The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-12-28


vigorous AthIete-How He Beat =
Mas with . Reputation as a Eight
er-skippfag the Rope One Of his
Exercises.
copyright, 1903. BY the Outlook Com
pany.l
HE became instantly a favorite with
his class of one hundred and seventy
odd says Jacob Riis in the Outlook,
writing about Theodore Roosevelt's
career at Harvard.
'sThey laughed at his oddities, at his
unrepressed enthusiasm, at his liking
for Elizabethan poetry, voted him
more or less crazy with true Harvard
conservatism, respected him highly for
his scholarship on the same solid
ground and fell in even with his no
lions for his own sake, as afterward
some of them fell in behind him in the
rush up San Juan hill, leaving lives Of
elegance and ease to starYe with him in
the trenches and do the chores Of
I trooper in camp under tropical sun.
ut is remembered that Theodore
Roosevelt set Harvard to skipping the
rope, a sport it had abandoned years
before with knickerbockers, but it suit
ed this student to keep up the exercise
as means Of Strengthening the leg
muscles, and rope skipping became a
pastime of the class Of 80. In the
gymnasium they wore red stockings
with their practice suits. Roosevelt
had happened upon pair that were
striped a patriotic red and white, and
he wore them, at first to the amaze
ment of the other students. he did
not even know that they had attracted
attention, but when some one told him
he laughed and Kept them on. 1t was
what the legs could do in the stockings
he was there to find out.
Twenty years after heard a police
man call him dude when he walked
up the steps Of police headquarters,
New York. with a silk sash about his
waist something no man had been
known to wear in Mulberry street in
the memory of the Oldest there, and l
saw the same officer looking after him
down the street as long as he was in
sight the day he went and turn back
with a sigh that made him my friend
forever, There won't such another
come through that door again in my
time, that there won't And there did
not The old man is retired long since.
"He joined the exclusive Pork club
and forthwith smashed all Its hallowed
traditions and made the Porcelain
blood run cold by taking his fiancee to
luncheon where no woman ever trod
before. he simply saw no reason why
a lady should not lunch at a gentle
mems club. and when the shocked bach
elor minds of the Pork club searched
the horizon for one to confront him
with they discovered that there was
none. Accordingly the world stili
stood, and so did the college.
He played polo. did athletic stunts
with the fellows and drove a two
wheeled gig badly, having no end Of
good times in it. When he put on the
boxing gloves he hailed the first conner
with the more delight il he happened
to be the champion of the class, who
was twice his size and heft. The pom
melting that ensued he took with the
most hearty good viii, and, though his
nose bled and his glasses fell off, put
ting him at a disadvantage, he refused
grimly to cry quarter and pressed the
fight home in q way that always re
minds me Of that redoubtabie Danish
sea fighter Peter Tordenskiold who
kept up the fight, firing pewter dinner
plates and mugs from his one gun,
when on his little smack there was left
but single man Of the crew, and he
wept Tordenskjold killed the captain
Of the Swedish frigate with one Of his
mugs and got away. Roosevelt was
bested in his boxing matches often
enough; but, however superior, his OPP
ponents bore away always the impress
sion that they had faced a fighter.
eBut the battle was not always to
the strong In those days, / have heard
a story Of how Roosevelt beat man
with a reputation as fighter, but not,
1t would appear, with the instincts Of
a gentleman shall not youch for It,
for have not asked him about it. But
it is typical enough to be true except
for the wonder how the fellow got in
there. lie took, so the story runs.
mean advantage and struck a blow
that drew blood before Roosevelt had
got his glove on right The bystanders
cried foul but Roosevelt smiled one of
his grim smiles.
i guess you made q mistake. We
do not do that way here, he said. offer
ing the other his gloved hand in formal
salutation as a sign to begin hostilities.
The next moment his right shot out
and took the man upon the point of the
jaw. and the left followed suit In two
/ minutes he was down and out. Roose-
welt was in form that day All the
4 fighting blood in him had been aroused
by the unfairness Of the blow. I have
seen him when his blood was mp for
good cause once or twice, and | rather
think the story must be true If | were
to fight him and wanted to win
should shun a foul blow ais | would
the pestilence | am sure ! would not
Il 4.4ax, hale {ba .-feI~ fr...,, An. Ia A{c..