Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-08-10
Governor Roosevelt's Western Friends
Pleased at the Prospect of a Visit
from the Governor.
Some Traits of Governor Roosevelt,
and Some Of His Experiences in
the Cattle Country.
An Ardent Sportsman, Who Has Kille,
Every Kind Of Big Game on the
Continent.

uAS q UP SA1OuSA IuC oIdCC III
September, and will make some
speeches en- route, will be especially
pleasing news to the residents of the
western part of the state, where
Roosevelt is we'll known, particularly
among the ranchmen and cowboys,
with whom he has spent some pleasant
hunting seasons. 1t has been planned
at Medora, where Roosevelt's closest
western friends live, to have the train
stop for a time in order to enable
those of the residents of the vicinity
who care to do SO, to greet the COVER
nor and candidate for vice president.
IL is safe to say that everyone in the
county who can do so will be there,
n that the governor will have a
hearty greeting for all of them. Roose-
welt will get pretty nearly a solid vote
IN the western part of the state. Any
one who votes against Teddy" will
be set down as a political maverick"
Roosevelt is a quiet. unussuming
gentleman, full of V and phys
lcal energy, firm as a rock and deter
mined in whatever he undertakes. He
came first to the west a young man,
led by his fondness at hunting and his
desire to see the west for himself. He
was a visitor to what are now the great
cattle ranges of the state before the
buffalo had been exterminated, and en-
Joyed buffalo hunting with the old
hunters of the buffalo trail. His i'm
pressions of these trips and his exper-
fences are found we'll related in his
Hunting Trips of a Ranchman."
Roosevelt is perhaps fonder of hunting
than any other sport. He has killed
nearly if not quite every specimen of
big game on the American continent
and has mounted specimens of the
heads brought down by his own rifle.
Roosevelt is not classed by the west
erners with the lenderfeet' who come
out to see the west with a little dis
comfort and eXertion as possible. He
shares the hardships of his guides and
hunters, and that is the principal rea-
son Teddy is popular. When he
wanted to see what life OF a cattle
round up was like, he took his place
as one OF the riders and made a trim
with the outfit. He objected to n
discrimination between himself and
the hardened men who constituted the
riders, rode his own string of bron-
chos. and found out just what a round
up was like. Riding bronchos is not
the pleasantest task in the world. A
COW pony has more varied ways of ex-
pressing his contempt and hatred for
the human race than any animal
known. He is never thoroughly broken,
never trustworthy, and never recon-
ciled to his lot as a slave. When he
feels well he bucks and when he feels
bad he bucks and he always feels one
way or the other. Roosevelt took his
chances, suffered himself to be thrown
off, mounted his horse again and won
out. He rose with the men, ate with
them in camp, rose with them, gath
cred cattle with them, and stood night
guard with them, and when he finished
his trip he knew from actual exper-
fence what cow-punching was. He
was just as earnest while at this work
as he might have been leading his reg
iment at San Juan. Whatever Roose-
welt undertakes he does with his entire
heart in it.
Roosevelt had two ranches near Me-
dora, one, the Maltese Cross ranch,
seven miles south, and the other, the
"Elkhorn" ranch, forty miles north.
The ranches are named from the cat
tie brands used. The Elkhorn ranch
lies in the center of a rough and rug
ged country on the bank of the Little
Missouri. When the governor first
came west it was a paradise for a
sportsman. Ducks, geese, chickens,
and all varieties Of feathered game
were to be found a dozen yards from
the ranch, and deer, blacktail and
white, and the wary mountain sheep
abounded in the adjacent hills.
Roosevelt is a patient and painstak-
ing hunter. He will crawl for half a
day to get a fair shot at a mountain
sheep, the wariest of big game, and
the kind that inhabits the widest
country. He is a good shot, and has
what is termed hunting luck, that
is, he will get more game under the
same conditions and in the same time
than an old and experienced hunter.
He wears glasses, and these are an in:
convenience in winter time, but not
w~ithstanding this, he has made some
excellent shots and done some excel
lent hunting. 1t is a favorite trick of
westerners when out with tender
feet" to shoot at game simultaneously
with the 'cherub," bring it down with