Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-10-17


Gus president" 1t is as inevitable as
fate. For all practical purposes in
American speech he might as well
have coined the word strenuous. ''The-
adore Roosevelt, his mark" is stamped
en- the expression.
For a long time it has been a favor
tie word with him in his writing and
speaking He delivered an address
before the Hamilton club, in Chicago,
April 10, 1899, and used the words "a
strenuous life" They caught like
prairie fire. Roosevelt walked up next
morning to find the word strenuous at
cached to his name forever Like
Grants 81 propose to fight it out on
this line if it takes all summer" the
phrase stuck because it had American
grit in it.
Ii ever a word described a man, the
word strenuous sums up the character
of Roosevelt He is a born fighter. 1t
Is his mental ettitude as well as his
physical characteristic. Every inch
of his road from Cutters academy to
the white house has been fought out
against odds.
Nothing illustrates this quite so
well as the hustling, outdoor ranch
life. the big game hunting, boxing,
wrestling, wood chopping, soldering
career of the man aside from his pub
Bic and social life.
Roosevelt is one of the few presi-
dents who have been athletes. George
Washington was a good shot before he
over 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
co do in those days.
Lincoln enjoyed splitting rails to the
last day of his strong, active life
Grover Cleveland liked the compare
Gively mild sports 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 gymnasium fitted up where he
can work off the superfluous energy OF
absolutely perfect health.
As governor of New York he had a
trainer at Albany whose business it
was 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 high school
boy
Il 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 -shanked, bright eyed boy, he
started in the world with a prospect
of semi-individualism before him.
Then, as he tells it 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 strenuous
liver.
Twas brought up by a maiden aunt,
says Roosevelt. "and until | was
twelve years of age was of a timid
and retiring disposition. | was not in
good health. and was sent into the
N9FIn WOODS on Il certain occasion LC
try to build myself up.
Whipped in His First Fight.
While Ell route there | came in
contact with a boy about my own
age, who was just my antipode II
was not long before he found cause
tor complaint at something l had done
and Systematically thrashed me- Ny
pride was hurt at the whipping and
vowed then and there to make myself
proficient in an art that would enable
me to take my own part
"On my return to New York had
master engaged at once, and have
continued to box at intervals all my
life"
Roosevelt shocked a mothers as
sembly in Albany once by putting hi
strenuous creed in very concret,
way.
TIE boy that won't fight is no
worth his SALT he said, bluntly. H
tionally weak. | have taught my boy
80 take their own part. l don't know
which | should punish my boys 70
quickast-for cruelty or for f1inching
Both are abominable"
When Roosevelt was a boy he wa
as strenuous, as impulsive as he i
now. He never flinched. and he s'hi
the line all the time as hard as h
knew how" He belonged to the row
ing clubs and the football team a
Harvard. although he could not exc,
n either sport He was slender an
weak, but he kept everlastingIy at
in the gymnasium He was a goo
amateur boxer.
One day he put on gloves agains
Billy Edwards, the pugilist. Edward
merely smiled at his antagonist, an
while he smiled Roosevelt stepped L
ntmbly and landed a blow that close
the prize fighters eye It was the la
chance he got, because afterwarC
Billy Edwards went in and mauIe
the college athlete in a very genuir
fashion. Still true to his motto
athletics, Roosevelt had chit the lii
as hard as he knew how"
At another time some horses in
stable near Roosevelt's rooms on Il
campus raised disturbance in t
night. From the noise they seemed
be battering the barn down You
Roosevelt, the strenuous, without wa
ing to dress, without donning his
evitable spectacles, jumped out Of
second story window and ran to t