Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-04


| of New York city and especially the pa
| tronage exercised by the sheriff. county
| clerk and register, which greatly reformed
| the conduct of those offices. He has ever
! since been a warm and cordial supporter
! of civil service, and has made many ex-
| tensions of the system since he became
! President. He a delegate to the re-
| publican state convention in 1884, and was
| mace chairman OF the state delegation that
/ was sent to the republican national conven-
! ton at Chicago June 3, 1884 In the same
! year he went west and purchased ranches
/ on the Little Missouri river in North Da-
| kota He lived there two years doing lit
| erlry work of an extensive and popular
| CharaCte~, and enjoying the hunting and
! outdoor sports of the great west. He ac-
CURED many experiences that have been
| told of in his various works The republicans
! of New York nominated him for mayor in
! 1856 against Abram S. Hewitt, who de-
| feated him. He did not take a prominent
! part in politics again until appointed a
! member of the United States civil service
! commission by President Harrison in May.
! 1889 President Cleveland continued him in
! this office, but he resigned in May, 1885,
/ after six years service to become police
| commissioner of New York. In that posi-
! ton he inaugurated many reforms and
/ gave many exhibitions of strength of char
acter He was president of the police
/ board until April 1897. when President Nc
| kinley named him as assistant secretary of
! the navy in Washington position suited to
! his tastes and temperament. He had served
/ in that Office but year when the Spanish
| American war came on.
Formed the Rough Riders
| He asked permission to join Dr. Leonard
| Wood VINO was then President McKinley's
! physician, and form a regiment of Rough
/ Riders, made up of hardy, coura geous
| piainsnen of the west many of them his
/ personal friends. He and Dr. Wood knew
! the kind of material they desired Cow
! boys, college athletes, miners, men who
! could shoot and ride and live in the open
! hurried in their applications and were Sc
! lected to suit. Wood Was made colonel and
Roosevelt lieutenant colonel, the regiment
was quickly organized. and was sent to
Cuba along with the regulars landing for
the fights around and at Santiago. There
the regiment and its officers helped make
| history, being in the thick of the fighting.
Wood was promoted to brigadier general
tor his gallant service and Roosevelt be-
came colonel Of the regiment, leading it
into the heavier fighting that followed
Some of the same men who made up the
regiment formed the military escort in the
great inaugural procession today, every
man who could do so coming to Washington
| for the purpose. The colonel" is the way
all of them speak of their former COM
mander. and they worship him.
With the close of the war the republican
party was in a bad way in New York and
defeat was threatened in the gubernatorial
election of 1898. 1t was then that the re-
publicans nominated Theodore Roosevelt
for governor. He defeate Van Wyck
democrat, by plurality of 17,7S6 votes. His
administration as governor was conspicuous
for reform work along various lines. 1t
was as governor that he first earned the
| hostility OF some of the corporations of
the country. He made such a good govern
or that the machine republicans willingly
aided in the demand for his nomination as
Wee President at the republican national
convention in Philadelphia in 1900. The
western delegates forced him to listen to
their demands and accept the nomination,
which he was inclined not to do. With Nc
Kinley he was elected in the November fol-
lowing.
Succeeds to Presidency.
While hunting in the mountains of New
York he received news of the shooting of
Mckinley and his tragic death. He started