The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-24
ATHLETE in HIGH PLACE
THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAS T. A
VERY STRENUOUS LIFE.
Lover of Sports, Including Boxing,
and Peace, and Hates n Coward.
Washington Letter in st. Louis Post Dis


patch.
Theodore Roosevelt is one of the few
Presidents who ave been athletes. George
Washington was a good shot before he ever
began his military career, and he could ride
to hounds and row and swim and even fight
with his fists, as every Virginia gentleman
was bound to do in those days. Lincoln en-
joyed splitting rails to the last day OF his
strong, active life. Grover Cleveland liked
the comparatively mild sport of fishing and
duck hunting. Roosevelt is the first all
round athlete to sit in the Presidents chair.
1t is safe to say that before he has been
at the capital a month he will have a gym
nasium fitted UP where he can work of
the superhuous energy Of absolutely perfect
health.
AS Governor Of New York he had a train
er at Albany whose business it vas TO
wrestle a match twice a week, and stand
up for a boxing bout once a day with the
executive. Sometimes Roosevelt beat the
trainer, and then he was as pleased as q
high school boy. 1t is almost certain that
President Roosevelt owes nearly everything
he has in life to the fact that he has the
instinct of a fighter. A t~hin-shanked,
bright-eyed boy, he started in the world
with a prospect Of semi-invaldism before
him. Then, as he tells ii himself. something
happened. What happened was that he
got the first and only licking of his life.
1t made him mad, and it made him an
athlete and a strenuous liver.
Il was brought up by a maiden aunt"
says Roosevelt, land until L was twelve or
thirteen years Of age was Of a timid and
retiring disposition. l was not in good
health, and was sent into the north woods
on a certain occasion 10 try and build my
self up.
while en- route there 1 came in contact
r~ffh n hnN- nh mo. T"aH 49, It'd -
was not long before he found cause for
complaint at something / had done, and
Systematically thrashed me. My pride was
hurt at the whipping and L vowed then and
there to make myself proficient i'm an art
that would enable me to take my own part.
. my return to New York l had a
master engaged at once, and have con-
tinued to box at intervals all my life
HIS STRENUOUS CREED.
Roosevelt shocked a mothers assembly
in Albany once by putting his strenuous
creed in a very concrete way.
1.-The boy that won't tight is not worth
his salt" he said, bluntly. He is either a
coward or he is constitutionally weak I
have taught my boys to take their own
part. l do not know which 1 should punish
my boys for quickest-for cruelty or for
ffinching. Both are abominable."
When Roosevelt was a boy he was as
strenuous, as impulsive as he is now. He
never flinched, and he Init the line all the
time as hard as he knew how" He belonged
TO the rowing clubs and the football team
at Harvard, although he could not excel
in either sport. He was slender and weak,
but he kept everlastingly at it in the gym
nasium. He was a good amateur boxer.
One day he put on gloves against Billy
Edwards, the pugilist. edwards merely
smiled at his antagonist, and while he
smiled Roosevelt stepped up nimbly and
landed a blow that closed the prize fighters
eye. 1t was the last chance he got, because
afterward Billy Edwards went in and
mauled the college athlete in a very genu-
inc fashion. Still, true TO his motto in ath-
letics, Roosevelt had hit the line as hard
as he knew how"
At another time some horses I'm q stable
near ROosevelt's rooms on the campus
raised a disturbance i'm the night. From
the noise they seemed 10 be battering the
barn door down. Young Roosevelt, the
strenuous, without waiting to dress, with
out DOMINIC his inevitable spectacles,
jumped out of a secOnd-story window and
ran to the stable. He quoted the FESTIVE
horses and was back in bed before the rest
of the people in the house realized what the
fuss was about.
1t was about 1884 tina Roosevelt went out
West and began the ranch life and the
grizzly bear hunting that made him the idol
of the cowboys. There he laid the founda-
tion of the powerful shoulders and the won
derfully muscular body of the fighter who
went through the Cuban campaign and
came out of it as strong as a bull moose.
Along with his "strenuOusness, Roosevelt
has always had an eye for the picturesque
LihN 'HNh 49,"
West and Ranch Life and the Hunting
Trail" has a streak of poetry in his make
up. So when he started out to rough 1t
he dressed like a second Daniel Boone. He
wore leather leggtngs finished with fringe,
a fancy coat and a silk bandanna handker-
chief knOtted about his neck. This, with
his spectacles, m lde him an odd enough
figure. The cowboys at once dubbed him
the ''four-eyed tenderfoot." He took Their
gibes pleasantly. One day somebody told
him Of a bad man who was goinS to xii
him
How interesting" said Roosevelt. the
strenuous. showing his teeth. II should like
TO see that man.
HOW THE COWBOY DIDN'T FIGHT.
Obliging cowboys pointed out the tent Of
the bad man, and after supper Roosevelt
walked over. He told the bad man tina
they had as well fight it out then and there
To the surprise and chagrin of his hacker:
the gentleman from Bitter Creek changed
his mind in a twinkling. He said that there
was nothing to tight about, and that, fol
his part, he had not thought of it.
bad Man Finnigan was another char
ter from Bitter Creek who met the strenu
Gus "four-eyed tenderfoot." Finnegan a
one time went up against a large quaint
~ of big Mouthed" Bob's barbed wire
whisky. 1t put him TO sleep. and while h
slept the COW boys cut off his SampsOn-lik'
hair. Finnegan woke up, started on tn,
warpath and burned the only town he coulC
find. Then he set out for the Bitter Creel
nllS, ana OH the Way ne passed hOOStNell
Elkhorn ranch. He helped himself to
fine hunting cane and started up the Lit
tie Missouri.
Shortly afterward Roosevelt heard hov
the gentleman from Bitter Greek had beer
amusing himself. and also missed his ca
noe. He jumped'into another boat and sc
out in hot pursuit.
For $50 miles up the winding mountain
stream he followed the fleeing Ftnnegan
He caught the bad man, marched him bacl
and lodged him in the county jail at Dick
inSOn. Roosevelt soon convinced the cow
boy that he could ride straight and shoe
straight and take his medicine like a man
sixty wild ponies with which he stocked
one of his ranches. The first pony N
tackled was a long-legged, Roman-nose'
bay that they called "Ben Butler" Bel
''sunfished" as soon as Roosevelt got on hi
back and the future President prompt!
came off in a heap.
Some one caught the pony and brough
him back. ROO3evelt, very pale. Jumpe'
into the saddle again and rode Ben But
ler' to a lather. Three Of Roosevelts rib
had been broken by his fall, but he SAFE
nothing about it until the pony had givel
out.
Afterwards in: a famous address tn,
strenuous President said:
81 have fought and not always won, bu
] can say that always come up Tor IN
next fight when / lose"
Perhaps he was thinkin of Ben Butler
when he used these words.
Roosevelt's saddle is famous 10 this da,
Elkhorn ranch. and whenever he visit
there he uses IL. 1t weighs torty-nN
pounds, was mace in Denver, and cost SO.
II is beautifully embossed. trimmed Wit
silver and stamped with his monogram.
His bit and spurs are inlaid with sllVe
- IL EarLnanatH 80 nnn1 AnUnFn