The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-27


 a newspaper. even down to the smallest country weekly gets off the press without having from one to a dozen references to him, and a consultation of the periodi- cal indexes at the library of Congress shows that two articles are written about him where there was one written about any other president. It takes some 5000 entries to index all the long and short articles that have been written about him in the magazine literature of the country, and quite as many books con- tain more or less extended references to him.
 Mir. Roosevelt is likewise the most pho tographed man who, ever sat in the presi- dential chair. The library of Congress is collecting some pictures of him, and has about 100 of them showing him en- gagged in all of the multiplied avocations of his life. Even the haystack incident is not wanting, but unfortunately the kodak spells good story, as the print shows him standing near looking on while the hired men bundle the hay There are about dozen horseback photographs, and as many showing him in rowing scenes, the latter, like the haystack pie lures, seeming to have been taken by some member of the family with an ordi- nary small kodak There are unnumbered thousands of negatives of him extant one leading Washington photographer alone having several hundred of him. It is doubtful if there could be found any one in the United States who has not seen his picture.
 Even as no other President was ever so much written about during his term of office as is MT. Roosevelt, so, too. none of his predecessors was so prolific with the pen Already though he has just reached the golden years of the average life, he has turned out more contribu- tions to the literature and history of the country than any other President Even Jefferson, the most voluminous writer until Roosevelt, has already been laid in the shade. MT. Jeffersons works fill 20 medium-sized volumes, and this includes his correspondence The literary endeavor alone of MT. Roosevelt fills 2 volumes, and his other writings and letters would probably fill as many more. MT. Albert R. Nichols of the library of Congress has undertaken to prepare a bibliography of writings of and about MT. Roosevelt. It is estimated that 1t will contain citations of at least 1000 magazine articles that have been written by him.
 
 MT. Roosevelt is likewise the greatest reader that has ever occupied the presl- dentia1 chair. During the first two years that he was President he is said to have read upward of 300 volumes, aside from the magazine literature. These readings ran the gamut of human knowledge. He had way of sending a note to the lib- rary of Congress to send him batch of the latest books on all subjects, and he generally got them in unsparing quanti- ties. They ranged from metaphysics to football and they had all been read when they got back to the library. Dur ing the campaign of 1904, alone, he is said to have read all of Macaulay in ad- diton to other solid reading.
 There are so many ways in which the career of Mir. Roosevelt is unique in the history of the United States that it would take volumes instead of a dozen para graphs to tell about them all. Born a weak, sicily child. he has developed by sheer force of will into man of wonder full vital force, with the endurance of a trained athlete Born with d silver spoon in his mouth and in the upper tendon, he has become d man of the people, and is trusted by them to a degree unpreCe- dented in our political history. He is the only city bred child that has ever be- come President. Since he has become such he has received more callers, enter tained more guests at his table, read more books, written more letters, made more speeches gone on more tours and indulsed in more pastimes than any other President.
 President Roosevelt has travelled more than any other man who reached the White House. both before he became President and while holding that office. He is the only chief executive who has been in every state in the union while serving as President. if not indeed. dur ing his whole sareer, and has travelled thousands of miles more than Mir. Me Ninley did Mir. Roosevelt has put more stock expressions into the language of today than any other man who has oc- cupied his present station. Race suicide strenuous" 'mollyeoddle," delighted and d dozen other terms that will occur to the reader are words that have been 1 resurrected from the scrap heap of the dictionary and made to play 8 large part in the newspaper literature of today. l MT. Roosevelt was sickly child, but was regarded as something of prodigy among his friends and family There IS said to be yet book extant which is a record of 'the cute and cunning sayings of little Theodore. He was sent abroad early in life, and improved his health py | the most earnest attentions to the laws i of hygiene. His return to America, nls going to the legislature and serving there. his going west, his being nominated while 1 on the ranch for Mayor of New York, his services as civil service commissioner and police commissioner; in short his whole 1 career is familiar history to every reader. Tn his college days Theodore Roosevelt | took little interest in baseball. football | and kindred sports. One of his delights was boxing. and he came within an ace | of winning the lightweight championship | at Harvard He was fond of collecting | geological and natural history specimens, I and none of his classmates regarded him {, as above the ordinary in the student life, 1 though he was one of the most studious i members of his class.
 l John Sharp Williams once remarked, ir l g iocular moment. that he did not think | that the man who is self-made deserves | as much credit as the one who is borr l with silver spoon in his mouth and | then makes something of himself Why,