Williston graphic., 1919-01-09

nlStOIy 0Ilu UCtlOUAl UOOhS VI NOVSIAs
ture that he was known ~ q book
worm; he took boxing lessons; he was
an amateur naturalist; and at the age
of II he entered Harvard university.
There, he was not as prominent as
some others in an athletic way, as it
is not recorded that he "made" the
baseball and football teams, but his
puny body had undergone a metamor-
phosis and before graduation he be-
came one of the champion boxers of
the college. This remarkable physi-
cal development was emphasized by
something which took place shortly
after he left Harvard in 1880. He
went to Europe, climbed the Matter
horn, and as result was elected a
member Of the Alpine club of London,
an organization of men who had per-
formed notable feats of adventure.
A few months after his graduation,
Roosevelt married Miss Alice Lee of
Boston. She died in 1884, leaving
one child, Alice, now the wife of
Representative Nicholas Longworth
of Ohio. In 1886 Roosevelt married
Miss Edith Kermit Garrow, Of New
York, and to them five children were
born-Edith, now the wife of DR..
Richord Derby, and four sons, Theo-
dore, Jr., Kermit, Archibald and
Quentin.
The public career of the man who
was to become president began not
long after he left college. His profess
sion was law but the activities that
were to come left him no time in
which to practice it. In 1882 1883
and 1884 he was elected to the New
York state assembly where his efforts
on behalf of good government and
civil service reform attracted atten-
tion. When the Republican National
convention Of 1884 was held, in Chi
cago, he was chairman of the New
York state delegation.
| After this experience he dropped
out of politics for two years. Going
| west, he purchased ranches along the
Little Missouri river, in North Da-
kota, and divided his time between
outdoor sports, particularly hunting,
and literary work. Here he laid the
foundation for his series of books
''The Winning of the West" which
was published from 1889 to 1896, and
of other volumes of kindred charac-
ter.
Returning to New York he became
the Republican candidate for mayor
in 1886. He was defeated. President
Harrison in 1889 appointed him a
member of the United States Civil
Service commission and President
Cleveland continued him in his Of
flee, which he resigned in 1896 to be-
come New York City's police COM
missioner.
"a thing that attracted me to
this office" Roosevelt said at the
time he accepted this appointment,
twas that it was to be done in the
hurly- y-burly, for I don't like cloister
life" Honesty was the watchword
of this administration and the two
years of his occupancy became men,
orable through the reforms he inaug-
urated, attracting the nations atten-
tion while holding a position which
was obscure in comparison with the
events to come. Illicit liquor traffic,
gambling, vice in general-of these
evils he purged the city in the face
of corrupt political opposition, and
the reputation he established as
reformer won him the personal Sc
lection by President Mckinley as as
sistant secretary of the navy, in 1897.
A year later the Spanish American
war broke out.
The Roosevelt temperament did not
allow the man to retain a deputy cab
met position with war offering some
thing more exciting. Leonard Wood,
now a major general in France, was
then President McKinley's physician
and one of Roosevelt's staunchest
friends.