The Mena star., 1898-09-07
A NOTABLE AMERICAN.
COL. ROOSEVELT AT HIS cOUN-
TRY HOME.
How With His Family and Dogs He
Enjoyed Little Vacation After
the Santiago Campaign.

In MS Dig library AT oyster BAY Is a
portrait of his father. 1t is a fine paint
ing of noble type of man There are
also portraits Of Washington, Lincoln
and Grant There are bronzes of
Sheridan and other immortals of the
civil war, but high above them all, in
place of honor is Theodore Roose-
veit's father The great house, with
its gables half embowered in honey
suckles. standing on grassy hill, is
now the Mecca of political pilgrims
It's broad plazzas and wide double
windows opening to every point of the
compass command the country for
miles around.
A boy driving a pony to a buck
board comes out of the woods below
the house and dashes up the gravel
driveway. He hands the girl at the
door big leather bag and a large
bundle of newspapers. 1t is Colonel
Roosevelt's afternoon mail. The mas
ter of the house is still absent.
A United States senator and two
congressman arrive. A county dele
CATION, headed by local clergymen and
public officials, follows Then come
correspondents from the great papers
OF the country. Still the colonel does
not appear.
Voices are heard far down the road
at the edge of the wood Bare legged
children with capering dogs emerge
from the little forest glade, followed
by a man and woman-he in straw
hat and a comfortable linen suit-ap-
parantly a farmer with his family
coming to pay their respects to the
colonel.
As they draw near the house the
children are seen climbing over the
man, and the dogs climbing over the
the children. II is a charming picture
of the free, ppy country life out
there where all is beautiful.
They are his own dogs and his own
children. And he is Theodore Roose-
yelt--the same who led his men
through that leaden storm of death
and terror at San Juan the other day.
A hearty hand shale all round,
word to his friends and an old time
grasp and clasp all the way from fin
ger tips to elbows. He says he will
join them in moment and goes to
receive the delegation.
While the colonel is talking to the
senator and clergyman and listening
TO propositions that they have for him.
more children come up through the
daisy fields from the woods. Through
their ringlets blown by the breezes,
their bright eyes sparkle. They seem
oblivious to the bees and butterflies
darling around their bare legs--they
are others of the colonel's children.
They have been with the family to
the beach beyond the woods. where
they take daily plunges in hot wealth
er--every hour might apply to the
little ones, for like their distinguished
father they are, by Inheritance, chill
dren OF nature and the happiest when
free from society restraints in forest
or ocean.
All the children, girls and boys. like
their father, are batteries of irrepress-
ible energy batteries OF vitality and
sunhine
The colonel's home is an ideal coun-
try seat The house rests like crown
on the crest of Sycamore hill On
every side it slopes away to the
woods, thence down to the forest aud
and meadow TO the bay, which nearly
eneireles the Roosevelt property, leav-
ing it on peninsula, with magnifi-
cent view of the entire bay and its
headlands
Here Colonel Roosevelt with his
books, his children and his dogs, can
take bird s-eye view Of life aud af-
fairs.
Mrs. Roosevelt is handsome young
mother. who has admirable ideas as to
how q family of children should be
trained. She is a gifted, well educated
woman.
Mr.. Roosevelt married Miss Edith
Kermit Carow in 1880. Their children
are Alice, II years old, Theodore IL;
Kermit 8; Ethel, 7; Archibald. 4,
and Qninten, ] year old.
Colonel Roosevelt's views on the ed
neation of young men are thus ex-