelt at Montauk Point 321 Lieut. Colonel Roosevelt and Capt. Downes 348 The Gubernatorial Notification Committee, 1899 357 Campaigning, in 1900 368 Vice-Presidential Notification Committee 377 President McKinley and Vice-President Roosevelt at the Mc- Kinley Home, Canton, 0 404 George B. Cortelyou 413 The Wilcox Residence, Buffalo 424 President Roosevelt and his First Cabinet 433 Governor Roosevelt at Home 444 President Roosevelt Jumping a Plurdle 453 Henry C. Payne 496 Leslie M. Shaw 496 Miss Alice Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., 1900 505 William H. Moody 518 Miss Alice Roosevelt 523 CHAPTER L ^treditv-Progenitors-Eight Generations of the Family Residents of New \ oV ^S-Famii;of Americans-Great-Grandfather and the Revolution-Gra.d- ather one of the Wealthiest Alen in New York-Theodore RooseveK, Sr one of the Leading Men of his Day-Early Trammg and Outdoor i-^e-H^^" 4r 1-Athlete and Student-College Men and Poht>cs-Duty o. Educated Men. THE training of a man, according to Oliver We^'dell Holmes, should begin with his grandfather. If this tormula be correct, then the training of the Twenty-sixth President of the United States began at the right period of time. Ihe office of the head of a Republic has been said to be largely an a.:cident, the political aspect of the season actuating the choice of the man, party principle pre- dominating over the personal excellence of the proposed executive, and desire to defeat the opposition making the choice of a candidate not so much his innate strength as that of his ability to carry out the lines of his party. Also, it ha. been asserted that the happiest accident of all has been in the case of the United States, for that m nearly every instance the man elected to the Presidency has been a man of singular ability, which in times of stress has come to the fore irrespec- tive of party measures or party prognostications. Once more, it has been advanced as an incontrovertible fact that no American can refuse the office of President once he is assured of his election, that assimilation with the idea of assuming the position preeminent above all others in the political arena of the country causes a striving of every moral fiber toward such a consummation; and that, though weak men may have been once or twice nominated, the mere fact of their nomination has made them stronger. ^^ 18 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. In the case of Theodore Roosevelt the fallaciousness of more than one of these premises is made apparent. He was not the choice of any party — except as an expedient; for, on the death of a President the Vice-President assumes the chair; and at the time of his election as Vice-President he was not unduly impressed with an honor that might be his were direful accident to call upon his energies to assume the reins of government. That the formula of Oliver Wendell Holmes holds good in his case is another thing. Heredity, environment, education, experience in political office in many fields; intellectual study of the history of his country and that country's institutions; residence in the East and in the West; affilia- tion with the South through his mother, who was a native of Georgia; association with men of all sorts and conditions of life — these go to form the basic qualificatioi-is of Theodore Roosevelt as President of the United States. In him is mingled the Dutch, the Scotch, the Irish, and the French Huguenots. From, the Dutch he should get solidity and stabihty; from the Scotch, acuteness; from the Irish blood in him, aggressiveness and generosity; from the French, vivacity, imagination and audacity. The mingling of the blood of so many races surely means virility, originality, candor, in- telligence, integrity, daring and even balance. Eight generations of the family have resided in New York. From 1652, back in the days of John DeWitt, as the head of the Dutch republic, when Klass Martenson Roosevelt left Holland and landed in New Amsterdam, down to the present time, the contemporary records of New York City under its different designaticwis and political connections have contained the names of one or more Roosevelts. For two and a half centuries they have been conspicuous figures in the business, social and political affairs of the American Metropolis. The life and environment of all these generations of PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 19' Roosevelts must form a part of the mental and moral equipment of the man, who was born in New York City October 27, 1858. His mother was of the Bonhills, and had relatives of the name of Lukin and Craig — thus, the Irish and the Scotch. The Lamontaigne family is in his ancestry, as are also the Devoes, of Georgia and South Carolina. His maternal uncle, James D. Bullock, built the noted privateer Alabama; and another of the Bullocks fired the last gun aboard her. As to the Roosevelts, a number of them came into marked prominence during the Revolution. They were men of importance and the traditions of their ancestor, who had left the Netherlands so long ago to establish himself in the new world, abided with them. They had been British subjects, they were American citizens; they had accepted the form of government provided by the Crown, but when the mother country usurped her rights and became a tyran- nical despot, they were among the first to resist injustice and to insist upon fair treatment. The history of their family told of hardship in the earlier days, when Klass Roosevelt entered New Amsterdam and made his way; and now, when time and industry had rooted deep their belongings and they were an integral part of the new land, they, with the other colonists, rebuked the efforts of the British Crown to reduce them from the estate of free men, with a voice in the affairs of their land, into mere vassals of a country thousands of miles away, and which insisted upon their subserviency to the most ob- noxious forms of rule. The Roosevelts were foremost in being called "rebels" to the authority of King George. They were men of sub- stance; they had succeeded in what they had undertaken; they were of authority; and in a moment they were to be unduly taxed; they were to be made puppets to the Crown; they were to be brought down farther than any of the family had ever been. They resisted; 20 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. they were pleased to be called "rebels;" they were Americans, and America was for the Americans, and should no longer be tributary to a country and a King that knew no fair treatment as far as the colonies were concerned. Just previous to the War for Independence, and during its earlier years, Isaac Roosevelt was a member of the New York Provincial Congress. His showing in that body was to his credit, he having espoused the causes that should lead only to the good of the Colonies. Later, he sat in the State Legislature and was a member of the New York City Council. The measures for the advancement of the prosperity of what the colonists were now beginning to call "our country" received his support, and he was not chary of con- tributing from his goodly share of this world's wealth with which Providence had blest him toward any advancement of the success of New York and her sister colonies. He enjoyed the confidence of his friends and the friends of the colonies, and his name was not confined to any district; and when he was President of the Bank of New York he was recognized as an astute man of business who had his country's honor at stake and sought to preserve that honor. Jacobus J. Roosevelt, great-grandfather of the subject of this volume, was born in 1759, and he gave his services without compen- sation as commissary during the War of Independence. He had inherited a fortune that was considerable for those times, and he did not hesitate to draw from it and give it to the struggling people around him, his brothers, w-ho were striving with him for freedom from a galling yoke. He had everything at stake, and he did not hesitate to place his life along with his worldly goods. The long and arduous war, the heavy duties devolving upon kim, separation from his family, whom he scarcely knew were secure in his absence from them — this he took upon him- self with fidelity and the stubborn determination of his blood, and ROOSEVELT AS A BOY PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 23 his share in the insisted-iipon independence of the conntr}" was neither inconsiderable nor a sinecnre. The story comes to us of Valley Forge and the freezing, starving men there, Washington cosiderably disconcerted, if not discouraged, and of Jacob Roosevelt impressing horses and other cattle to get tO' the suffering army the stores of food and clothing so much needed. His own privations were many, but he regarded himself only as another man in the army of untrained farmers and unmilitary civilians, and did not spare him- self. The history of the times holds him in veneration, and even though in happier years his worldly efforts succeeded beyond his ex- pectations, he had gladly and willingly thrown in his lot with the poorest drummer-boy in the raw Continental Army, and did not hold himself above and beyond the lowliest. A brother of this Revolutionary patriot, Nicholas J. Roosevelt, born in New York City in 1767, was an inventor of much ability. He was the associate of Robert L. Livingston, John Stevens and Robert Fulton in developing the steamboat and steam navigation. The grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt, Cornelius van Shaick Roosevelt, born in New York City in 1794, was an importer of hard- ware and plate glass, and one of the five richest men in the town, which was then counting its wealth in many figures. New and palatial buildings were going up, and an era of spending money had come in after the stress and hardship of unsettled times, and vessels were bringing to the new United States of America vast numbers of men and women from the old world, all anxious to achieve in the new surroundings what the old had denied to them. The French Revolution was responsible for much of the immigration, and stately gentlemen and fair ladies of the old regime came over with the un- couth element from downtrodden fields of Ireland and Germany. The country was prospering, banks founded on a tirm basis were raising their walls, industries were springing up, the arts and scences 24 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. were receiving new impetus. The Chemical Bank of New York was proposed, and Cornelius Roosevelt was one of the founders of it. In the larger cities of the country the social life was becoming more prominent. Madam Washington had several years ago established a precedent for certain punctilios which made the General's drawing- rooms almost a court. Among the plainer people there was an un- founded fear that probably the institutions of Great Britain were to be introduced now that the land was free from the throne, and that the excess of formality accredited to General Washington was to lead to a regimen where none but those in authority of office or wealth would be tolerated. The women of the Roosevelt family were prominent in social affairs, but they and other ladies of n?eans tabooed the idea of social seclusion, which was never intended by General Washington, stickler though he might be as to etiquette. The Presidents Adams and their consorts were more democratic, and the merchants and business men of the country understood the trend of affairs, and the femimine portion of their households estab- lished a form of society which, while free from a too-open democratic leaning, was eligible to all who by reason of gentleness of birth, strength of prowess, learning, or gifts of art and success of endeavor, might desire to step across the threshold. The Roosevelt ladies were prominent in charities as well, and were not behindhand in hospital and prison work where the ameliorating hand of woman might do so much to heal the wounds of the body and spirit. James J. Roosevelt, a brother of Cornelius Roosevelt, was a warm friend and ardent admirer of Andrew Jackson, and "Old Hickory" was not averse to consulting him now and then. James Roosevelt served in the New York Legislature, and was a Justice of the Supreme Court of New York from 185 1 to 1859. A cousin of Theodore, James Henry Roosevelt, was distinguished for his philanthropies, and left an estate of a million dollars, which by PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 25 good manag-ement was doubled in value, to found the famous Roose- velt Hospital in New York City. Cornelius V. S. Roosevelt, the grandfather, married Mary Bonhill. of Philadelphia. From this union issued Theodore Roosevelt, the father. After all that is said of the ancestry of the boy who was born in 1858, much is owing to the father, who married Martha Bullock. The boy born in 1858 was early to be inducted into the troublous times of war, though too young to understand. The troubles be- tween the North and the South occurred when he was a child of tender years, and his recollection of the dreariness of those days was to be only the brightness of it all, when he 'was taken to see the troops depart, flags flying, drums beating and bands playing. His father was one of the leading men of the day, rapidly amassing a great fortune — for the fortunes of a hundred millions had not yet come into existence. The elder Theodore was a philanthropist and a lover oi outdoor life. To him more than to any one else the boy was to be indebted for a system of sane living, open air exercise after tiresome business hours, and a leaving of heavy cares for a spell of roughing it with nature. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., was prominent in devising and carrying out the present system of newsboys' lodging-houses. The homelessness of many of the waifs that thronged the city streets during the Civil War appealed to him, and he got other influential men to join him in establishing a home life for the stranded atoms of childhood who were thrown upon their own poor resources. Through the expenditure of large sums of money he helped to gather together the ragged untutored dispensers of "Extras" and housed and fed them in comfort and cleanliness and put them on the road to self-respect, encouraged and protected. He also devised and put into operation the plan of the war-time allotment commission, bringing to it a keen insight and levelheaded- ness that stood good for the country torn by conflicting factions, 26 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. when the issue of the struggle was uncertain, and when few^ of the foreign powers retained faith in a land that for the moment seemed unable to take care of itself. From his earliest childhood the young- Theodore was taught the injunction to be active and industrious. His father held that no one had a right to merely cumber the earth; that the most contemptible of human beings w^as the man who did nothing. The child imbibed the idea that he must do something and do it well. During the war he was not hampered as were many of the children of millionaires; when he went to see the troops leave the city for the front he must w^alk; when he wanted a flagstaff for his flag he must make it. It was the beginning of his outdoor life which has had so much attraction for him ever since. Then came the fall of Abra- ham Lincoln. The boy tramped the city in company with whoever had him in charge noting the excitement, the badges of mourning; he noted the distress of those round him; his home was depressed, and the men who came to see his father w-ere grim of visage, with few- smiles for the little child they often encountered in the hall. These men would go into the library and talk long and earnestly with his father about panics and the money market — themes which were meaningless to his young ears. Years and years later he was to un- derstand it clearly; and when he stood in the presence of the terrible work of another assassin's hand the earlier recollections were doubt- less to rise before him. Touching that same time when the boy was so young, it may not be out of place to recall, when the Capitol was afterwards somber with the mourning emblems for the man whose death made Theodore Roosevelt President, an incident recalling the assassination of President Lincoln: Among the many structures in Washington where symbols of grief have been displayed since President McKinley passed away, none attracts more attention than the unpretentious house at No. 516 Tenth Street, Northwest, where Abraham Lincoln, America's first PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 27 martyred chief magistrate, breathed his last. The emblems of mourn- ing, although of the simplest design, give an added significance to the building, ^vhich displays at its portals the inscription that makes it one of the most revered spots in the nation's capital. Over the old-fashioned doorway entrance to the principal floor, which is reached by a series of stone steps with a winding iron railing, is a festooned mass of crape which sweeps in broad bands down the long columns at either side of the outer vestibule and almost trails upon the threshold. In the central and southern windows of each of the main floors there depend from the sills bits of black, and through the panes of the windows on the main floor may be seen small flags trimmed with crape. In themselves these samples of the stars and stripes are insignificant, but they are cherished for their histories. Nothing could be more eloquent than the empty flag-staf¥ pro- truding from the upper northern window and covered only with tightly-wound crape. The window directly over the main door^vay contains no funereal bunting or other emblem, but the yellow shade is closely drawn and it seems particularly bare. For this reason many have supposed that the immortal victim of J. Wilkes Booth died in this room. Such is not the fact, however, for Lincoln was too griev- ously hurt to be carried up the narrow stair by the excited men who held his unconscious form. Connected with the hallway on the main floor, in about the centre of the building, is an ordinary sleeping- chamber, and to this the wounded President was borne. There he was laid on the bed of a lodger, a United States soldier, who im- mediately gave up his quarters to his dying commander-in-chief. There are many living in Washington and elsewhere who recall vividly the scenes preliminary to and attending the assassination of the great liberator. The close of one of the greatest conflicts in all history had been celebrated in the national capital on the night ot Aprifiath, 1865, by an illumination of the city that excelled any 28 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. previous demonstration held there. On that auspicious night Presi- dent Lincohi addressed an immense assemblage in front of the White House, congratulating the country upon the restoration of amity and the end of the bloody Civil War. Bands of music paraded the thor- oughfares, and the jubilee continued until dawn peeped over the eastern hills. There was no premonition of the tragedy impending. Jollity and congratulation held complete sway. The rejoicing continued the following day, and in the evening President and Mrs. Lincoln attended a play at the old Ford's Theatre, on Tenth Street, Northwest, between E and F streets. This building, the front of which is yet standing without change, has been re- modeled inside and serves as a branch of the records division of the War Department. To-day it flies at half-mast a ragged little flag, with a jagged hole near the centre. The same flag waved sadly in the breeze for the dead Lincoln and the martyred Garfield. It is one of the most treasured bits of tri-color in the city of Washington. While the performance at the old theatre was in progress on the evening of April 14th, Booth, who was an actor, entered the private box in which the chief magistrate was seated and fired the fatal shot. Then he jumped to the stage, shouted ''Sic semper tyrannis,'' fled through the stage entrance to an alley-way in the rear of the play- ho'Use, mounted a waiting horse and made his escape. When it was realized that President Lincoln had been wounded he was hastily lifted by willing hands and borne out of the theatre on the Tenth Street side to the humble house across the way. From the moment that the bullet entered his body it was realized that there was no prospect of recovery. Mrs. Lincoln and members of the Cabinet re- mained at the bedside in the Tenth Street house throughout that memorable night, when all Washington was in a fever of excitement over the crime against the President and the effort that had been jnade to stab Seward, PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 29 As daylight drew near, the pulse of the wounded executive became more and more feeble. At 6.30 o'clock in the morning the public received the ominous bulletin, "Sinking slowly." Another bulletin at seven o'clock stated that the end was near. Death came at 7.22 o'clock, while the stricken mistress of the White House, with Secre- taries Stanton, Wells, and Usher, and Private Secretary John Hay — William McKinley's Secretary of State, and now next in order of succession to the Presidency — stood hopelessly at the bedside. The stillness was broken by a prayer, and then the solemn voice of Secretary Stanton broke the silence with, "Now he belongs to the ages." To this humble death place of Abraham Lincoln there come each year thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world. Within its bare rooms have been assembled many articles that figured in the immortal rail-splitter's career and were associated in the tragedy which prostrated a nation with grief. And since William McKinley fell beneath the bullet of an assassin the Lincoln house has become one of the principal sights in Washington, for tlie tragedy at Buffalo has revived and intensified the everlasting sorrow that grew out of the event in Ford's Theatre in April, 1865. The education of Young Roosevelt was undertaken upon strictly practical lines. He had the advantage of good schools and masters, but he lived the boy-life of the ordinary well-to-do youth. He was sturdy and strong, as often as possible in the open air, whether it was in the city or at his father's country house. He early developed a liking for animals, and his dogs and ponies were his prized com- panions. He began the use of the saddle at an early age and before he was in his teens he was acquainted with the good points of a horse and held colloquy with the coachman respecting the merits of the steeds which were his own special property. As he grew older he often accompanied his father on hunting expeditions, and the keen §orrow of his life was the death of that father in 1872. 30 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. When "Teddy" Roosevelt entered Harvard College he did so with- out any special advantages or prestige. He had a good stock of health and preserve strength, and believing, as his father before him had believed, that a sound mind is the outcome of a sound body, he went in for the sports that should keep up his vigor and was foremost in the field games. He was studious without being didactic, and he went through with a large amount of reading, though he seems to have always had time for anything else that turned up. As is the way of busy men, there is always time for doing whatever offers, for "without pause and without haste" would seem to be the maxim of life, though unexpressed in so many words by those who achieve most in the world. He had early made up his mind to enter into the affairs of the country, as his ancestors had done before him. He believed that educated men were in honor bound to do their full share of the work of American public life. He wrote that we have in this country an equality of rights, and that it was the plain duty of every man to see that those rights were respected. Education gave no man the right to feel the least superiority over his fellow citizens, he said, but it certainly ought to make him feel that he should stand foremost in the honorable effort to serve the whole public by doing his duty as an American in the body politic. In his paper on "Colleges and Public Life" he says: "This obligation very possibly rests even more heavily upon men of means; but of this it is not necessary now to speak. The men of mere wealth never can have and never should have the capacity for doing good work that is possessed by the men of exceptional mental training; but that they may become both a laughing stock and a menace to the community is made unpleasantly apparent by that portion of the New York business and social world which is most in evidence in the papers." PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 31 Educated men. he goes on to say, are bound to follow understand- ingly the course of public events; they are bound to try to estimate and form judgment upon public men; and they are bound to act in- telligently and effectively in support of the principles which they deem to be right and for the best interests of the country. An edu- cated man must not go into politics as such, but simply as an Ameri- can. But once in he must speedily understand that he must work hard indeed or he will be upset by some other American who has no education at all, but with much natural capacity. In other words, the educated man must reahze that he is living in a democracy and under democratic conditions, and that he is entitled to not a bit more respect and consideration than his abilities can command. "Wrongs should be strenuously and fearlessly denounced; evil principles and evil men should be condemned. The politician who cheats or swindles, or the newspaper-man who lies in any form should be made to feel that he is an object of scorn for all honest men." In giving- advice to college men, and he knew whereof he spoke, he denies that they are better or worse than men who have never been inside the walls of a college, while their responsibilities are in- finitely greater. 'The worst offense that can be committed against the Republic is the offense of the public man who betrays his trust; but second only to it comes the offense of the man who tries to persuade others that an honest and efficient public man is dishonest or unworthy. This is a wrong that can be committed in a great many different ways. Downright foul abuse may, after all, be less dangerous than incessant misstatements, sneers, and those half-truths, which are the meanest lies." The young college man must learn that he must deal with the mass of men, go out and stand shoulder to shoulder with friends and foes alike, and take his part in th^ hurly-burly of the political life, should 32 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. he choose that for his own. No man ever really learned from books how to manage a govermental system. Books are admirable ad- juncts, and the statesman who has carefully studied them is far more apt to do good work than if he had not; but if he has never done any- thing but study books he will not be a statesman at all. At Harvard he was reading and thinking. He was to enter politics and he must needs understand the working of the government which he respected. "No government that cannot command the respectful support of thinkers is in an entirely sound condition. Each man should realize that he cannot do his best either in the study of politics or in the applied politics unless he has a working knowledge of both branches." If an educated man was not heartily American in instinct and feel- ing, and taste, and sympathy, he W'Ould amount to nothing in Ameri- can public life. Patriotism, love of country, and pride in the flag might be feelings wdiich the race would at some period outgrow, but at present they were real and strong, and the man who was lacking in them was a useless creature, a mere encumbrance to the land. Ac- cording to his ideas, a man of sound political instincts could no more subscribe to the doctrine of absolute independence of party on the one hand than to that of unquestioning party allegiance on the other. No man could accomplish much unless he worked in an organization with others, and this organization, no matter how^ temporary, was a party for the time being. But that man was a dangerous citizen who so far mistook means for ends as to become servile in his devotion to his party, and afraid to leave it when the party went wrong. To deify either independence or party allegiance, merely as such, was absurd. The truth was, according to this creed wdiich he laid down for the collep-e man, such as was himself, that there were times when it might be the duty of a man to break with his party, and there were other times when it might be his duty to stand by his party even PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 33 though on some points he thought that party wrong; he must be prepared to leave it when necessary, and he must not sacrifice his influence by leaving it unless it were necessary. "If we had no party allegiance our politics would become mere windy anarchy, and under present conditions our government could hardly continue at all. If we had no independence we should always be running the risk of the most degraded kind of despotism — the despotism of the party boss and the party machine." It was just the same as to compromises. It was a truism to say that in politics there was one continual compromise. Though now and then cjuestions arose where a compromise was not to be thought of, there should be no avoidable compromise about any great moral ques- tion; but only a very few great reforms or great measures of any sort could be carried through without concessions. "No student of American history needs to be reminded that the Constitution itself is a bundle of compromises, and was adopted only because of this fact, and that the same thing is true of the Emanci- pation Proclamation." In conclusion, a man with a university education was in honor bound to take part in political life, and to do his full duty as a citizen by helping his fellow citizens to the extent of his power in the exercis'e of the rights of self-government. He was bound to estimate action as far above criticism, and to understand that the man deserving credit was the man who actually did the things, even though imperfectly, and not the man who did nothing but say how they ought to be done. He was bound to have a high ideal and to try to realize it, and yet he must make up his mind that he would never be able to get the highest good, and that he must devote himself with every bit of his energy to getting the best that he could. Finally, the college man's work must be disinterested and honest, and it must be given without regard to his personal success gr failure, and without regard to the 34 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. effect it might have upon his fortunes or chances; and while he must show the virtues of uprightness, and tolerance, and gentleness, he must also put forth the sterner virtues of courage, resolution and hardihood, along with the desire to war mercilessly against the ex- istence of wrong. This is scarcely an easy creed for the aspirant to political honors, nor was it intended to be easy. In his room at Harvard Roosevelt was thinking out the problems of the government of the country. The men of his family had had to do with the affairs of America, and by natural inheritance he should drift that way. The feverish- ness of politics must not touch him, though his aggressive qualities should come to the fore in doing what he nitended to do — he might fail or he might succeed, but in either event he meant to do his best and to truckle to no party interests. A statesman? He would be that if possible, and his debates at college show him to have been no mean speaker from the first. His voice was good, he had the address of a gentleman, and he was not afraid and not easily put down by good-natured chaff or less good-natured ridicule. He was urbane and natural, with peculiar distaste for affectation and what was not entirely real. He took defeat well, and when routed in argument met his superior opponent with good nature. On the athletic field he felt at home, and in the various sports in which he indulged he was rarely second best. His summers were passed with his people or on hunting expeditions for as big game as could be reached. His studies were well prepared and he neglected little necessary work for his political studies and his games in the field. It is doubtful if he ever once lost sight of the idea that he should succeed in the political arena. As the day drew near when he should be graduated from college he looked with peculiar interest into the government of his own city of New York. He saw there the state of affairs that has characterized so many American cities that have come within the PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 35 power of a party so strong as to have lost the idea of being over- thrown. The newspapers told him of malfeasance in office; of un- scrupulous men in seats of power; and he waited for the time when he, too, should have a say in the ruling of the city, and wondered how he should be received by those in authority. He had Httle of the timidity of the tyro; politics was his field; his life had that trend, so there could be little use in holding back or cultivating a squeamish- ness that rather befitted the man uncertain of himself. In all ualks of life we encounter the disagreeable along with the agreeable, and while no other member of his family was in politics, and might reason with him to not attempt it, yet there was no reason in the world why a college-bred man who had read all about government, and States, and Kingdoms, might not take his chances in a profession which called for the highest, and often got the other thing — even ward politics. His father was dead — that great and good friend who had done so much for him — and he supposed that the law would be his forte once he had bid good-by to Harvard. But not to become a mere lawyer, satisfied with briefs and the settlement of estates — there was a wider field for one learned in the law — a more exciting and intricate pro- fession— politics — the straightening out of the mode of government which so easily slips into irregular hands; the settling of the tempes- tuous course which the ship of State must take to bring it to safe haven with its cargo of the people's rights for the people's needs. CHAPTER II. Graduated at Harvard — Entrance into Political Life — Member of New York Assembly — At Albany — Reform Charter for New York — Married — Various Honors as Assemblyman — Death of his Mother and his Wife — State Legislation — Duties of Citizens to Attend Primaries — Bribe-taking — "Bosses"-- Corrupt Politics the Fault of Citizens at Large — Machine Politics — Leaving the Assembly — Literary Work. AT the age of twenty-two, in 1880, Theodore Roosevelt was graduated at Harvard University. He took a European trip for rest before entering upon his life career. He tramped through Germany, his love of walking never absent from him. His first view of the Alps inspired him with the desire to mount them, and he climbed the Jungfrau and the Matterhorn. Returning to New York he began the study of the law, but politics called him as they were bound to do. 'T have always believed," he has said, describing his entry into the political field, "that every man should join a political organization and should attend the primaries; that he should not be content to be merely governed, but should do his part of that work. So after leaving college I went to the local political headquarters, attended all the meetings and took my part in whatever came up. There arose a revolt against the member of Assembly from that district, and I was nominated to succeed him, and was elected." It was in the fall of 1881 that he was elected from the XXI. dis- trict, and he was twice re-elected, serving in the legislatures of 1882, 1883 and 1884. At Albany he found a fruitful field for the aggressive- ness of his nature which wrongdoing has never failed to arouse. Some of the veteran politicians were at first amused by his energy 37 B8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. and the ingenuousness and straightforwardness of his speeches. But they were speedily to discover that this "youngster/' as some one of them called him, was a fighter who could not be kept under either by open or secret methods. Few men looked less fitted for public life. He was well dressed, while his eyeglasses led the Tammany Hall .members to think him effeminate. Then they learned that he was a good all-round boxer, and two or three encounters, in which however ro blows were struck, convinced them that he was a courageous man. Though the fact that he had literary inclinations caused the opinion to gain ground that he was merely a writer and would take no active part in legislation once the novelty had worn off. However, the new member from the XXIst soon began to express his sentiments, and the serious minded members of the Assembly began to think that his judgment regarding New York City matters had soundness in it. He was an attractive speaker, was rapid in speech, hit hard, was good natured, while he was savagely sarcastic in dealing with, rascals, and public opinion outside of Albany w'as soon in his favor. For several years various attempts had been made to pass a reform charter for New York City. All these attempts failed, because the threatened departments united and were too strong for the re- formers. Assemblyman Roosevelt made his attacks on certain city departments separately, and overturned them one after another. His rise in rank was rapid. In the second year of his membership he was Republican candidate for Speaker. It was a Democratic House, but the honor was nevertheless great for so young a man. He had recently married Miss Alice Lee, of Boston, a young lady who believed in his abilities and who urged him to fresh endeavor. In the third year he was placed at the head of the Committee on Cities, for he had proved his thorough knowledge of New York and other cities. He served his constituency especially well by aiding in the passage nf bills abolishing fees in the of^ces of the Register and the County PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 3» Clerk, and while he was chairman of the Committee on Cities he intro- Juced reform legislation which proved immensely beneficial. One of his measures was the act taking from the Board of Aldermen power to confirm or reject the appointments of the Mayor. He was chairman of the noted legislative investigating committee which bore his name, and which revealed many of the abuses existing in the. city government in the early '80s, Assemblyman Roosevelt was highly popular with his associates, irrespective of party, and it is seldom a man receives more genuine expressions of sympathy than did he from his fellow assemblymen when his mother and his young wife to whom he had been married a little over a year, both died in one week. Attending the Republican State Convention of 1884, he was elected one of New York's four delegates-at-large to the Re- publican National Convention, as a delegate desirous of nominating George F. Edmunds for the Presidency. ''Young Roosevelt has started out to reform the universe," were the words of a veteran member of the Assembly at Albany. If this was to be his task New York was an appropriate place to begin it. The spasm of virtuous indignation which had convulsed New York when ten years earlier it had overthrown the Tweed ring had spent its force. Some of the old abuses had been left untouched; many of those which had been re- moved had returned; in the growth in population and wealth in the decade many new abuses had sprung into being. In the sessions of 1882, 1883, and 1884, in which he served, he assailed them all and cor- rected some. From the first his honesty and independence were prominent. He refused to have to do with rings or cliques. Cor- ruption and dishonesty of all sorts in both parties and in every guise he fiercely attacked. Bosses he denounced and defied. With his first entrance into public life he began his career as a reformer. He intro- duced the first intelligently-drawn civil service bill ever presented in the New York Legislature. By an odd coincidence, this was signfcC «> THEODORE ROOSEVELT. by Governor Cleveland at nearly the same time (1883) that the civil service reform measure drafted by Dorman B. Eaton and cham- pioned by Senator George H. Pendleton passed the Republican Con- gress at Washington and received the signature of president Arthur. In his own words, few persons realize the magnitude of the in- terests affected by State legislation in New York. "It is no figure of speech to call New York the Empire State; and many of the laws most directly and immediately affecting its citizens are passed at Albany, and not at Washington." In truth, at Albany there was a little home-rule parliament which ruled much of the destiny of a commonwealth more dense in popula- tion than any one of two-thirds of the Eu-ropean kingdoms, and one which in regard to wealth, material prosperity, variety of in- terests, extent of territory, and capacity for expansion can truthfully be said to rank next to the powers of the first class. Among his colleagues there were many good men; there was also a class of men that were not very good nor very bad, but went one way or the other according to the strength of the various conflicting influences brought to bear around, behind and upon them. "Where a number of men, many of them poor, some of themi un- scrupulous, and others elected by constituents too ignorant to hold them to a proper accountability for their actions, are put into a position of great temporary power, where they are called to take action upon questions affecting the welfare of large corporations and wealthy private individuals, the chances for corruption are always great; and that there is much viciousness and political dishonesty, much moral cowardice, and a good deal of actual bribe taking in Albany, no one who has had any practical experience of legislation can doubt; but, at the same time, I think that the good members generally outnumber the bad, and that there is not often doubt as to the result when a naked question of right or wrong can be placed clearly and in its true light before the Legislature." PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 41 Regarding bribe-taking, in each of the three Legislatures there were certain men who were interested in getting through measures which they thought to be for the public good, but which were certain to be strongly opposed — some for political, some for money reasons. "To get through any such measure requires genuine hard work, a certain amount of parliamentary skill, a good deal of tact and courage, and above all a thorough knowledge of the men with whom one has to deal, and of the motives which actuate them. In other words, before taking any active steps we had^to 'size up' our fellow legislators to find out their past history and present character and associates; to find out whether they were their own masters or were acting under the directions of somebody else; whether they were bright or stupid, etc., etc. As a result, and after very careful study conducted purely with the object of learning the truth so that we might work more effectually, we came to the conclusion that about a third of the members were open to corrupt influences in some form or other; in certain sessions the proportion was greater, and in some less. Now it would of course be impossible for me or any one else to prove in a court of law that these men were guilty, except per- haps in one or two cases; yet we felt absolutely confident that there was hardly a case in which our judgment as to the honesty of any given member was not correct. The two or three exceptional cases alluded to, where legal proof of guilt might have been forthcoming, were instances in which honest men were approached by their col- leagues at times when the need for votes was very great; but even then it would have been almost impossible to punish the offenders before a court, for it would have merely resulted in his denying what his accuser stated. Moreover, the members who had been approached would have been very reluctant to come forward, for each of them felt ashamed that his character should not have been well enough known to prevent any one daring to speak to him on such a subject. 42 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. And another reason why the few honest men who are approached (for the lobbyist rarely makes a mistake in his estimate of the men wdio will be apt to take bribes) do not feel like taking action in the matter is that a doubtful lawsuit will certainly follow, which will drag on so long that the public will come to regard all the participants with equal distrust, while in the end the decision is quite as likely to be against as to be for them." Thus, it would seem, it is almost beyond possibility to actually convict a legislator of bribe-taking, though at the same time the true character of a legislator soon becomes known, and no dishonest man can long keep his reputation good among those who are honest. Roosevelt, as reformer, knew what was going on around him. Hobnobbing with all sorts and conditions of men, making impas- sioned speeches, he was acquainted with the men with whom he associated and who listened to the words he had to say. Corruption in ofifice angered him thoroughly and he says: "Much the largest percentage of corrupt legislators come from the great cities; indeed, the majority of Assemblymen from the great cities are 'very poor specimens;' while on the contrary the Congress- men v/ho go from them are generally pretty good men. This fact is only one of the many that goes to establish the curious political law that in a great city the larger the constituency which elects a public servant, the more apt that servant is to be a good one; exactly as the Mayor is almost certain to be infinitely superior in character to the average Alderman, or the average city Judge to the aver- age city Justice. This is because the public servants of com- paratively small importance are protected by their own insignifi- cance from the consequences of their bad actions. Life is car- ried on at such a high pressure in the great cities, men's time is so fully occupied by their manifold and harassing in- terests and duties, and their knowledge of their neighbors is neces- MRS. EDITH CAROW ROOSEVELT PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 45 sarily so limited, that they are only able to fix in their minds the characters and records of a few prominent men; the others they kimp together without distinguishing between individuals. They know whether the Aldermen as a body are to be admired or despised; but they probably do not even know the name, far less the worth, of the particular Alderman who represents their district; so it happens that their votes for Aldermen and Assemblymen are generally given with very little intelligence indeed, while on the contrary they are fully competent to pass and execute judgment upon as promurent an ofiticial as a Mayor or even a Congressman. Hence it follows that the latter have to give a good deal of attention to the wishes and pre- judices of the public at large, while a city Assemblyman, though he always talks a great deal about the people, rarely, except in certain extraordinary cases, has to pay much heed to their wants. His political future depends far more upon the skill and success with which he cultivates the good will of certain 'bosses,' or of certain cliques of politicians, or even of certain bodies and knots of men (such as compose a trade-union, or a collection of merchants in some special business, or the managers of a railroad) whose interests, being vitally alTected by State legislation, oblige them closely to watch and try to punish or reward the State legislators. These poHticians or sets of interested individuals generally care very little for a man's honesty so loug as he can be depended upon to do as they wish on certain occasions; and hence it often happens that a dishonest man who has sense enough not to excite attention by any flagrant outrage may continue for a number of years to represent an honest constituency." How could a man using such language be popular among men who went into politics for the money to be gained by the move? Roosevelt had many opponents and made such opponents uncom- fortable by his stubborn determination and his ability to show fight. 46 IrlEODORE ROOSEVELT. He was above suspicion as a place-seeker, though it was known from the first that he intended to try for rulership in poHtics; his methods were too unpopular for the dishonest ruler, and they believed that they controlled the majority. His fortune saved him from the opprobrium of acting for mere effect, so that, at the proper time, he might swell his bank account by some bold stroke. He was begin- ning to be regarded as a statesman and an honest politician, and as such he was unbeloved by the class of men who at first had looked leniently upon him because of his well-fitting garment^ his eye- glasses, and his literary proclivities. On one occasion there came before a committee, of which Mr. Roosevelt was a member, a perfectly proper bill in the interest of a certain corporation; the majority of the committee, six in number, were unscrupulous men who opposed the measure in the hope of being paid money to end their opposition. Mr. Roosevelt had con- sented to take charge of the bill. When he did so he bad stipulated that not a penny should be expended to insure its passage. It there- fore became necessary to see what pressure could be brought to bear on the recalcitrant members of the committee, and accordingly the minority had to find out who were the sponsors of the political ex- istence of these men. Three were found to be under the control of local "statesmen" of the same party as themselves, and of equally shady moral character; one was ruled by a politician of unsavory reputation; the fifth, a Democrat, was owned by a Republican Federal official; while the president of a city railway company controlled the sixth. A couple of letters from these two magnates forced the last mentioned members to change front, and Mr. Roosevelt's friends carried the measure. In his paper on "Phases of State Legislation" he says: "There are two classes of cases in which corrupt members get money. One is when a wealthy corporation buys through some PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 47 measure which will be of great benefit to itself, although perhaps an injury to the public at large; the other is when a member introduces a bill hostile to some moneyed interest with the expectation of being- paid to let the matter drop. The latter, technically called a 'strike,' is much the more common ; for in spite of the outcry against them in legislative matters, corporations are more often sinned against than sinning. It is difficult for reasons already stated to convict the offending member, though we have very good laws against bribery. The reform has got to come from the people at large. It will be hard to make any great improvement in the character of the legislators until respectable people become fully awake to their duties, and until the newspapers become more truthful and less reckless in their state- ments." But "there is a much brighter side to the picture — and this is the larger side, too. It would be impossible to get together a body of more earnest, upright and disinterested men than the band of legislators, largely young men who" (during the three years he was in office) "have averted so much evil and accomplished so much good at Albany. * * * This body of legislators who, at any rate, worked honestly for what they thought right, were as a whole quite unselfish and were not treated particularly well by their constituents. Most of them soon got to realize the fact that if they wished to enjoy their brief space of political life they would have to make it a rule never to consider, in deciding how to vote on any question, how their vote would affect their own political prospects." But the people had themselves to blame for a state of afifairs need- ing such signal reformation. It is generally acknowledged that the people in the large cities of the Union have neglected their political duties. In consequence they have been regarded with contempt by the professional politicians. A number of people will get together, hire a hall and call a meeting, when they will cry "reform," and then disband apparently under the belief that they have done their duty as 48 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. citizens and members of the community. While he was in the State Legislature Mr. Roosevelt asserted that four out of every five of our wealthy and educated men were really ignorant of the nature of a caucus or a primary meeting, and never attend either. "Under our form of government, no man can accomplish anything by himself — he must work in combination with others. * * * But there seems often to be a certain lack of the robuster virtues in our educated men which makes them shrink from the struggle and the inevitable contact with rough politicians (who must often be rudely handled before they can be forced to behave); while their lack of familiarity with their surroundings causes them to lack discrimination between the politicians who are decent and those who are not; for in their eyes the two classes both equally unfamiliar, are indistinguishable. Another reason why this class is not of more consequence in politics is that it is often really out of sympathy — or, at least, its more conspicuous members are — with the feelings and interests of the great mass of American people; and it is a discreditable fact that it is in this class that what has been most aptly termed the 'colonial' spirit still sur- vives. * * * From different causes the laboring classes even when thoroughly honest at heart often fail to appreciate honesty in their representatives. They are frequently not well informed in re- gard to the character of the latter, and they are apt to be led aside by the loud professions of the so-called labor reformers who are always promising to procure by legislation the advantages which can only come to workingmen, or to any other men, by their individual or united energy, intelligence and forethought. Very much has been accomplished by legislation for laboring men by procuring mechanics' lien laws, factory laws, etc. ; and hence it often comes that they think legislation can accomplish all things for them; and it is only natural, for instance, that a certain proportion of their number should adhere PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 49 to the demagogue who votes for a law to doul:)le the rate of wages, rather than to the honest man who opposes it. When people are struggling for the necessaries of existence and vaguely feel, no matter how wrongly, that they are also struggling against an unjustly- ordered system of life, it is hard to convince them of the truth that an ounce of performance on their own part is worth a ton of legisla- tive promises to change in some mysterious manner that life-system." Mr. Roosevelt would have every man in the United States under- stand politics and take his part in the government of the country by such understanding. He had little sympathy with those who com- plained of bad representatation when they took no initiative to pro- tect themselves from it. Rich men and poor men equally possess the inalienable right of having a voice in the affairs of the country, and the careless man or the laggard has little right to protest against a state of affairs brought on by utter heedlessness in relegating their privileges to tricksters and knaves. From the first he advocated the study of politics by all classes, and could not undestand the blind obedience to leaders freely indulged in by men of every social grade. He is particularly hard on the educated man and the man of wealth. Education should teach thought, and wealth grants the ease wherein thought may crystallize; education should be used for the benefit of those debarred from it by stress of circumstance, and wealth should be expended for the best good of those who have it not. These democratic principles he put into speech on all occasions and never so well as when he was prominent in State legislation; and, he insists, when a man is heard objecting to taking part in politics because it is "low," that man may be set down as either a fool or a coward — it would be quite as sensible for a militiaman to advance the same plea in refusing to assist in putting down a riot. He has something to say regarding machine politics: "The terms 'machine' and 'machine politician' are now undoubt- edly used ordinarily in a reproachful sense; but it does not follow that 60 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. this sense is always the right one. On the contran- the machine is often a verv powerful instrument for good; and a machine poHtician rcallv desirious of doing honest work on behalf of the community is fifty times as useful as a philanthropic outsider. * * * In the rough, however, the feeling against machine politics and politicians is tolerably well justified by the facts, although this statement really reflects most severely upon the educated and honest people who largely hold themselves aloof from public life and show a curious inca- pacitv for fulfilling their public duties. The organizations that are commonly and distinctly known as machines are those belonging to the two great recognized parties or to their factional subdivisions; and the reason why the word machine has come to be used, to a certain extent, as a term of opprobrium is to be found in the fact that these organizations are now run by the leaders very largely as busi- ness concerns to benefit themselves and their followers, with little regard to the community at large. Tliis is natural enough. The men having the control and doing all the work have gradually come lo have the same feeling about politics that other men have about the business of a merchant or manufacturer; it was too much to expect that if left entirely to themselves they would continue disinterestedly to work for the benefit of others. ^Many a machine poHtician who is to-dav a most unwholesome influence in our politics is in private life quite as respectable as any one else; only he has forgotten that his business affects the State at large, and regarding it as merely his own private concern he has carried into it the same selfish spirit that actuates in business matters the majority of the average mercantile community. A merchant or manufacturer works his business as a rule purely for his own benefit, without any regard whatever for the communitv at large. The merchant uses all his influence for a low tarift'. and the manufacturer is even more strenuously in favor of protection— not at all upon any theory of abstract right, but because PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. ^^ of self-interest. Each views such a pohtical question as the tariff not from the standpoint of how it will affect the nat.on as a whole but merely from that of how it will affect him personally. Ha om- munity were in favor of protection, but nevertheless permitted all the govermental machinery to fall into the hands of importing merchants, ft would be small cause for wonder if the latter shaped the laws to suit themselves, and the chief blame, after all, would rest w.th the supine and lethargic majority which failed to have enough energy to take charge of their own affairs. Our machine poht.c.ans m actual life are in just this same way; their actions are very often d.c- tated by selfish motives, with but little regard for the people a large though like the merchants they often hold a very high standard of honor on certain points; they therefore need to be contmually watched and opposed by those who wish to see good government. But after all. it is hardly to be wondered at that they abuse power which is allowed to fall into their hands owing to the ignorance or timid indifference of those who by rights should themselves keep .. Always he keeps on insisting in his science of poht.cs that the people are themselves respons.ble for whatever form of governmen they are under-if there is a miscarriage of justice the people must ,ool to themselves for the cause; ,f there be chicanery and vdlamy in office, blame not the officeholders so much as the citizens who sat by and saw such men placed in authority. He was the youngest man in the State Legislature and h,s youth was not a plea for arrogance. He was a man and a politican m the best sense of the word; he saw the affairs of his city and State dragged from their lofty pedestal and brought too often mto the lower strata of foulness at the hands of unprincipled neophytes. He condemned tnuch, but with singular philisophy he refused to condemn the actua perpe rators of the wrongs, concluding that the tact consent of tne 62 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. rest of the corrimiinity was the real wrong-doing. His enemies 're- spected him, and he was good-natured even when he was hardest with those he opposed. He had no respect for the boss in pohtics, and yet he did not entirely blame the boss for taking the spoils that were ready at his hand while those who called themselves the real owners made no outcry. Mr. Roosevelt was now deep in the sea of affairs and he was ac- counted by all parties as a rising man. Perhaps he was regarded with suspicion by the pot-house politician who could not understand why "Teddy with the kid gloves" and a bank account should wish to mix up with things that had always gone well enough without him, and would be all the same a hundred years hence. "Teddy with the kid gloves" may have thought that there was not going to be any hundred years hence for him, and that what had gone well enough without him was not going well enough with him. unless he pro- pelled it a little by his efforts. There is little that can be said in his disfavor in any political question he advocated, and his voice, while raised in angry protest against some iniquitous measure proposed by the bosses or their henchmen, had still a kindly tone in it for the machine man who, through ignorance, did as he was told without asking why he did it. Mr. Roosevelt's father had left a considerable estate, and the man- agement of this largely devolved upon the young Assemblyman. He kept up his friendly interest in New York social life, and always the well-being of the city that had engaged the thought of a long line of his progenitors was near his heart. His love for animals kept around him his dogs and his horses, and his gun was ever ready when he could spare the time for a trip away from the hurly-burly of politics, when he might have a month or two in the open air, which was his medicine and his strength. Then he would be back again in the midst of the fray, belligerent if need be, taking his part and 'W- '' l I. i > PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 55 asking for no quarter. His wife had left him a little daughter, Alice, and she was very dear to him. In his country quarters during the summer his daughter was with him — still very young, for the father, too, was young — and his domestic tastes were even then evidenced in his love of home and homely life. And yet "America for the Americans" was his creed, and even then he was perhaps as good a specimen of the American, pure and simple, as the country has called forth. The various Anglicized fads that were springing up in the country found little sympathy with him — only the sports of all countries, the manly feats of field and saddle, were of interest to him as devoloping brain and muscle so much needed in an age when office and counting-house draw away too much good red blood in the effort to accumulate the yellow fever called gold. In 1884 his term in the Assembly came to an end and he retired, for the time being, to private life. His library and his literary pur- suits called him, and, a good friend to himself, his home and healthful enjoyments were a Mecca after the fever of the three years at Albany. The year after he left college he published his "Naval War of 1812," and now he set about writing the "Life of Thomas H. Benton," which was issued in 1886, the year when he married a second time. CHAPTER III. In the West— Ranch Life— Horse Hunting— A Roundup — Enjoyment of the Freedom of Outdoor Life — Activity on the Ranch — Stampede of Cattle — Writer on the Plains — Terrible Cold — Arduous Duties of the Ranchman — Line Riding— "Hamlet" in the Ranch-house— Winter of 1886-87 — Fine De- scriptive Powers — News from the East— Out of Public Life, but Studying the Questions of the Day. THE "impetuous" Theodore Roosevelt, as many called him, the man who was bound to "ruin" his chances by his irritable displays of annoyance when dishonest politics thrust them- selves into view, when he was no longer in the Assembly wrote his books and found time to ranch in the far West, to hunt big game in the Rocky Mountains and on the plains. He took in a stock of sturdy health before he again made an appearance in public life. His home ranch lay on both sides of the Little Missouri, N. D., where deer and other game abounded. There was horse hunting as well, and the New Yorker entered into the rude life around him with the same enthusiasm with which he entered every phase of life the years brought him. He lived in the open air, a ranchman on the Western plains, making friendships with the rude men in the vicinity, taking long rides, assisting in round ups of vicious cattle, and whatever offered. In his book Ranch Life and the Huniing Trail, he speaks; of a round up. The plain where a round up is taking place is on a level bottom of the bend of the river which here and there made an almost semi-circular sweep. The wagons were camped among the cotton wood trees fringing the river. The horses were grazing on the outskirts. In the great corral toward one end the men were branding calves, while the whole middle of the bottom was occupied by lowing cattle and shouting, galloping cow-boys. 67 58 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. "As soon as, or even before, the last circle riders have come in and have snatched a few hasiy mouthfuls to serve as their midday meal, we begin to work the herd — or herds, if the one herd should be of too imwieldly size. The animals are held in a compact bunch, most of the riders foniiing a ring outside, while a couple from each ranch successively look the herds through and cut out those marked with their own brand. * * * To do good work in cutting out from a herd, not only should the rider be a good horseman, but he should also have a skillful, thoroughly trained horse. * * * In cutting out a cow and a calf two men have to work together. As the animals of a brand are cut aut they are received and held apart by some rider detailed for the purpose, who is said to be 'holding the cut.' All this time the men holding the herd have their hands full, for some animal is continually trying to break out, when the nearest man flies at it at once and soon brings it back to its fellows. As sopn as all the cows, calves, and what-ever else is being gathered have been cut out the rest are driven clear off the ground and turned loose, being headed in the direction contrary to that in which we travel in the following day. Then the riders surround the next herd, the men holding cuts move them up nearer, and the work is begun anew, * * * As soon as the brands of cattle are worked and the animals that are to be driven a,long are put in the day herd, attention is turned to the cows and calves which are already gathered in different bands, consisting each of all the cows of a certain brand and all the cows that are following them. If there is a corral each band is in turn driven into, it; if there is none a ring of riders does duty in its place. A fire is built, the irons heated, and a dozen men dismount to, as it is called, 'wrestle' the calves. The best twa ropers go in on their horses to catch the latter; one man keeps tally, a couple put on the brands, and the others seize, throw and hold the little unfortunates. * * * If there are seventy or eighty calves in a corral the scene PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 5» is one of the greatest confusion. The ropers spurring and checking the fierce Httle Texan horses drag the calves up so quickly that a dozen men can hardly hold them; the men with the irons, blackened with soot, run to and fro; the calf-wrestlers, grimy with blood, dust and sweat, work like beavers; while with the voice of a stentor the tally-man shouts out the number and sex of each calf. The dust rises in clouds, and the shouts, cheers, curses and laughter of the men unite with the lowing of the cows and the frantic bleating of the roped calves to make a perfect Babel. Now and then an old cow turns vicious and puts every one out of the corral. Or a maverick bull — that is, an unbranded bull, — a yearling or a two-years old, is caught, thrown and branded; when he is let up there is sure to be a fine scatter. Down goes his head, and he bolts at the nearest man who makes out of the way at top speed amidst roars of laughter from all of his companions; while the men holding down calves swear savagely as they dodge charging mavericks, trampling horses, and taut lariats with frantic plunging little beasis at the farther ends." Mr. Roosevelt, taking part in such wild scenes goes on to describe that on the following morning after this day of rounding-up certain drivers are detached to guard and drive the day herd, the men being on duty from four in the morning till eight in the evening — think of that, you city workers complaining of hard working hours! When the herd reaches the camping ground there is little to do but loll in the blazing sun watching the cattle feed and sleep, taking care that they do not spread out too much. Then, plodding along, slowly,' monotonously, is not very inspiriting work. The cattle are strung out in long lines, the swiftest take the lead in single file, while the weaker and the young calves and the cows bring up the rear. Two men travel along with the leaders, one on each side, to point them in the right direction, one or two others keeping by the flanks, and the rest in the rear to hurry up the weaklings. This may be very tame 60 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. and irksome, but Mr. Roosevelt was often in at the fight when there were flurries of excitement, as when two or three circle riders came unexpectedly over a butte where was a bunch of cattle which at once started for the day herd, and there was excited riding hither and thither to keep them out. Or when the cattle began to run and crowded all together in a mass like a ball, moving round and round trying to keep their heads toward the center and refusing to leave it. From eight in the evening till four in the morning the herd became a night herd. Each wagon in succession guards it for a night, dividing the time into watches of two hours each, a couple of riders taking each watch. The first and the last watches are the preferred ones; the others are voted disagreeable, as the men have to turn out cold and sleepy. Mr. Roosevelt en.joyed the freedom of the life round him (he was free from political life) and with the adaptability that has usually characterized him. Hardship was not the thing it might be supposed to be by those who knew him in social life in New York, or by those who in the earlier days of his career remarked on his well tailored figure and his eye-glasses. With a sort of exultation he writes of a party, of which he was a member, being thirty-six hours in the saddle, dismounting only to change horses and to eat. They were almost worn out at the end of the time. Again, he and some others were once bringing a thousand head of young cattle down to Mr. Roose- velt's lower ranch, and as the river was high they were obliged to take the inland trail. The third night they were forced to make a dry camp, the cattle having had no water since morning. But they got them bedded down, and one of the cow-boys and Mr. Roose- velt stood first guard. Soon after night had fallen the thirsty beasts of one accord got to their feet and tried to break out. The only salvation was to keep them close together, for if they once got scattered they could never be gathered again. Roosevelt kept on PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 61 one side, the cow-boy on the other, and never in their Hves before did these two men ride so hard. In the darkness the erstwhile mem- ber of the New York Assembly conld but dimly see the shadowy outlines of the herd, as with whip and spurs he urged his pony along its edge, turning back the iDcasts at one point barely in time to wheel and keep them in at another. The ground was cut up by many little gullies and the men got numerous falls, horses and riders turn- ing complete somersaults. They dripped with perspiration, and the ponies were quivering and trembling, but the herd was finally brought out of the stampede. On another occasion, while with the round-up, the amateur herds- man was spared an unpleasant night only because there happened to be a couple of great corrals a mile or so away. It had been raining heavily all day long, and the men were drenched. Toward evening the rain slackened somewhat and the day herd, which was a very large one of some two thousand head, was gathered on an open bottom. The horses had been turned loose, and the men in oilskins cowered wet and uncomfortable under the lee of a wagon, making a supper of damp bread and lukewarm tea. Suddenly the wind arose in quick, sharp gusts, and in a little while a blizzard was raging, driving the rain in stinging level sheets before it. Just as the men were preparing to turn into bed with the prospect before them of a night of chilly misery a man sang out: 'T guess there's 'racing and chasing on Cannobie Lea' now, sure." Following this man's gaze Mr. Roosevelt saw that the cattle had began to drift before the storm, the night guards being unable to cope with them, while at the other wagons riders were saddling in hot haste and spurring off to the beasts' help in the blinding rain. Mr. Roosevelt ran at once to his own saddle. All the ponies were standing together, heads down, tails to the wind. They were wild and restless enough at all times, but the storm had cowed them and the men were able to catch them 62 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. without either rope or halter. In no time each man was ready, and away they went, splashing and slipping in the pools of water that studded the muddy plain. Most of the riders were already out when Roosevelt arrived. The cattle W'Cre gathered in a compact fan-shaped mass with their tails toward the thin end of the fan. In front of this mass of maddened, frightened beasts was a long mass of cowboys. When the cattle quieted for a moment every horseman turned round w'ith his back to the wind. Then, if the cattle spread out or made a rush, the men shouted and swayed in their saddles, darting tO' and fro, utterly heedless of danger, now checking and wheeling their horses so sharply as to bring them to their haunches or even throw them flat down, until after some minutes of this mad galloping the herd, which had drifted a hundred yards or so, would be once more brought up standing. The thunder was terrific, and at every thunderclap the cattle would try to break away. It grew harder and harder to hold in the herd; but the drift of the cattle took the men along to the corrals, already mentioned, the entrances to which were fortunately to the windward. As soon as the first corral was reached the riders cut ofif part of the herd and turned it inside. Doing this again, they put another part of the herd in the second corral. A third corral was at hand, and into this the remaining cattle were put. The moment the cattle were provided for, almost all of the horsemen started back full speed for the wagons, Roosevelt and the others, barely waiting to put up the bars and make the corrals secure, hurrying after them. All animals were benumbed by this gale of cold rain. A prairie chicken rose from under Roosevelt's horse's feet and went heavily along, while a jack rabbit barely escaped being trodden on. "But though there is much work and hardship, rough fare and monotony, and exposure connected with the round-up," says Mr. Roosevelt, "yet there are few men who do not look forward to it and back to it with pleasure. The only fault to be found is that the hours PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S CHURCH AND HIS PASTOR PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 65 of work are so long that one does not usually have enough time to sleep. The food, if rough, is good — beef, bread, pork, beans, coffee or tea, always canned tomatoes, and often rice, canned corn, or sauce made from dried apples. The men are good-humored, bold and thoroughly interested in their business, continually vying with one another in the effort to see which can do the best work. It is superbly health-giving and is full of excitement and adventure, calling for the exhibition of pluck, self-reliance, hardihood and dashing horsemanship; and of all forms of physical labor, the easiest and pleasantest is to sit in the saddle." And Mr. Roosevelt has always appreciated in the men with whom he has been brought into contact in public life those very same qualities — pluck, self-reliance and hardihood. Summer on the plains was in the open, but winter was a different story. Then all the land was changed into a place of grim desolation. Furious gales blew from the North, carrying with them the blinding snow. Across the prairie and through the naked carlons howls the breath of the cold season, the cottonwoods shiver, and the pines that cluster in the gorges moan and complain. Or in midwinter not a breath of air may stir, and then the merciless, terrible cold broods over the land, a silent death to all living things that are unprotected from it. The earth becomes stone, the rivers stand still in their beds like sheets of steel. In the long black nights there is no sound to break the silence, and under the stars the snowy plains stretch out like endless wastes of barren white. At such seasons the huge fire- place in the ranch house held blazing logs, and watchers sat beside the fire to see that it did not go out at night when the other men slept under piled-up blankets. In the corral the shaggy ponies huddled together for warmth, icicles often hanging from their lips, while the frost whitened the hollow backs of the cattle. In the winter there is much less work for the ranchman than at other seasons, but there is hardship and exposure in what he dees 66 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Many of the men go with the summer, and for those fhat are left there is little to do except to hunt for animal food now and then, and on very bitter days to lounge restlessly about the house. But some are out in the line camps and occasionally the ranchman has to make the round of these; besides, one or more of the cowboys who are at home must every day be out when the cattle have become weak, as they get in the hard weather, so as to pick up and drive in those beasts that would otherwise perish. The horses shift for themselves and need no help. In the winter the Indians often cut down the cotton- wood trees and feed the tops to their ponies, not so much to keep them from starving as to prevent them from wandering off in search of grass. The men in the line camp lead a hard existence, as they are com- pelled to be oat in all kinds of weather and must be especially active and on the alert during storms. The camps are established along some line which it is proposed to make the boundary of the cattle's drift in a given direction. "For example, we care very little whether our cattle wander to the Yellowstone, but we strongly object to their drifting East and South- East towards the granger country and the Sioux reservation, espec- ially as when they drift that way they come out on flat, bare plains where there is danger of perishing. Accordingly, the cow-men along the Little Missouri have united in estabhshing a row of camps to the East of the river, along the line where the broken ground meets the prairie. The camps are usually for two men each, and some fifteen or twenty miles apart; then in the morning the two men start out in opposite ways each riding till he meets his neighbor of the next camp nearest on that side, when he returns. The camp itself is sometimes merely a tent pitched in a sheltered coulee, but ought to be either made of logs or else a dugout in the ground. A small corral and horse-ghed is near by, with enough hay for the ponies, of which each PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 67 rider has two or three. In riding over the beat each man drives any cattle that have come near it back into the Bad Lands, and if he sees by the hoof-marks that a few have strayed out over the line very recently he will follow and fetch them home. They must be forced well back into the Bad Lands before a great storm strikes them, for if they once begin to drift in masses before an icy gale it is impossible for a small number of men to hold them, and the only thing is to let them go, and then to organize an expedition to follow them as soon as possible. Line riding is very cold work and dangerous, too, when the men have to be out in a blinding snow storm or in a savage blizzard that takes the spirit in the thermometer far down below zero." But there are other sorts of work besides line riding that necessi- tates exposure to the bitter weather of the open western lands. Once while over at Beaver Creek hunting up a lost horse Mr. Roosevelt met a cow-boy who was out on the same errand. They started home together across the prairies, and were caught in a heavy storm of snow almost as soon as they had left the ranch where they had spent the night. They were soon completely turned round in their tracks, the snow blinding them as to locality, and they had to travel entirely by compass. They felt their way along for eight or nine hours, until finally they got down into the broken country and came upon an empty hut. In this hut they passed the night, picketing their horses in a sheltered nook near by. To while away the time Mr. Roose- velt read "Hamlet" from a pocket Shakespeare he happened to have with him. The Texan cow-boy was much interested in the play and commented freely on those parts of it which most appealed to him — especially Polonius's advice to Laertes, which he translated into his own way of expressing it with considerable relish, and ended with the criticism that "old Shakespeare saveyed human nature gome," In the winter life on the plains even those who do not look for 68 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. liorses and are not compelled to ride the line day in and day out are apt to encounter hardship and danger in being abroad in the bitter season. "Yet a ride in midwinter is certainly fascinating. The great white country wrapped in the powdery snow drift seems like another land; and the familiar landmarks are so changed that a man must be careful lest he lose his way, for the discomfort of a night in the open during such weather is very great indeed. When the sun is out the glare from the endless white stretches dazzles the eyes; and if the gray snow clouds hang low and only let a pale, wan light struggle through, the lonely wastes become fairly appalling in their desolation. For hour after hour a man may go on and see no signs of life except perhaps a big white owl sweeping noiselessly by, so that in the dark it looks Hke a snow wreath; the snow gradually chilling the rider to the bones, as he draws his fur cap tight over his ears and muffles his face in the huge collar of his wolfskin coat, and making the shaggy little steed drop head and tail as it picks it way over the frozen soil. There are few moments more pleasant than the home-coming when in the gathering darkness, after crossing the last chain of ice-covered buttes, or after coming around the last turn in the wind-swept valley, we see through the leafless trees or across the frozen river the red gleam of the firelight as it shines through the ranch windows and- flickers over the trunks of the cottoiiwoods outside, warming a man's blood by the mere hint of the warmth awaiting him inside." In the Bad Lands, with their fantastic formations, the winter scenery is especially notable. The burning mines are among the more interesting features. The coal seams that have taken fire form these. In size they vary greatly. Somic send aloft smoke columns ,that can be seen miles away, while others are scarcely noticeable a few rods ofif. The old ones burn away gradually, while new ones break out in the most unexpected places. One suddenly appeared PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 69 about a half-mile from the ranch house. The men never knew it was there till one cold moonlight night when they were riding home, Mr. Roosevelt with them, they rounded the corner of a ravine and saw in their path a tall white pillar of smoke rising from a rift in the snowy crags ahead of them. As the trail had been over entirely familiar ground the riders were for the moment almost as startled as if they had come upon a ghost. A strong smell of sulphur hangs around the burning mines, and the hot earth crumbles and cracks, while through the long clefts that form in it there may be seen the heavy glow of deep subterranean fires with tongues of bright blue and pink flame struggling up to the surface. Yet the winters vary. During some years the ranchmen can go about in light-weight clothing even in January and February, while the suffering of the cattle is reduced to a minimum. During other winters the severity of the cold is terrible, while the furious bliz- zards render it a physical impossibility for the men to stir outside their shelter except at the imminent peril of their lives. Men are frozen to death when caught in shelterless places, and evidence goes to show that the doomed men had gone mad before dying, some of them having stripped themselves of most of their clothing, their bodies being found almost naked. On the ranch bad accidents were exceptional, though every winter men were more or less frost-bitten. Mr. Roosevelt had an experience in this line while returning by moonlight after a hunt for mountain sheep. The thermometer was twenty-six degrees below zero, and the men had had no food for twelve hours. Mr. Roosevelt became numb and before he was aware of it he had a frozen face, and one foot, both knees and one hand were in a like condition. Every six or seven years these severe storms follow one another without interval throughout the winter months. At such seasons the losses among the stock are great, 70 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. "One such winter occurred in 1 880-81. This was when there were very few ranchmen in the country. The grass was so good that the ?ld range stock escaped pretty well, but the trail herds were almost Jestroyed, The next severe winter was that of 1886-87 when the yush of incoming herds had overstocked the ranges, and the loss was in consequence fairly appalling, especially to the outfits that had just put on cattle. The snow fall was unprecedented both for its depth and for the way it lasted, and it was this and not the cold that caused the loss. About the middle of November the storms began. Day after day the snow came down, thawing and then freezing and pihng itself higher and higher. By January the drifts had filled the ravines and coulees almost level. The snow lay in great masses on the plateaus and river bottoms, and this lasted until the end of February. The preceding summer we had been visited by a pro- longed drought, so that the short, scanty grass was already well cropped down; the snow covered what pasturage there was to the depth of several feet, and the cattle could not get at it at all and could hardly move around. It was all but impossible to travel on horseback, except on a few well-beaten trails. It was dangerous to attempt to penetrate the Bad Lands, whose shape had been com- pletely altered by the great white mounds and drifts. The starving cattle died by scores of thousands before their helpless owners' eyes. The bulls, the cows who were suckHng calves, or who were heavy with calf, the v^'eak cattle that had just been driven up on the trail, and the late calves suffered most; the old range animals did better, and the steers best of all, but the best was bad enough. Even many of the horses died. An outfit near me lost half its saddle-band, the animals having been worked so hard that they were very thin when fall came. In the thick brush the stock got some shelter and sus- tenance. They gnawed every twig and bough they could get at. they browsed the bitter sage-brush down to where the branches were PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 71 the thickness of man's finger. When near a ranch they crowded into the outhouses and sheds to die, and fences had to be built around the windows to keep the wild-eyed, desperate beasts from thrusting their heads through the glass panes. In most cases it was impossible to drive them to the hay stacks or to haul the hay out to them. The deer even were so weak as to be easily run down, and on one or two of the plateaus where there were bands of antelope these wary crea- tures grew so numb and feeble that they could have been slaughtered like rabbits. But the hunters could hardly get out, and could bring home neither hide nor meat, so the game went unharmed. "The way in which the cattle got through the winter depended largely on the different localities in which the bands were caught when the first heavy snows came. A group of animals in a bare valley, without underbrush and with steepish sides would all die, strong and weak alike; they could get no food and no shelter, and so there would not be a hoof left. On the other hand, hundreds wintered on the great thickly-wooded bottoms near my ranch house with little more than ordinary loss, though a skinny, sorry looking crew by the time the snow melted. In intermediate places the strong survived and the weak perished," This is a piece of description which challenges the efforts of the author of "Lorna Doone," whose great book describes a terrible winter in the black countiT^ of England, and describing it in a manner that makes it a stock quotation of strong, imaginative writing, though borne out by facts, in no way surpasses Mr. Roosevelt in detailing an actual experience in the wilds of American life. Mr. Roosevelt, in detailing his experiences on the ranch in that wild winter, says that it would be impossible to imagine a sight more dreary and desolate than that offered by the country when the snow at last disappeared, in March. The land was a barren waste, not a green thing was visible, while the dead grass had been eaten so close 72 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. by the famished animals that the land looked as though it had been shaved by a razor, so denuded was it of any aspect of ever having had a green leaf on it. Once in a while among the desolate hills a rider would come across a band of gaunt, hollow-flanked beasts, their sides seeming to meet in the middle. They would be feebly trying to crop the sparse, dry pasturage, and were too listless to move out of he way of the horseman; and all around in sheltered spots were the slackened carcasses of once fine cattle, some in the pathetic attitude of having merely lain down to rest. The best comfort afforded the ranch of which we write lay in the fact that it did not suffer a heavy loss from weak cattle getting mired down in the springs and mud-holes when the ice broke up and water sprang to make green once more the dead brown of the earth, for all the weak creatures were already dead. The ranch was to blossom once more with grass and shrub and the cattle to feed leisurely and to repletion when summer came, but there was a dreary time of waiting and the April rains and the balmy air of IMay were eagerly looked for. Mr. Roosevelt, in his enforced leisure, had his books and his writing to help pass the days and weeks of monotony during the winter and early spring. Letters came to him telling him of events in the world he had left for the time being, and he was fully advised of the trend of political events. While he was out of it all he studied the questions that were making history during his absence. The same old rule of political rivalry and not too-clean methods obtained, and as usual he studied the news of the day and the ten- dencies that made for corruption or reform in American public life. Far off in the wilds which he had elected to be his stopping-place till he should have established a physical equilibrium not to be unduly weighted by what he might yet have to do in the affairs of the country, he waited. For it is doubtful if he ever once thought that he should become a mere private citizen while there w^as need 5.00SEVELT IN HUNTING COSTU.MK— TAKEN IN 188? PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 75 of practical politicians and statesmen to guard and guide the ^vell- loved land in its progressive march toward the consummation of what its sincerest friends hoped for it. We have said that he was "out of it " But is it possible for a man of strength to ever cease from allegi- ance to what has once called forth his best efforts? From the time of his earliest manhood, even when at Harvard, he had determmed to do his utmost for the country which his progenitors had loved and did their best for. In the seclusion of the fierce western winter, be- side the roaring log fires of his ranch-house, surrounded by the rugged cattlemen, the cow-boys who paid little heed to the civilized aspects of cities, his mind surely went out to the city where he had been born— the city where over two hundred years before the first Roosevelt that had come to the country held office; and he more than likely knew more about matters at home than had he been in the feverish din of town life, an important part of it. The newspapers sent him told him much, but his past experience was his l^est factor in understanding the why and wherefore of the events the papers chronicled. He understood Tammany as well as its most enthusiastic supporter, and Washington was an open book to him. It is Emerson who has said that we who linger in one place have the faculty, if we possess reasoning imagination, to bring all foreign or far-off coun- tries to us; that travel, while it broadens the mind of a man, and makes him receptive of impressions, does not necessarily give a clearer understanding of the lands we visit than may be ours if in some sequestered spot we read and think and apply our reading and our thought to their legitimate purpose. Mr. Roosevelt was always a reader and a thinker; with all his impulsiveness of manner and im- patience with anything that was not straightforward and direct, there has been a vein of peculiar gentleness and poetic insight into the motives of men. His love of nature would prove him to be anything but an austere man expecting impossibilities from frail humanity, 76 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. but that same love of nature would make him irritable in the presence of what is vague and uncertain in the dealings of those around him. In his ranch he conned the reports of the doings of the day in places far away from him, in the purlieus of the cities, in the precincts of Washington, which is no city at all, and he figured out within himself the possibilities that were in store for a reformer who would go East and delve into pohtics once more. But he was not yet ready to go into the crowded vortex of civilized life; he was with nature and the rough element that is honest till it takes on the gloss of civilization's fictions. Here he would stay, adding to his physical well-being by close companionship with nature, and when the time came for him to once more go into active public life, if he should be needed he would be ready. He was now a ranch- man, a hunter, and his life was affiliated with the stern side of nature in the West, that West of which he should write with the clear under- standing that characterizes everything which he undertook to com- prehend. CHAPTER IV. Americans and Mexicans on the Plains — The "Bad Man" of the West — Claim - jumpers — Horse-thieves— A Noted Desperado — Opening a Cowboy Ball— The Frontier and Women — Character of the Cowboy — Indians — An Indian Adventure — Organizing a Troop — Loss of Boat — Capture of Boat-thieves ajid Taking them to the Sheriff — Dogged Determination a Characteristic. OF all free men, the hunter is the freest. He is responsible to no man but himself. He chops and saws the logs for his hut, or he makes a rude dug-out on the side of a hill do duty as a domicile, with a skin roof and flap for his door, and no man preceded him in ownership of it. He buys some flour and salt, and when he can afiford them, sugar and tea. But he does not buy much at a time, for it must all be carried hundreds of miles on his horse's back. He has a bunk covered with deer skins for a bed, and a kettle and a irynng pan are his only kitchen utensils. Mr. Roosevelt lived as the other hunters, with but few more conveniences. His en- thusiasm in bringing down big game never deserted him in his ex- peditions to the Rocky Mountains. But the old style hunter has gone out, and the cow-boy takes his place. The cow-boys are typical men of the plains. They are hard working, faithful men, but. they will get into scrapes. Once while on a wagon trip Mr. Roosevelt got caught while camped by a spring on the prairie because of his horses all straying. A few miles off was the camp of two cow-boys who were riding the line for a large southern cow-outfit. He did not even know their names, but happening to pass by them he told them of the loss of his horses, and they came to him the day after with all the miss- mg horses, having hunted for them for twenty-four hours. They were Texans, quiet, clean cut, pleasant spoken young fellows, yet to his 77 78 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. surprise he found that they were fugitives from justiie. They were complaining of the winter weather, and spoke of their longing to go back to the South. The reason they coukl not do so was that the summer before they had engaged in a small civil war in one of the wilder parts of New Mexico. It had originated in a quarrel between two ranches over respective water rights and range rights. There were collisions between bands of armed cow-boys, cattle were harried, camps burned down, and the sons of the rival owners fought one another to the death when they met in the drinking places of the miserable towns. Soon the thinly veiled jealousy that ever exists between the Americans and Mexicans was laid bare, and when the original cause of the quarrel was adjusted, a fierce race fight took place, which was quelled by the arrival of a strong sheriff's posse, but not until after a couple of affrays in which blood was freely shed. In one of these the American cow-boys of a certain range drove out the Mexicans from among them. In another affray, to avenge the murder of one of their number the cow-boys gathered from the country lying round about and stormed the "greaser," or Mexican village where the murder had been committed, killing four of the in- habitants. Mr. Roosevelt's two acquaintances had borne a part in this last offense and were "wanted" by the authorities. They talked plainly with their new friend, and it is not often the case that plains- men talk freely, being as a rule reserved with strangers, and are sure to dislike men whom they meet for the first time. At another time, at a ranch not far from his own Mr. Roosevelt found among the cow-boys gathered for the round-up two Bible-; reading Methodists. He found them as strait-laced as possible, but they did not obtrude their opinions upon any one, and were first- class w"orkers and so got along well with the other men. Among the associates of these tv.o were tvvO or three rufiFxans, as loose of tongue as of life. Says Mr. Roosevelt, "Generally some form of stable PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 79 government is provided for the counties as soon as their population has become at all fixed, the frontiersmen showing their natural apti- tude for organization. Their lawlessness is put down pretty effec- tively. For example, as soon as we organized the governmient of Medora — an excessively unattractive little hamlet — we elected good oliicers, built a log jail, prohibited all shooting in the streets, and enforced the prohibition, etc. Up to that time there had been a good deal of lawlessness of one kind and another, only checked by an occasional piece of individual retribution or by a sporadic outburst of vigilance committee work. In such a society the desperadoes of every grade flourish. Many are merely ordinary rogues and swindlers wliQ rob and cheat on occasion, but are dangerous only when led by some villain of real intellectual power. The gambler * * * j^ scarcely classed as a criminal, indeed he may soon be a very public spirited citizen. But as his trade is so often plied in saloons, and as even if, as sometimes happens, he does not cheat, many of his opponents are certain to attempt to do so, he is of necessity obliged to be skillful and ready with his weapon, and gambling rows are very common. Cow-boys lose much of their money to gamblers. * * * As already explained, they are in the main good men, and the dis- turbance they cause in a town is done from sheer rough, light- heartedness. They shoot off boot heels or tall hats occasionally, or make some obnoxious butt 'dance' by shooting round his feet, but they rarely meddle in this way with men who have not themselves played the fool. A fight in the street is almost always a duel between men who bear each other malice; it is only in a melee in a saloon that outsiders often get hurt, and then it is their own fault, for they have no business to be there. One evening at Medora a cow-boy spurred his horse up the rickety steps of the hotel piazza into the barroom where he began firing at the clock, the decanters, etc., the bartender meanwhile taking one shot at him, which missed. When 80 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. he had emptied his revolver he threw down a roll of banknotes on the counter to pay for the damage he had done and galloped his horse out through the door, disappearing in the darkness with loud yells to a rattling accompaniment of pistol shots interchanged between himself and somie passerby who apparently began firing out of pure desire to enter into the spirit of the occasion — for it was the night of the Fourth of July, and all the country round about had come into town for a spree." Mr. Roosevelt studied, thus, the life in the wild West, as a student and a man who wished to be acquainted with every phase of the country's life. Of course there are plenty of hard characters among cow-boys, he admits, but scarcely more than among lumbermen, and the like; only, the cow-boys are so ready with their guns that a bully in a cow-boy camp is generally a murderer, rather than a mere bruiser. However, as a rule, cow-boys who prefer to be desperadoes soon drop their original characters and are no longer employed on ranches unless in parts of the country where little heed is paid to law and where, consequently, the cattle owner stands in need of a certain number of hired bravos. As a rule, Mr. Roosevelt says, claim- jumpers are only blackmailers. They sometimes drive an ignorant foreigner away from his claim by threats, but never a frontiersman. It is their pleasure to squat down beside ranchmen who are them- selves trying to hold land to which they have no claim, and who know that their only hope is to bribe or fight out the intruder. He found cattle thieves not common, though plenty of shiftless, vicious men will kill a cow or a steer in the winter, if they get the chance, for food. Numerous, however, are horse-thieves, and formidable. Reasons for the severity of the punishment for horse-stealing on the border are evident, he says. Horses are the most valuable property of the frontiersman, and are often absolutely essential to even his life. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 81 Horses are always marketable and are easily stolen, for they walk themselves off. Thus horse-stealmg is a tempting business to the more reckless ruffians, and it is followed by armed men. Frequently the thieves band themselves with the road agents, or highwaymen, and other desperadoes, and organize into secret societies, which ter- rorize whole districts until overthrown by force. When the Civil War was freshly over a great many guerrillas from Arkansas and Missouri went to the plains. They took to horse-stealing and like pursuits. From these have sprung emulators in these latter days, but they have gone farther and farther West, and vengeance usually pursues them. The professional man-killers, or "bad men," as they are called, may be horse-thieves or highwaymen, yet some of the "bad men" are quiet fellows whom accident has driven to wild careers. Perhaps one of them at some time has killed a man in self-defense; he in this way gains some sort of reputation, and the bullies look on him as a rival whom it would be an honor to dispatch; so that henceforth he must be on the watch; he must learn to shoot quickly and with good aim, and may have to take life after life in order to save his own. "A noted desperado, an Arkansas man, had become involved in a quarrel with two others of the same ilk, both Irishmen and partners. For several days all three lurked about the saloon-infested streets of the roaring little board-and-canvas city, each trying to get 'the drop,' the other inhabitants looking forward to the fight with pleased curiosity, no one dreaming of interfering. At last one of the partners got a chance at his opponent as the latter was walking into a gamb- ling hell, and broke his back near the hips; yet the crippled, mortally wounded man twisted around as he fell and shot his slayer dead. Then, knowing that he had but a few moments to live, and expecting that his other foe would run up on hearing the shooting, he dragged himself by his arms out into the street; immediately afterward, as he 82 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. had anticipated, the second partner appeared and was killed on the spot. The victor did not live twenty minutes." The first deadly affray that took place in the town of Medora was between a Scotchman and a Minnesota man. Both possessed "shooting" records. The Scotchman was a noted bully, and was the more daring of the two, but he was too hot-headed and overbearing to be a match for the hard-headed man from Minnesota. After a furious quarrel the Scotchman mounted his horse and, rifle in hand, rode to the door of the mud ranch perched on the river bluff where the American made his home, and was instantly shot dowai by the latter from behind a corner of the building. One time Mr. Roosevelt opened a cow-boy ball with the wife of the victor in this affair, the husband dancing opposite the pair. It was the lanciers, and the man knew all the steps far better than his wife's partner. There is a frontier saying that "the frontier is hard on women and cattle." The toil and hardship of a life passed in the wilderness drive the grace and beauty from a w-oman's face long before her youth has passed her by. But she has many qualities that atone for the fairness she has lost. She is a good mother; she is a faithful wife; peril does not daunt her and hardship and poverty do not appall her. It was so with the woman who danced at the cow-boy ball. These balls are great events in the little towns where they take place. Everybody roundabout attends them. There is always much decorum observed, unseemly conduct not being tolerated. There is a master of cere- monies. He is selected as much for his strength as for his executive ability in affairs saltatorial. He calls off the figures of the square dances with so much explicitness that even the most inexperienced may prance through them, and all the time he prescribes order. Some- times the guests are allowed to carry their revolvers as a part of their social paraphernalia, and sometimes not. The nature of the orchestra COPVKIGHT ISIIS ]',V KOCKV.OOD MR. ROOSEVELT AT TWENTY-EIGHT PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 85 depends upon the size of the place where the ball is held. At one ball Mr. Roosevelt attended the function came near being a failure, for the half-breed fiddler who was to make the music "went and got himself shot," as the master of ceremonies disgustedly phrased it. Merely incidents in the cow-boy's life are these things. The whole class should not be judged, says Mr. Roosevelt, by what a few in- dividuals do of an outrageous character when, in the course of a few days spent in town, they lose their heads. More fairly should they be known for manly character, and fearless bravery. On the plains he passes his days; his life work is done there; and there he dies, facing death as he has faced many other evils, quietly, uncomplainingly. The cow-boy is hospitable, hardy, adventurous. The pioneer of the American race, he prepares the way for civilization, before whose advent he must take himself away,1for civilization has no place or need for him. His existence, though hard and dangerous, has a wild attraction that draws to it his bold, free spirit. He lives in lonely lands where the prairies stretch out inimitably till they meet the blue horizon— plains across which he can go for days and weeks without ^e^emg a human being nor so much as a hill to break the awful even monotony of the earth. ''Up to 1880 the country through which the Little Missouri flows remained as wild and almost as little known as it was when the old explorers and fur-traders crossed it in the early part of the century. It was the last great Indian hunting ground, across which Gros- ventres and Mandans, Sioux and Cheyennes, and even Crows and Rees wandered in chase of game, and where they fought one another and plundered the small parties of white trappers and hunters that occasionally ventured into it. Once or twice generals like Sully or Custer had penetrated it in the course of the long, tedious and bloody campaigns that finally broke the strength of the Northern Horse Indians; indeed, the trail made by Custer's baggage train is to this 86 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. day one of the well-known land marks, for the deep ruts cut by the wheels of the heavy wagons are in many places still as distinctly to be seen as ever, "In 1883, a regular long-range skirmish took place just south of us between some Cheyennes and some cow-boys with bloodshed on both sides, while about the same time a band of Sioux plundered a party of buffalo hunters of everything they owned, and some Crows who attempted the same feat with another party were driven ofif with the loss of two of their number. Since then there have been in our neighborhood no stand-up fights or regular raids; but the Indians have at different times proved more or less troublesome, burning the grass, and occasionally killing stock or carrying off horses that have wandered some distance away. They have also suffered somewhat at the hands of white horse-thieves. Bands of them accompanied by their squaws and children often come into the ranch country either to trade or to hunt, and are then, of course, perfectly meek and peaceable." On Mr. Roosevelt's ranch the white men got along pretty well with the Indians, as it was the rule to treat the red man fairly, as though he were white. For example, the white men on the ranch were always as willing to put down horse-stealing from Indians as from white men. In meeting a band of young bucks in a lonely, uninhabited country, though, there was always more or less danger; for the young Indians are hardly yet men as to age, and even young fellows with white parents are usually the most truculent members of civilized communities, lack of years apparently giving license because responsibility is hardly yet appreciated. When a man comes on such a band of young bucks he stands the chance of losing his horse, his rifle or whatever else he may have about him, though a frontiersman with experience can usually "stand off" such assailants unless the band be too large for him, or he loses his nerve. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 8T Mr. Roosevelt's one adventure with Indians he calls a very mild one. It was during a solitary trip to the North and East of the range to what was practically unknown country. One day, about noon, traveling along the edge of the prairie, he rode his horse up a slight rise and came out on a plateau about half a mile broad. When near the center four or five Indians suddenly leaped over the edge directly in front of him. As soon as they saw him they took their guns out of their slings, started their horses into a run and came full tilt at him, whooping and brandishing their rifles. The white man im- mediately reined up and dismounted. The level plain where he was was eminently suited for the Indian attack to be met. In a broken country, or where there is much cover the attacked party is at much disadvantage if pitted against such adepts at the art of hiding as are Indians. On the other hand, the red men will rarely rush in on a foe who, even if he be eventually overpowered, will probably inflict severe loss on his assailants. The fury of an Indian charge and the whoops of the men often scare horses into a stampede, but Mr. Roosevelt had trust in the horse he rode, which did not swerve. He waited till the Indians were within a hundred yards and then he drew a bead on the foremost one. At once the w^hole party of redskins scattered, doubling on their tracks, bending over alongside their horses. Some distance ofif they halted and consulted. Then one came forward alone, dropping his rifle and waving a blanket over his head. Whem he came to within fifty yards the white man halted him, and he pulled out a piece of paper, presumably the pass which all Indians are supposed to carry when absent from their reservation. "How!" he called out; ''me good Indian." The white man answered, "How!" and that while he was glad he zvas a "good Indian" he need not come any closer. When his com- panions began to draw near, Mr. Roosevelt covered the spokesman with his rifle and made him move ofT, which he did with remarkable 88 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. American profanity. Mr. Roosevelt then started to lead his horse out to the prairie. After hovering about a short time the Indians rode away. The relations between white men and Indians are rarely pleasant. Many of the frontiersmen are brutal and overbearing; most of the Indians are treacherous, revengeful and fiendishly cruel. Crime and bloodshed are the only possible results when such men are brought into contact. Indians differ individually, and they differ as tribes. In these days an upper Cherokee is as good as a white. The Nez Perces differ from the Apaches as much as possible. A Cheyenne is one of the most unforgetting foes in the world, w^hile a Digger Snake is one of the meanest. The Pueblo is thrifty, industrious, peaceful; and an Arapahoe is lazy and thievish. Indians are good fighters, though poor shooters, being inferior to the old hunters. They have an effective discipline of their own, and so a body of them may easily overmatch an equal number of frontiersmen if the frontiersmen have no well drilled leader. If the cow-boys have rifles (for the revolver is of no use in long range individual fighting) they have little fear of the Indians so long as there are only half a dozen or so on a side. But though quick, yet, owing to the heaviness of their saddles, they are unable to make the wonderful marches of the Indians, and their un- ruly spirit often makes them ineffective when gathered in any number and without a good leader. "In the summer of 1886, at the time of the war scare over the 'Cutting incident,' we began the organization of a troop of cavalry in our district, notifying the Secretary of War that we were at the service of the Government, and being promised every assistance by our excellent chief executive of the Territory, Governor Pierce. Of course the cow-boys were all eager for war, they did not care much PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 89 with whom. They were very patriotic (on the day when the An- archists were hanged in Chicago my men joined with the rest of the neighborhood in burning them in effigy); they were fond of ad- venture, and to tell the truth they were by no means averse to the prospect of plunder. News from the outside world came to us very irregularly and often in distorted form, so that we began to think we might get involved in a conflict not only with Mexico but with England as well. One evening at my ranch the men began talking over the English soldiers, so I got down my 'Napier' and read them several extracts from his descriptions of the fighting in the Spanish peninsula, also recounting as well as I could the great deeds of the British cavalry from Waterloo to Balaklava, and finishing up by de- scribing from memory the fine appearance, the magnificent equip- ment and the superb horses of the Household Cavalry and of a regi- ment of Hussars I had once seen. All of this produced the same effect on my listeners that the sight of Marmion's cavalcade produced in the minds of the Scotch moss-troopers on the eve of Flodden; and at the end, one of them, who had been looking into the fire and rub- bing his hands together said with a regretful emphasis, "Oh! how I would like to kill one of them.' " In the locality of the ranch there was more dif^culty with white renegades than with Indians. Mr. Roosevelt had been anxious to run down the river in a boat during the time of the spring floods for duck and goose shooting. The men could only go down during a freshet, for the Little Missouri is usually a mere thread of sluggish water, or else a boiling, muddy torrent. In 1886 the ice left the river in Eebruary but piled up. In March a great jam came down. One day the hunters crossed the river and walked ten miles to a rugged country, and killed four deer. They were hung in a cedar cafion. A fortnight later they \\ent for the venison and found that cougars had eaten them. They followed the trail of the cougars for some time 90 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. until it was lost in a tangle of rocky hills. They retraced their steps intending to return the following day with a good tracking hound. The following morning they found that their boat had been stolen. Whoever had taken the boat had certainly gone down the river, and the only other boat on the Little Missouri was a flat-bottomed scow in the possession of three hard characters who lived in a shack, or hut, some twenty miles above the ranch, and who had been threatened wath lynching. The three men had long been accused of cattle- killing, and that worst of all offenses, horse-stealing. Their leader was a fellow named Finnegan, a rather hard case, who had been chief actor in a number of shooting scrapes. The two others were a half breed and an old German. Mr. Roosevelt and his men at once set to work to build a flat- bottomed scow in which to follow these men. In a wild country where the power of the law is unheeded and where everyone has to rely upon himself for protection, men soon grow to feel that it is in the highest degree unwise to submit to any wrong without making immediate and resolute effort to avenge it upon the wrongdoers. And so the boat was begun and finished and stocked for the journey, and started. The boat drifted through heaped up piles of ice all day. At nightfall Mr. Roosevelt and his men landed and made a camp. In the morning it was decidedly colder than it had been, and an icy North wind was blowing. The boat drifted with difficulty among the ice. As the afternoon waned the air grew still colder. In the early evening another landing was effected, and another camp made for the night. During the night the thermometer went down to zero and in the morning the river was frozen slush. Accordingly the men took a couple of hours for a deer hunt, and shot a couple of bucks and a yearling doe. This insured plenty of fresh meat. The scow was loaded with it and started. The cold still continued intense and before long those on PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 91 the scow were nearly benumbed by it, until at last an incident oc- curred which set their blood freely running again. They were of course always on the alert, keeping a sharp lookout ahead and around, and making as little noise as possible. In the middle of the afternoon of this, the third day, as the boat came around a bend the men saw in frc^it of them the lost boat, together with a scow moored against the bank, while a little way back, from among some bushes, the smoke of a camp fire curled up in the frosty air. It was the camp of the thieves. As Roosevelt glanced at the faces of his two followers (only two men were with him) he was struck by the grim look in their eyes. The boat was hastily and silently shoved toward the bank. As soon as it touched the shore ice Roosevelt leaped out and ran up behind a clump of bushes so as to cover the landing of the others, who had to make the boat fast. Tlie thieves knew they had taken the only craft upon the river, so they felt secure. But the German was the only one in the camp, his shooting iron on the ground. He gave up at once. His two com- panions were ofT hunting. He was made fast and a man was set to watch him, and see that he made no noise, and then the hunters of men sat down to wait for the other two miscreants. They came along carelessly, their rifles on their shoulders. When they were twenty yards or so off Roosevelt and his men straightened up and covered them, while Roosevelt yelled to them to hold up their hands. The half breed, trembling, obeyed at once. Finnegan hesitated a second, his eyes like those of a wolf. Then as Roosevelt walked toward him, covering the .center of his chest so as to avoid over shooting, he saw that he had no show, and with an oath, and letting his rifle drop, he held both hands up beside his head. The captors camped where they were for the night, making a great fire which was to be kept up all night. The captured men were made to take off their boots, which was a sure precaution, as it was a cactus country i)2 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. in which no man could travel in his bare feet. Next morning the captors and the captured floated down stream. For some miles the party went along swiftly, but they came to an ice jam that precluded further progress that day. There was nothing to do but pitch camp. For eight days they were held here by the ice, and the store of provisions became low. There was no game, and besides, the prisoners had to be watched. So long as the captors kept awake there was no danger, for their three men knew them and understood perfectly that the slightest attempt to break away would result in their being shot down. Finding that they were well treated and closely watched the thieves behaved well and gave no trouble, though after the half breed had been lodged in jail he indulged in a stabbing affray. They conversed freely with their captors and after the first evening made no allusion to the theft or anything connected with it. Once and once only did Finnegan broach the subject. Somebody had been speaking of a man they all knew, called "Calamity," who had been recently taken by the sheriff on a charge of horse-stealing. Calamity had escaped once, but was caught at a disadvantage the second time. When told to hold up his hands he refused and attempted to draw his own re- volver, with the result that he had two bullets put through him. Finnegan commented on Calamity as being a fool for not knowing when a man had the drop on him. Then, suddenly turning, he said, his weather-beaten face flushing darkly, "If Fd had any show at all you'd have sure had to fight, Mr. Roosevelt; but there wasn't any use making a break when Fd only have got shot myself, with no chance of hamiing any one else." Then the subject was dropped. ' Provisions grew shorter and shorter. The Indians had driven all the deer out of the country around about, and only an occasional prairie fowl was to be shot. At last, after having worked down some thirty miles at the tail of the ice jam the men struck an outlying ROOSEVELT IN "COW-BOY" COSTUME PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 95 COW camp. There was but one cow-boy in it, but Roosevelt and his fellow police knew they would get help here, for in a stock country all make common cause against either horse-thieves or cattle-thieves. The cow-boy had no wagon, but there was one some fifteen miles away. Mr. Roosevelt went for it. The settler who loaned the wagon could not understand why so much trouble was taken with thieves who could have been hanged off-hand. Returning to the river next day the thieves were walked up to the Killdeer Mountains. His two assistants leaving him to go back to the boats, Mr. Roosevelt took his three men into Dickinson, the nearest town. Traveling was bad, the two^ little mares pulling the wagon could go only at a walk. It took two days and a night to make the journey. It was a most desolate drive. The prairie had been burned the fall before and was a bleak waste of blackened earth, while a cold, rainy mist came down all of the two days. Tlie only variety was where the road crossed the shallow headwaters of Knife and Green rivers. Here the ice was high along the banks, and the wagon had to be taken to pieces in order to get it over. Mr. Roosevelt's three captives were unarmed, but as he was alone with them, except for the driver, of whom he knew nothing, he had to be doubly on his guard and never let his prisoners come close to him. The wagon put together on the opposite side of the river, the little mares jogged on, the roads so heavy that any hope of accelerating the pace by flogging the horses was out of the question. Mr. Roosevelt found that the better plan was to put the prisoners in the wagon and himself walk behind, a Winchester across his shoulder for use in case of need. Accordingly, he trudged through the ankle-deep icy mud in the rear of the conveyance. Hour after hour went by in this way, hunger, cold and fatigue adding to the uncomfortable journey. At night the party put up at the hut of a frontier granger, the only habita- tion on the road. There was an upper and a lower bunk in this hut 96 THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Mr. Roosevelt did not dare to go to sleep, but making his three men climb into the upper bunk from which they could get only with difficulty, he sat with his back against the cabin door all night long and watched them. After thirty-six hours of sleeplessness he at last handed his prisoners over to the sheriff of Dickinson. This story is told at length to show the dogged deteniiination of Mr. Roosevelt once he has made up his mind to do a thing. He had determined to capture the men and to give them up to the proper authorities and he had done so at great discomfort to himself. This dogged de- termination has ever signalled his character in his political life and his public offices for the public good. CHAPTER V. Antelope and the Manner of Hunting Them — The Black-tail of the Mountains— Still-hunting — Deer Hunting with Hounds — Coursing Jack-rabbits, Swifts and Foxes — Round-horn Elks — A Hunt of Elks — -Big-horn Sheep — Ex- periences with Them — Wonderful Speed — Habits of Bighorn Sheep — White Goats of the Rockies — Praise of Hunting — Instincts of Born Hunter — Adapta- bility of Character — Back to Politics. ANTELOPE is the game from April to Aiigust, the bucks only being killed. The smoked venison, stored away, lasts through the bitter winter weather. Antelope gather in great bands in the fall, and are queer, freaky creatures; they either travel south and leave the country, or they go to some out-of-the-way place where they stand no chance of being disturbed. In April the herds come back, but broken up into straggling parties. They have regular passes through which they go every year. One of these passes was not far from Mr. Roosevelt's ranch, where the antelope herds crossed the Little Missouri in vast numbers each spring on the return march. In the fall, hunters posted in the passes when the deer passed in dense throngs butchered enormous numbers. A man needs skill in antelope shooting, for the animals are wary, and the ground they infest is of a peculiar nature. They must generally be shot at over a hundred and fifty yards, and often between two and three hundred. As in all other kinds of big game shooting, success in antelope hunting often depends on sheer luck. While on the early spring excursions Mr. Roosevelt used to vary the sport and the fare as well by bringing down mallards, now and then his party would creep up to and kill the cock prairie fowls when they had gathered into their dancing rings to stretch themselves and spread 97 98 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. their wings as they shuffled round, all the while keeping up a curious clucking and booming sound. Late in the season an antelope could generally be got by anyone of the party riding off alone to a tract of hilly prairie some fifteen miles from the ranch, where the prong- horns were usually abundant. "On such a trip," Mr. Roosevelt writes, "I leave the ranch-house by dawn, the rifle across my saddle-bow, and some strips of smoked venison in the saddle pockets. In the cool air the horse lopes smartly through the wooded bottoms. The meadow larks, with black crescents on their yellow breasts, sing all day long, but the thrushes only in the morning and evening; and their melody is heard at its best on such a ride as this. By the time I get out of the last ravines and canter along the divide, the dark blufif-tops in the East have begun to redden in the sunrise, while in the flushed West the hills stand out against a rosy sky. The sun has been up some little time before the hunting grounds are fairly reached; for the antelope stands alone in being a diurnal game animal that from this peculi- arity, as well as from the nature of its haunts, can be hunted as well at mid-day as at any other hour. Arrived at the hunting grounds I generally, but not always, dismount and hunt on foot, leaving the horse tethered out to graze. "Lunch is taken at some spring, which may be only a trickle of water at the base of a butte, where a hole must be dug out with a knife and hands before the horse can drink. Once or twice I have enjoyed unusual delicacies at such a lunch in the shape of the eggs of curlew or prairie fowl baked in hot ashes. The day is spent in still- hunting, a much easier task among the ridges and low hills than out on the gently rolling prairies. Antelope see much better than deer, their great bulging eyes placed at the roots of the horns being as strong as twin telescopes. Extreme care must be taken not to let them catch a glimpse of the intruder, for it is then hopeless to attemp'. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. " approaching them. On the other hand, there i. never the least difficulty in seeing them; for they are conspicuous beasts and, unhke deer, they never hide, being careless whether they are Seen or not, so long as they can keep a good lookout. They trust only to then- own alert watchfulness and quick senses for safety. The game .s carried home behind the saddle, and the bottom on which the ranch house stands is not often reached until the moon, showing crmison through the haze, has risen above the bluffs that skirt the r.ver. In May and June the little antelope kid appears. He is a queer httle fellow, but at a very early age learns to run as fast as h,s parents. Antelopes often suffer from freaks of apathetic indifiference to danger, which are curious as existing in an animal notoriously wary. Also they are fond of wandering, and sometimes appear in most unlikely Places Thus, once, Mr. Roosevelt, while building the cow corral m an open bottom, found five of the animals there, but having no weapon with him the creatures retired unmolested. Antelopearemucn n»re difficult to shoot than deer because of their tough hide which seems to turn a bullet aside, but so plenty are they at times that Mr. Roosevelt often brought one down before breakfast. With the first sharp frost the chase for antelope is abandoned for that of deer Then the favorite quarry is the blacktail of the moun- tain and the high, craggy hills. "We kill him by fair stiU-hunt.ng, and to follow him successfully through the deep ravines and across the steep ridges of his upland home a man should be sound in wmd and limbs, and a good shot with the rifle as well. Many a glorious fall morning I have passed in this pursuit. Often, moreover I have slain him in the fading evening as I walked homeward m Ute still, dim twilight-tor all wild game dearly love the gloaming. Once on a frosty evening I thus killed one when it was so dark that my aim was little but guesswork. I was walking back to camp through a winding valley hemmed in by steep cedar-crowned walls of clay and Utftt. 100 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. rock. All the landscape glimmered white with the new fallen snow, and in the West the sky was still red with the wintry sunset. Sud- denly a great buck came out of a grove of snow-laden cedars and walked with swift strides up to the point of a crag that overlooked the valley. There he stood motionless, while I crouched unseen in the shadow beneath. As I fired he reared upright and then plunged over the clifif. He fell a hundred feet before landing in the bushes, yet he did not gash or mar his finely moulded head and shapely massive antlers. On one of the last days I hunted, in November, I killed two blacktail, a doe and a buck, with one bullet. They were feeding in a glen high up the side of some steep hills, and by a careful stalk over rough ground I got within fifty yards. Peering over the brink of the cliff-hke slope up which I had clambered, I saw them standing in such a position that the neck of the doe covered the buck's shoulder. The chance was too tempting to be lost. My bullet broke the doe's neck, and of course she fell where she was; but the buck went off, my next two or three shots missing him. However, we followed his bloody trail through the high pass he had crossed, down a steep slope, and roused him from the brushwood in the valley bottom. He soon halted and lay down again, making off at a faltering gallop when approached; and the third time we came up to him he was too weak to rise." Deer was sometimes killed by the aid of hounds, of which there were two on the ranch. A blacktail buck can beat off a dog or a wolf, "however, and he is a most awkward foe for a man. One of them nearly did up a cowboy in Mr. Roosevelt's employ. The buck had been mortally wounded and had fallen, and the man ran up to stick himi with the knife. The buck revived for a moment, struck down the man and tried to gore him, but did not succeed because of the despairing grip the man kept on his horns. The man, bruised and cut by the sharp hoofs, was rapidly growing too weak to retain his PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 101 hold on the horns, when in the struggle man and deer came to the edge of a washout and fell twelve of fifteen feet. This separated them, and the dying buck was too weak to renew the attack, while the man crawled off so much hurt that it was months before he recovered. Whitetails are also fair still-hunting, but more often they were shot in the dense river bottoms by the help of the track hounds. The dogs went into the woods with a horseman to guide them and help them rout out the game, while the rest of the hunters, rifles in hand, rode from point to point outside, or else watched the passes through which the hunted animals were likely to run. "It is not a sport of which I am very fond, but it is sometimes pleasant as a variety. The last time we tried it I killed a buck in the bottom right below onr ranch house, not half a mile off. The river was low and my post was at its edge; in front of me the broad sandy l^at sparsely covered with willow brush. Deer are not ordmarily afraid of a noisy hound; they will play around in front of him, lead and flag in on. But Rob (one of the hounds) was different. The gray wolfish beast, swift and silent, threw them into a panic of terror, and in headlong flight they would seek safety from him in the densest thicket On the evening in question one of my cow-boys went mto the brush with the hounds. I had hardly ridden to my place and dismounted when I heard the dog give tongue, the bluffs echomg back his long-drawn baying. Immediately afterward a young buck appeared coming along the sandy river bed, trotting, or cantermg, and very handsome he looked, stepping with a light high action, his glossy coat glistening, his head thrown back, his white flag flaunting. My bullet struck him too far back, and he went on, turning into the woods. Then the dogs appeared, one running the scent, while the eager gaze-hound made wide half-circles around him as he ran; while the cow-boy, riding a vicious yellow mustang, galloped behind, 102 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. cheering them on. As they struck the bloody trail they broke into clamorous yelling and tore at full speed into the woods. A minute or two later the sound ceased, and I knew they had run into the quarry." The hounds were sometimes used for other game besides deer — coyotes for instance, or a wolf, as has been done. Good sport was had on the rolling plains near Mandan in following a pack of four fleet long-legged dogs. They ran down coyotes, deer and an an- telope. They were especially fond of chasing coyotes, which they easily overtook. Brought to bay, the coyotes fought desperately, but unavailingly, for the hounds killed them easily. The animal that gave them most trouble was a badger which they once found and only killed after much struggling. The ranchmen also coursed jack- rabbits, swifts and foxes. The swifts are called swift foxes, being rather smaller than the southern gray fox. They have always been said to possess tremendous speed, and their name, "swift," per- petuates the idea. As a matter of fact it is a delusion, as they are rather slow if anything. Once in a snow storm Mr. Roosevelt started one up under his horse's feet while riding across the prairie. He overtook him in a few strides and killed him with a revolver. The speed of the coyote has been popularly exaggerated. Judging by the records of the hounds on the ranch the antelope is the fastest animal of the plains. The white-tailed deer and the jack rabbit come next. Then follow in order the coyote, the fox and the swift. Individuals vary, however, for a jack rabbit might well outrun a slow deer, while a coyote and fox will outlast the swifter jack rabbit. Several dogs should make the run together, othenvise a jack or a swift although overtaken may make his escape by dexterous dodging. The cactus beds of the vicinity befriend the hunted animals, as the dogs rush into the thorny plants recklessly and are soon disabled, while a rabbit or a fox slips through easily and escapes injury. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. lOS Mr Roosevelt, in hunting these smaller game, usually had a couple ot his men with him. They scattered out, dogs and men, and rode tn an irregular line across the country, beating the most likely lookmg places,;nd following at top speed any game that got up. Sometm.es a jack rabbit starting well ahead would run for a couple of m.les . straight ahead before being turned by the leading hound, wh.le oc- casionally one would get away altogether. At other times .t would be caught at once and killed instantly, or only prolong .ts hfe a few- seconds by its turns and twists. One swift gave the hunters several minutes chase though it never got thirty rods from the place where it started The little creature went off as merrily as possible, .ts hand- some brush streaming behind its pliant back, and though overtaken at once it dodged so cleverly that dog after dog shot past h.m. A single dog could not have killed him. Coursing is the sport of sports for ranchmen now that b,g game has grown scarce, and there can be no healthier or more excttng pastime than that of following game with horse and hound over he vast Western plains. The round-horned elk is fast vamshmg from the plains, the sight of one is exhilaration intense to the man wUhhunt.ng instincts. In the season when the ranch was sorely in need of meat Mr Roosevelt went after these elk. "At the time most of the ponies were off on one of the round-ups which, indeed, I had just left myself. However, my two huntmg horses, Manitou and Sorrel Joe, were at home. The ormer I rode myself, and on the latter I mounted one of my men who was a par- ticularly good hand at finding and following game. W,th much diffi- culty we got together a scrub wagon team of four as unkempt, de- jected and vicious looking broncos as ever stuck fast u, a cf'-k-nd ^ balked in pulling up a steep pitch. Their driver was a crack wh.p, and their load light, consisting of little but the tent and beddmg^ 60 we got out to the hunting ground and back m safety. 104 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. We camped by an excellent spring of cold, clear water, not a common luxury in the Bad Lands. We pitched the tent beside it, getting enough timber from a grove of ash to make a large fire which is, again, an appreciated blessing on the plains of the West. * * * We started next morning before the gray was relieved by the first faint pink, and reached the broken country soon after sunrise. Here we picketed our horses, as the ground we were to hunt through was very rough. Two or three hours passed before we came upon fresh signs of elk. Then we found the trails of two, from the size presum- ably cows, made the preceding night, and started to follow them carefully and noiselessly, my companion taking one side of the valley in which we were, and I the other. * * * Yet though we walked as quietly as we could the game must have heard or smelt us, for after a mile's painstaking search we came to a dense thicket in which were two beds evidently but just left, for the twigs and bent grass blades were still slowly rising from the ground to which the bodies of the elks had pressed them." The hunters followed at once. The elk left the strip of rugged Bad Lands and went on into the smoother land beyond. The hunters considered it likely they would halt in some heavily timbered coulees six or seven miles off. They found the elk almost as soon as they struck the border of the ground they had thought would be their probable halting place. The hunters had regained their horses, for the scouting took them near the tethering place. The horses were unshod and made but little noise, and coming to a wide, long coulee the two men separated, Mr. Roosevelt going down one side, his com- panion the other. Half way down the ranchman whistled, and Mr. Roosevelt stood still at once. Nothing moved, and he glanced at his fellow hunter. The ranchman had squatted down and was peering over into the dense laurel on Mr. Roosevelt's side of the coulee. In a minute he shouted that he saw a red patch in the brush. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 105 "Elk will sometimes lie as closely as rabbits, even when not in very good cover; still I was surprised at these not breaking out when they heard human voices. However, there they staid, and I waited several minutes in vain for them to move. From where I stood it was im- possible to see them, and I was fearful that they might go off down the valley and so offer me a very poor shot. Meanwhile Manitou, who is not an emotional horse, and is moreover blessed with a large appetite, was feeding greedily, rattling his bridle chains at every mouthful, and I thought he would act as a guard to keep the elk where they were while I shifted my position. So I slipped back and ran swiftly around to the head of the coulee to where my companion was still sitting. He pointed me out the patch of red in the bushes not sixty yards distant, and I fired into it without delay, by good luck breaking the neck of a cow elk, when immediately another one rose up from beside it and made off. I had five shots at her as she as- cended the hillside and the gentle slope beyond, and two of my bullets struck her close together in the flank — a very fatal shot. She was evidently mortally hit, and just as she hit the top of the divide she stopped, reeled and fell over dead." The hunters were much gratified with their luck, as it secured an ample stock of badly needed fresh meat. They left the elk where they fell, the following morning stopping for them with the wagon, into which they put the creatures bodily, leaving the entrails for the vultures that were soaring in circles over the carcasses. The finest elk antlers Mr. Roosevelt ever got, as a trophy of his own rifle, were from a bull he killed far to the west of his ranch, in the eastern chains of the Rockies. He shot the animal one early morning while still-hunting in the open glades of a great pine forest. He and his companion had listened all night long to the animal and its fellows challenging one another. "At this season the bulls fight most desperately, and their combats are far more often attended with fatal results than is the case with :06 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. deer. In the grove back of my ranch house when we first took pos- session we found the skulls of two elk with interlocked antlers; one was a royal, the other had fourteen points. Theirs had been a duel to the death." Since 1884, when Mr. Roosevelt went to the Big Horn Mountains, he had killed no grizzlies. There were some still left in the neighbor- hood of the ranch but they were exceedingly shy and lived in such 'naccessible places that though he had twice devoted several days to solely hunting them he had not been successful so far — though two cow-boys found a bear in the open and after using a great num- ber of cartridges succeeded in killing it, the bear charging gamely to the last. Mr. Roosevelt, so it happened, generally hunted big-horn sheep in exceedingly cold weather, though the big-horn is not confined to any one climatic zone, but may be met with in the hot table lands of middle Mexico as well as to the North of the Canadian boundary. There exists no animal more hardy to grapple with the extremes of heat and cold. The big-horn, or Cimarron sheep, as the Mexicans call it, is the one American representative of the different breeds of mountain sheep that are found in the Old World. A brief experience with it changes the big-horn sheep into a quarry that taxes the skill of the hunter whether he be from a city or is a mountaineer. A ram seems to be always on the w^atch to notify his friends of the approach of danger. His favorite point of espial is high up on some cliff from whence he can see far and wide over the country. The slightest sound, the rattle of a loose stone, a cough, even a heavy footfall on the hard earth, attracts his attention and makes him climb as high as possible in order to ascertain the cause of the commotion in the silence. His eye catches the slightest movement, his scent is as keen as an elk's. A band of sheep is even more difficult than a solitary individual, but a band is easier to get on the track of, as there are PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 107 always some young members guilty of indiscretion and who have not yet learned the meaning of danger. All of the flock is always on the lookout; while the others are grazing there is always one at least on the watch, and occasionally a particularly watchful ewe will jump upon some boulder so as to get a wider view. On ordinary occasions a big-horn menaced by danger flies beyond the reach of that danger with immediate decision and headlong speed, disappearing over ground where it needs an expert cragsman to so much as follow at a walk. Its wonderful feats of climbing have given rise to the fable that the rams on plunging down precipices alight on their horns. A band of sheep will sometimes seem to court instant death by spring- ing off a brink that looks perpendicular and where there is not a ledge or a crack to afford foothold. On examination it will be found that the seemingly perpendicular cliff is not quite so and that the sheep in making the fearful descent from time to time strike the cliff with their hoofs, thus going down in long bounds, the final bound often made headlong like a plunge. It is not possible to hunt big-horn unless you have some knowledge of their habits. They go down to drink late in the evening or very early in the morning. In ordinary weather they begin feeding in the early morning, and when the sun is rising high they start to graze up the high ridge where they intend to lie during the day. They stay here till well on in the afternoon, and then again descend to the feeding grounds lower down. Often it is necessary for the hunter to lie carefully concealed for hours watching a flock in an unfavorable position until it shifts its ground. This is scarcely comfortable on a cold day in November and December, the months during which Mr. Roosevelt usually hunted big-horn. Speaking of it he says that what- ever success he has had in this hunting he owed to dogged perse- verance and patient persistence. On one of his expeditions after the sheep he wore away hour after hour trying to find them, At last 108 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. he caught sight of a band. They were fifteen or tweaty in number and were on the point of a spur some half-mile from him. "With glasses I could make out that there was no good head among them, but I was out after meat rather than for sport." He watched and waited for them to make a move. At last near sunset the sheep got on their legs and led by an old ewe began to descend into the valley. They went down the cHfif with a rush. Picking out a fine young ram the hunter fired and hit him. The others, without an instant's pause, rushed madly down and away. The day when he shot his largest and finest ram was memorable, for the cold was in- tense, windless and deadly. "All day we walked and climbed through a white wonderland. On every side the snowy hills, piled one on another, stretched away, chain after chain, as far as sight could reach. The stern and iron- bound land had been changed to a frozen sea of billowy, glittering peaks and ridges. At last, late in the afternoon, three great big-horn suddenly sprang up to our right and crossed the tableland in front of and below us at a strong, stretching gallop. The lengthening sun- beams glinted on their mighty horns; their great, supple brown bodies were thrown out in bold relief against the white landscape; as they plowed with long strides through the powdery snow their hoofs tossed it up in masses of white spray. On the left of the plateau was a ridge, and as they went up this I fired twice at the leading ram, my bullets striking under him. On the summit he stopped for a moment, looking back, three hundred and fifty yards off, and my third shot went fairly through his lungs. He ran over the hill as ii unharmed, but lay down a couple of hundred yards farther on, and was dead when we reached him." In hunting for white goats on the high peaks of the Rockies in 1886, Mr. Roosevelt and his party would start immediately after breakfast each morning, and go sraight up the mountain sides for PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 109 hours at a time. They ahvays went above the haunts of deer, and saw little evidences of any sort of life roundabout. The goat trails led away in every direction, zigzagging up, higher and higher. Although these game paths were deeply worn they yet showed very little fresh goat signs. "I had been as usual walking and clambering over the mountains all day long, and in the mid-afternoon reached a great slide with half-way across it a tree. Under this I sat down to rest, my back against the trunk, and had been there but a few moments when my companion suddenly whispered to me that a goat was coming down the slide at its edge, near the woods. I was in a most uncomfortable position for a shot. Twisting my head around I could see the goat waddling down hill, looking just like a handsome tame billy, espec- ially when at times he stood upon a stone to glance around, with all four feet close together. I cautiously tried to shift my position and at once dislodged some pebbles, at the sound of which the goat sprang promptly up on the bank, his whole mien changing to one of alert, alarmed curiosity. He was less than a hundred yards ofif, so I risked a shot, all cramped and twisted as I was. But my bullet went low — I only broke his left fore-leg, and he disappeared over the bank like a fiash. We raced and scrambled after him and took up the bloody trail. The trail went up the sharpest and steepest places, skirting the cliffs and precipices. * =f= * Suddenly on the top of the mountain we came upon the goat close up to us. He had risen from rolling and stood behind a huge fallen log, his back barely show- ing above it. * * * The second bullet went just too high, cut- ting the skin above the high spinal bones over the shoulders, and the speed with which that three-legged goat went down the precipi- tous side of the mountain would have done credit to an antelope on the level." Weary and disgusted the men took up the trail. The goat had crossed the river on a fallen tree-trunk, and the men crossed that way 110 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. •also. But the goat had gone up the mountain. It was now nearly dark. The men were corfident the goat could not go far in his present condition. Next morning at daybreak they again climbed the mountain and took up the trail. At last, about midday, they spied the goat on a ledge seventy yards off. This time Mr. Roose- velt shot true. During that trip the hunters shot deer and hoped to come upon bear, though in this they were disappointed. But it was white goats they were after. One day the hunters climbed to the very top of a mountain range looking for game. They went from crag to crag and while they saw goat trails they saw none of the animals that made them. "When I reached the farther side of the plain and was about enter- ins^ the woods, I turned to look over the mountain once more, and my eye was immediately caught by two white objects which were moving along the terrace, about half a mile to one side of the lick." They were goats, and came along rapidly. It was close on to sunset, and the goats, wary as usual, must have smelt the footsteps of their enemy, and halted too far away for a shot to reach them. "Shortly after noon next day we were on the terrace, having ap- proached with the greatest caution. I wore moccasins so as to make no noise. We soon found that one of the trails was evidently regu- larly traveled, probably every evening, and we determined to lie in wait by it so as either to catch the animals as they came down to feed, or else to mark them if they got out on some open spot on the ter- races where they could be stalked. As an ambush we chose a ledge in the cliff below a terrace with, in front, a breastwork of the natural rock some five feet high. It was perhaps fifty yards from the trail. I hid myself on this ledge, having arranged on the rock breastwork a few pine branches through which to fire, and waited hour after hour, continually scanning the mountain carefully with the glasses. * "^ From time to time I peeped cautiously over the pine branches of the Patriot and statesman. in breastwork; and the last time I did this I suddenly saw two goats that had come noiselessly down, standing motionless opposite to me, their suspicions evidently roused by something. I gently shoved the rifle over one of the boughs; the largest goat turned its head sharply around to look as it stood quartering to me, and the bullet went fairly through the lungs. Both animals promptly ran ofT along the terrace, and I raced after them in my moccasins, skirting the edge of the cliff where there were no trees or bushes. As I made no noise and could run very swiftly along the bare cliff edge I succeeded in coming out in the first little glade, or break, in the terrace at the same time that the goats did. The first to come out of the bushes was the big one I had shot at, an old she, as it turned out; while the other, a yearhng ram, followed. The big one turned to look at me as she mounted a fallen tree that lay across a chasm-like rent in the terrace; the light red frothy blood covered her muzzle, and I paid no further heed to her as she slowly walked along the log, but bent my attention toward the yearling which was galloping and scramb- bling up an almost perpendicular path that led across the face of the cHff above. Holding my rifle just over it I fired, breaking the neck of the goat, and it rolled down some forty or fifty yards almost to where I stood." Both these slain goats proved good specimens, the old one being unusually large with magnificent horns. Mr. Roosevelt, an en- thusiast, praises all mountain game-hunting and never tires of speak- ing of the glow that the contest for capturing the wild denizens of the high peaks gives. His strong masculine mind rejoiced in the out- door life, the adventure, the daring and the danger. He understood pretty well the cities and towns of the Union, and he would under- stand the desert places of the land, its prairies and its mountains. He knew men; he knew politics; and he would know the noble wild ani- mals and their characteristics. He had the instincts of the born 112 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. hunter, and while in the purheus of the crowded capitals of the land he had his say and did his work, the prairie and the mountain and the plain called him, and he went there and became a Nimrod. Polished and educated men were his friends, statesmen, patriots; and he did not disclaim an equal friendship for the frontiersman and the cow-boy whose lives were passed away from the centers of present civilization while they blazed the way for a civilization yet to be. Perhaps some of his happiest days were passed with nature in paths scarcely trod by the foot of man before he trod them, and in the exercise of his freedom on the American deserts and the peaks of the frowning mountains his blood was renewed, his muscles made stronger and more enduring, his brain and body cleared of morbid cityisms till he was prepared to go back into the vortex of the "strenuous" life of town and State and country that called him over and over again. CHAPTER VI. Republican Candidate for Mayor — Largest Republican Vote for Mayor ever Polled ill New York — Civil Service Commission — How he "Ruined Himself" — Duties of Civil Service Commission — Abolishment of Abuses in Politics — Paper on Civil Service Reform — Case before LHI. Congress — In Office Six Years — Resignation to Accept Office as Police Commissioner of New York. IN the year 1886, Mr. Roosevelt was the Republican candidate for Mayor against Abram S. Hewitt, United Democracy, and Henry George, United Labor. Mr. Hewitt was elected by about 22,000 plurality. The canvass was not very exciting, except that Henry George was a candidate, and the labor problem, according to the labor organs, was about to be solved. The honesty of Henry George was not im- pugned, while his principles, as interpreted by his followers, were not always convincing. It is doubtful if Mr. Roosevelt ever con- sidered his own election as a foregone conclusion. His speeches at the time published his now well-known attitude, though at the age of twenty-eight there had never before been a candidate for the New York mayoralty. He took his defeat in good part and retired, as much as a man of his virility in estimate of public affairs, could retire. He published his books and various articles in the magazines of the day, and enjoyed what his friends considered a well-earned rest, though that rest partook of the nature of rough traveling in the West for a part of the time. In 1889 he was appointed a member ol the United States Civil Service Commission. By a strange conjunction o'^ circumstances Mr. Roosevelt, author of the New York Civil J^ervice law, was, through appointment as Civil Service Comanis- sioner by President Harrison, put in a position in which, for half a 113 114 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. dozen years, the enforcement of the national reform was largely in his hands. Many of the Repul)lican and Democratic politicians were against the Civil Service act. Many members of Congress, of both parties, who voted for it did so on account of the tremendous popular pressure for its enactment which the assassination of Garfield, by a demented office-seeker two years earlier, had incited. These Con- gressmen would have been glad to see the act die of inanition. Commissioner Roosevelt did not share in this feeling. He gave most vigorous operation to the Civil Service act for at least two rea- sons: He decidedly favored this law. He held that all laws, bad as well as good, ought to be enforced, so that, if bad, the people could force their repeal, and the statute book cease to be cumbered by them. He enforced the act with so much vigor and intelligence that he called down upon himself the hostility of the party workers on both sides, and called it down so impartially that when President Cleve- land, in 1893, succeeded President Harrison he asked Harrison's appointee to remain in office, which he did for two years longer. In his six years of service Mr. Roosevelt added twenty thousand posts to the list under the scope of the merit law, or more than were placed on that roll in an equal length of time before or since. Of course he met with opposition. While in the gubernatorial election he had polled more votes than had ever been cast for any Republican candidate for Mayor of New^ York, and it was believed that he would have been elected had not so many Republicans voted for Hewitt in order to render George's defeat certain, there were those who said he was "ruined," as he had "ruined himself" when in the Assembly at Albany because he fought "organization" measures and was neither academic nor Pickwickian in his attitude as to political corruption. He "ruined himself" again, and completely, by taking a place o-n the Civil Service Commission and standing across the path of the powerful politicians — the men who elect and PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 115 who control delegations to nominating- conventioois — on their hunt for patronage. When Mr. Roosevelt began his public career he was looked upon as a youthful faddist. The spoilsmen and those corrupt in politics laughed at him; they ridiculed him; and then they had to fight him. Those in public life for the money that was in it felt the sting of his scorn. He becam.e a pubHc figure at once. In the early eighties President Andre\v D. White, of Cornell University, since Ambassador to Germany, said in the lecture-room of his college: "Y*ung 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 say that if any man of his age w^as ever pointed straight for the Presidency that man is Theodore Roosevelt." Roosevelt at that time did more than command respect for reform ideas, he showed that it was possible to remain in office and be clean. He caused to be abolished in New York City several useless offices which were used to bleed the public treasur>^ He helped to abolish the joint responsibility of the Board of Aldermen with the Mayor in appointments to office. He investigated the Police Department of New York City and laid bare some of its iniquities. He recom- mended a single head for the Department, the necessity for which later he realized to the fullest degree. Then he secured the passage of the Civil Ser\'ice Reform law of 1884, a law upon which the Federal statute was largely modeled. If he had done little else in his public life in the way oi a service for the right, that lav/ would have carried him high in the estimation of his fellow citizens. Th« wisdom of that legislation is nc*v universally approved. The qualities of honesty and courage were never absent from him, and they had done their work. President Harrison made him Chairman of the Civil Service Com- mission of the United States in 1889. Brilliant as had been his work 116 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. in other directions, never was he so deserving of the approval of his fellow countrymen than during the years he toiled to elevate the public service and to help bring it to its present state of efficiency. At that time, it would appear, he had little ambition for higher work. He had to face hostility on every side. He had to show that the scheme was practical. He countermined the enmity of certain Con- gressmen. His master stroke in this work was to hold examinations in various States and gradually to build up a following of office- holders, through merit, of scores of Congressmen. Roosevelt had to prove that a party did not need the minor offices to secure success before the people. He had to prove that it was good party politics to take the great mass of offices out of the domain of politics. It was bold and fearless work, and he succeeded in it. According to the new Commissioner's idea, "no question of in- ternal administration is so important to the United States as the question of Civil Service reform, because the spoils system which can only be supplanted through the agencies which have found expres- sion in the act creating the Civil Service Commissioii, has been for seventy years the most potent of all the forces tending to bring about the degradation of American politics. No republic can endure per- manently when its politics is base and corrupt; and the spoils system, the application in political life of the degrading doctrine that 'to the victor belongs the spoils,' produces corruption and degradation. The man who is in politics for the offices might just as well be in politics for the money he can get for his vote, so far as the general good is concerned. When the then Vice-President of the United States, Mr. Hendricks, said that he 'wished to take the boys in out o.f the cold to warm their toes,' thereby meaning that he w^ished to distribute offices among the more active 'heelers,' to the rapturous enthusiasm of the latter, he uttered a sentiment which was morally on the same plane with a wish to give 'the boys' five dollars apiece all around tor PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. ^^ their votes, and fifty dollars apiece when they showed themselves sufficiently active in bullying, bribing and cajoling other voters. Such a sentiment should bar any man from public life, and will bar him whenever the people grow to realize that the worst enemies of the Republic are the demagogue and the corruptionist. The spoils- monger and the spoils-seeker invariably breed the bribe-taker and bribe''-giver-the embezzler of public funds and the corrupter of voters. Civil Service reform is not merely a movement to better the public service. It achieves this end, too; but its main purpose is to raise the tone of public life, and it is in this direction that its effects have been of incalculable good to the whole community." For six years, from May, 1889, to May, 1895, Mr. Roosevelt was a member of the National Civil Service Commission. The aim of the Commission was always to procure the extension of the classified Service as rapidly as possible, and to see that the law was admmistered thoroughly and fairly. The Commission did not have the power which Mr. Roosevelt thought it should have, and in many instances there were violations and evasions of the law in certain bureaus or departments, and the Commission was unable to hinder them, though in every case the Commission made a good fight and gave the widest publicity to the wrongdoing. Often when the Commission could not win the actual fight in which they were engaged, the fact of their having made it, and the other fact that they were willing to repeat the fight on provocation, put a stop to a repetition of the ofTense. Consequently, while there were many violations and evasions their proportion became smaller and smaller in time. In the aggregate, it is said that it is doubtful if one per cent, of all the many employees have been dismissed for purely political reasons. Taking it another way, where under the old system of spoils a hundred men had been turned out, under the Civil Service ninety-nine men were kept m office. 118 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. In the administration of the law very much depends upon the Com- mission. With a combative mind, yet Mr. Roosevelt was most receptive. He had learned much in his years of public life; the Civil Service Commission was to teach him more. He understood the needs of reform in the Civil Service and he did his best to carry to a consummation such measures as should ensure the betterment of it. He said that good heads of departments and bureaus would ad-- minister it well anyhow; though not only the bad men, but also the more numerous class of men who are weak, rather than bad, are sure to administer a law poorly unless kept up to the mark. He thought the public should exercise a more careful scrutiny over the appoint- ments and over the acts of the Civil Service Commissioners, for there was no office the efifectiveness of which depends so much upon the way in which the man himself chooses to construe his duties. A Commissioner could keep within the letter of the law and do his routine work, and yet accomplish nothing at all in the way of securing the observance of the law. Always a painstaking man, with an eye for detail, he made the execution of his duties in the Com- mission as difificult to himself as he felt that he was in honor bound to dO'. He felt that the Commission, to do useful work, must be fearless and vv^ideawake; that it must actively interfere wherever wrong was done, and must take all the steps that could be taken to secure the punishment of the wrongdoer and to protect the employee who was threatened by the powers-that-be. This course he consistently followed throughout his connection with the Commission. He was a Republican from the North. Two of the members were from the Sonth — Democrats who had served in the Confederate army — but in all the dealings with one and the other of the Commissioners there was no single instance wherein the politics of any person was so much as taken into account in any case that arose. The force of the Commission itself was chosen PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 121 through competitive examinations, and inckided men of every party and from every section of the country. Says Mr. Roosevelt: "From the beginning of the present system each President of the United States has been its friend (the Com- mission's) but no President has been a radical Civil Service reformer. Presidents Arthur, Harrison and Cleveland have all desired to see the Service extended, and to see the law well administered. No one of them has felt willing or able to do all that the reformers asked or to pay much heed to their wishes, save as regards that portion of the Service to which the law actually applied. Each has been a sincere party man who has felt strongly on such questions as those of the tariff, of finance, and of our foreign policy, and each has been obliged to conform more or less closely to the wishes of his party associates and fellow party leaders; and, of course, these party leaders and the party politicians generally wished the offices to be distributed as they ha(l been ever since Andrew Jackson became President. In con- sequence, the of^ces outside the protection of the law have still been treated under every administration as patronage, to be disposed of in t'*"e interest of the dominant party. An occasional exception has been made here and there, * * * but with altogether insignifi- cant exceptions the great bulk of the non-classilied places have been changed for political reasons by each administration, the officeholders politically opposed to the administration being supplanted or suc- ceeded by political adherents of the administration." The Cabinet officers, though often not Civil Service reformers originally, usually become such before their terms of office expire. This was true without exception of all the Cabinet officers with whom Mr. Roosevelt was brought into personal contact while he was on the Commission. Moreover, from their high position and their ap- preciation of the responsibility of their offices, Cabinet officers are certain to refrain from a personal violation of the law, while they will 122 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. try to secure a formal compliance with its demands on the part of their subordinates. "In most cases it is necessary, however, to goad them continually to see that they do not allow their subordinates to evade the law," to quote Mr. Roosevelt in his article on "Civil Service Reform," "and it is very difficult to get either the President or the head of a Depart- ment to punish these subordinates when they have evaded it." There was not much open violation of the law during his in- cumbency, because such violation could be reached through the courts; but in the small offices and bureaus an unscrupulous chief of an office or bureau may persecute his subordinates who are politically opposed to him, if he have the chance, and force them to resign; or to trump up charges against them which will cause them to be dismissed. "If this is done in a sufficient number of cases men of the opposite political party think that it is useless to enter the examinations; and by staying out they leave the way clear for the offender to get pre- cisely the men he wishes for the eligible registers." Against this chicanery Mr. Roosevelt was very severe. But the cases were isolated. In some of the Departments this form of evasion was never tolerated, and where the Commission had the force under its eye the chances of injustice were few. Congress had control of the appropriations for the Commission, and as it could not do its work with ample funds the action of Congress was vital to its welfare. '"Many even of the friends of the system in the country at large are astonishingly ignorant of who the men are who have battled most effectively for the law and for good government in either the Senate or the Lower House. It is not only necessary that a man shall be good and possess the desire to do decent things, but it is also neces- sary that he shall be courageous, practical and efficient if his work is PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 123 to amount to anything. There is a good deal of rough-and-tumble fighting in Congress, as there is in all our political life, and a man is entirely out of place in it if he does not possaes the virile qualities, and if he fails to show himself ready and able to hit back when assailed. Moreover, he must be alert, vigorous and intelligent if he is going to make his work count. The friends of the Civil Service, like the friends of all other laws, would be in a bad way if they had to rely solely upon the backing of the timid good." Mr. Roosevelt has never been averse to taking his part in a vigorous argument, and he was often called upon to have a share in these arguments while he was on the Commission. His article on the Civil Service is so full of comprehension of the subject that one is tempted to quote it lengthily in order to convey an understanding of his attitude when he was so often assailed by the money-getting politicians who opposed his ideas of reform. "There is need of further legislation," he explains, "to perfect and extend the law and the system; but Congress has never been willing seriously to consider a proposition looking to this extension. * * On the other hand, efforts to repeal the law or to destroy it by new legislation have uniformly been failures and have rarely gone beyond a committee. Occasionally, in an appropriation bill or some other measure, an amendment will be slipped through adding forty of fifty employees to the classified service, or providing that the law shall not apply to them; but nothing important has ever been done in this way." In the final session of the Fifty-third Congress an incident oc- curred which deserves to be related in full, as it affords an example of the many cases which arise to test the efficiency of the friends of reform in Congress. According to the original law of 1883, the Secretary of the Commission was allowed a salary of sixteen hundred dollars a year. As the Commission's work and force grew the 124 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. salary in a successive appropriation bill allowed was two thousand a year. Many of the clerks under the Secretary received eighteen hundred dollars, so that it would have been absurd to reduce the Secretary's salary below that of his subordinates. Many other officials of the Government have had their salaries increased in suc- cessive appropriation bills, over the sum originally provided, in pre- cisely the same way that the salary of the Secretary of the Commis- sion was increased. The Fifty-third Congress under President Cleve- land was Democratic, and the Secretary of the Commission was him- self a Democrat. According to the rules of the House, "there shall be no increase of salary beyond that provided in existing law in any appropriation bill." When the appropriation for the Civil Service Commission came up before the House, the gentleman from Ken- tucky, Mr. Breckinridge, made the point that to give two thousand dollars to the Secretary of the Commission was to add to his salary four hundred dollars increase over the sum allowed by the original law of 1883, and was consequently out of order. At the same time he exhibited a list of twenty or thirty other officers whose salaries had likewise been increased. He withdrew his point of order as regarded these other persons, but he adhered to it as affecting the Secretary of the Commission. The Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Mr. O'Neill, of Massachusetts, sustained the point of order, and there was no objection made by any one nor any fight made, and the bill passed the House and the Secretary's salary was reduced. The point of order was probably ill-taken. The existing law was and had been for ten years that the salary should be two thousand dollars. Had there been a Congressman alert to the situation and willing to fight, the whole movement might have been stopped by making a similar point of order against those other officers, the President's private secretary, the First Assistant Postmaster-General, the Assistant PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 126 Secretary of State and the others whose increased salaries were ex- cused from Mr. Breckinridge's animadversion. Had a Congressman raised this point the House would have refused to cut down the salaries of all these of^cials, and a man with resolution, and who in- sisted that all or none should be reduced, could have saved the salary of the Secretary of the Civil Service Commission. Many of the Con- gressmen would have done as much had it been pointed out to them, but no one did so. However, when it got over to the Senate the Civil Service reformers had friends to whom coaching was unneces- sary. "In the first place, the Sub-Committee on Appropriations, composed of Messrs. Teller, Cockrell and Allison, to which the Civil Service Commission section was referred, restored the salary to two thousand dollars. But Senator Gorman succeeded in carrying, by a bare majority, tl>e Appropriations Committee against it, and it was reported to the full Senate at sixteen hundred dollars." As soon as it got into the full Senate, Senator Lodge had his chance at it. He was in favor of the increase and he let it be known that he wonld receive ample support in insisting upon adding four hundred to the sixteen. All that he had to do was to show the absolute folly of the reduction provision put in by Mr. Breckinridge, and kept in. He made it evident that he meant to make a resolute fight and not to come out worsted. The opposition made no show at all. and collapsed without being put to a further test. The salary was put back to two thousand dollars, and in that form the bill became a law. If we are to have good legislation or if we are to have bad — that is, if we are to have it forwarded — depends greatly upon the com- position of the Committees on Civil Service reform of the Senate and the Lower House. The personnel of these Committees, there- fore, is of great importance. They are charged w^ith the duty of in- vestigating complaints against the Commission, and if ever the Com- 126 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. mission becomes corrupt or inefficient it should be unsparingly ex- posed in Congress. It is equally important that the falsity of un- truthful charges made against it should be made public. "The main fight in each session comes on the Appropriation bill. There is not the slightest danger that the bill will be repealed, and there is not much danger that any President will suffer it to be so laxly administered as to deprive it of value; though there is always need to keep a vigilant lookout for fear of such lax administration. The danger point is in the appropriations. The first Civil Service Commission, established in the days of President Grant, was starved out bv Congress refusing to appropriate for it. A hostile Congress could repeat the same course now; and as a matter of fact, in every Congress resolute efforts are made by the champions of foul govern- ment and dishonest politics to cut ot¥ the Commission's supplies. The bolder men who come from districts v/hcre little is known of the law. and where there is no adequate expression of intelligent and honest opinion on the subject, attack it openly. They are always joined by a number who make the attack covertly under some point of order, or because of a nominal desire for economy. These are quite as dangerous as the others and deserve exposure. Every man in- terested in decent government should keep an eye on his Congress- man and see how he votes on the question of appropriations for the Connnission." The opposition to the reform is usually led by skilled pariiamentari- ans, and they tight with the vigor of men who see a chance to strike at an institution which has baffled their greed. The rank and file, as a rule, is made up of politicians who cannot rise in public life because of thei;- attitude on any public question, and who possess most of their power in the skill with which they manipulate the politics of their districts. "These men have a gift of office-mongering, just as other men have a peculiar knack in picking pockets; and they PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 127 are joined by all the honest dull men who vote wrong out of pure ignorance, and by a very few sincere and intelligent but wholly mis- guided people. Many of the spoils leaders are both efficient and fear- less and able to strike hard blows. In consequence, the leaders on the side of decency must themselves be men of ability and force or the cause will suffer." More and more does Mr. Roosevelt insist upon the importance of the Civil Service Commission in the interests of good government. He would teach all men to govern themselves politically and through such government to make a good selection of the men who are to represent them in the State and in Congress. His own honesty and uprightness make him harsh upon any approach to the opposite qualities in others, and he holds as dishonest and untruthful the voter who refuses or does not have sufficient interest in the matter to look into the aims and character of the men for whom he votes at the polls. The Civil Service reform meant with him reform reaching clear into the most insignificant of ward politics. Placemen were the decay at the core of good government, whether that good government were in the white palace at Washington or a director of a school in a thinly inhabited country town. He insists that the country has a preponderance of good men in it and that the bad men are only in evidence because of the inertia of the good who are, thus, the up- holders of the bad. Civil Service reform is the strength this inertia calls into being, the natural outcome of a state of afifairs which should never have come about, but which having come will not easily be rid of until a healthful lesson of constant defeat has been taught it. Noteworthy is it that those who have done most effective work in Washington in the departments for the Civil Service reform law are men of unimpeachable character, who show by their public life that they are able and resolute and devoted to a high ideal. Much of what they have done has not been commented on by the public 128 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. because much of the work in committee, and some of that in the House, such as making and opposing points of order, and pointing out the merits and defects of certain bills, is not of the sort readily understood or appreciated by the outsiders. Yet few men have de- served better of their country, "for there is in American public life no one other cause so fruitful of harm to the body-politic as the spoils system, and the legislators and administrative of^cers who have done the best work toward its destruction merit a peculiar meed of praise from all well-wishers of the Republic." Mr. Roosevelt is outspoken on all occasions, mincing matters as little as is consistent with a good manner. High and low who enter into competitive public life must expect criticism, and he has not spared it in his written as well as his spoken speech. He advises that all departmental officers and heads of bureaus, and especially the Commissioners themselves, be carefully watched by all friends of the reform. They are to be supported when they do well, and con- demned when they go wrong, while attention should be called not only to what they do but also to what they leave undone. Nor is the President himself to be exempted from this scrutiny. Regarding Senators and Congressmen he thinks, in this regard there is urgent need that they be carefull}* .supervised by the friends of the law of reform. "We need criticism by those who are unable to do their part in action; but the criticism to be useful must be both honest and intelli- o-ent and the critics must remember that the system has its stanch friends and bitter foes among both party men and men of no party — among RepubHcans, Democrats and Independents. Each Congress- man should be made to feel that it is his duty to support the law, and that he will be held to account if he fails to support it. * * * People sometimes grow a little down-hearted about the reform. When they feel in this mood it would be well for them to reflect on MR. ROOSEVELT IN HIS GARDEN AT OYSTER BAY PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 131 what has actually been gained in the past six years. (This was written in 1895.) By the inclusion of the railway mail service, the smaller free-delivery offices, the Indian School Service, the Internal Revenue Service, and other less important branches, the extent of the public service which is under the protection of the law has been more than doubled, and there are now nearly fifty thousand employees of the Federal Government who have been withdrawn from the de- grading influences that rule under the spoils system. This of itself is -1 great success and a great advance, though of course it ought only to spur us on to renewed effort. In the fall of 1894 the people of the State of New York by a popular vote put into their constitution a provision providing for a merit system in the affairs of the State and its municipalities; and the following spring the great city of Chicago voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of applying in its municipal affairs the advanced and radical Civil Service Reform Law, which had already passed the Illinois Legislature. Undoubtedly after every success there comes a moment of reaction. The friends of the reform grow temporarily lukewarm, or because it fails to secure every thing they hoped they neglect to lay proper stress upon all that it does secure. Yet in spite of all rebuffs, in spite of all disappointments and opposition, the growth of the principle of Civil Service reform has been continually more rapid and every year has taken us meas- urably nearer that ideal of pure and decent government which is dear to the heart of every honest American citizen." With these inspiring words he closes one of the very best articles ever written on reform in politics, and in the years when he had so ably served on the Commission he missed no opportunity by voice or pen to promulgate his theories regarding pure politics, and so effec- tually that he won thousands to his way of thinking. For while it may be true that Americans love to be fooled, there comes a time in the experience of the citizen of "the States" when he asks himself 132 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. who is the one who is doing the fooling. Mr. Roosevelt answered that question so far as false politics was concerned, and his hearers became his adherents. His office as Commissioner was held in all honor and there was never a moment when his most adverse critic might say he had been caught napping. In this stern attention to the business he had started out to do in reforming the Civil Service he "ruined himself" politically as many who disagreed with his methods were prone to say once more. Mr. Roosevelt continued in his office as Commissioner till May, 1895, when he resigned to accept the office of Police Commissioner from Mayor Strong of New York. CHAPTER VII. Departrr.ent of Police— Augury of Defeat— No Sentiment for Professional Poli- ticians— Enforcement of Laws — Improving Police Force — Gaining Respect — Opposition — Strike Leaders — Abuse Stopped — Attacked by Certain News- papers— Adverse Criticisms — Methods Reviled — Forging Ahead. IT was augured that Mr. Roosevelt would not make a success of it as an overseer of the police force of the Metropolis. The Department had been conducted on rather independent prin- ciples, and would scarcely put up with a rule which it would consider arrogant and which would interfere with its manner heretofore of doing pretty much as it pleased. The new man was known to have little at stake in politics; he feared neither boss nor heeler; he was reported to be incorruptible, while his means were such as made bribery of no account to him. At the same time, his record in the offices he had already held was to the effect that he was a martinet, holding every man to a strict account in the carrying out of the duties undertaken by him; and the police were now to come under his super- vision and control. The only thing for the corruptionists and windy ward and district men to do was to make the office untenable by him ■■ — to harass him in the ways which had more than once been adopted when a man was placed in office and was unpopular in his methods. For no method could be popular that did not cater to Tammany Hall — that great octopus whose feelers went out to suck in the gains of bad legislation and faulty government — the institution relied upon by the politician who adopted the rule of fellow citizens for what could be made out of the office by fair means or foul. Surprise was expressed by the friends of Mr. Roosevelt that he should take the office of supervising a body of men long knoXvn to 133 134 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. be the willing tools of the baser element in politics, and whom a man of his scholarly attainment might scarcely hope to bring out of the wretched rut into which it had sunk in the years of its gross mis- management and use for party purposes. He entered upon his duties at once — duties which were to be no sinecure, and which, perhaps, were to be marked in his life as the most difficult he ever undertook. He asked for no sympathy. He went into the work with the determination to do what was expected of him by that large contingency of fellow citizens who, having with- held practical remonstrance too long, saw themselves menaced and their rights uprooted by a department supposed to have been origin- ally established for the protection of the privileges of this very class of people. But they had let things go on an easy jog-trot; for the ordinary American citizen, absorbed by business cares and the making straight the tangle of complex professional life, thinks little of his city government until it misbehaves itself, and he finds that what he thought was a midge necessary for the seasons, turns out to be a scorpion that makes every season its own. The usual evangel had gone forth, that if men of decency and weight in the community would only attend the primary elections, and do their duty in the letter of the law by a close scrutiny of the worth or worthlessness of those who were proposed to represent them, there would be little to com- plain of. But the primaries had long ago been given up to the men who made politics a business, while the newspapers were misleading in the extreme. If a man were on the side of the party controlling a newspaper he was an angel; if he were on the other side he was something so far below the angelic state that there was no use talking about him. Each paper had its own store of angels ready to take wing to the benighted country and save it through the efficaciousness of their purity of intention and ability to lift it from the slough of despond; and if you had a choice, all you had to do was to make your PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 135 selection of journals and have detailed to you the immaculate pro- clivities of the seraphic brood only waiting your permission to swoop down upon the land and protect it forever. The American voter is more often amused than not by the gush of his favorite vehicles for the dissemination of the happenings of the day, and the man who is amused by the extravagant praise or blame of the organs of his political party is the man who considers the primary elections of httle account; for he makes up his mind that when an aspirant to office is nominated, if he does not Fke him he will not vote for him — unless he is so party-imbued as to vote for any man at all his party advocates, so as to not go against his principles as a Republican or a Democrat. Little by little the Police Department had, to a large degree, come to control politics in the city, until the misrule and corruption made an Augean stable which the new president of the Police Board was ex- pected to clean out, irrespective of "ring" rule and the heretofore unopposed governing power of those in authority. Mr. Roosevelt at once let it be seen what he meant to do. He had no sentiment for the men who made of politics a means to an end; he had as little feeling for other men, who would not go against their chosen party, though the city should sink for want of such opposition. Pie assailed the corruptionists, tricksters and incompetents in his new jurisdiction as vigorously as he had attacked abuses while in the Legislature and at the head of the Civil Service Commission. Blackmailers, bribers, bulldozers and bushwhackers of all sorts combined against him, doing all they could to thwart and puzzle him; but he overthrew them all, or nearly all, for he was not the man to accept defeat unless overpowered, and he saw no reason why he should now be overpowered. He enforced the liquor laws and the Sunday laws, and the corner groggery-keepers to a man hated him and tried to dodge his decree by a liberal use of back-doors, though the fact of the front entrance being barred against the better class of 136 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. the thirsty told against the income at the bar, Americans being prone to object to back entrances when there is a front one. An American is an inalienable citizen, whether he be born on the soil or "takes out his papers" after the prescribed length of residence, though he may have been born ten thousand miles from the sight of the dome on the capitol at Washington. Mr, Roosevelt reformed and trans- formed the police force from the Superintendent, whose removal he made im,perative; punished the shiftless and venal, while he rewarded and praised the honest and efficient. His personal qualities were constantly displayed; he did not make the laws, but he was in office to enforce them and enforce them he must, or sink his honor and respectability. Threats to legislate him out of office moved him not to swerve from the high standard he had determined on, but only served to make him force his foes to abandon their plans. Scorn, abuse and ridicule were heaped upon him, but he was firm, and had no symptom of giving in to a horde that antagonized him by a flagrant abuse of power and an utter disregard of the rights of the community. He was told that he would "wreck his partly." He knew better; he was a politician, and he knew that persistence in the right never yet wrecked a party. He made the police force cleaner than it ever was before. He appointed solely on their merits, and without regard to their political tendencies, seventeen hundred new men for the further protection of the city. He caused sterner and fairer ideas a sto police methods to come into existence. Loot and blackmail were to disappear almost entirely under his regime, and decency to prevail. He did not attempt the impossible, and he had no vague theories as to the reformation of mankind; he knew man, and he knew that man insists that he has an inalienable privilege to do right or wrong according to other men's ideas af right or wrong; but Mr, Roosevelt prevented PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 137 this privilege from becoming that license which means the open violation of the restrictions made for the good order of society and tl^e preservation of peace and respectability. Crime began to sneak away; there was a searchlight on it, and strong illumination is not a good friend to ill-doing. New electric lights placed in old hitherto dark places will do much to disclose foul blots which of necessity must be expunged, or at least made cleaner. He did not accomplish all he desired, but he made the city cleaner and less corrupt than it had been for years, while the police force under him took on an appearance of uprightness scarcely seen before in it. "During Mr. Roosevelt's incumbency," says a friend of his, "it was my privilege to enjoy his friendship and his confidence to some extent. I have sat beside him in his trials of policemen, and have been with him alone when he was dealing with the most confidential matters in the department. I have even listened to him dictate his private letters, remaining with him at his request, and 1 know abso- lutely that the sole idea which inspired him was a sense of the loftiest devotion to the public good. I know men who were closer to him than I ever could expect to be, and their experience with him, related to me in private, simply tallies with my own. He was conservative to the last degree when justice and right were to be considered. He was radical to the utmost limits when injustice and wrong were to be swept away. He could not do all that he wished, but when he left that office he was the friend of every honest man in the department, and the New York police force was nearer what it should be than ever it was before. Theodore Roosevelt was safe in that office, and none knew it better than those who did wrong and wished to prosti- tute the police force to evil ends." No matter how men may have differed with him touching his policy and beliefs, or even his methods of administration, no one can deny 138 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. that he contracted the business of his office with an energy marked by enthusiasm, and that he accompHshed much. The lot of the patrohnan became better, he grew to be a more self-respecting and more efficient man, and the whole police force was of a higher plane. Tammany misrule was put down for the time being and a sadly dis- organized body of men fattening on the public treasury hated the one man who told them they were all wrong in their methods and proved it by taking away from them much of the emolument to which they had no right. To a friend who expressed astonishment that a literary man should become Police Commissioner, Mr. Roosevelt said: "I thought the storm center was in New York, and so I came here. It is a great piece of practical work. I like to take hold of a piece of work that has been done by a Tammany leader and do it as well, only by approaching it from the opposite direction. A thing that attracted it to me was that it was to be done in the hurly-burly, for I do not like cloister life." His enforcement of the excise law produced an abundance of hurly- burly. Many said it was the most potent factor in the overthrow of the Strong reform administration at the next election and the return of Tammany to power; but Mr. Roosevelt answered all criticisms that the laws had been made before he came into office and that he must enforce them or sacrifice his self-respect and the respect of all right-minded citizens. Moreover, he maintained that the best way to obtain ^he repeal of an obnoxious law was by rigidly enforcing it, and not by ignoring it — the enforcement of a measure unpopular or of¥ersive to people showed them how wrong they had been in sup- porting it in the first instance, and if they chafed under it when it was put into execution they had only themselves to blame and might remedy it when they were given a choice to make a better law to rupplant it. Such grim humor might not be appreciated, but it made people understand the man they had to deal with, and as he had MR. ROOSEVELT CAMPAIGNING IN NEW YORK— A SHORT STO P PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 141 often before said in substance the same thing they must now consider his words. The better classes were with him, though he might have said that the better classes always took care of themselves, and his words were leveled at the wrongdoer and the careless citizen unap- preciative of his rights and who could not. thus, be considered as be- longing to the better classes. His unheralded personal tours of in- spection about the city at night caught many a policeman napping, and resulted in many awkward situations, until the force assimilated the idea that their chief was a man who w^as not to be taken too lightly and to whom trifling was a weighty thing. Riis, the author of "How the Other Half Lives," saw considerable of Police Commissioner Roosevelt, for the author of the pitiful book regarding the sad lives of the "submerged" was also looking about him. Touching the Commissioner's single-minded fearlessness in of^ce, Mr. Riis says: "I read a story when I was a boy about a man, who pursued by a relentless enemy, dwelt in security because of his belief that his plot- ting could not hurt an honest man. Mr. Roosevelt constantly made me think of him. He spoke of it only once, but I saw him act out that belief a hundred times. Mulberry street could never have been made to take any stock in it. When Mulberry street failed to awe Roosevelt, it tried to catch him. Johs innumerable were put up to discredit the president of the board and inveigle him into awkward positions. Probably he never knew of one-tenth of them. Mr. Roosevelt walked through them with perfect unconcern, kicking aside the snares that were set so elaborately to catch him. The politicians who saw him walk apparently blindly into a trap and be- held him emerge with damage to the trap only, could not understand it. They concluded that it was his luck. It was not. It was his sense. He told me once after such a time that it was a matter of conviction 142 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. with him, that no frank and honest man could be in the long run en- tangled by the snares of plotters, whatever appearances might for the moment indicate. So he walked unharmed in it all." Of Mr. Roosevelt's attitude toward strikers Mr. Riis says: "I had watched the police administration in Mulberry street for nearly twenty years, and I had seen many sparring matches between work- ingmen and the Pohce Board. Generally there was bad faith on one side; not infrequently on both. It was human that some of the labor men should misinterpret Mr. Roosevelt's motives when, as president of the board, he sent word that he wanted to meet them and talk strike troubles over with them. They got it into their heads, I sup- pose, that he had come to crawl; but they were speedily undeceived. I can see his face now as he checked the first one who hinted at trouble. I fancy that man can see it toO' — in his dreams. 'Gentle- men,' said Mr. Roosevelt, T have come to get your point of view, and see if we can't agree to help each other out. But we want to make it clear to ourselves at the start that the greatest damage any workingman can do to his cause is to counsel violence. Order must be maintained, and, make no mistake, I will maintain it.' I tingled with pride when they cheered him to the echo. They had come to meet a politician. They met a man, and they knew him at sight." An honest man had touched the nature of other honest men by his honesty. Theodore Roosevelt believes that this country can be better governed by appealing to men's virtues than by catering to their vices. It is this very characteristic of his that the professional politicians and a part of the newspapers of the country could not understand, and they kept harping on the wrong he was doing the Republican party by antagonizing the opposite party so much that there would be constant clues against his side of politics at every election. They thought there was a middle course, that as the effect of a poison is often counteracted by the administration of another PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 143 poison, on the principle that like cures like, so there might be a way of lessening the evils that had crept into the police department by a closing of the eyes to acts that had grown to be regarded mere peccadilloes, technicalities, or some other term applicable to describe a deviation from the spirit of the law. But Mr. Roosevelt went intO' the heart of the matter, regarded the adherence to the strict letter of the law as a foregone conclusion and recognized no middle course. With singular directness he called a bribe a bribe, not a present, while a blackmailer was a miserable wretch and a menace to society at large. If he did not mind making a "ruin" of his own future pos- sibilities, at least he should save his party from loss of votes by a little care in carrying out his ideas of reform, said others. He lost friends, newspapers had in them exaggerated portraits of him which they called cartoons, and lampoons on his characteristics were published in several parts of the country. The professional politician had hoarded up a grievance against him for his activity in Civil Service reform and now was the chance to make it public under the plea of sympathy for the Republican party which he "was doing so much to make unpopular" in a city, if not a State and several States, where it had never had the firm power of being the party of the majority. But, as he would have said, if his party could not stand his acts, if they had made a mistake in choosing him now, and then to represent it in an office, then the fault was theirs, not his, they should have known him better when they made their choice, for he had never been vague or mystical in his intercourse with it. As for himself, he was in an office which he had sworn to serve with the best of his ability, and his understanding of that ability was that it was his duty to put into active practice the laws long ago made for the governing of the office, but which had gradually grown weak and languishing and sometimes waxed into the semblance of death, though they never had been re- pealed. Repeal the laws, but do not break them; make other laws, 144 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. but keep them. And until new laws were made the old should and would be carried out so far as he was concerned no matter if he made or broke his party. It was a miserable party if it relied upon illegali- ties to bolster it up, rather let it go to pieces and from its wreck build up another which should be so strong in its legal rights as to defy all assaults made upon it. But the party would not break, it would SufTer nothing at his hands. Rather, he was strengthening it when he carried out the provisions of an office which should be above party interest and so neutral that Republican and Democrat had an equally fair show so far as it was concerned. Tammany Hall had derived no small share of its sustenance from enforcing some laws and accepting bribes for the non-enforcement Oi Others. It had therefore accustomed the people of New York to the spectacle of an omnipotent and irresponsible Legislature and con- stituli<3?Tal convention combined, which thrived by extending pro- tectioil to the adult and infant industries of a vicious nature. Mr. Roosevelt's interpretation of the constitution and laws disclosed the existence of no such nullifying agency, and the shame-trodden and sin-beset creatures might know that their rights were not all dead even though their best of life had gone, and the child wronged could raise up friends who were no longer afraid of the powers that be. The oath taken by the Police Commissioner was to enforce laws, not amend or repeal them, and there was no law on any statute book which offered protection to any class of citizens who broke them, as there was none that made of any other class a mass of victims for rapacious despots. The Italian padrone could no longer import cripples to be used as beggars on paying for the privilege; the tenements could not use their padded lists of voters for election purposes; the denizens of the tenderloin district were no longer compelled to pay over to the police captains certain weekly or monthly sums to prevent house-raiding, PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 145 tiie dives could not carry on open gambling and petty lotteries if the owners or proprietors of them put their hands in their pockets and transfer what they there found to the pockets of the blue-coats who were sworn to keep the peace. Of course the Commission made enemies, but not among men like Mr. Riis who had spent the best years of his life in looking out the abuses of the poor and oppressed, and who saw in the brothel and the gambling hell and the groggery the first cause of four-fifths of the poverty and crime in the big city. A police force is essentially a military force. The chief of the police department in New York (or any city) who has thousands of men under him, ought to have the same high character and the same sort of abilities as those of a Major-General. Such a man should have the capacity and the character to command the respect of gentlemen as well as those of gamblers and thugs. His friends should not be law-breakers, but men who stand for the strength of the community in business and professional circles. He should have an absolutely clean name and should be a man whose integrity is not under even a shadow of doubt. The uprightness of such a man must affect every man under him; his personal character will be felt instantly and will stimulate those of weak and uncertain resolution if left to themselves, and destroy those of criminal tendencies. Can an honest, clean, able man exert such a power and do it almost as soon as he enters upon his duties? When Theodore Roosevelt was President of the Board of Police Commissioners this very thing happened. When he came into Police Headquarters with his quick nervous stride, every policeman in sight would straighten up as though an electric current had been shot into him. Yet Mr. Roose- velt was not the chief of Police. Between him and the chief there was a network of legal barriers. But he broke the barriers down. More than that, sustained by only one of his three associates, and that one of a different political faith, he nevertheless sent the force of his 146 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. integrity down the line so that it was felt by the lowest man in the department. Character and not "pull" began to count at once. Men were pro- moted because they were fit. There was no open alliance with crime by the police. Vice was made to seek cover. It was impossible to stamp it out, but it was not encouraged for the sake of money, as had been the case previously. The police, except in a few cases, ceased to blackmail. Justice was dealt out to the men on trial. Mr. Roosevelt would stop and consider how he could be absolutely fair, and his decisions would have immediate result. As the candidates for appointment came up for private examination as to their fitness, searching inquiries would be put to them. To one man who was nervous from the severity of his examination Commissioner Roose- velt said: "You are the man Father So-and-so spoke to me about?" "Yes, sir; but I didn't suppose being a Catholic made any difference." "Of course not," was the instant reply. "I don't care whether you are a Catholic, a Protestant, or a Jew, or a Gentile. I think you'll do. Tell Father So-and-so if he has any more men like you to send them down here. I pass you; go and see the other commissioners." That policeman never took blackmail. There were hundreds like him. This for having a good man at the head of police affairs. And now take a personal illustration to show what a bad man at the head may do. Says an observer: "I was coming to New York on the Day Express. I got intO' conversation with a man who said that he was the chief of police in one of the large cities in the state of . He showed me his shield to prove his statement. He had taken just enough liquor to be talkative. He said: T had no idea of coming East till last night, but I made a touch and I thought I would blow it in. You see it was this way: I got a telephone mes- sage from the railroad station that three of the biggest crooks in the PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 147 country were down there prepared to take a train. I jumped on a car and hurried down.' "What you doing here?" I asked. 'Nothin'/ they said. 'We ain't done nothin' here and we ain't goin' to. We are just passin' through.' "I knew they hadn't done anything in town, and so I said, 'How much money have you got?' "Only a httle," they said. "Come, that won't do," I repHed. "Shell out, or up you go." "I could easily have fixed 'em; put up a job on 'em or sent 'em up as suspicious characters, and so they had to give up. They had fifteen hundred dollars. I took twelve hundred, run 'em out of town, and now I'm going to have a good time." "I haven't the slightest doubt he told the truth. I saw his money. He was the nephew of one of the best known men in one of our Eastern cities, a man whom I knew well, and he was going East to visit his uncle. Comment on the character of the police force under such a man is unnecessary." Certain of the difficulties which Mr. Roosevelt had to face were merely those which confronted the entire reform administration in its management of the municipality. Many people expected that this reform administration would work an absolute revolution in the government and even the minds of the entire population of the citv, and felt that they had been almost cheated because there was not an immediate cleansing of every form of bad influence in New York. The Board of Commissioners were obliged to treat all questions that arose strictly on their merit, without reference to the desires of the politicians. The Commissioners went into this mode of procedure with their eyes open; they knew the trouble their course of action would cause them personally, and, what was more important, the wav their efforts for reform would be hampered. But there was no alternative, and they had to abide by the result. Yet they could not accomplish all they would have liked to do for they were shackled 148 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. by ridiculous legislation and by the opposition and intrigues of the most base machine politicians. Nevertheless, the net result of their work was that they did more to increase the efficiency of the police department, and establish its honesty, than had ever previously been done in its history. The Tammany officials made a systematic efifort to excite public hostility against the police for their warfare on vice. The law- breaking liquor seller, the keeper of disorderly houses and the gambler had been influential friends of Tammany and principal con- tributors to many of its campaign exchequers. Naturally Tammany fought for them, and the best and most picturesque way to carry on such a fight was to paint with gross exaggeration and false state- ment the methods necessarily employed by every honest police force to do its work. Tammany found its best allies in the sensational papers. "Scandal forms the breath of the nostrils of such papers, and they are c^uite as ready to create as to describe it. To sustain law and order is humdrum and does not readily lend itself to flaunting wood cuts; but if the editor will stoop, and make his subordinates stoop, to raking the gutters of human depravity, to upholding the wrong- doer, and furiously assailing what is upright and honest, he can make money just as other types of panders make it. The man who is to do any honest work in any form of civic politics must make up his mind (and if he is a man of properly robust character he will make it up without difficulty) to treat the assaults of papers like these with absolute indifference, and to go his way unheeding. Indeed, he will have to make up his mind to be criticised, sometimes justly, and more often unjustly, even by decent people; and he must not be so thin skinned as to mind such criticism overmuch." Mr. Roosevelt underwent this newspaper criticism. He was at- tacked by certain sheets and most unfairly written up. When a MRS. ROOSEVELT AND BABY OUENTIN Patriot and statesman. isi particular raid was made on some miserable resort of high play, and the like, the papers next day came out with glaring headlines about the injustice of the thing, more than once saying that the very same thing obtained in the high-class clubs frequented by the Commis- sioner and his friends, but that the arm of the law was supposedly not long enough to reach men with six figures to their bank accounts and who ruled the city arrogantly and with pure bombast. They promised to prove that he showed favoritism; that he left' alone those places of a fine tone and selected others wdiere the language might not be quite so elegant but where the same games were played. As for drink, they said, why not attack these same exclusive clubs where every night the members drank in public, in the full sight of the police, and were afterward driven to their homes in a beastly state of intoxication, their coachmen carrying them to and from the ele- gant private carriages which belonged to the friends of the saint-like Commissioner. Other vices were hinted at as having a friend in the Commissioner, when those of his acquaintances, as he knew very well, were concerned ir them, but which he with hypocritic virtue assailed and put down where the repression made a show to the public and made him a seeming reformer. The cry was that vice in high places might exist, but that when the social line was drawn it must go along with the "family liquor store" and small "stock offices" where occasional bets were made on a favorite horse. If he ever read these criticisms of himself Mr. Roosevelt gave no sign. He went on his way unabashed and uncaring, gaining every day the esteem of the right people who were now roused to the needs of a city that had too long rested silently under a wretched system of police, and where sin and shame stalked through the highways insolently and arro- gantly, and where in whose public ofifices were men in authority who upheld the disgraces of Gotham for what they netted their pockets. Mr. Roosevelt was going through a siege of opposition as well as 162 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. approval, though the opposition was closer at hand, being in the very places where he was most in touch and where he should of right have looked for aid in his crusade against corruption in the department of police. CHAPTER VIII. Tidal W'ave of Reform — Blackmailing Tariff — Detectives — Methods of Restoring Order — Rewards and Punishments — Police and Citizens — Sunday Liquor law — Saloonkeepers and Politicians — Report of Interview — Wealth from CoTuption — Sunday Law Enforced — Increase of Police Force — Examinatioi s — Best Policemen — Honest Elections — Premiums for Merit — Tramp Lodging- houses — Bertillon System — Good Results of Reform. THE year before Mr. Roosevelt assumed the office of President of the Police Board of New York, Tammany Hall had been overthrown by a coalition composed partly of the regular Republicans, partly of anti-Tammany Democrats, and partly of In- dependents. The tidal wave which at the time (1894) was running- against the Democratic party influenced the victory against Tam- many, but most of all in producing the result was the almost universal disgust of decent citizens for the rank corruption which under Tam- many's sway had honeycombed every department of the city govern- ment, and more especially the police force. No man not intimately acquainted with both the lower and humbler sides of New York life (and there is a wide distinction be- tween the two) can fully realize how far the corruption in the police force went. Except in the few instances where prominent politicians make demands, which could not be refused, towards the end of Tam- many rule in the departmient, both promotions and appointments were made for money. There was a regular tariff of charges ranging from two or three hundred dollars for appointment as patrolman, to twelve or fifteen thousand for the office of captain. The money was reimbursed to those who paid by a system of blackmail which was mainly carried on at the expense of gamblers, liquor-sellers and keepers of disorderly houses, though every form of vice and crime 153 154 THEODORE ROOSEVELT contributed its quota; and many entirely respectable people who were ignorant or timid were blackmailed under a pretense that in carrying on their various decent vocations they were violating obscure ordi- nances, and the like. When Mr, Roosevelt took office things were at a miserable pass. The regular Democratic organization, not only in the city but m the State, was under the dominion of Tammany and its allies, and ihey fought the Commissioners at every step. Tammany officials still left in power did all they could to balk the reform movement. Besides suffering from the difficulties which beset the cours^e of the entire administration, the Police Board had to meet with certain special difficulties. Says Mr. Roosevelt: "It is not a pleasant thing to deal with criminals and purveyors af vice. It is very rough work and it cannot always be done in a nice manner. The man with the night-stick, the man in the blue coat with the helmet, can keep and repress open violence on the streets; but most kinds of crime and vice are ordinarily carried on furtively and by stealth, perhaps at night, perhaps behind closed doors. It is possible to reach them only by the employment of the man in plain clothes — the detective. Now, the function of the detective is primarily that of the spy, and it is always easy to rouse feeling against a spy. It is absolutely necessary to employ him. Ninety per cent, of the most dangerous criminals and purveyors of vice cannot be reached in any other way. But the average citizen who does not think deeply fails to realize the necessity for any such employment. In a vague way he desires vice and crime put down; but also in a vague way he objects to the only possible means by which they can be put down. It is easy to mislead him into denouncing what is necessarily done in order to carry out the very policy for which he is clamoring." Mr, Roosevelt and his colleagues on the Board employed detec- tives to ferret out vice which could not be openly reached by the PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 165 Dolice, and at once the opposing politicians raved about "underhand methods," and even the good citizens said there might be "more honorable means of getting at the trouble." But it was the only way, for the vices which it was determined to suppress had friends which guarded them and who were astute and strong to resist open- handed ways; so the less beautiful methods had to be resorted to. The papers took it up, and there was often a pretty hue and cry about persecution and the like. The Commissioners had to deafen them- selves against all this, and go ahead, resolving that they were doing their best for the public, as the public would in time discover. Mr. Roosevelt, in speaking of his duties, modestly says that there was no need of genius in administering the police force. What was needed was the exercise of plain ordinary virtues of a commonplace type, which all good citizens are expected to possess. Common sense, honesty, courage, energy, resolution, readiness to learn, and a desire to be pleasant with every one, were the qualities most called for. The Commissioners found that, in spite of all that was said and done, in spite of widespread corruption and malfeasance in the police department, the bulk of the men wished to be honest, and were honest at heart. Of course, there were some who were past being cured of dishonesty, which had been practiced so long that it had eaten into the bone; but there were also some who had remained honest and upright in spite of temptation and terrible pressure. The majority came between the two extremes. Although not possessing the peculiar strength to fight against corruption when victory was neariy hopeless, they were nevertheless glad to be decent, and wel^ corned a change of system under which they were rewarded for well^ doing and punished for doing wrong. Says Mr. Roosevelt: "Our methods for restoring order and disci- pline were simple, and indeed so were our methods for securing efficiency. We made frequent personal inspections, especially at 156 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. night, turning up anywhere, at any time. We thus speedily got an idea of whom among our upper subordinates we could trust, and whom we could not. We then proceeded to punish those guilty of shortcomings, and to reward those who did well, refusing to pay any heed whatever in either case to anything except the man's own character and record. A very few^ of these promotions and dismissals sufficed to show our subordinates that at last they were dealing with superiors who meant what they said, and that the days of politi- cal 'puir were over, while we were in power. The efifect w'as im- mediate. The decent men took heart, and those w^ho were not decent feared longer to offend. The morale of the entire force improved steadily." But something must be done in regard to the relations between the police and citizens generally. There had been a great deal of complaint of the brutal treatment of innocent people at the hands of the police. Tliis was now stopped by the simple expedient of dismissing from the force the first two or three men found guilty of brutality. On the other hand, the force was made to understand that when an emergency arose necessitating the use of their weapons against a mob or an individual criminal, the Board without reserva- tion would be with the police. "Our sympathy was for the friends, and not the foes, of order. If a mob threatened violence we w^ere glad to have the mob hurt. If a criminal showed fight we expected the officer to use any weapon that was necessary to overcome him on the instant; and even, if necessary, to take his life. All that the Board required was to be convinced that the necessity really existed. We did not possess a particle of that maudlin sympathy for the criminal, disorderly and lawless classes which is such a particularly unhealthy sign of social development; and we were bound that the improvement in the fighting efficiency of the police should go hand in hand with the improvement in their moral tone." PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 157 Mr. Roosevelt had none of the mawkishness which pities the evil- doer who has his way and then rebels at punishment. Tlie law, ex- cusing no man for ignorance of it. once broken must be vindicated. The lax sympathy of the unreasoning— that sees in every criminal an erring brother or sister who should be taken to the heart and com- forted and consoled— did not enter into his plan of action. The man or woman who does wrong must take the penalty, just as one who indulges in frenzy-producing drugs must be made insane. Sin might be a disease, but there was a medicine for it: and while many a one- time criminal afterwards becomes a good, law-abiding citizen, yet at the time of his transgression he must be taught that he has gone against the law of the land and the rights of every citizen, himself included. To break up the system of blackmail and corruption was not so easy. It was less difficult to protect decent people in their rights of immunity from the attacks of the lawless belligerents, and this was brought about at once. But the criminal who is blackmailed had a direct interest in paying the blackmailer, and it was not at all easy for the board to get correct information regarding it. But they put a stop to most of the blackmailing by the simple mode of a rigorous enforcement of the laws, not only against crime, but also against vice. It was the enforcement of the liquor law which brought an earth- quake about the heads of the Commissioners. "The larger part of New York City wished to drink liquor on Sunday. Any man who studies the social condition of the poor knows that liquor works more ruin than any other one cause. He knows also, however, that it is simply impracticable to extirpate the habit entirely, and that to attempt too much often merely results in accompHshing too little; and he knows, moreover, that for a man alone to drink whisky in a bar room is one thing, and for men and their families to drink light wines or beer in respectable restaurants 158 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. is quite a different thing. The average citizen, who does not think at all, and the average politician of the baser sort, who only thinks about his own personal advantage, find it easiest to disregard these facts and to pass a liquor law which will please the temperance people, and then trust to the police department to enforce it with such laxity as to please the intemperate." The results of this system were evident on all sides when the Board came into power. Was the Sunday liquor law in New York a dead letter? No less tliaii eight thousand arrests for its violation had been made the year before Mr. Roosevelt and his fellow commissioners came into power. It was certainly alive, while it was proceeded against only in cases where the violators of it had no political pull or refused to pay money. The liquor business stands alone among the businesses of the world. It has a tendency to produce criminality in the community at large and law breaking among the saloon- keepers and bartenders themselves. Supervision must be rigidly kept over this form of mercantile activity, and restrictions imposed upon the traffic. Up to the present the traffic has gone on and apparently cannot be stopped in large cities, though the evils can be minimized. 'Tn New York the saloon keepers have always stood high among professional politicians. Nearly two-thirds of the political leaders of Tammany Hall have at one time or another been in the liquor busi- ness. The saloon is the natural club and meeting place for the ward heelers and leaders, and the bar room politician is one of the most common and best recognized factors in local political government. The saloon keepers are always hand-in-glove with the professional politicians and occupy toward them a position such as is not held by any other class of men. The influence they wield in local politics has always been very great, and until our board took office no man ever dared seriously to threaten them for their flagrant violations of the law. The powerful and influential saloonkeeper was glad to see NIGHT INSPECTION— POLICE COMMISSIONER ROOSEVELT AND- JACOB RIIS HUNTING OUT DELINQUENT PATROLMEN IN NEW YORK CITY PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 161 his neighbors closed, for it gave him business. On the other hand, a corrupt pohce captain, or the corrupt poHtician who controlled him, could always extort money from a saloonkeeper by threatening to close him and let his neighbor remain open. Gradually the greed of corrupt police officials and of corrupt politicians grew by what it fed on, until they began to blackmail all but the very most in- fluential liquor sellers; and as liquor sellers were very numerous, and the profits of the liquor business great, the amount collected was enormous." It was said that more than one police captain in New York waxed wealthy from this very source of income, and that many a row of houses on the outskirts or a huge flat for the accommodation of many families could be pointed out as the spoils of a man who had played his game with energy and used the money nefariously taken in as a blackmailer of saloon keepers to invest in brick and mortar. The best class of saloon keepers found this system of blackmail and political favoritism intolerable. The law which the commissioners found on the statute books had been promulgated by a Tammany Legislature three years before. A couple of months after the Commission settled down to work, J. P. Smith, editor of the Wine and Spirit Gazette, the liquor dealers' organ, gave out the following interview, which is of such a remarkable nature that it has not been curtailed in quoting: Governor Flower, as well as the Legislature of 1892, was elected upon distinct pledges that relief would be given by the Democratic party to the liquor dealers, especially of the cities of the State. In accordance with this promise a Sunday-opening clause was inserted in the excise bill of 1892. Governor Flower then said that he could not approve the Sunday-opening clause; whereupon the Liquor Dealers' Association, which had charge of the bill, struck the Sunday- opening clause out. After Governor Hill had been elected for the second time I had several interviews with him on that very subject. 162 THEODORE ROOSEVELT He told me, 'You knoAV I am the friend of the liquor dealers and will go to almost any length to help them and give them relief; but do not ask me to recommend to the Legislature the passage of the law opening the saloons on Sunday. I cannot do it, for it will ruin the Demo<=ratic party in the State." He gave the same interview to various members of the State Liquor Dealers' Association who waited upon him for the purpose of getting relief from the blackmail of the police, stating that the lack of having the Sunday question properly regulated was at the bottom of the trouble. Blackmail had been brought to such a state of perfection and had become so oppres- sive to the liquor dealers themselves that they communicated first with Governor Hill and then with Mr. Croker. The Wine and Spirit Gazette had taken up the subject because of gross discrimination made by the police in the enforcement of the Sunday-closing law. The paper again and again called upon the police commissioners to either uniformly enforce the law or uniformly disregard it. A committee of the Central Association of Liquor Dealers of this city then took up the matter and called upon Police Commissioner Martin (Mr. Roosevelt's predecessor in the Presidency of the Police Board). An airreement was then made between the leaders of Tammany Hall and the liquor dealers, according to which the monthly blackmail paid to the police was to be discontinued in return for political support. In other words, the retail dealers should bind themselves to solidly support the Tammany ticket in consideration of the discontinuance of the monthly blackmail by the police. This agreement was carried out. Now what was the consequence. If the liquor dealer after the monthly blackmail ceased showed any signs of independence the Tammany Hall district leader would give the tip to the police captain, and that man would be pulled and arrested the following Sunday. Then Mr. Smith, after inveighing against the law went on: The (present) police commissioners are honestly endeavoring to have the PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 163 law carried out. They are no respecters of persons, and our infor- mation from all classes of liquor dealers is that the rich and the poor, the influential and the uninfluential, are required equally to obey the law. If there is any comment to be made upon the statements of this intertiew let it be briefly said that the statements were never denied. The law was a not unimportant factor in the Tammany scheme of rule. Tammany officials, police captains and patrolmen blackmailed the liquor men who had no pull and made them virtually the slaves of the ring. On the other hand, very wealthy and influential dealers in liquor controlled the police and made or unmade captains, ser- geants and patrolmen at their pleasure. The more powerful dealer in liquor might violate the law if he wished, unless he fell under the displeasure of the ward boss or the police, in which event he was not permitted to infringe upon the law in the least. Therefore, the new police board had one of two courses to follow. They could either let it be understood by the police that all saloon keepers might become law-breakers, or they could instruct them that there should be no law breaking at all. They followed the latter course. For two or three months it would seem there was to be a continual fight, and on Sundays Mr. Roosevelt had to call on half the force to carry out the provisions of the liquor law; for Tammany had drawn up the law so as to make it easy of enforcement for blackmailing purposes, but difficult of enforcement generally, certain provisions being inserted with the intention to make it difficult of general execution. But when the liquor dealers understood that the new men at the head of affairs did not intend to be bullied in the slightest degree, nor to be threat- ened or coaxed out of following a course which the law of their office made imperative on them as_honorable men, resistance practi- 16* THEODORE ROOSEVELT. cally came to an end. In the year after the commissioners first took office the number of arrests for the violation of the Sunday Hquor law fell to one-half of what they had been during the last year under Tammany rule, while the saloons were practically closed, whereas under Tammany most of them had kept open. Vice stalked rampant. The Tenderloin district of New York was a crying disgrace, not only to the city, but to the nation of which New York was the acknowl- edged Metropolis. There were not only streets, but whole districts where it was unsafe for pedestrians to go after nightfall, and these streets and districts were not in the very poor districts where wrong- doing is popularly presumed to have license, but in wide avenues of "brown stone fronts," in regions where a certain amount of so-called elegance held sway. The writer of this book chancing about that time in a street of comparatively fine houses saw a man standing on the topmost step of an imposing dwelling in conversation with a woman, suddenly catch hold of the woman and hurl her headlong from the stoop into the middle of the roadway, where she lay appar- ently stunned and injured. At the next block a man crossed from one side of the street to the other and deliberately knocked down another man who jostled him, and without a word being said by either. No report of these assaults appears on the police reports, there were no policemen at hand, and the few witnesses of the out- rageous performances hastened away, as though such scenes were com- mon occurrences and that safety lay in flight. The Sunday saloon was largely responsible for the outrages committed in the city, and when Roosevelt came into power these Sunday saloons were held in check by the police force, and held effectually. And yet no new method was adopted by the new men, unless honesty was a new method, nor was the law enforced with unusual severity. It was merely enforced against the man with a pull exactly as it was against PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 165 the man who had no pull at all. There was no discrimination, and that was something new in the annals of the liquor trade, and the politicians of the lower kind and liquor dealers of the same sort attacked the commission with the utmost virulency. But the com- missioners went on their way satisfied with having given a much needed and wholesome lesson to the city that a law should not be put upon a statute book if it was not meant for enforcement, and that even a usually effete excise law might be put into practical execu- tion if the officials having it in charge so desired. The wealthy brewers and plutocratic liquor sellers who had swelled their bank accounts by violating the statute with the open connivance of the police showed their teeth, and conscienceless politicians sup- ported them and yelled for assistance at this extraordinary state of affairs. But the poor man, and more especially the poor man's wife and children were benefited, and they did not accuse Mr. Roosevelt of playing at the galleries as did some of the newspapers and political officials. The surgeons of the hospitals found their Monday work lessened to one-half, for brawls of drunken men lessened and there were fewer cracked heads than in years. The magistrates who sat in the city courts on the day after Sunday to try the offenders of the pre- ceding day had much less to do than usual, while many a tenement house emptied its families into the country for the Day of Rest be- cause the head of the family could not spend his money at the grog- geries. Obedience to law is the important element of good citizen- ship, and this obedience was being enforced by the commissioners, of whom Mr. Roosevelt was the head. There was no species of untruth to which the opponents of the commission did not resort in order to try to break them down in this purpose of enforcing the Sunday law. For several weeks they in- sisted that the saloons were as wide-open as ever, but they gradually quieted down when the counsel for the Liquor Dealers' Association 166 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. admitted in open court at the time when the commission secured the conviction of thirty of his cHents, that over nine-tenths of the Hquor dealers had become bankrupt since the commission had stopped the illegal trade which afforded the taverns the larger portion of their revenue. They then began to say that the Commission in devoting its attention to enforcing the liquor law had allowed crime to in- crease. For some time the cry had some influence. But as this was not true, it went down with the other mendacities of the world. If a commentary be necessary upon its accuracy or inaccuracy it was furnished toward the end of the administration of the Commis- sioners, for in February, 1897, the Judge in addressing the grand jury congratulated that body upon the fact that there was at that time less crime in New York relatively to the population than ever before. In reorganizing the police force "the Board had to make and did make more appointments and more dismissals than had ever before been made in the same length of time. We were so hampered by the law that we were not able to dismiss many of the men whom we should have dismissed, but we did turn out two hundred men — more than four times as many as had ever been turned out in the same length of time before; all of them being dismissed after formal trial, and after having been given full opportunity to be heard in their own defense. We appointed about seventeen hundred men all told — again four times as many as ever before; for we were allowed a large increase of the police force by law. We made a hundred and thirty promotions; more than had been made in the six preceding years. All this work was done in strict accord with what has grown to be known as the principles of civil service reform. In dismissing men from the force attention was paid only to the man's efficiency and his past record, no attention being paid to outside pressure. Under the old rule no policeman possessing sufficient influence was ever PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. J 67 dismissed, no matter how much he might offend. The same in making promotions; the Commission took into account not alone the man's general record, his faithfulness, industry and vigilance, but also his personal prowess as shown in any special feat of daring, in arrest- ing of criminals or in the saving of life. i\gain, in making appoint- ments the Commission saw that it was practicable to employ a system of com.petitive examination of a most rigid character, which combined a severe physical examination with, also, an examination of mental qualities such as could be passed by a man who had attended a pub- lic school. "Of course there was also a rigid investigation of char- acter. Theorists have often sneered at civil service reform as 'imprac- ticable; and I am very far from asserting that written competitive examinations are always applicable, or that they may not sometimes be merely stop-gaps, used only because they are better than the methods of appointing through political endorsement; but most certainly the system worked admirably in the Police Department. We got the best lot of recruits for patrolmen that had ever been ob- tained in the history of the force, and we did just a* well in our ex- aminations for matrons and police surgeons. The uplifting of the force was very noticeable, both physically and mentally. The best men were those who had served for three years or so in the Army or Navy. Next to these came the railroad men. One noticeable feature of the work was that we greatly raised the proportion of native born, until of the last hundred appointed ninety-four per cent, were Americans by birth. Not once in a hundred times did we know the politics of the appointee, and we paid as little heed to this as to their religion." An important task of the Commission was ascertaining if the elec- tions were carried on honestly. Under the Tammany regime the cheating was of the most flagrant nature, the police being often openly used to facilitate fraudulent practices at the polls. This was 168 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. brought about partly from the character of the men used as election ofificers. By having a written examination of such election officers and by a careful examination regarding their characters, the Com- mission certainly raised their calibre. Before each election the Com- missioners wer.e obliged to reject for moral or mental shortcomings over a thousand of the men whom the regular party organizations, exercising their legal rights, proposed as election officers. The Commissioners then made the police understand that their only duty was tO' guarantee an honest election, and that they might expect the severest punishment if they presumed to interfere with an honest citizen on the one hand, or failed to stop fraud or violence on the other. In a number of other ways did the Commission under Mr. Roosevelt endeavor to efTect reform in the police force, less important in the eyes of the public, but still important. Especially was heed taken to put a premium on meritorious conduct by awarding medals and certificates of honorable mention where promotion could not be had. A system of pistol practice was introduced by which, for the first time, the policemen were brought to a reasonable standard of excellence in handling their revolvers. A bicycle squad was organ- ized, the members of which distinguished themselves not only to duty but by exhibitions of remarkable daring and skill. Another piece of reform was the abolishing of the tramp lodging houses which had in the first place been started in the police stations in a spirit of sympathetic but not over-wise philanthropy. These tramp lodging houses not enjoying proper supervision had become in time mere nurseries for crime and chronic pauperism, tramps and loafers of every degree of worthlessness thronging to the city in the cooler weather when the open country was no longer pleasant, and taking up their quarters in the lodging houses provided for them. The Commission put them out of existence, a municipal lodging house being substituted. In this municipal house all homeless PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 171 wanderers and unfortunates were received. They were made to bathe and were given night-clothes before going to bed. The next morning they were set to work and were so closely supervised that the habitual tramp and vagrant was speedily detected and appre- hended, and in time as many as could do so gave the house a wide berth. The Bertillion system of measurement for the identification of criminals was also introduced and did much work that had hitherto been relegated to the memory of the detectives when a wrong-doer was apprehended and there was a doubt as to his identity as a former criminal. In a short time there was a striking increase in the honesty and efficiency of the police force. "When we took office it is not too much to say that the great majority of the citizens of New York were firmly convinced that no pohce force tould be both honest and efficient. They felt it to be a part of the necessary order of things that a policeman should be corrupt, and they were convinced that the most efficient way of war- ring against certain forms of crime' — notably crimes against person and property — was by enlisting the services of other criminals, and of purveyors of vice generally, giving them immunity in return for their aid. Before we took power the ordinary purveyor of vice was allowed to ply his or her trade unmolested, partly in consideration of paying blackmail to the police, partly in consideration of giving in- formation about any criminal who belonged to the unprotected classes. We at once broke up this whole business of blackmail and protection and made war upon all criminals alike, instead of getting the assistance of half in warring on the other half. Nevertheless, so great was the improvement in the spirit of the force that although deprived of their former vicious allies they actually did better work than they ever did before against those criminals who threatened life and property. Relatively to the population fewer crimes of violence 172 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. occurred during our administration of the Board than in any pre- vious two years of the city's history in recent times; and the total number of criminal arrests increased, while the number of cases in which no arrest followed the commission of crime decreased. The detective bureau nearly doubled the number of arrests made com- pared with the year before we took office; obtaining, moreover, 365 convictions of felons and 215 convictions for misdemeanors, as against 269 and 105 respectively for the previous year. At the same time every attempt at riot or disorder was summarily checked, and all gangs of violent criminals brought into immediate subjection; while on the other hand the immense mass meetings and political parades were handled with such care that hot a single case of clubbing of any innocent citizen was reported." Mr. Roosevelt had reason to be proud of this record of his com- mission. The result of the labors of the Commissioners w^as of signal value to the city, for the citizens had better protection than they ha4 ever had before, and at the same time corruption which had been a canker in civic affairs was cured. The Commission conclusively showed that it was possible to combine both honesty and efficiency in handling the immense police force. The attacks leveled at the Commissioners was not because of their shortcomings, bat because of what they did that was good, and as the attacks came from base sources they rebounded from those they were intended to hurt. The commission enforced the laws as they were on the statute books, it broke up blackmail, it kept down the spirit of disorder and vepressed rascality, and it administered the police force with an eye that was alone for the welfare of the city. Mr. Roosevelt had the faculty for organization and he had proved its merit in his Presidency of the Police Board. When he took the position he found the greatest disorder and maladministration ; when he left it he left behind him a force of military men in blue coats who PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 173 for precision and excellence of deportment were worthy of the greatest praise, while their honesty could not be impugned, and who in their habits and behaviour would seem to vouch for the fact that the good government of the city was their one aim and object. They were respected by all respectable citizens, and they went about their arduous duties with the pleasing reflection that they were men above reproach and able to look all other men in the face without blenching. They were free to say that one man had effected this reform in their ranks — before he came they were expected to be mere tools in the hands of unscrupulous men, to do the miserable behests of the viola- tors of law and order, and to view crime and criminals not as blots upon the city's fair name, but more as mines from which might be extracted gold with which to line the cofifers of officials whose praise or blame kept them in office or dismissed them — the keeping and the dismissal for no excellence or wrong of their own, but for the much or little gain which their connivance with wrong-doing yielded their faulty chiefs. The one man who had wrought most of the change was Theodore Roosevelt. CHAPTER IX. Assistant Secretary of Navy— Foresees Spanish War— Personnel Bill in Navy-' Pushing Repairs of Ships— $800,000 and $500,000 for Powder and Shot- Story of Old-time Bufifalo Hunting — Washington's Maxim — Address Be- fore Naval War College — War of 1812 Recalled— Need of a Reconstructed Navy — Necessary to Proceed at Once — Stirring Peroration — War Actually Declared — Resignation from Naval Department — "Roosevelt's Rough Riders" Organized. FROM the presidency of the New York Police Board Mr. Roosevelt was called by President McKinley to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy in April, 1897. His energy and force were now to make him prominent in the Navy Department, for he showed himself to be a model of an executive and administrative officer, and, what is more, he had an instinct which singled out the best men in the service; and when he had found them he trusted them implicitly and thus gave to the country the full value of their efficiency. Of his service in the Department it is scarcely necessary to speak at length. He was virtually at the head for a time. He foresaw the Spanish war a year before it came; collected ammunition; insisted on the practice of marksmanship by all the vessels, and made the Navy ready for any emergency. Said the late Cushman K. Davis, head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations: "If it had not been for Roosevelt, Dewey would not have been able to strike the blow that he dealt at Manila. Roose- velt's sagacity, energy and promptness saved us." But he never desired to pose as the man who made the Navy ready for the war, or to try to deprive his superior. Secretary Long, of all the honors due to his most excellent management of the Navy. The Navy was prepared for war, and the Assistant Secretary had no small 175 176 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. share in the preparation. He helped to pass the personnel bill, which did away with the standing cause of bitterness between the line and staff. "It is useless," he said, "to spend millions of dollars in the building of perfect fighting machines, unless we make the personnel which is to handle these machines equally perfect." From the very first he said he saw the possibility of a conflict with Spain. He pushed reoairs on the ships, and visited the various naval reserves through- out the country, inspecting and making rigid inquiries. He left nothing undone that would, in his opinion, secure the highest ef^- ciency in the service when the time for action came. It is asserted that it was he who first reahzed the tremendous importance of the opportunity for us if the war should open the East, and who had Dewey, in whom he recognized the right man for the place, ap- pointed to command the Eastern Squadron. Many naval experts agree that the wonderful marksmamship by the American gunners was due to his foresight, A characteristic story is told regarding Mr. Roosevelt's insistence on practice in the Navy. Shortly after his appointment he asked for an appropriation of $800,000 for ammunition. The appropriation was made. A few months later he asked for another appropriation of $500,000 for the same purpose. When asked what had become of the first appropriation, he replied: "Every cent of it has been spent for powder and shot, and every bit of powder and shot has been fired." When he was asked what he would do with the additional $500,000 replied: "Use every dollar of that, too, within the next thirty days in practice shooting." Rumors from Spain were disquieting; the American people waited. When the Maine was blown up, and so many thought that diplomacy might settle the matter, Mr. Roosevelt, it is said, had no doubt that war would follow, and his energies were bent with redoubled force to getting the Navy in readiness. When war finally broke out he is PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 177 credited with a plan for taking Havana at once, and dictating terms from there. War is never pleasant; it could not be desired by even a man so energetic as Mr. Roosevelt in insisting upon the country having its rights, as he had heretofore insisted upon State, and city, and citizen having their rights. He had married again; a little family was growing up around him, and home and books must now have had many new attractions for him. His hunting pleasures, too, were something, and he had earned a rest after his work on the Police Board in New York. But he must forego much — home life must be put in the background; books left unopened, and the happy existence on the plains go out of his mind. It may not be out of place here to insert the experience of a man who, at the beginning of the war, and afterward when the then Assistant Secretary had assumed the highest office of the land, told the story. He thus speaks of his meeting with, and life near, Mr. Roosevelt years before: "It was along in the fall of '83 that I first saw him as he stepped from the train one evening in the little shack town of Little Missouri, a point where the Northern Pacific Railroad crosses the river of that name in the heart of the North Dakota Bad Lands. A sleaider, blue- eyed young fellow of about 26, with little baggage, save a superb collection of rifles in perfect order. If you raked the continent with " a fine-toothed comb you could have found no tougher aggregation of great American citizens unhung than the gang who, lounging in front of 'Big Mouth Bob's' canvas saloon across the way, eyed the stranger with lazy indifference. In their ripe estimation he was only one of those predatory 'dude' hunters, who, after a frightened ex- istence of a day or two, 'pulled their freight' again for home in pro- found thankfulness. The station agent was, as usual, roaring drunk. The stranger managed, however, to secure information that led to his hiring a guide named Sylvane Ferris, who owned a bunch of saddle ponies grazing on the river bottom near by. These were 178 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. brought up and picketed to the sage-brush, while the stranger and his kit spent the night in a nearby dugout, preferring this to the vociferous joys of the 'BHie Goose.' Next morning the outfit started for the bufTao range. The stranger who said he was from New York and his name, Theodore Roosevelt (although it might have been Nebuchadnezzar, for all it signified there), led his string of pack ponies behind those of the guide, as they plunged into that awful trackless waste of the Bad Lands. Well-named indeed is that mysterious land: piled higher and higher were great precipitous peaks, their scarred and blistered faces streaked with scoria and lava. Sheer down at their feet lay ya\\aiing chasms from out of the bottom- less depths of which rose sulphurous smoke from subterranean fires that knew no end. Winding its treacherous way, the faint pony trail led along the faces of the giant buttes, where a single misstep meant death. Occasionally the trail crossed the swift, silent, tortuous river, that wound its quicksandy course through this, the darkest, strangest, loneliest land that human foot has ever trod. "Thirty miles to the south, the buffalo herd was struck, and the guide, whose respect for his employer grew with each mile of the trail, looked on with wonder. Here was a new breed oi 'critter,' a man who, while he kept his face and blankets clean, rode straight, shot straight, and took his medicine like a veteran. Hunger, cold, exposure were lost on him. With a grim, dogged courage that knew no end, he hung to the chase. He was after bufifalo, and bufialo he got. After a most successful trip he returned home. The denizens of 'Big Mouth Bob's' caravansary were prone to admit that 'ther critter with a squint were plum handy with a gun.' "On Roosevelt the lesson of the Bad Lands was not lost. His keen eye took in those shiny valleys and sheltered ravines covered with bunch grass and sweet sage, upon which lolled in luxury countless herds of wild game. If this apparent waste would keep elk, deer and PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 179 buffalo, why should it not keep cattle? Next spring he came again, but with more than six guns and a tooth brush. Behind him rolled train after train of stock, and all the equipments necessary for the making up of a practical camp. There was work for days and weeks, until gradually in the barren country there arose a ranch, busy with life and activity. The ranch was located eight miles south of Little Missouri, at a point where the lofty buttes receded, leaving a wide stretch of river bottom. From the brand adopted— the "Maltese Cross"— the ranch took its name, which it still retains. The ranch was a success from the start. Next spring saw the river bottom alive with rollicking calves, while the big, clean beef steers lolled in the shade of the cottonwoods by the river bank in luxury. In the meantime another ranch had been established by Roosevelt called "Elkhorn" ranch, twenty-three miles north of the "Maltese Cross." In the locating and establishment of these splendid ranches the young owner was omnipresent. First, out in the hills shooting a deer for meat; then in the saddle helping round up, or down on the ground in a violent wrestling contest with a husky calf that objected to the branding iron; occasionally taking a soHtary pilgrimage to the loneli- est buttes after mountain sheep. He was a good, though not a fancy shot. His success in hunting was due more to his dogged energy and grim untiring tenacity than to brilliant rifle work. He was particularly good at long rano-e and running shots that require accurate judgment of light and distance; all the more remarkable as he sights through glasses. He had a beautiful collection of rifles. His favorite, however, was a plain Winchester of forty calibre. One of his rifles (an express) was beautifully inlaid with solid gold plates, exquisitely engraved. I have never seen him use it, however. 180 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Roosevelt is a great lover of horses; particularly the half wild, wholly intelligent native horses. On the ranch he kept sixty. His first favorite was "old Manitou," whose picture is here reproduced. It is a difficult thing to find a really good hunting pony; any one who has ever tried to lift a limp, freshly killed deer on a horse's back can understand this. "Manitou" was steady as a rock and a faithful com- panion until age gave him imnnmity from work. His saddle was a beauty; it weighed over fifty pounds and was valued at $125. It was of handsomely embossed leather, ornamented with silver. One morning late in the fall the round-up was camped on the Lagguy Camp range, the horses were brought in at daylight with frost on their backs and all in an ill humor. Roosevelt threw his saddle on a big roman nosed bay named Ben Butler. Ben was a natural-born degenerate. He was past master in pitching, "sun- fishing" and high and lofty bucking. He was a crafty old villain, however, and submitted to the tightening of the hair cinches with only a nasty roll of white in his eye. Roosevelt mounted and rapidly braced for the inevitable shock; but to the suspense of the assembled cowboys (three of whom had already been thrown), Ben trotted ofif at first like a family cow. Then reaching a deep washout directly in front, he gave a bawl like a branded calf and went into the air. Down he came with his long neck poked under his fore legs, and with a shock that jarred the earth. Up he went again, the rider swiftly bracing back until his shoulders nearly touched the beast's loins. But with a trick that human skill could not avert, the horse spun in the air like a top and came down "all standing," or, as in as straight a perpendicular line as his evil skill could conceive. No human rider could withstand that shock and Roosevelt was thrown violently to the half frozen ground. Some cowboys lassoed old Ben. who had taken to his heels at once, while the rider, pale PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 181 and drawn-looking, but with a steady gleam in his eye, rose from the ground and insisted on remounting. This he did, although he did not tell us until later that three of his ribs were broken. "That young fellow's got sand in his craw a-plenty," sagely re- marked "Three Seven Bill," who was captain of the round-up. Bill was a gaunt, hungry-looking varmint, with a 14-inch waist and long, crooked legs that would have shamed an oid-fashioned pair oi tongs. Nothing delighted him more than to "ride the tail offen them young fellers," as he called it, which meant to "haze the ground" hour after hour at a fourteen-mile clip; changing horses three times daily out of each rider's individual string of ten, he rode us to a finish. Saddle sore and half dead from exhaustion, I could many a time have wept from sheer agony, but on and on he rode us without mercy at a stiff run, making a wide circle and retiring to camp only to up and at it again. Months of this work told on the trim young New Yorker. He became like the rest of us — gaunt, wind-swept and bleached white with alkali. Not a single time did he seek to take advantage of his larger wealth and station, but, like any common $40 cow-boy, stood up to his work without a whimper. While I am free to confess I have freely used every invective in my vocabulary against that country and its inhabitants in general, I never but once knew him to complain. It was on a bitter night late in the fall of. '86. The last beef round-up was nearing the home ranch, when a fierce storm of sleet and rain came on, accompanied with intense cold. All hands were up until midnight, quieting the big herd of uneasy beeves that had been gathered with so much effort. We had carefully worked them to the foot of "Chimney Butte," that in a measure protected them, and, with night guards doubled, a few of us returned to the drenched camp, worn out vvith exhaustion. 182 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Roosevelt and I slept together; our bed was of blankets spread on the wet, freezing ground, covered with a tarpaulin. Without even removing our spurs, we crept into its shelter, and were almost instantly dead to the world. An hour later the call came, "All'hands turn out; cattle breaking away," accompanied by the slashing of a wet lariat across the canvas. V/itli a hopeless groan I slipped out sideways and began to grope for my pony's picket line. Suddenly I heard a burst of picturesque language that expressed my thoughts exactly. "Blank the blankety-blank country; blank the blankety-blank fool that would leave God's country for this blank"— but there are situa- tions in all lives too sacred for public scrutiny. This was the first, last and only time I ever knew him to use violent language. It seems that there had collected in the depression be- tween us on the tarpaulin that covered the bed a good-sized tubful of half frozen rain. In his attempt to rise my partner had incautiously raised his knees, which, of course, tipped the whole refrigerating out- fit over his head and shoulders. He was very popular with the cowboys by reason of his courage and grit. During the early years of his Bad Lands career a certain element that hung out around "Big Mouth Bob's" elegant establish- ment at "Little Misery" bitteriy opposed the development of the stock industry. But there was organized the Little Missouri Live Stock Association, with Theodore Roosevelt as president. Never in my life shall I forget that meeting of not more than half a dozen men, outside of Bob's gang that had sneeringly trooped in. A certain deputy sheriff was the leader of the aggregation. Step- ping directly in front and with the reflection of the man's big revolver flashing across his glasses, Roosevelt scored him for a thief and scoundrel. Unarmed, he bitteriy accused him of breaking his faith, and declared that instead of giving protection he encouraged lawless- ness and disorder. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 18S Men of the frontier are peculiarly sensitive; an accusation that would be laughed at here eats out a man's heart who is bred there in solitude. Death stares a man closely in the face who calls another a liar, be he what he may. Somehow in this case, in a way that I can- not understand, the very forcefulness of the speaker, his un- conscious steely nerve cowed the accused into abject silence. But his prestige left him forever in that land. During "off times" on tlje range Roosevelt did a good deal of literary work. We could always tell when he was thinking about his writing by the way he used to thresh through the sage brush in front of the ranch with hands clasped behind him. His relaxation from this kind of work was to pick up the weakest and trashiest novel he could find, which he would read with avidity. Of all the "bad" men that infested the country (and their name was legion), "Bad man Finegan" was cock of the walk. He said he came from Bitter Creek, where the further up you went the tougher the people got, and that his headquarters were at the fountain head. One day while peacefully sleeping off an overdose of Bob's "con- ' versation juice" the gang sheared his long red hair close to his head, leaving only a ridge like that of a roached mule. When he awoke his heart was bad. He sat down in the sage brush and pumped lead into everything in sight. He made pepper boxes of the houses and stampeded the citizens to the nearest timber like wild steers. Mr. Finegan was indeed a bad man. He shot "Blood Ran John's" oyster grotto full of holes and sent the editor of the Bad Lands Cow- boy into a cave at the foot of Graveyard Butte. Flushed with success, he stole a boat and floated down the river until he came to Roose- velt's "Elkhorn" ranch, from which he appropriated everything he fancied, and passed cheerfully on. As time went on and the influence of the sturdy ranchmen began to prevail, people began tp flock into the squalid Httle shack town. 184 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. which soon assumed all the vices and some of the virtues of the typical frontier settlement. The lawless element, as a rule, respected the young ranchman, although deep mutterings against the invasion of his herds were the rule. While the social life of the frontier centers in the saloon, I never once saw him enter one. He was a "good fellow" with the cow-boys, but never when in the riotous debauchery of their occasional sprees. Next to hunting, he liked best his horses. The "Maltese Cross" horses were famed as the biggest, huskiest, most rampagious beasts in the Bad Lands. They were mostly half-breeds, with an appalling amount of vigor and evil ways. I brought one East with me six years ago. He lived to be 20, and I believe one of his last acts was to kick the front end off a farmer's milk wagon. Roosevelt's cattle, of which he finally had about 3000, were half- bred natives and bore the Maltese cross on the left hip, with dewlap on brisket. During the first years of ranching he bred cattle, but later discountinued it. Only recently he sold the ranch, the buyer being his trusted guide and subsequent manager, Sylvane Ferris. As an evidence of the picturesque character of his associates it might be interesting to trace the careers of a few. "Big Mouth Bob" drank hard; served a term for murder in Bismarck jail, and now is a broken down man. "Three Seven Bill" married the daughter of the section boss and is running a place of his own across the Montana line. "Three Fingered Jack," professional horse thief, was driven to the Powder River Mountains and frozen to death in a blizzard. Will Eaton is running a silver mine in Mexico. "Old Man Lebo," his early hunting partner, is raising potatoes up about Keogh Wail. William Mennifield is running a ranch in the Kootanci Valley. "Liver Eatin' Johnson the Squaw Man" is eating government rations lip Buford way. The Marquis De Mores was killed in Africa,. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 185 It is hard to realize that the voice now given to dignified utterances upon which a nation hangs once was Hfted in the roaring chorus, "Ole Black Bull come down from the mountain," nor that the strong young hand that forced his unwilling horse to breast the current of a treacherous river should now be guiding a pen on whose track rests the destiny of seventy-five million souls." In parts this may seem almost like a repetition of what has gone before in speaking of Mr. Roosevelt as a hunter, but it is the word of an eye-witness who has in a way followed the fortunes of the man who in 1883 first was known to him, and who as a very young man evinced those qualities which have since made him recognized the country over as the typical American, the man of staying powers, the man of honesty and truth and uprightness. But war was imminent; Spain was arrogant and insolent. The Assistant Secretary of the Navy had his hands full. "To be prepared for war is the most effectual means to promote peace," Washington wrote a century ago. Thus, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was doing all that in him lay to prepare for war — and peace might or might not be promoted. In his address before the Naval War Col- lege, in June, 1897, he says that in this country there is not the slightest danger of an over-development of war-like spirit, and there never has been any such danger. In all our history, he says, there has been a time when preparedness for war was any menace to peace. On the contrary, again and again we have owed peace to the fact that we were prepared for war; and in the only contest which we have had with a European power since the Revolution, the war of 181 2 was due solely to the fact that we were not prepared to face, nor ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor and interest. We are a great peaceful nation, a nation of merchants and manufacturers, of farmers and mechanics, a nation of workingmen who labor incessantly 186 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. with head and hand. It is therefore idle to talk of such a nation being; led into a course of wanton aggression or conflict with military powers by the possession of a sufficient Navy. The danger was of precisely the opposite character, he goes on to say, as, if we forget that in the last resort we can only secure peace by being ready and willing to fight for it; we may some day have bitter cause to realize that a rich nation which is slothful, timid or unwieldy is an easy prey for any people which still retains those most valuable of all qualities, the soldierly virtues. We but keep to the traditions of Washington, to the traditions of all the great Americans who struggled for the real greatness of America when we strive to build up those fighting quali- ties for the lack of which in a nation, as in an individual, no refine- ment, no culture, no wealth, no material prosperity can atone. Pre- paration for war is the surest guarantee for peace, he continues. Arbitration is an excellent thing, but those who wish to see this country at peace with foreign nations will be wise if they place re- liance upon a first-class fleet of first-class battleships rather than on any arbitration treaty the wit of man can get up. It is not only true that a peace may be so ignoble and degrading as to be far worse than war, but it is also true that it may be accompanied by more bloodshed than most wars. "Of this there has been melancholy proof during the last two years. Thanks largely to the very unhealthy influence of the men whose business it is to speculate in the money market, and who approach every subject from the financial standpoint solely; and thanks quite as much to the cold blooded brutality and calculating timidity of many European rulers and statesmen, the peace of Europe has been preserved, while the Turk has been allowed to butcher the Armenians with hideous and unmentionable barbarity, and has actu- ally been helped to keep Crete in slavery. War has been averted at the cost of more bloodshed and infinitely more suffering and degra- dation to wretched women and children than have occurred in any f^uropean struggle since the days of Waterloo." PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 187 No matter what high ideals may make of the future and ehminate the need of war, as yet no nation can hold it place in the world or can do any work really worth doing unless it stands ready to guard its rights with an armed hand. We of the United States have passed most of our years of national life in peace. We should honor the architects of our wonderful material prosperity, but we feel after all that the men who have dared greatly in war are those who deserve best of the country. The men of Bunker Hill, and Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown, the men of New Orleans and Mobile Bay, Gettysburg and Appomattox, are those to whom vv'e owe most. The Americans who stand highest on the lists of the world's great men are Washing- ton, who fought to found the country which he afterward governed; and Lincoln, who saved it through the blood of the bravest and best of the land. It is on men such as these, and not on the advocates of "peace at any price," or upon those who are so shortsighted that they refuse to take into account the possibilities of war, that we must rely in every crisis which deeply touches the true greatness and true honor of the Republic. The men who to-day protest against a Navy, and protest against every movement to carry out the traditional policy of the country in foreign affairs, and uphcJd the honor of the flag, are only following in the footsteps of those who protested against the acquisition of the great West, and who failed to make proper preparation for the war of 1812, or refused to support it after it had been made. He does not believe that any considerable number of our citizens are stamped with this timid lack of patriotism. There are some whose eyes are so firmly fixed on the golden vision of universal peace that they cannot see the real facts of real life till they stumble over them and get hurt; and there are some educated men in whom edu- cation only serves to soften the fiber and to take away the higher and 188 THEODORE ROOSEVELt. Sterner qualities that make for national greatness; these men prate about love for mankind, or for another country, as being in some vague way a substitute for love of their own country; and what is of more weight is that there are men of means who are always ready to balance a temporary interruption of money-making, or a temporary financial and commercial disaster, against the self-sacrifice necessary in upholding the honor of the nation and the glory of the flag. It has always been true, and in this age it is more than ever true, that it is too late to prepare for war when the time for peace is over. The men who opposed the war of 1812, and would rather have the nation humiliated by unresented insult from a foreign power "than see her suffer the losses of an honorable conflict, occupied a position little short of contemptible; but it was not much worse than that of the men who brought on the war, and yet deliberately refused to make the preparations necessary to carry it to a successful conclusion. The visionary scheme for defending the country by gunboats instead of by a fleet of sea-going battleships ; the refusal to increase the Navy to a proper size; the determination to place reliance upon militia in- stead of upon regularly trained troops; and the disasters which fol- lowed upon each other and every one of these determinations should be studied in every school-book in the land so as to enforce in the minds of all our citizens the truth of Washington's adage that Tn time of peace it is necessary to prepare for war.' " As this applied to 18 12, it applies to the present day. Then, as now, it was the Navy the country had to depend upon in case of war with a foreign power, and then, as now, one of the foremost duties of a wise and far-seeing statesmanship should have been the building up of a good fighting Navy. The failure to provide such a Navy in 18 12 was followed by untold evils, for the fine efforts of the few cruisers we had proved what might have been done if we had had a fleet of battleships of some size. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 189 Ships and men were more easily supplied at fhe beginning of the century than is the case now. Now it takes months to build ships and guns, where it then took weeks at most, and in these days it takes far longer to train men to the management of the vast and compli- cated engines with which war is carried on. In which case it takes a much longer time to make the proper preparation, while at the same time wars are much quicker now, last so comparatively short a time, and can be begun so quickly that there is far less time than formerly to make preparations. It takes two years in this country to build a battleship. Cruisers would take nearly as long. Under ninety days the small torpedo boats could not be made available for use. Guns require two or three months for their construction; the larger ones can not be made in less than eight months. It takes a corresponding length of time to get up rifles and military munitions of all kinds. In most cases we should be compelled to build not only the weapons, but the plant in which they are to be made in any large quantities. ''Even if the enemy did not interfere with our efiforts which they undoubtedly would, it would therefore take from three to six months after the outbreak of a war for which we were unprepared before we could in the slightest degree remedy our unreadiness. We must therefore make up our minds once for all to the fact that it is too late to make ready for war when the fight has once begun. The prepara- tions must come before that. In the case of the Civil War, none of these conditions applied. In 1861 we had a good fleet, and the Southern Confederacy had not a ship. We were able to blockade the Southern ports at once, and we could improvise engines of war more than sufficient to put against those of an enemy which also had to improvise them, and who labored under even more disadvantages. The Monitor was got ready in the nick of tim.e to meet the Merri- mac, because the Confederates had to plan and build the latter while 190 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. we were building and planning the former; but if ever we have to go to war with a modern military power we shall find its Merrimacs already built, and it will then be altogether too late to build Monitors to meet them." There must be adequate preparation made for possible conflict un- less we would court disaster. And preparations must take the shape of an efificient fighting Navy. America has no foe able to conquer or overrun its territory. Our not very large army should always be kept in first-rate condition, while every attention should be paid to the National Guard; but neither on the North or on the South has America neighbors capable of menacing or long resisting a serious effort on our part to invade them. "The enemies we may have to face will come from over sea; they may come from Europe, or they may come from Asia. Events move fast in the West, but this generation has been forced to see that they move even faster in the oldest East. Our interests are as great in the Pacific as in the Atlantic; in the Hawaiian Islands as in the West Indies. Merely for the protection of our shores we need a great Navy, and what is more we need it to protect our interests in the islands from which it is possible to command our shores and to pro- tect our commerce on the high seas." Tame submission to foreign aggression of any sort is mean and unworthy; but it is even meaner and more unworthy still to first bluster and then submit, or else refuse to make the preparations which alone can obviate the necessity for submission. In public as in pri- vate life a bold front makes to insure peace and not strife. If we do not possess a formidable Navy war may be forced upon us at any time. When the Civil War was declared in what condition did it find the North? The ships were old and some of them unseaworthy, and the navies of both the South and the North were at zero. America was a PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 191 ereat power even then, but it had thought not enough of a navy and its defense on the sea-Hne was miserable. But we do not need a Navy merely for defense. Of course, our chief harbors should be fortified and put in a condition to resist attacks of an enemy's f^eet, and one of our first needs is a good force of torpedo boats to use primarily for coast defense. We cannot rely on coast protection alone. Forts, heavy land guns and torpedo boats are indispensable, but in the state of naval and military knowledge to-day we must rely mainly, as all great nations always have relied, on the battleship — the fighting ship of the line. If our battleships can destroy a hostile fleet, our coasts are safe from the menace of serious attack. If we have no fleet to meet the enemy's on the high sea, or to anticipate his stroke by our own, then every city within reach from the sea must spend men and money preparing for an attack that may not come, but once attempted would cause an irredeemable disaster. "Still more is it necessary to have a fleet of great battleships if we intend to live up to the Monroe Doctrine, and to insist upon its observance in the two Americas and the islands on either side of them. If a foreign power, whether in Europe or in Asia, should de- termine to assert its position in those lands wherein we feel that our influence should be supreme, there is but one way in which we can effectively interfere. Diplomacy is utterly useless when there is no force behind it; the diplomat is the servant, not the master, of the soldier. The prosperity of peace, commercial and material prosperity, gives no weight whatever when the clash of arms comes. Even great naked strength is useless if there is no immediate means through which that strength can manifest itself. If we mean to protect the people of the lands who look to us for protection from tyranny and aggression; if we mean to uphold our interests in the teeth of the 192 tHEODORE ROOSEVELT. formidable Old World powers, we can only do it by being ready at any time, if the provocation is sufficient, to meet them on the seas where the battle for supremacy must be fought. Unless we are pre- pared so to meet them let us abandon all talk of devotion to the Monroe Doctrine or to the honor of the American name." If it wishes to retain its self-respect most certainly this nation can- not stand still and keep undimmed the honored traditions inherited from the men whose swords founded and preserved it. Mr. Roose- velt asks that the work of upbuilding our Navy, and of putting the United States where it should be, go forward without hesitation. The whole country should ask it, and did, not in the interest of war, but in the interest of peace. A nation should never fight unless forced to fight, but it should always be ready to fight. The mere fact that it is in trim for fighting will generally spare it the necessity of fighting. "If this country now had a fleet of twenty-five ships of battle their existence would make it all the more likely that we should not have war. It is very important that we should as a race keep the virile fighting qualities and should be ready to use them at need; but it is not at all important to use them unless there is need. One of the surest ways to attain these qualities is to keep our Navy in first-class trim. There never is and never has been on our part a desire to use a weapon because of its being well tempered. There is not the least danger that the possession of a good Navy will render this country overbearing toward its neighbors. The direct contrary is the truth. An unmanly desire to avoid a quarrel is often the surest way to pre- cipitate one, and utter unreadiness to fight is even surer. * * * If in the future we have war it will almost certainly come from some action or lack of action on our part in the way of refusing to accept responsibilities at the proper time, or failing to prepare for war whea war does not threaten. An ignoble peace is even worse than an un- successful war, but an unsuccessful war should leave behind it a PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 193 legacy of bitter memories which would liurt our national develop- ment for a generation to come. It is true that no nation could actu- ally conquer us, owing to our isolated position; but we could be seriously harmed, even materially, by disasters that stopped far short of conquest; and in these matters, which are far more important than things material, we could readily be damaged beyond repair. No material loss can begin to compensate for the loss of national self- respect. The damage to our commercial interests by the destruction of one of our coast cities would be as nothing compared to the humiliation which would be felt by every American worthy of the name if we had to submit to such an injury without amply avenging it. It has been finely said that 'A gentleman is one who is willing- to lay down his life for little things;' that is, for those things which seem little to the man who cares only whether shares rise or fall in value, and to the timid doctrinaire who preaches timid peace from his cloistered study. Much of that which is best and highest in national character is made up of glorious memories and traditions. The fight well fought, the life honorably lived, the death bravely met — those count for more in building a high and fine type of temper in a nation than any possible success in the stock market, than any possible prospirity in commerce or manufactures. A rich banker may be a valuable and useful citizen, but not a thousand rich bankers can leave to the country such a heritage as Farragut left, when lashed in the rigging of the Hartford, he forged past the forts, and over the unseen death below, to try his wooden stem against the ironclad hull of the great Confederate ram. The people of some given section of our country may be better off because a shrewd and wealthy man has built up therein a great manufacturing business, or has extended a line of railroad past its doors, but the whole nation is better, the whole nation is braver because Gushing pushed his little torpedo boat through the darkness to sink beside the sinking Albemarlt. 194 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. "Every teat of heroism makes us forever indebted to the man who performed it. All daring and courage, all iron endurance of mis- fortune, all devotion to the ideal of honor and the glory of the flag make for a finer and a nobler type of manhood. It is not only those who do and endure who are benefited, but also the countless thou- sands who are not themselves called upon to face the peril, to show the strength, or to win the reward. All of us lift O'ur heads higher because those of our countrymen whose trade it is to meet danger have met it well and bravely. All of us are poorer for every base or ignoble deed done by an American, for every instance of selfishness or weakness or folly on the part of the people as a whole. We are all worse off when any of us fails at any point in his duty toward the State in time of peace, or his duty toward the State in time of war. If ever'we had to meet defeat at the hands of a foreign foe, or had to submit tamely to wrong or insult, every man among us worthy of the name of an American would feel dishonored and debased. "On the other hand, the memory of every triumph won by Ameri- cans, by just so much helps to make each American nobler and better. Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsi- bilities of citizenship because of the perils over which in the past the nation has triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and tears, the labor and the anguish through which in the days that have gone our forefathers moved on to triumph. There are higher things in this life than the soft and easy enjoyment of material comfort. It is through strife or the readiness for strife that a nation must win great- ness. We ask for a great Navy, partly because we think that the pos- session of such a Navy is the surest guarantee of peace, and partly because we feel that no national life is worth having if the nation is not willing when the need shall arise to stake everything on the supreme arbitration of war, and to pour out its blood, its treasure, PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 197 and its tears like water, rather than to submit to the loss of honor and renown. "In closing, let me repeat that we ask for a great Navy, we ask for an armament fit for the nation's needs, not primarily to fight, but to avert fighting. Preparedness deters the foe, and maintains right by the show of ready might without the use of violence. Peace, like freedom, is not a gift that tarries long in the hands of cowards, or of those too feeble or too short-sighted to deserve it; and we ask to be given the means to insure that honorable peace which alone is worth having." Imagine this speech, delivered when the troubles with Spain were fomenting, and when youth and bravery in the country was holding its head high, its eye bright, at the thought of a chance to take up arms for the land we called our own! Nor are the sentiments of this speech those of a man who sits idly by when the honor of his country is threatened. When war had been actually declared Mr. Roosevelt submitted his resignation to the President, April i6th, and tried to get an appoint- ment on General Lee's staff. Then came the Rough Rider idea — hardly thought of before realized. "Roosevelt's Rough Riders" — the name struck the popular fancy, arA the regiment became famous before it was organized. During Mr. Roosevelt's summer months on his ranch in Dakota he had learned to know and appreciate cow-boys as courageous men, strong to bear the hardships of war. From such men the Rough Riders were* chiefly recruited. Four years' membership in the Eighth Regiment of the New York State National Guard, to which Mr. Roosevelt belonged from 1884 to 1888, and in which he was for a time a captain, furnished at least a basis for his military career. But more than all else that induced him to go to the front was his de- votion to the cause for which the war was to be fought and his love 198 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. of active life. These same reasons drew to him scores of young men of prominent families from all parts of the country, who joined the Western cavalrymen to go and fight the Spaniards. The regiment thus formed was known as ''Roosevelt's Rough Riders/' although it was commanded by Colonel Wood, of the Regular Army, Roose- velt being second in command, with the rank, until promoted, of lif.u- tenant-colonel. CHAPTER X. The Rough 'Riders— Mustering Places of Regiment— Colonel Wood and Lieu- tenant-Colonel Roosevelt— Men from Colleges, Clubs, Police Force, Cowboys, Miners, Indians— Personnel of Some of the Men— Appreciation of Colon'^1 Roosevelt— "Remember the Maine"— Trouble in Getting Matters Organized— Drilling-grounds— Union of Rough Riders— Impatient to go into Action- Orders to Move. THE mustering places of the regiment were in New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory. The difficulty experienced was not in selecting the men but in rejecting them, for in a day or so after it was announced that there was to be such a regiment the officers were deluged with applications from every part of the Union. Hundreds of regiments were called into existence by the National Government, and each one was sure to want equipment, and their wants would not be satisfied quickly enough for a man like Colonel Roosevelt, who had little patience with red-tapeism. Colonel Wood, who knew how unprepared the country was for war, and its needs, also knew it was very important to get in the demands of the Rough Riders as soon as possible. In spite of the slowness of bureaucrats, he succeeded in getting rifles, cartridges, revolvers, clothing, shelter tents and horse-gear just in time for the Santiago expedition. Colonel Wood was acquainted with the inesti- mable advantage of smokeless powder, and, besides, he wished the Rough Riders to have the shooting irons of regulars. This meant that the Rough Riders would form brigades with the regulars, and it was pretty sure the regulars would do the bulk of the fighting if the war did not last too long. By acting with the greatest prompt- 199 200 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. ncss he had his men armed with the Krag-Jorgensen carbine used by the regular cavalry. The regiment was allowed to be made up of companies from the four territories exclusively; but as the original number of seven hundred and eighty was raised to a thousand, chances were given to volunteers who did not come from the Terri- tories. Recruits came from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and other colleges, while exclusive clubs of Boston and New York contributed to fill the vacancies; and besides these there were men who did not belong to colleges or clubs. Four policemen who had served under Colonel Roosevelt when he was President of the New York Police Board insisted upon coming, and it seemed that friends of Colonel Roosevelt in every State wished to accompany him to the scene of action in Cuba. Harvard being Colonel Roosevelt's own particular college, so many applications were made from its students that not a tenth of them could be taken; and they and the other college men did not ask for commissions, they were content to go as plain troopers. They sought to enter the ranks of the Rough Riders as though it meant anything but the hardest kind of work, rough fare and possibly death. Colonel Roosevelt said that he felt doubtful at first of-4etting men of this stamp come in, for he was not certain that they had counted the cost of serving in the ranks; but as they would come, and plainly knew their own minds, they were allowed to pass muster. Before having them sworn in, however, Colonel Roosevelt got them to- gether and told them that if they went in they must expect not only fighting, but to perform the laborious, wearisome labor incident to the ordinary soldier's life; that there would be privations, and fevers, and other sicknesses, and that they must obey orders unquestion- ingly and do their duty, no matter what the assignment to it might mean to their comfort. Not one of them backed out. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 201 Of the regiment, though, these men formed but a small fraction. Colonel Wood was in San Antonio, and this contingent was sent to him, while Colonel Roosevelt spent a week in Washington hurrying up the different bureaus and getting things generally in shape. Then he went down to San Antonio and found the men from the Terri- tories, who made up the bulk of the regiment, and gave it its peculiar character. They came from the four Teritories that yet remained in the boundaries of the United States, from lands only recently won over to white civilization, and where the conditions of life were still rude and unaffected by the elegancies of the East. They were magnificent specimens of men, tall and sinewy, with stern, weather- beaten faces, and eyes that looked any m?.n in the face. They were the wild rough riders of the plains, used to handling untamed savage horses, and used to hunting with the rifle as well for sport as for a means of living. Most of them had, one time or another, herded cattle and shot big game. They were used to life in the open and to looking out for themselves under adverse circumstances, and to the lawless freedom of the plains and the hardships of the round-up and mining camps. A few had come from small frontier towns, but the majority from the wilderness, the hunters' cabins and the cow camps, and were in glaring contrast to the college men and club men used to the soft amenities of life^ — the opera and the ball-room, the well- ordered athletic field, and glossy horses trained by jockeys. The captains and lieutenants were after men of the regular army — men who had gone against Apache, Ute, and Cheyenne, and who, ending their terms of service, had settled in the new communities and be- come prominent men. But not all were such, there were sheriffs and deputy-sheriffs, marshals and deputy-marshals, strong men who had waged war on Indians, or upon bands of desperate white renegades. "There was Bucky O'Neill, of Arizona, captain of Troop A, the mayor of Prescott, a famous sheriff throughout the West for his feats 202 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. of victoiyious warfare against the Apache, no less than against the white road-agents and men-killers. His father had fought in Meagher's Brigade in the Civil War, and he himself a born soldier, a leader of men. He was a wild, reckless fellow, soft-spoken, and of dauntless courage and boundless ambition; he was staunchly loyal to his friends, and cared for his men in every way. There was Captain Llewellen, of New Mexico, a good citizen, a political leader, and one of the most noted peace-officers of the country; he had been shot four times in pitched fights with red marauders and white outlaws. There was Lieutenant Ballard, who had broken up the Black Jack gang of ill-omened notoriety, and his captain, Curry, another New Mexican sheriff of fame. The officers from the Indian Territory had almost all served as marshals and deputy-marshals; and in the Indian Terri- tory service as a deputy-marshal meant capacity to fight stand-up battles with gangs of outlaws. Three of our highest officers had been in the regular army. One was Major Alexander Brodie, from Arizona, afterward Lieutenant-Colonel, who had lived for twenty years in the Territory, and had become a thorough Westerner with- out sinking the West Pointer — a soldier by taste as well as training, whose men worshiped him and would follow him everywhere, as they would Bucky O'Neill or any other of their favorites. Brodie was running a big mining business, but when the Maine was blown up he abandoned everything and telegraphed right and left to bid his friends get ready for the fight he saw impending. There wag Micah Jenkins, the captain of Troop K, a gentle and courteous South Carolinian, on whom danger acted like wine. In action he was a perfect gamecock, and he won his majority for gaPantry in battle. Finally, there was Allyii Capron, who was, on the whole, the best soldier in the regiment. In fact, I think he was the ideal of what an Amierican regular army officer should be. He was the fifth in descent from father to son who had served in the Army of the United PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 203 States, and in body and mind alike he was fitted to play his part to perfection. Tall and lithe, a remarkable boxer and walker, a first- class rider and shot, with yellow hair and piercing blue eyes, he looked what he was — the archetype of the fighting man. He had under him one of the two companies from the Indian Territory, and he so soon impressed himself upon the wild spirit of his followers that he got them ahead in discipline faster than any other troop in the regiment, while at the same time taking care of their bodily wants. His ceaseless effort was so to train them, care for them, and inspire them as to bring their fighting efficiency to the highest possible pitch. He required instant obedience, and tolerated not the slightest evasion of duty; but his mastery of his art was so thorough and his per- formance of his own duty so rigid that he won at once not merely their admiration, but that soldierly affection so readily given by the man in the ranks to the superior who cares for his men and leads them fearlessly in battle." Thus Colonel Roosevelt writes of his officers, appreciatively, more than kindly, himself filled with affection for brave men and fearless fighters. He had gathered round him officers for his regi- ment from every station of life — cow-boys, college graduates — and no matter what might be their social position they had come to fight in the interests of their country, hardy and brave and ready for any adventure on the field of battle. Colonel Roosevelt's name was the synonym for bravery and endur- ance, he had already served his city, his State and the country well and often when the odds had been against him, he was a college man and a gentleman, a plainsman and a hunter, and such a man, together with his personality, was bound to attract just such officers when he raised a regiment to go and battle against a foe who dared to encroach upon the land that was so dear to him and which he had so often spoken of in terms of the American and the patriot. 204 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. So much for the officers. The men in the ranks to a large extent were young, though some were middle aged. Colonel Roosevelt's popularity in the far West was bound to secure for the Rough Riders just such men as now flocked to enlist — those who had killed buffalo, those who had fought the redskins when the tribes were still on the war path. The very young ones had led rough lives as well, had gone through hardship and danger, many having originally come from the East ripe for adventure, sailing around the Horn and mining in Alaska. Others had been born and bred in the West which they had never left, and had never seen a great city. Some did not go by their own names; others rejoiced in only half a name, an adjective supplying the apparent neglect — Cherokee Bill, Happy Jack of Arizona, Smoky Moore the bronco buster, so called because in cow-boy dialect a vicious horse is often a "smoky" horse. Then there was Rattlesnake Pete, who had consorted familiarly among the Moquis Indians, and taking part in snake-dances earned his sobri- quet. Among others were professional gamblers, while four of five Baptist or Methodist clergymen, in good or bad standing, helped to swell the ranks and were good fighters when the time came to show what they could do. Others again there were whose past reputations were of the shadiest kind, crime such as flourishes on the borderland between civilization and savagery having claimed them. But the larger body had served at different times in the armed bands of men who are pioneers of civilization in putting down the savagery of newly-acquired territory. Then the Indians came. There were Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks, some of full blood, others half breeds or shaded off until it was difficult to detect the dif- ference between them and the white troopers with whom they came to live in perfect equanimity. One of the best fighters and bravest men in the regiment was Pollock, a full blooded Pawnee. He was an educated man, as were most of the other Indians, having been THE ROOSEVELT CHILDREN IN 189S. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 207 taught in one of the Indian schools. He was a silent, solitary fellow and an excellent penman, and when the regiment got to Santiago he became regimental clerk. Another of the Indians came from Texas where he had been brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad. He wrote to Colonel Roosevelt, telling him he wished to enlist, and he was taken. He was named Colbert, which name at once attracted the Colonel's attention, for he was familiar with the history of the Cherokees and Chickasaws during the eighteenth century, when those tribes had foregathered East of the Mississippi. Early in the eighteenth century many traders, who were chiefly Scotchmen settled among the Indians and married dusky maidens, and the half-breed descendants of a Scotchman named Colbert became celebrated chiefs of the Chickasaws. Colonel Roosevelt had the man come to him and found as he supposed that he was a descendant of the old Chickasaw chiefs. Colbert brought into the regiment his "partner," who was a white man. The two men had been boon companions for years and were always together in the regiment. There were other Indians whose names were recognized by Col- onel Roosevelt, who knew so much about the West and the tribal people there. One of the Cherokees was named Adair, and on in- quiry the Colonel discovered that he was descended from the man who a hundred years ago wrote a huge volume, interesting to-day, about the Cherokees, with whom he had spent years of his life as a trader and an agent, and who also married into the tribe. "I don't know," says Colonel Roosevelt, "that I ever came across a man with a really sweeter nature than another Cherokee named Holderman. He was an excellent soldier, and for a long time acted as cook for the headquarters' mess. He was a half breed and came of a soldier stock on both sides and through both races. He explained to me once why he had come to the war; that it was because his people always liad fought when there had been a war, and he could 208 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. not feel happy to stay at home when the flag was going into battle. Two of the young Cherokees came to me with a most kindly letter from one of the ladies who had been teaching in the Academy from which they were about to graduate. She and I had known each other in connection with governmental and philanthropic work on the reservations, and she wrote to commend the two boys to my attention. One w-as on the Academy foot-ball team and the other in the glee-club. Both w^ere fine young fellows. The foot-ball player now lies buried with the other dead who fell in the fight at San Juan. The singer was brought to death's door by fever, but recovered and went back to his home." A wilder type of Indians also entered the regiment, their wildness like that of the cow-boys with whom they had long associated, and some had characters which had much tO' be desired in them and re- quired the discipline of amiy life to bring them to a realization of the error of their ways. Many of the recruits came from Texas, and these were, perhaps, of the highest average, for most of them had served in the famous body of frontier fighting men, the Texas Rangers. They needed no teaching in military discipline, for they knew how to obey without question and how to assume responsi- bility. These troopers to a man were fine shots, and horsemen and trailers, and having lived so much in the open they were capable of tremendous endurance and used to conquering almost insuperable difficulty. The Arizona and New Mexico men had, largely, taken part in the wars against the Apaches, who are the wildest of all the American red men and most formidable in their own method of warfare. Any man who had held his own, kept his nerve and a firm hand after living in a section where at any moment he might come across hidden death from a foe who was sly and treacherous in the extreme, w^as scarcely apt to quail before an enemy arrayed in the modem mode of civilized battle. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 209 These men had fought and trailed the Apaches, were keen to face danger, and watchful and alert, while their pulses were steady and their aim good to bring doAvn a foe that opposed them. One of the men in the exercise of his peculiar office of peace-officer had had a half of one of his ears bitten ofif in an amicable tiff with a man who thought he would question the authority of an officer who wished to put him down. There were also bronco-busters from Oklahoma who never walked if they could by any possibility ride. One of them on being reproved for not keeping step on the drill ground said that all he knew was that he could keep step with any man when on horse- back, for his legs were short and marches were troublesome to him. "One old friend of mine had come from far Northern Idaho to join the regiment at San Antonio. He was a hunter, named Fred Herrig, an Alsatian by birth. A dozen years before he and I had hunted mountain sheep and deer when laying in my winter stock of meat for my ranch on the Little Missouri, sometimes in the bright fall weather, sometimes in the Arctic bitterness of the early Northern winter. He was the most loyal and simple-hearted of men, and he had come to join his old 'boss' and comrade in the bigger hunting which we were to carry on through the tropic mid-summer. The ability to draw men to him was never made more apparent than when Colonel Roosevelt got up his regiment. He had fra- ternized with all sorts and conditions of men, never losing his dignity in doing so, and whether it was in the far West at round-ups and with cow-boys or hunting buffalo or deer, and other game; whether it was in the sordid haunts of New York city politics, making speeches at the hustings before frowzled men and the flash fraternity that had the meetings in hand; whether it was in the official precincts of politicians where rulership was with other sorts of men; in State Assembly; at the capital as Assistant Secretary of the Navy; among studious men and authors; in drawing rooms and clubs — it was one 210 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. and the same thing, his individuality was recognized, his power known, his friendly, genial manner appreciated and his stern desire for justice and right comprehended. So that when he would go to war when there had been insult offered to the flag he held with so much veneration, men who had known him or heard of him in his various offices and capacities flocked to him to support him, for he was a man of men, they could trust and believe in him, and under his standard they were willing and anxious to trust their own reputations, their lives. In speaking appreciatively of the regiment that had been raised. Colonel Roosevelt finds that the temptation is great to go on and enumerate man after man who stood out from the mass — hunters, tamers of horses, men who had put down disorder in wild communities. Rocky Mountain stage drivers who had resisted road agents and saved the quaking passengers of the stages, miners, cow- punchers, ropers of wild steers in the mesquit brush of the Nueces, coll'ege men, club men, business men, clerks. Such were the men who composed the regiment, men used to hardship and privation, soldiers who were ready made so far as capacity as individual fighters was concerned ; and men who knew little of the harder phases of out- door life except that learned on the athletic field, in sailing yachts or having mounts of blooded horses, but who were also soldiers at heart and in spirit, men to whom the traditions of their country meant much and with whom the honor of America was a dear possession and in whose veins leaped the blood of patriots till they burned with the desire to go on the field of carnage and let Spain know how well they 'remembered the Maine.' " The special task of Colonel Wood and Lieutenant-Colonel Roose- velt was to teach the incongruous set of men to act together and obey orders in military manner. And the most important task was to make them ready in the shortest possible length of time. They were bound to see fighting for they were to be among the first to PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 211 leave the United States, and no one could tell how much fighting there would be nor how long the fighting would last. They were filled with enthusiasm, especially those who had never had experience outside of college, club and drawing-room, and anxious to face the enemy, being certain that enthusiasm and patriotism might well take the place of technicality of instruction. Though when it came to en- forcing discipline Colonel Roosevelt tells us that he was agreeably disappointed. The hard characters from the West who might have given trouble with few exceptions grasped the idea that without dis- cipline they would be a mere useless mob, and they set about learning the new duties; the other kind of men, the "tenderfeet," as the ruder element might dub them, were as eager to do as they were told, and however irksome the tactics might be their intelligence grasped quickly what their limited physical endurance found at first more difficult to perform, "Of course such a regiment in spite of, or I might almost say because of, the characteristics which made the individual men ex- ceptionally formidable as soldiers, could very easily have been spoiled. Any v/eakness in the command would have ruined it. On the other hand, to treat it from the standpoint of the martinet and military pedant would have been almost equally fatal. From the beginning we started out to secure the essentials of discipline, while laying just as little stress as possible on the non-essentials. The men were singularly quick to respond to any appeal to their intelligence and patriotism. The faults they committed were those due to ignorance only. When Holderman in announcing dinner to the Colonel and the three Majors genially remarked, Tf you fellows don't come soon every thing'll get cold'; he had no thought of other than a kindly regard for their welfare, and was glad to modify his form of address on being told that it was not what could be described as convention- ally military. When one of our sentinals who had with much labor 212 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. learned the manual of amis saluted with great pride as I passed, and added with a friendly nod, 'good evening, Colonel,' this variation in the accepted formula on such occasions was meant and was accepted as mere friendly interest. In both cases the needed instruction was given and received in the same kindly spirit. One of the new Indian Territory recruits after twenty-four hours stay in camp, during which he had steadily held himself from the general interests, called on the Colonel in his tent and remarked, 'Well, Colonel, I want to shake hands and say we're with you. We didn't know how we would like you fellows at first, but you're all right; you know your business and you mean business, and you can count on us every time.' That same night, which was hot, mosquitoes were very annoying, and shortly after midnight both the Colonel and I came to the doors of our respective tents, which adjoined one another. The sentinel in front was also fighting mosquitoes. As we came out we saw him pitch his gun about ten feet ofif and sit down to attack some of the pests which had swarmed up his trousers' leg. Happening to glance in our direction he nodded pleasantly and with unabashed and friendly feeling remarked, 'Ain't they bad?' " Though in a very little while the raw men got over these trifling peculiarities, as time wore on they recognized the fact that the observation of certain forms was very necessary to the observance of military discipline. They realized the truth that such forms were not intended to humiliate them or to show them that their position was inferior, but only a proper part of the discipline; they understood that the officers were as anxious to learn their own duties as to have the men learn theirs, and that the officers were as careful to pay their respect to their superiors in rank as they were prompt in exacting the respect of the rank and file for their own offices. What was equally important, the men saw that their officers were careful to look after their interests in every way, and were doing all in their power to PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 213 hasten the equipment and drill of the regiment and proceed to war. Rigid guard duty was established and the policing of the camp was attended to with the greatest vigilance. Drills went on, on foot first, and were interesting to the men and became excellent. Every night there was an officers' school, the non-commissioned officers also being schooled by the Captain or one of the Lieutenants of the troop. Every day there was hard practice by squad, by squadron, by bat- talion. Americans are proverbially intelligent, and the men of the regiment were not behind in the national characteristic. In a short time it became easy to handle the regiment in the less complex forms of close and open order. When the men had so far advanced that they marched well and were up in the ordinary manoeuvres of the drill-ground, they were trained in open-order work, skirmishing and firing. The knowledge of the far Western men helped them con- siderably in these, while to skirmishing they took naturally. The city-bred men were quick to observe and execute, and in fact caught up to cow-bows and Indians in a line of work to which they were hitherto ignorant, while the others had learned something akin to it on the plains in forays against depredators. Meanwhile horses were being purchased. Colonel Roosevelt was of opinion that the horses bought were scarcely heavy enough for the work in store for them, while nearly half of those obtained had never been broken. Therefore it was no easy task tO' handle them on picket lines and to provide for feeding and watering them, while the attempts to shoe and ride them were at first attended with con- siderable excitement. Many had come wild from the Western ranges, and these the men were compelled to throw down and tie before they could be shod. Many of the animals bucked or showed other tricks incident to their life on the ranches. But the regiment had any number of men so used to that sort of thing that they were undis- turbed in the slightest degree by any antic in which a horse might in- dulge, so the animals were brought into subjection, though many of 214 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. them remained to the end such as an ordinary rider might find some difficulty in mounting. Colonel Roosevelt's own horses were bought for him by a Texas h'iend with whom he had hunted on the Nueces. The price paid was fifty dollars apiece, for fancy prices did not obtain; the animals were not specially showy or adapted to Park riding, but they were tough and hardy and very well answered the purposes of the man who w-as to use them and who was so used to horses that it was said of him tliat he could get more out of one of them than any other man would have attempted. When it came to mounted drill with the men and their horses novelty and excitement were not far ofif. Having already been well drilled on foot the men knew the simple movements to form any kind of line or column and they went through the manoeuvres with credit to themselves and those who had them in charge. While this drilling was going on, and amid all the arduous duties attendant on an undertaking as difficult as the getting ready a raw regiment for war, Colonel Wood was busy night and day in hastening the final details of equipment. The drilling of the men was turned over to Colonel Roosevelt. "To drill perfectly needs long practice, but to drill roughly is a thing very easy to learn indeed," he says. "We were not always right about our intervals, our lines were somewhat irregular, and our more difficult movements were executed at times in rather a haphazard way; but the essential commands and the essential movements we learned without any difficulty, and the men performed them with great dash. When we put the men on horseback there was of course trouble with the horses, but the horseman- ship of the riders (the Western men) was consummate. In fact, the men were immensely interested in making their horses per- form each evolution with the utmost speed and accuracy, and in forcing each unquiet, vicious brute to get into line, and stay in line, whether he would or not. The guidon bearers held their plunging MR. ROOSEVELT AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. M7 steeds true to the line no matter what they tried to do, and each wild rider brought his wilder horse into its proper place with a dash and ease which showed the natural cavalryman. In short, from the very beginning the horseback drills were good fun, and everyone enjoyed them. We marched out through the adjoining countr}^ to drill wher- ever we found open ground, practising all the different column forma- tions as we went. On the open ground we threw out the line to one side or the other, and in one position and the other, sometimes at the trot, sometimes at the gallop. As the men grew accustomed to the simple evolutions we tried them more and more in skirmish drills, practising them so that they might get accustomed to advance in open order and to skirmish in any country, while the horses were held in the rear." Thoroughness was the main thing in Colonel Roosevelt's drilling, as in every thing else that he undertook; tireless himself in what he did he may often have drilled his men till they were well tired out, but they accomplished what it was intended they should accomplish, and this was their meed of praise. The arms of the regiment were the regular cavalry carbine, and the revolver. Some of the men carried their favorite Winchester rifles, using the new model which took the cartridge prescribed by the government. Colonel Roosevelt considered it sheer waste of time to try to train his men in the use of the sabre, a weapon totally foreign to them. Then it turned out that the regiment was to be used not mounted at all, so that all these preparations on horseback came to nothing. This was a great disappointment to the men, for they thought they would go to Havana as cavalrymen. But disappoint- ment could not damp their ardor, and so they got into the fight the horses might go. In their slouch hats, blue flannel shirts, brown trousers, leggins and boots, with handkerchiefs knotted round their throats, the regiment looked precisely as a body of cow-boy cavalry 218 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. men should look, and their easy swagger of walk and careless de- meanor, while it might suggest the plains, yet it also told of men not to be trifled with and men who if they got a chance would make a record for themselves. Colonel Roosevelt was indefatigable, the same energy which had characterized him from the beginning of his career was his characteristic now. He had always looked after the men who were under him, the cow-boys on his ranch had become his friends, the policemen in New York were his friends, and his regi- ment had old friends in it while the newest recruits appealed to him as friends yet to be. But the impatience of the men grew; they wanted to get away, to fight in Havana where, report had it, they were needed. Then why could they not get off? It was unlike "Teddy" Roosevelt to dilly-dally, so the fault could not be his, and these eternal drills were not the cause of their staying in camp so far from the scene of action. The fault must be that of the government which was always slow, and Washington was a place where red tape was of far more account than action. The impatience increased, and there would have been more than one outbreak but for Colonel Roosevelt, who tried to explain that patience was a form of endurance as much as a more positive form of that necessary virtue in affairs con- nected with government procedure, and that the government in this case was not to blame too much, for a regiment was not an easy thing to handle and that in time orders to move would come. And then one day he told the men that they were to go forward. The rejoicing was universal, and many who never returned hurrahed at the idea that at last they were to see Havana and strike a blow for their CQuntry. CHAPTER XL From San Antonio— For Tampa— On the Way— Off to Cuba— On Landing at Capron— Colonel Roosevelt Charges— Incidents— Colonel Roosevelt in Daiquiri— On the March— "Forward"— General Young's Fight— Rough Riders in Battle for the First time— "Don't Swear, Shoot"— Death of Fish and Command— Army Food— Money for Food out of Colonel's Pocket— In Camp — Waiting for Santiago. THE journey by rail from San Antonio to Tampa, Florida, took four days. The men were hilariously joyful all the way and could not understand why "Teddy" Roosevelt should read a book at every spare moment, just as though going to war was a usual thing with him. The Colonel might have answered that, while going to this sort of war was a novelty to him, yet he had engaged in many a battle of another sort with faulty politicians, grabbing office-seekers, and the like, and that Spain would prove a better foe than corrupt men in ofifice who were willing to wreck the name of their country in dishonorable conflict with the law, while Spain was a foe whose weapons might be met with weapons of the same kind by honest men. On Sunday, May 29th, the regiment of Rough Riders went from their hot, dusty camp to take the cars for Tampa, Fla. With the first three sections of troops went Colonel Wood. Colonel Roosevelt went with the remaining four. The railroad had scheduled a forty- eight hour trip, but the experience of the officers in loading the train told them that the schedule time would go for little — there were not proper facilities for getting the horses on and off the train, nor for feeding or watering them; while there was confusion and delay among the railway officials all along the line. Colonel Roose- velt's four sections went to the cars in the afternoon. Colonel Wood's three sections having taken the rest of the day in getting off. It was 219 220 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. quite dusk when Colonel Roosevelt's lines of dusty troops marched into the station yard. The men worked till past midnight before the horses and baggage were got on the train, and then they learned that the passenger cars had been delayed for some reason or other, and would not be on hand for hours. At dawn the passenger trains came up and one by one were fillled by the men till all w^ere provided for, Colonel Roosevelt taking the last car. There were four days of hot and dusty travel. "Everyvv'here the people came out to greet us and cheer us. They brought us flowers, they brought us watermelons and other fruit, and sometimes jugs and pails of milk, all of which we greatly appreciated. We were traveling through a region where practically all the older men had served in the Confederate army, and where the younger men had all their lives long drunk in the endless tales told by their elders at home, at the cross-roads taverns and in the court-house squares about the cavalry of Forrest and Morgan and the infantry of Jackson and Hood. The blood of the old men stirred to the distant breath of battle; the blood of the young men leaped hot with eager desire to accompany us. The older women who remembered the dreadful misery of war, the misery that presses its iron weight most heavily on the wives and the little ones, looked sadly at us; but the young girls drove down in bevies, arrayed in all their finery, to wave flags in farewell to the troopers and to beg cartridges and buttons as mementoes. Everywhere we saw the Stars and Stripes, and every- where we were told, half laughing, by grizzled ex-Confederates, that they had never dreamed in by-gone days of bitterness to greet the old flag as they now were greeting it, and to send their sons as they now were sending them to fight and die under it." It was all one country now; there was now only one flag and it had been threatened; there was now no "Johnny Reb," no "mudsill from the North," but only one brotherhood, one nation of Americans, and a foreign country had wTonged and defied us, PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 221 After four uncomfortable days the troops disembarked at Tampa. There was no one to meet them, to tell them where they were to go into camp; no one to issue food for the first twenty-four hours; the men had to buy rations out of their own pockets, and they seized any wagons that came to hand to take the spare baggage to the camping ground which they at last found had been allotted to them. Colonel Roosevelt did all he coiild to keep order, going about it like a veteran, as the men said; but it was only when the g:ound was reached that confusion was allayed. Tents were put up, pickets established, and the camp policed. However, they were to be but a few days at Tampa. Colonel Roosevelt was notified that the ex- pedition was to start for a destination, not divulged at the time; that the horses were to be left behind, and only eight troops of seventy men each taken. The sorrow of the men at leaving their horses w-as outweighed by the joy of getting near the scene of action. But it was hard work to select the men who were to stay. More than one man, officer and private, burst into tears when he found he was not to go. Orders were received on the evening of June 7th that the selected troops forming the expedition were tO' start from Port Tampa, nine miles away, at daybreak the following morning. The transport was overloaded; the men w^ere packed in like sardines; the traveling rations issued to the men were insufficient, and the "canned beef,'^ which afterward caused so much trouble to the Department at Wash- ington, was much in evidence. But all things seemed of small im- portance to the men alongside the fact that they were really of¥ and that they were the first expedition to go. Next morning came word that the order to sail had been countermanded. What this meant no one could understand at the time. It turned out afterwards that this was due to the blunder of a Navy of^cer who mistook some of the vessels for the Spanish fieet, and by his report there was consterna- tion broug^ht to Washington, until the matter was ?et to rights. 222 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Meanwhile the men packed in the troop-ships gasped in the great heat of Tampa harbor. At last, on the evening of June 13th, the Yucatan, with the Rough Riders on board, along with the other ships, received orders to start. Ship after ship weighed anchor and made for the distant mouth of the harbor. Flags flew, bands played cheerily, the troopers clustered in the rigging or swarming the decks cheered and shouted to those left behind and to the other men on the other ships. We were going at last! After the miserable wait, the heat, the bad food and the idleness we were on our way, and we might sing "The Girl I Left Behind Me" above the din of the bands playing a Sousa March. It was glorious! It was a picnic! It was better than the plains or the counting-house; we were representing the Army; we were full-fledged soldiers now that we were off and could not be stopped till we were at the point for which we had longed ever since the organization of the regiment ! Sailing southward through the tropic seas toward the unknown! The Rough Riders were young, they were eager to come face to face with what lay hidden before them — wild for adventure where risk might be had, and gain for the risk. They wondered whether they were to attack Santiago or Porto Rico. They lounged in groups telling stories of their past life, of mining camps, cattle ranges; stories of hunting bear and deer; stories of war trails against Indians; stories less beautiful of deeds of violence, of brawls in saloons where cheating gamblers met their death; stories of mining-camps, sad love-tales and tales of love that had been too merry. And at night, when their laughter shot across the iridescent water and the Southern Cross glowed in the heavens, war seemed as far ofi as ever. On the morning of June 22, landing was effected at Daiquiri, a village where there had been a railway and iron works. There was plenty of excitement in the landing. First of all the smaller war ves- PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 223 sels shelled Daiquiri in order to dislodge a,ny Spaniards who might be in the neighborhood. They also shelled other places along the coast to keep the enemy puzzled as to the intention of the "Americanos." Then the surf was very high and landing had its difficulties, and the task of getting men, ammunition and provisions ashore was not easy. Each man had to carry three days' rations and a hundred rounds of ammunition. The Rough Riders had two rapid-fire Colt automatic guns and a dynamite gun. There was considerable trouble in getting these ashore. Horses were being landed from another transport, together with the mules, by simply throwing them over- board and letting them swim ashore. Both of Colonel Wood's horses swam it; one of Colonel Roosevelt's was drowned, but the little Texan steed got a foothold and was saved. Late in the afternoon the men, with ammunition and provisions were on dry land and ready for the Spaniards. Camp was made on a dusty brush-covered flat, with a jungle on one side and a fetid pool of water on the other. General Lawlon had taken the advance, and he at once established outposts and placed reconnoitering parties on the trails. The afternoon of the next day orders came to the Rough Riders to march. General Wheeler was as anxious as General Lawton to have first blood, and he wished to put the cavalry division to the front as soon as possible. The Spaniards had had a skirmish with some Cubans who had been repulsed. General Wheeler made a per- sonal reconnoissance and finding out where the enemy was he directed General Young to take thellough Riders' brigade and move forward to strike him next morning. "It was mid-afternoon," says Colonel Roosevelt, "and the Tropic sun was beating fiercely down when Colonel Wood started our regiment — the First and Tenth Cavalry and some of the infantry regiments having already marched. Colonel Wood himself rode in 224 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. advance, while I led my squadron and Major Brodie followed with his. It was a hard march, the hilly jungle trail being so narrow that often we had to go in single file. We marched fast, for Wood was bo'und to get us ahead of the other regiments so as to be sure of our place in the body that struck the enemy next morning." ' The men were not in the best of shape, the majority of them being cow-boys who had never done much walking. It was intensely hot and the men carried heavy burdens. Whenever a halt was called these burdens were tossed aside and the men threw themselves on their backs. Night had long since fallen when the troopers tramped into Siboney. Camp was made for the night. Thunder was rolling in the sky, and soon there came a downpour of rain and put out the camp fires. In an hour the rain was over, and the fires were relighted and helped to dry the soaked garments of the troopers. "Wood had gone ofif to see General Young, as General Wheeler had instructed General Young tO' hit the Spaniards, who were four miles away, as soon after daybreak as possible. Meanwhile I strolled over to Captain Capron's troop. He and I, with his two lieutenants, Day and Thomas, stood around the fire together with two or three non-commissioned officers and privates. Among the latter were Sergeant Hamilton Fish and Trooper Elliot Cowdin, both of New York. Cowdin, together with two other troopers, Harry Thorpe and Munro' Ferguson, had been on my Oyster Bay Polo Team some years before. Hamilton Fish had already shown himself one of the best non-commissioned of^cers we had. A huge fellow, of enormous strength and endurance and dauntless courage, he took naturally to a soldier's life. He never complained and never shirked any duty of any kind, while his power over his men was great. So good a sergeant had he made that Captain Capron, keen to get the best men under him, took him when he left Tampa — for Fish's troop remained behind. As we stood around the flickering blaze that night I caught PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 227 myself admiring the splendid bodily vigor of Capron and Fish — the Captain and the Sergeant. Their frames seemed of steel, to with- stand all fatigue; they were flushed with health; in their eyes shone fiery resolve and high desire. Tw^o finer types of the fighting man, two better representatives of the American soldier there w^ere not in the whole army. Capron was going over his plans for the fight, when we should meet the Spaniards, Fish occasionally asking a question. They were both filled with eager longing to show their mettle, and both were rightfully confident that if they lived they would win honorable renown and would rise high in their chosen profession. Within twelve hours they both were dead." Toward midnight Colonel Wood returned. The troopers were to start by sunrise toward Santiago. General Young had got from General Castillo a description of the country front. General Castillo, commander of the Cuban forces, had promised Young the assistance of eight hundred Cubans. But the Cubans had been beaten back by the Spaniards the day before and could not give the promised aid when Wood made his reconnoissance to find out the extent of the Spanish strength. General Young with a squadron of the First Regular Cavalry, Major Bell commanding, and a squadron of the Tenth Regulars under Major Morrell, with two Hotchkiss mountain guns under Captain Watson of the Tenth, started before six in the morning with Captain A. L. Mills as aide. At half-past seven Captain Mills, with a patrol of two men, discovered the Spaniards near where two roads came together, in pits and in the jungle, and on a big ranch. When General Young struck them they were on a ridge a little to his left front, the ridge separated by a wide ravine down which the Rough Riders were then advancing. General Young did not attack at once; he knew Colonel Wood had a difficult route and would need a longer time to reach the position. General Wheeler, arriving and being 228 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. informed of the plan of attack, approved it, leaving General Young a free hand to fight the battle. About eight o'clock Young opened his Hotchkiss gun on the enemy. The Spaniards retorted with vol- leys. They had a couple of light guns which the Americans thought were quick-firers. The heaviness of the jungle and the Spaniards' use of smokeless powder made it difficult to locate them, and Young began to push forward. His men were on both sides of the road and in such dense jungle that only in places could they see ahead, and some confusion ensued, the support after awhile getting mixed with the advance. Captain Beck took A troop of the Tenth to the left, next to Captain Galbraith's troop. Two other troops of the Tenth were to the right. Wire fences ran through the jungle and when the troops reached the ridge they came upon precipitous heights. They were led gallantly. The advance was pushed forward until the voices of the enemy could be heard in the entrenchments. The Spanish kept up a heavy firing, but in spite of disaster the Americans climbed the ridges and the Spaniards broke and fled. Meanwhile, Colonel Roosevelt and his men began their advance at six o'clock. A great many of the men were footsore and weary from their march of the day before, and as they found the pace up the hill too hard they fell out of line so that the Rough Riders went into action with less than five hundred men; for in addition to those who had dropped out a detachment had been left to guard the baggage. The Colt gun was transported by a couple of mules which Lieutenant Tiffany had corralled. The dynamite gun was not along, no mules being obtained in time. Capron's Troop was in the lead. Four men headed by Sergeant Fish went first, supported by twenty men some distance behind. Then came Capron and the rest of his troop, closely followed by General Wood with whom General Young had sent two aides, Lieu- tenants Smedburg and Rivers. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 229 Colonel Roosevelt rode behind at the head of the other three troops of his squadron, and then came Brodie at the head of his squad- ron. The men had to march single file in the narrow trail for the most part, and the tangled jungle that bordered it made it next to impossible for a man to force his way. A Cuban guide who had headed the column ran away almost as soon as the fighting began At the top of the hill the walking was pleasanter. After marching for over an hour there was a halt, and Colonel Wood sent word down the line that the advance guard had come across a Spanish outpost. In another minute Colonel Wood sent word to Colonel Roosevelt to deploy three troops to the right of the trail and to advance. Then came the crash — the Guasimas fight was on, and the Rough Riders received their baptism of blood, and it was a furious one. "Don't swear, shoot!" Colonel Wood said, when some of the men cursed. "The Spanish outposts were very near our advance guard, and some minutes of the hottest kind of firing followed before they were driven back and slipped oft" through the jungle to their main lines in the rear. Here, at the very outset of our active service we suffered the loss of two as gallant men as ever wore uniform — Sergeant Hamil- ton Fish, at the extreme front, while holding the point up to its work and firing back where the Spanish advance guards lay, was shot and instantly killed; three of the men with him were likewise hit; Captain Capron, leading the advance guard in person, and displaying equal courage and coolness in the way he handled them, was also struck and died a few minutes afterward. * * * Very soon after I reached the front Brodie was hit, the bullet shattering one arm and whirling him around as he stood. * * * Thereupon, Wood di- rected me to take charge of the left wing in Brodie's place and to bring it forward, so over I went." 230 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. . A rain of bullets fell around him. He caught a glimpse of some Spaniards, apparently retreating, and his men fired a couple of rounds after them. Then he saw that his men were being fired at from some large red-tiled buildings, part of a ranch in front, but smoke- less powder and the thick cover in front were puzzling. Colonel Roosevelt took a rifle from a wounded man and began firing. Ad- vancing, the cover got thicker and he and his men lost touch of the main army under Wood. He halted his men, and they fired industri- ously at the ranch building ahead. Hearing cheering on the right Colonel Roosevelt supposed that it meant a charge on the part of Wood's men, so he sprang up and ordered his men to rush the building ahead of them. There was a rush, a moment's heavy firing from the Spaniards that did no damage, and then all was quiet. When the Rough Riders arrived at the buildings they found nothing but heaps of empty cartridge shells and two dead Spaniards, shot through the head. The firing was mute, "but I was still entirely uncertain as to what had exactly happened. I did not know whether the enemy had been driven back or whether it was merely a lull in the fight, and we might be attacked again. * * * ^^ ^l^js moment one of our men who had dropped out arrived with the information (fortunately false) that Wood was dead. Of course this meant that the command devolved on me, and I hastily set about taking charge of the regiment. I had been particularly struck by the coolness and courage of Sergeants Dame and Mcllhenny, and sent them out with small pickets to keep watch in front and to the left of the left wing." After making other arrangements for protection of his men, Colonel Roosevelt started over to the main body, and there he met Colonel Wood, alive and well. Fighting had been fierce all along the lines, and victory had crowned the efforts of the men. PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 281 The Rough Riders lost eight men killed and thirty-four wounded. lliere had been a good deal of question in the press of the country as to how the Rough Riders and the Tenth Cavalry, who were colored men, would behave in battle. "So there was a tendency," savs Colonel Roosevelt, modestly, "to exalt our deeds at the expense of those of the First Regulars whose courage and good conduct were taken for granted." But the people at large w^ere to reckon at their full value the deeds of the regiment so variously made up of men in different stations of life, and their opinion was that a good showing had been made. That afternoon the wounded were looked after. Those who could walk had gone to the small field hospital of the regiment, which was set up on the trail. All the dead and badly wounded were found. A Cherokee halfbreed was one of the first men who fired and he dis- played conspicuous bravery. He was hit seven times, and had to be sent back to the States. Another of those marked by gallantry was Elliot Cowdin, who has been mentioned before. These men of the plains were by their training philosophic as regarded life and death. Colonel Roosevelt mentions a cow-puncher who, after the light, re- marked, "Well, some of the boys got it in the neck." To which another replied, "Many a good horse dies." Another halfbreed Cherokee was. wounded no less than seven times. Up to the last wound he refused to leave the firing line. The Rough Riders had the stuff in them of which heroes are made, and they took it as a matter of course that if they were wounded it was nothing much to speak of; if they were wounded unto death it was about the same, for death had to come sometime and in some shape or form. Colonel Roosevelt cites an incident as happening in the field hospital where the wounded in the fight were lying. The injured men made no complaint — did not groan. Suddenly one of them 232 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. began to hum "My Country, 'tis of Thee." One by one the others joined in the chorus, and the song swelled out in the woods and was echoed and carried far away. If there was any panic in their bosoms during the fight the men did not show it, and they took the results of the scrimmage stolidly, while they were anxious for another engage- ment. Indeed, it would have been difficult to get rid of them once they entered the regiment. An instance is given of one of the men wounded at Siboney. The doctors decided that his injuries were of such a nature that he should be sent home. That night the man dis- appeared, slipping out of the window of the hospital and coming into camp with his rifle and accoutrements, though the wound he had received must have made walking very painful. The men, his com- panions, thereafter decided that he had the right to stay in the regi- ment, which he did, and he distinguished himself at the fight at San Juan. The morning after the fight the seven dead Rough Riders were buried, their companions standing around with bared heads, singing "Rock of Ages." On the 25th the regiment moved on a couple of miles, and camped in an open, marshy spot. General Young was attacked by fever, and Colonel Wood took charge of the brigade. This left Colonel Roose- velt in command of the regiment. He and the men knew one another by this time, and he felt that he was able to make them do their best in march or battle. They were fully aware that he paid no attention to their past, nor what was their creed, politics or social standing; that all he desired was their duty to the assumed office of soldier. Though he demanded the highest performance of that duty, and that they knew it was enough for him, he knew their courage, hardihood and obedience. Colonel Roosevelt had his own troubles. There were not enough transportation wagons or mule trains, as there had not been a suffi- cient number of landing boats with the transports; while the shelter PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 233 tents were a poor protection against the heavy rains that came down nearly every afternoon and converted the camp streets into quag- mires. Then the food was not sufficient nor good, and "fitter for the Klondyke than for Cuba." Enough salt pork and hardtack were to be had, but not enough coffee and sugar. Colonel Roosevelt organized expeditions back to the sea coast, selecting the best walkers, along with some of the horses of the officers and stray mules. These expeditions brought back canned tomatoes and beans. But these were not had without great exertion on the part of the Colonel, while Colonel Weston, of the Commis- sary Department, aided him as much as possible. A regulation made it imperative that canned vegetables should be purchased only for the use of officers, but Colonel Roosevelt got around this little rule by buying the things for the men from his own pocket. Is it any wonder that the men respected him for his care and thought of them? On one of the trips after provisions Colonel Roosevelt took with him a man who had formerly been deputy-marshal of Cripple Creek, and a Wells-Fargo Express rider. In coming back with his load, through a terrific storm, this man, Sherman Bell, slipped and opened, an old rupture from which he had suffered for years. The agony he endured must have been excruciating, though he managed to crawl back to camp. There the doctor told him he would have to be sent back to the States when an ambulance came along. The ambulance came next day, which happened to be the day before the regiment marched to San Juan. It was after nightfall when the wheels were heard on the road. Bell crawled out of the hospital tent where he had been lying and finding the jungle hid there all the long night through. The ambulance had to go on its way without him. His friends in the regiment shielded him from detection, and carried to him his gun, belt and bedding. Bell kept out of sight until the column started, and then staggered along behind it. 234 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Colonel Roosevelt found him the morning of the fight of San Juan. Bell told him that he wanted to die fighting, if he must die, and the Colonel had not the heart to send him l^ack. Splendid was the service the man did that day, and afterward in the trenches, and though his wound opened twice and each time he was at the point of death, Bell escaped death and went back with the regiment to the United States. The Rough Riders to a man stood by their Colonel. It would not* have been well for that man who said a word disparaging to "Teddy," as they called him. The plainsman saw in his leader a man who knew the plains as well as he did himself; who could round up cattle, stalk deer, hunt buffalo and take his chances with hostile Indians. They of less firm mould, the college men, the club man, the bank clerk, saw in him a man who had studied; who knew polite life; who in poli- tics had advocated the sound monetary system that makes for success in business. Though in the East disparaging remarks were made re- garding the Rough Riders and their leader, again floated the accusa- tion of "playing to the galleries," while some in Washington dis- paraged him for his anger over canned beef and the short supplies of the men, and remembered against him certain times when he had braved criticism in placing the blame where it deserved among men high in office, and who were not used to have their acts scanned. The politicians who had not profited by his adherence to the reform move- ment sneered and jeered and had a clever-sized crow to pick with the man who called by the ugly name of corruption those little acts against the lawbreakers in saloons and resorts of disorderliness which placed in their pockets the wherewithal to live sumptuously every day. Certain newspapers took it up and discounted the Rough Riders as a regiment composed of the offscourings of the Territories, and wondered in print what law of amalgamation brought the riff- raff of the plains so near to the heart and mind of the man who was to lead them into battle against the oppressors of Cuba. COLONEL WOOD AND LIEUT. COLONEL ROOSEVELT PATRIOT AND STATESMAN. 237 But in the marshy camp in the sultry land another story was told. The men there saw a resolute, astute man thinking of their comfort and well-being; sympathizing with them; understanding them and helping them out of many a snarl; not too hard with them; so that there was no dereliction of the duty they had promised to do, and overlooking many a fault that, while grave, was not the outcome of a bad heart or an unjust mind. The Rough Riders knew their Colonel very well, and as he passed among them they seldom saw on his face the scowl or the exag- gerated smile which became the characteristic of the comic papers. These same comic papers did not see Colonel Roosevelt in Cuba, where so much depended upon him; where the care of his men abided with him; where he planned to provide for them what he considered the necessities of the soldiers' life, and which the Govern- ment officers at Washington considered only suitable for the fare of the officers. The face of Colonel Roosevelt was never stern nor lowering to his men in Cuba unless there was a flagrant violation of military discipline. At such a time, the men could readily believe the stories detailed by those troopers from New York to the effect that Police Commissioner Roosevelt had been hated by the roundsmen who connived at blackmail and by the politicians who conducted the elections in a manner to suit themselves. The future had its tale to tell as well as the past, and that future lay in abeyance down there in Cuba where the Colonel, leading his troops into action, might yet be pierced by a Mauser bullet. The day before San Juan, the army was camped along the valley waiting anxiously for the morrow. Outposts were being established on each side of the valley. From the generals down to the privates every one was eager to march against Santiago, where surely there would be plenty of fighting. Rest was necessary now, for to-morrow or next day might require all the strength that could be mustered. 238 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. The soldiers slept, the brilliant Southern stars looking down upon their bronzed faces, which might be stilled to-morrow night in another sleep! The sentries paced their rounds; the relief came and went, and the men slept and dreamed, maybe of homes far away, maybe of battles won. The hours crept on; the East became a bloom of light; the stars began to fade, and night was gone. At daybreak when the long-leaved palms began to show through the rising mist the cavalry trumpets blared out another day had come. But orders did not arrive as soon as was hoped and expected. The Rough Riders were restless; they disliked idleness, and there was no place here in which to be idle with any sort of excitement. They hoped there was not to be a repetition of the tactics which had kept them so long from embarkation after they were ready for Cuba; for now that they were in Cuba they wanted to have a trial at Santiago. CHAPTER XII. On to Santiago— El Poso Hill— General Wheeler— El Caney— Through the Lane— Kettle Hill— A Ruse to get to the Front— The Colored Troops— The Catlings- In Charge of Parts of Six Regiments— Taking the Trenches- San Juan Hill Taken— Only Forward Movement of the Spanish— Acts of Gal- lantry—Digging Trenches— Opposing Forces— Waiting to Take Santiago. ORDERS were received June 30th for the regiment to hold itself in readiness to march against Santiago. The men were overjoyed. The road beside the camp was crowded with marching men already going forward when the Rough Riders struck camp and drew up in the rear of the first Cavalry. The heat was intense and there was little or no shade except from the jungle, whose density made the air stifiing. It was eight o'clock in the evening when the regiment climbed El Poso hill. Here General Wood was making preparations for the encampment of the brigade. The arrangements for the night on the part of the Rough Riders were simple. Each troop extended across the road into the jungle and the men, throwing down their belongings, slept on their arms. Next morning there was an early and scant breakfast, and there was hope that the day would bring some fighting. General Wheeler was sick, but pluckily kept to the front. He was unable to retain control of the cavalry division, which then devolved on General Samuel Sumner, who commanded it till the middle of the afternoon, when most of the fighting was over. General Sum- ner's own brigade fell to Colonel Henry Carroll. It was about six o'clock in the sultry morning that the first report of cannon from El Caney came booming across the miles of jungle. The American guns opened immediately. For a minute afterwards 289 240 THEODORE ROOSEVELT.