Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-01-10


chapter on the War Of 1872 in a great
semi-official work on the Royal Brit
ish Navy.
Graduating from Harvard in 1880,
he read law and later studied and
travelled for a year in Germany.
He returned in 1881 and plunged into
New York city politics, campaigning.
for a reform administration and bet-'
ter cleaning of the city streets. He,
was elected to the state assembly from
the Twenty-frst District.
After fighting unsuccessfully for
james G. Blaine, whom he had OPP
posed in convention as chairman OF
the state delegation to the national
Republican convention in 1884, he re-
tired to his ranch in the Bad Lands
Of North Dakota.
Nominated without his knowledge
by q convention in New York in 1886
for the Office of mayor and later in
dorsed by the regular Republican or
ganization, he left his wilderness and
entered the political arena to argue
for a separation of municipal from
state and national politics. He was
defeated.
After this election was decided Mr..
Roosevelt went to London, where he
married for the second time. His
first wife, Mrs. Alice Hathaway
Roosevelt, whom he had married In
1881, had died in 1884, leaving a
daughter two days old, the present
Mrs. Nicholas Longworth. His sec
ond wife was Edith Kermit Carow,
daughter of a wealthy New York ship
ping merchant.
Two Years of Travel.
He now spent two years in literary
pursuits and travel, returning to be-
come a member of the United States
National Civil Service Commission, at
that time very unpopular. Appointed
by President Benjamin Harrison to
save the institution, he carried on one
of his Enthusiastically lively cam
naigns by means of his own writings,
speeches, interviews and the proposal
of new legislation, only leaving his
splendid work to take the position
of acting president of the New
York City Board of Police Commits
sioners, an appointment by Mayor
Strong, which he said he considered
1t his duty to accept.
Gets Federal Position.
President Mckinley appointed him
assistant secretary of the navy under
John D. Long in 1897. 1t was in the
troublous time preceding the Spanish
American war. Roosevelt became what
the President dubbed "the war party"
He got an appropriation of $1,00O,000
for target practice in the fleets, insist
ed that everything be put in readiness
for conflict and demanded war as a
humanitarian measure to save Cuba.
AS president of the Strategic Board he
drew up a complete plan of operations.
When war came Theodore Roosevelt
decided that he had done as much as
any other man to bring it on, and he
could not sit back and see others shot.
He must be in the thick of battle him
self. He resigned as assistant Secre-
tary of the navy and organized the
Trough Riders" a regiment of daring
horsemen, mostly cowboys from the
west. In Cuba this body was in the
limelight. It's Importance has been the
subject of much discussion.
Led Charge Up San Juan Hill.
Roosevelt, his horse shot from under
him, led a charge UP the bullet raked
sides of San Juan hill 80 feet in adj
vance of his first line, seemingly in pos
session of that charmed life so often
heard of in biographies of great mill
tary leaders. His second great Cuban
work was in saving the American army
from disease after the war was prac-
tically won and all but 20 per cent of
the American troops were down with
yellow fever, malaria and like tropical
ailments. He drew up the round robin
protesting against the action of the au-
thorities at Washington in ordering
the troops into the interior of Cuba.
AS a result most of them were brought
back to a temperate climate and thou
sands Of lives were saved.
In the latter part of 1898 Mr.. Roose-
welt was elected governor of the state
of New York. In this office he served
with his usual activity and effective