Norwich bulletin., 1920-06-14
Five Minutes a Day
 With Our Presidents Copyright 192o-By James Morgan

LKXXIX-THE BULL MOOSE
 19O9-March 23, Theodore Roosevelt
 sailed for East Africa.
 1910-June IS, returned home.
 1sI2-February, My hat is in the
 ring"
 June, Roosevelt defeated for
 republican nomination.
 August, nominated by the Pro-
 gressive Party.
 Oct. 4, shot in Milwaukee.
 1s13--Oct. 4, sailed for South Amer
 ica.
 1914-May IS, returned homo.
 1917-June, his application for
 war service declined.
 191S-Jan. 6, death of Theodore
 Roosevelt, aged GO.
 If the name of Theodore Roosevelt shall cease to live in political history and legend, it will still shine forth from the metal tablets on the exhibition cases in the. National Museum at Washington where curious visitors in generations to come will pause to look in amozement at the great beasts which this Nimrod of the presidential line slew in the jungles of Africa. Those cases shoudl serve al- so to prove an alibi for Roosevelt from the charge that he was the slayer of the republican. elephant.
 Contrary to the intoxicating opinion, the republican party was already dis rupted and defeated while Roosevelt was roaming the far-off wilds of East Africa, when lls political revolution was completely overthrown by a counter revolution. As president he had made the party again somewhat like unto : what it was in it's youth, the great or gan of liberalism and progress, giving a he 1 CT had before. He returned to find it as he believed the party of standpattisn | and reaction, with 8 tidal wave of pop | ular dissatisfaction flowing against it. | Nevertheless he went at once on wearisome hopeless tour of the countr. ] in an effort to save the party in tn congressional elections of 1910 ,and h took the stump again in 1911, with th same barren result. The doom of tn 1 Taft administration in the presidentia 1 election of 1912 already was sealed, whel a group of republican governors appealei to the ex-president to be the party caH didate and to lead forlorn hope. Evel he would stand only sport ing chance to win, and he respond, ed in sporting terms: My hat is in lh ring"
 Although Roosevelt swept, by a ma l republican states having popular prim l aries, Taft was renominated by the ai | of the delegates from the democrati states of the South and the 'stean i roller of the Old Guard. This resulte l in bolt and the formation of the Pro l gressive party a medley of good mil lionaires from Wall Street, highbrow from academic groves, cowboys from tn plains and "tunatic fringe singin | Onward Christian Soldier" as the rallied around their insurgent chief whe he declared: We stand at Armaged l don and we battle for the Lord" The naturalist in politics supplied ., symbol and nickname for his part when he assured a reporter in the mids of his losing fight for the republica nomination: "I feel as strong as a bu moose" The Bull Moose" indeed prov ed to be amazingly strong at tn polls, where it carried six states and lei onE REo to She elephant-Ukah an Vermont-with the democratic mule win iEg in a walk.
 l While campaigning in the middle c October, Roosevelt was shot by craz man in Milwaukee. He pinked me-" h admitted to the anxious bystanders, bu he insisted on continuing his ride to tn hall, where he was to speak. q wi deliver that speech or die,'' he persisted and he spoke with the bullet hole i his chest undressed and bleeding. The next year this unresting ex-pres dent outdid his African exploits b piunging into the tropic wilderness ( Brazil. At 65 he was less fitted for th hardships in which he had successful braved in the Dark Continent four year before, and he never again was to be th , robust embodiment of that strenuous If ; which, for a generation, he had practice ; as well as preached.
 The life of the progressive party va as short &s its rise was sudden. A though it's founder smilingly vewe di 1916, T am still Progressive" he gas his earnest if not enthusiastic suppel ,, to Charles E. Hughes, the republica i,omInee.
 For two years before America entere the war, his pen-he was on the staff {
 nagazikes and inewspapers-~as con tinualiy goading the country out of fl neutral position in the great struggi After we got into the conflict, it COT tinued to goad the country to go fast, ! and farther.
 Il Roosevelt was eager to lead anotht band of Rough Riders to the front, bl , President Wilson sustained the objectic r of the military advisors of the goverl l ment to any volunteer organizations. 2 am the only one he has kept out of u war" the disappointed applicant reter l ed on the recent campaign slogan of Il