The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-11


in New York were carried to Wash
ington. He demanded two appropria-
tions. amounting to 100000, to be ex-
pended on shot and shell for practice
shooting in the navy. There were loud
outcries at this.
What" people exclaimed. "Glve
SSOO,OOO to be thrown away on nothing?
What utter nonsense"
Yet by the time the war with Spain
broke out the men behind the Ameri-
can guns knew which way to point the
muzzle when they wanted to hit a barn
door. And, judging from the appear
ance of the Spanish ships after 4
battle (they seldom went through more
than one), there were few hits made.
When Theodore Roosevelt resigned
his position In the Navy department
and went out into the wilds of the
West to make good his claim that
cowboys and Indians could be organ
lied and drilled in thirty days into a
magnificent fighting force, people
pooh -poohed" the idea and advised
him to give 1t up. In month the
Rough Riders were in the East, ready
to take ship for Cuba.
When Theodore Roosevelt accepted
the commission of lieutenant colonel
| and announced his intention of leading
his regiment in person, his political
| friends held up their hands in horror.
'Foolhardy!" they exclaimed. "You
will get out of touch with politics. You
will ruin yourself"
The wires became hot with the news
of the glorious conduct of the Rough
Riders. Fight after fight was reported
| and somehow or other Theodore Roose-
welt always seemed to be in the thick
of it. Even here he ignored precedence.
| When the fighting was over and his
men were dying of fever and foul food,
their colonel overlooked military red
| tape and risked court-martial to re-
| lieve them.
"Will he never learn common sense?"
walled his friends at home. Now he
is ruined beyond hope"
Yet when he walked down the gang
plank at Montauk Point, New York
was standing on the dock and could
scarcely wait for him to land before
handing him the governorship.
HIS DOMESTIC SIDE.
In 1856 Colonel Roosevelt married
Miss Edith Kermir Carow, and three
boys and two girls have been the fruit
! of that union. His home, at oyster
Bay, Long Island, is a model of its
kind. His books and hunting trophies
are typical of the man.
Notwithstanding all his remarkable
activity in public life, he has still
found time to earn a name for himself
| in literature. His works include
Hunting Trips of a Ranchman,"
Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail"
THE Wilderness Hunter" THE Win
ming of the West" THE Naval War of
1872" Life of Thomas II. Benton"
Life of Governor Norris" Life and
Times of Oliver Cromwell" Essays on
| Practical Politics." History of the
City of New York" american Politi-
cal Ideals" THE Rough Riders" and
in collaboration with Captain A. T.
Mahan, THE Imperial History of the
British Navy" and is joint author with
Henry Cabot Lodge of Hero Tales
from American History"
AS A HUNTER.
As an athlete and a hunter, Colonel
Roosevelt has won enviable distnc-
tion. What he calls the most thrilling
moment of his life he describes graph
ically in one of his books. 1t is an ad-
venture with a grizzly bear.
81 held true, aiming behind the
shoulder" he writes, my bullet shat
tered the point or lower end of his
heart, taking out a big nick. Instantly
the great bear turned with a harsh
roar of fury and challenge, blowing
the bloody foam from his mouth so
that l saw the gleam of his white
fangs; and then he charged straight
at me, crashing and bounding through
| hn llI mol httg hoe hot - 4
to aim. 1 waited until he came to a
fallen tree, raking him, as he topped
it, with a ball which shattered his
chest and went through the cavity of
his body, but he neither swerved nor
tlinched, and at the moment / did not
know that l had struck him. He came
steadily on, and in another second
was almost upon me. l fired for his
forehead, but my bullet went low, en-
tering his open mouth, smashing his
lower jaw and going into his neck.
IT leaped to one side, almost as l
pulled the trigger; and through the
hanging smoke the first thing | saw
was his paw as he made a vicious
side blow at me. The rush of his
charge carried him past. AS he struck
he lurched forward, leaving a pool of
bright blood where his muzzle hit the
ground; but he recovered himself and
made two or three onwards, while /
hurriedly jammed a couple of cart
ridges into the magazine; my rifle
holding only four, all of which had
fired. Then he tried to pull up, but as
he did so his muscles seemed suddenly
to give way, his head dropped and he
rolled over and over like a shot rabbit
Each of my first three bullets had in
nicted a mortal wound"
A WESTERN ADVENTURE.
A Western trapper tells another story
of a hunting adventure.
You know, Colonel Roosevelt is
very near-sighted," he says. "and he
carries more kinds of glasses than an
Englishman; one pair TO read with
one TO shoot with and another to walk
with. When the bear charged us he
had on his walking glasses; and when
l told him that the beast was upon him
he cOolly took off these glasses, folded
them up, put them away i'm his pocket,
took out and wiped his shooting
| plaSSp9 and mt them on aS puiatIu