their trust in the people, while tyrants and corrupt rulers have ever been men wholly lacking in bravery, and who have shrunk with trembling cowardice when a fear of bodily harm threatened them.

The Elements That Make Him Truly Great.-President Roosevelt has proved his mental quite as well as his physical ability, not only by his pen, which clearly expounds his sound philosophy, and exhibits his power of originality and analysis, but by his acts as an executive, in the several important offices he has so ably filled. As police commissioner grappling with corruption in New York City, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy at a time when that office required a man of the most conspicuous ability, for war had been declared, and as Governor of New York, where he distinguished himself by branding fraud, and putting his foot upon the neck of bribery, and by driving out the money changers from the temple of state legislation. In all these places of public trust he was efficient, and proved himself an uncompromising foe to every species of dishonesty. Nor are there any discredit marks upon the record of his career as official or citizen; he has been a statesman of integrity, and one of wisdom as well; he is a champion of political reform, an enemy to blind partisanship, a patriot at all times, and a fighter in the front ranks when his country is menaced by war.

The greatness of McKinley, for whose untimely death America will never cease to lament, was in many things; he was a wise ruler, a lofty minded statesman, a thorough American; he was more than this: he was a good, a noble, an honest man, whose domestic virtues will never cease to shine with glorious lustre in the coronet of exemplary traits with which his countrymen have invested his memory for all time. But the virtue, as it is, of devotion to wife, the love so beautiful, so heart-touching, so elevating with benign influence, which was conspicuous in the home life of McKinley, has its counterpart in the domesticity of Roosevelt. In him we see the blended elements of soldier courage and the tender sentiment of perfect loyalty to the

woman who ennobles his career with reciprocated affection. The world is bettered by such men, even when they walk in humble ways, and when such occupy high places in public trust they become exemplars for the people, and diffuse an influence that is infinite for the national good. Bigotry, sectionalism, partisanship, in the sense of party passion, oppression, is impossible to a man of these lofty ideals and sincere purposes.

ROOSEVELT AS A SOLDIER.

The military title of "Colonel" belongs of right to Roosevelt, as that of "Major" belonged to McKinley, both having won their promotion by distinguished service on the battlefield. Roosevelt was too young to take part in the Civil War, and it is fortunate, too, for reconciliation between what were once estranged sections is more firmly perfected by the fact that Southern and Northern blood flows in equal proportions in his veins; that he belongs, by virtue of birth, to South and North alike.

It was the fortune of Roosevelt to be heir to wealth, but it was his greater fortune to be born without taint of the boast of privilege, or the vainglory that is the bane of riches. In him has ever been an ambition to serve his fellowmen, not as an oppressor, but as a promoter of the public good, socially and politically. Born to ease, he eschewed it for the life strenuous, the life helpful, the life exemplary.

The badge of leadership is as often worn upon the brow of men as is the stamp of genius; it shows itself in the child, it is emphasized in manhood. Never was it more pronounced than in the career of Roosevelt, from boyhood to the Presidency, for, like the spirit of prophecy of old, it was manifested in his childhood.

His Enlistment in the Army.-It was a comfortable, important, and promising office that he held under appointment of President

McKinley, next indeed to that of a Cabinet position, but its honors, emoluments, and his prospects for advancement he promptly resigned when the bugle blast sounded, summoning a volunteer host to do battle in the cause of human liberty. His mind operating with the flash of an impulse he quitted the high office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and tendered his services to his country in the war with Spain. A more conspicuous example of patriotic abnegation it is difficult to find in the annals of history.

He Organizes a Regiment of Rough Riders.-With indomitable energy he set about the work of raising a regiment, and he made selection from the bold spirits of the plains the cowboys, the rough riders whom he learned to know so well, their daring, their execution, their composure in places of peril, by association with them on the broad reaches of the wild West. A thousand fearless men flocked to his banner, not only coming from ranches of the Rocky Mountain region, in leather and sombrero, men of the lariat and the butt whip, but men also from New York's exclusive society, young apprentices of war, out of the ranks of the militia, whose valor and patriotism was proved, on the test to be above the dilettanteism of the idle, the ennuied, the highly decorated and sensational rich.

The Fierce Charge up San Juan Hill.-When his regiment was fully recruited he tendered its services to the government, which, being accepted, Dr. Leonard Wood, of the regular army, was made colonel, and Roosevelt was perfectly content to accept the lesser office of lieutenant-colonel. With all the persuasive influence it was possible for him to exercise he urged that his regiment be ordered to the front, and it was by this demand for service that the Rough Riders were sent to Santiago to bear the brunt of hardest fighting in the siege of that well-defended city. It was intended that the Rough Riders should be mounted, but there was no time allowed to buy and ship horses, so these fearless soldiers, with the most intrepid of commanders leading, pushed ahead and made the famous charge up San Juan Hill,

and at Las Guasimas, with Roosevelt always in the advance. Americans have not forgotten, nor will history neglect to record, the heroic assault on the Spanish stronghold as conducted by Wood and Roosevelt. Chaparral, barbed wire, and a hail of shot and shell could not check the resistless sweep of the Rough Riders; many of these wondrously brave fellows fell before the galling, down-pouring volleys of the greatly advantaged enemy, but Roosevelt escaped, and with sword in air, waving and inciting, he led the phalanx until it drove the enemies from their intrenchments and won the day, with a hurrah the clamor and echo of which will never expire or cease to be a mighty stimulation to American soldiers.

Promotion and Subsequent Service. For superb gallantry in the fiercest battle of the war, Wood was made brigadier-general, and Roosevelt was promoted to be colonel. Besides this honorable mark bestowed by the President, Roosevelt was specially complimented not only for his heroism, but also for the excellent care and generous consideration he showed for his men, whom he hailed as comrades.

His Devotion to His Men.-With the surrender of Santiago, and conclusion of the war, a great problem was presented in the necessity for a speedy removal of American troops in Cuba, among which yellow fever had appeared and death came to the brave fellows in more horrid form than that of battlefield. Unable to brook any appearance of inactivity, and suffering with his stricken fellows, Roosevelt joined in the preparation of a "round robin" by the officers demanding that all except immune regiments be conveyed without delay to some healthy place in the United States, pending disbandment of the army. This action precipitated a heated controversy with Secretary of War Alger, but red-tape army methods did not prevent the removal of Roosevelt's regiment to Montauk Point, New York, where he was indefatigable in his efforts to provide comforts greater than the government was able to promptly supply.

The magnificent kindliness of Roosevelt, his splendid, untiring

devotion to his comrades in arms, made him the idol not only of his own troops, but of the army and of the people as well, and his popularity so worthily achieved has lost none of its earnestness since, nor is it likely that the glory of his deeds will lose any of its lustre in all the years that shall know the great Republic of the United States.