CHAPTER XVIII

SOME CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS

Horsemanship and hard tramps-The family man at home-Rollicking with the children-A champion of chaste livingWhite House hospitalities-The religious life of the President.

"DID you go into literature with a view to making it your profession?" inquired an interviewer who had worked his way into Mr. Roosevelt's library and found it about equally devoted to books, pictures, stuffed game and live pets.

"No," answered the host, "I went into it because I liked it."

"Did you not take the usual course of poetry, fiction, essays and criticism?"

"No, I studied American history and hunting-especially big game."

"Then you do not care a great deal for our modern literature of psychological analysis?"

"I should care a great deal more for a firstrate American literature of outdoor sports. But I don't include among sports mere attend

ance at a horse-race, for instance; the only kind I am interested in are those in which men take an active part themselves."

This did not mean that he was indifferent to horses. From his cowboy days he has always had a lively taste for riding, and his steed must be one of spirit or he will have none of it. Soon after he became President he wished to add a few good saddle-horses to his stable, and commissioned an acquaintance to find them. The person thus honored was duly impressed with the gravity of the task, for it would never do, of course, to let a President of the United States break his neck. So he selected two animals distinguished as much for their dignity of deportment as their excellence of pedigree, and sent them to the White House. The President ordered them out for trial. The first horse caracoled about with grace and precision, as if accustomed to being ridden in a procession; the second began by taking little mincing steps, and, when goaded by main force into a gallop and put at a three-foot hurdle, meekly stopped and smelt of the obstruction. With a deep sigh the rider alighted and threw his bridle to a groom.

"Well, sir?" said the man, inquiringly.
"Oh, for goodness' sake, send them back,"

AN AFTERNOON SPIN

exclaimed the President. "I ordered horsesnot rabbits!"

Next to horseback-riding as an outdoor exercise, Mr. Roosevelt esteems walking. But walking with him is not a leisurely stroll through the woods and fields or over beaten roads, but the strenuous sort which makes the nerves tingle as well as the blood. His great delight, when he needs a change from his usual canter, is to gather a group of congenial spirits and make a dash "on shanks' trotters" through the country on the outskirts of Washington, coming in at their head on the return as fresh as a daisy, while his companions trudge off in search of bath and bed. It gives him particular pleasure, in organizing a walking party, to include at least one untried man. Such a tramp as he lays out enables him to measure the novitiate's mettle.

One fine day about two years ago, he invited a few friends to an afternoon spin up the shore of the Potomac. A special invitation was extended to a newly appointed bureau chief on whom the President was depending for some courageous but delicate work. The chief was young, lithe of build, athletic in appearance, and it seemed desirable to put him to a test of

endurance and ingenuity. Another person favored was an office-holder with a fair reputation for grit but too large a girth for his own good; the idea was to reduce this a little. The President, of course, set the pace with his long quick stride, and the rest ambled after as best they could. The shore path was pleasant enough and not too difficult till a point was reached where a stone-quarry jutted out into the river. The workmen had put a cable over one of the rocks which ran straight down into the water, to help them crawl around it; there was a boat at hand, also, for the use of any one who was afraid to trust himself to the cable.

The party halted only a moment—just long enough to see how the land lay. "The boat for me," said a Senator who, though proportioned for agility, was a little out of practise and had a great respect for his own dignity. "For me, too," said the stout office-holder, dropping in after the Senator and making a place ready for the President. "Meet me on the other side," laughed the President, and started across the sheer face of the rock, disdaining the aid of the cable, but using toes and finger-tips to clutch at the little niches left by the blasts. If he had missed his hold anywhere, he would have had a

HOME LIFE

souse in ten feet of muddy water.

But he didn't. His son Theodore and the new bureau chief followed where he led. All got home in safety some time after nightfall, and the next day the gossip of the town was their adventure at the big quarry rock. The minor members called it "scaling the Matterhorn"; the President called it "bully."

Mr. Roosevelt's love of family and home amounts to a passion. I remember one evening when, to a party of friends around his table, he had been describing with his usual enthusiasm the delights of his life on the Western plains, and some one turned to him with the remark: "With your love of that free existence, I wonder you ever settled down in the humdrum East. Honestly, now, don't you wish had been born and reared on a ranch?”

you

An affirmative answer was on the tip of Mr. Roosevelt's tongue when he suddenly paused, and cast a quick glance, plainly involuntary and almost embarrassed, past the questioner, where it settled on our hostess with an expression which could not be mistaken. Then he began, hesitatingly:

"I know why," exclaimed one of the ladies.