editors and newspaper men, the villany of yellow journalism. Speaking once at Reno, Nevada, he struck a sledge-hammer blow at the divorce colony there. But he always used reason and had arguments, difficult to answer, at command. It did seem as though he deliberately chose the subject that would antagonize his audience. On the other hand, his hearers generally perceived his courage and honest purpose, and applauded.

He was always courageous for America. He perceived that no nation can be great unless it has the courage to blaze its own trail and work out its own destiny. In season and out, he preached scorn of cowardly acquiescence in wrongdoing, and urged practice of the sterner, manlier virtues. Said he in a glowing paragraph:

"Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin, and a willful failure to prepare for danger may in its effects be as bad as cowardice. The timid man who cannot fight, and the selfish, shortsighted or foolish

man who will not take the steps that will enable him to fight, stand on almost the same plane."

Religion to him meant little unfortified by hardihood, resolute endurance and the courage to act honestly under the most trying circumstances. The morally flabby church member deserves the detestation of all good citizens. As he declared in an address given at Christ Church, Oyster Bay, September 8, 1906:

"The man is not a good Christian, if his domestic conduct is such that when he returns to his home, his wife and children feel a sense of uneasiness at his having come."

Whether he was defending his manhood in the Dakota Bad Lands, stopping a charging lion, commanding Germany to keep her hands off in the case of the Venezuelan territory, or reprimanding a southern audience for its mistreatment of the negro, he did it in the line of duty. He was fearless in what he said and did because fearlessness was right and cowardice was wrong.

In the last analysis the most important element in any man's career must be the sum of those qualities which, in the aggregate, we speak of as character.

-GOOD CITIZENSHIP.

CHAPTER XIII

HE DEFINES CHARACTER

We would expect a person of Mr. Roosevelt's sound common sense to place character above genius. "Genius is not necessary," he said, "Genius is a fine thing but fortunately character is not only more common, but better." He named three qualities essential to well-rounded character: Honesty, courage, and the saving grace of common sense. Men with capacity to accumulate great wealth, men with intellect, men with the personality that goes with leadership, or men possessed with any other talent, must have character first, otherwise they menace the well-being of the community.

He preached the gospel of work as an important adjunct to sterling character. He reserved his admiration for those men and

women who spoke in deeds. Work, hard work, unceasing work, work that meant exhaustion, he urged on all who wished success for themselves or for the state. Do not pity the man who toils, he said, pity the person who does not toil. The proud must work; the humble must work. Work is a law of nature none

may escape. No worthwhile progress can possibly be made without it. But work should be well done. Better let someone do the task who will do it well than do it yourself in slipshod fashion. The duty should be honestly met, and done with an application of common sense. Men like trees are known by their fruits.

He had nothing but praise for the honest toilers of America, often going out of his way to commend them. He liked to shake hands with the engineer and fireman of the train on which he had ridden, to mingle with sailors and soldiers, cowboys and hunters, lumbermen and pilots, for he felt deeply America's obligation to the laborers who were turning the wheels of industry, directing commerce and defending the national honor on land and sea. Work