The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-11
COLONEL ROOSEVELT
PICTURED AS HE IS
STUDY OF THE NEXT VICE
PRESIDENT.
Lawyer, Cowboy, Legislator, Hun
ter, Writer, Assistant secretary OF
the Navy, Soldier, Orator, Cover
nor, and a Man Who Cannot Be
Kept Down.

From the Philadelphia Press.
When Theodore Roosevelt brought
his regiment of Rough Riders back
from their glorious campaign in Cuba
he was met at Montauk Point by hun
dreds of men whose admiration he had
won by his heroism and self-sacrifice.
lie greeted them as best he could,
but all his thoughts were with the dis
embarking soldiers, whom he was so
soon to bid farewell.
you are being doomed for governor
of New York." his friends said to him.
you will surely win"
He seemed scarcely to hear them.
Good" he said, and then pointed to
the men in the boats. What do you
think of the regiment?" he asked en-
Enthusiastically.
There are campaign buttons al
ready out with your picture on them"
Yes? Just look at those boys
Aren't they crack a. jacks?"
But how do you feel? Do you think
you could stand the strain of a cam
paign?"
"I feel like a bull moose. See that's
Company K"
Croker says that the man who will be
the next governor must have been
wounded in battle"
Did he? Well, / have a wound"
and again he spoke of his soldiers.
PLAT wants you to run for COVER
nor colonel"
Colonel Roosevelt turned YEARLY.
You must excuse me now" he said.
II must see that my men are comfort
able. l will talk about other things
later"
For, to Theodore Roosevelt, the men
who had fought under him at Las
Guasimas and San Juan hill were more
| important far more important, than
the governorship of the state of New
York.
FIRST IN HIS AFFECTIONS.
Only a few days ago, when Cover
nor Roosevelt was surrounded by con-
gressmen and senators who were urg-
ing him to accept the nomination for
| the presidency, Buck" Taylor,
| one of the famous marksmen of the
Rough Riders, sat down in the ante
room and wondered whether he would
ever get a chance to shake hands with
his old commander. And then, through
| the open doors, Governor Roosevelt
saw the waiting man. His eyes lighted
| up in welcome, he pushed through the
group of men surrounding him, ell
| bowed % congressman out of his way
| lodged an anxious party leader and
| advanced with Outstrctched hand to
| greet Buck" Taylor. The vice-presi-
| dency could wait. \ Rough Rider
| wanted to greet him.
II didn't get chance to say much
| to him." said Buck" afterward, but
you can tell him for me that Arkansas
and the west will be solid for him."
For the vice presidency" he was
asked.
lie looked pityingly at his ques-
| toner.
For anything he wants." he said,
| sententiously.
And that is the spirit of every man
who saw the gallant leader in Cuba.
They scarcely knew him then, and yet
| they followed him through shot and
| shell. They know him now and will
follow him through any danger that
the mind of man can invent
\ PICTURESQUE CAREER.
His has been d picturesque career.
He has done enough in the forty odd
years of mis- life to exhaust an ordin-
| airy man, yet when he speaks to you
| today his whole body seems a mass of
| steel wires, his face lights up Won
derfully, the intensest energy is spok-
| en- By every word and movement. He
is almost explosive.
1t has been said that he is q rash
| younS man. His political ruin has
been predicted almost yearly. But the
| surprises that he is constantly giving
his friends are not brought on by in
experienced exuberances.
He is a rapid thinker and a deter
| mined worker, and when he has made
up his mind that thing should be
| done opposition only whets his appe-
| tite for the battle.
| When, as a 22-year-cld representa-
| tive in the lower house of the New
| York legislature, he started to dust
political cobwebs from the rafters of
that house with a disregard of prec-
| edenCc that seemed almost foolhardy
| the elder politicians smiled and pre-
| dicted that the boy was rushing head
| long into the jaws of defeat. But
young Roosevelt had made up his mind
that his constituents wanted clean pol
itics, and he started III to give them
| what they were after. They sent him
| back to the house for another term
and then gave him a third.
IN POLITICS.
| During the session of lSS1-S2 he do.
voted much of his time to the study
of parliamentary form and usage and
so successful was he that he was made
the leader of his party during the next
session. II was in this latter session
that he introduced and had passed the
first civil service bill in the legislature
almost simultaneously with the intro
duction of a similar bill in the nation
al congress.
AS chairman of the New York dele
cation to the convention that nominat-
ed Blaine in 1884 he again went rush
ing through the crowd of older politi-
clans, and again came ont with hying
colors. His one defeat was in his cam
paign for the mayoralty of New York
on the Independent ticket in 1856.
Three years later President Harris
on appointed him civil service commits
sluner and his precedent smashing pol
icy in that work made civil service re-
form an institution for the country to
be proud of.
| When, In May, 1895, he accepted the
presidency of the New York police
board he started in Oil what seemed
the most foolhardy policy of his career
He utterly ignored the usagas of the
Office. Where others had sat in their
easy chairs while corruption fiourished
rank as plantain weeds, Colonel Roose.
welt started on a campaign of purifi,
cation that ruined dozens Of corrupt
politicians and left only good men in
responsible positions. Pul; and inhu.
ence have nlattered nothing TO him