Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-09-30

I President and Emperor !
: as Physical Culturists
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.

{ front of his ears" as they say in the
COW country and that means that he
uses a stirrup too short and footing
too, heavy to- be classed as a cham
pion rough rider of the west western.
He admits with boyish candor that he
is not "a broncho buster" and it is a
matter of local wonder in the neigh
borhood of Medora where Roosevelt
| fourished and was beloved as a
ranchman and man of unfailng cour-
age that he never did battle with the
mean critters" OF the equine persua-
sion that once infested that region.
Emperor Rides end Shoots Well.
William of Germany, man of less
hardy mold, has better eyes than
Roosevelt but one of his arms is
dwarfed and his system is afflicted
with humors of the blood. He is said
to be the best one handed swords
man of his army and one of the best
rifle shots in Europe. He has never
tried the low seated loose holding,
rough riding style of American
Workmanship, but he ranks with the
best equestrians and reinsmen of
modern times. In sport, as in war
and statecraft, he is leading theorist
of his day but he is an Indifferent
swimmer on account of his physical
disability and in point of endurance
as hunter he is, compared with
Roosevelt, mere neophyte.
On all the Atlantic coast there are
few more sturdy swimmers, few more
daring or skilled sailors than Theo-
dore Roosevelt of Oyster Bay. He is
one of the worst fishermen known to
fame, for he is a bungler at fly cast
ing and cannot throw live bait with
either enthusiasm or accuracy. This
is the one point in which Grover
Cleveland excelled President Roose-
welt as a sportsman, for the sage of
Buzzard Bay was postmaster of the
rod and reel, the most patient, the
most alert, the most devoted, the
most accurate of fishermen.
Senator Fairbanks is said to have
gained his first enthusiasm from
handball, but he did not follow the
sport long His favorite exercise is
walking, and it makes no special diff
ference to him whether he is alone
or in company. There is a story that
h, first learned handball by playing
the game with a cork ball or ten
mis- ball He became expert and his
long reach and good eyes enabled him
to defeat all Corners at that style Of
play His schoolmates finally in
duced him to play a regulation game
with the champion of another school,
but when Fairbanks smote the ''regu-
lation" ball for the first time he re-
allied that his hands were too soft to
play out the game with comfort. He
stuck to his work, however, and by
dint of almost infinite patience and
endurance contrived to win by
small margin His hands were swol-
den and sore from impact with the
hard ball, and he never engaged in
another regulation game
Hoeing Bryan's Favorite.
William Jennings Bryan is thor
oughly bucolic in his sports and eXer-
else He is an excellent wing and
trap shot, a good horseman, a skilled
driver, and was, earlier in life, a sur
passing baseball player On his farm
in Nebraska his favorite exercise is
hoeing. In his own neighborhood he
is ''the man with the hoe, and, in
spite of his literary and oratorical en-
gagements, his unrelaxed passion for
reading, his devotion to his family,
and his enormous correspondence, he
spends from two to four hours of ev-
cry morning in outdoor exercise,
chatty walks with neghbors or en-
ployes, or hard work in his fields and
gardens.
With his community with nature is
as much a sentimental as a physical
duty, but he attributes his fine
Health, his immunity from disease,
and his unimpaired faculties largely
to fresh air and such normal eXer-
cises as do not exhaust.