during this year the law has been observed in the classified service under our charge more rigidly and impartially than ever before.

President Harrison, who was not given to exuberance of expression, said of him:

If he had no other record than his service as an employee of the Civil Service Commission, he would be deserving of the nation's gratitude and confidence.

Roosevelt continued as Civil Service Commissioner until April, 1895, a period of nearly six years. It was not a place that any one with any political ambition would have sought, and would, I think, be commonly regarded as a veritable graveyard for any political aspirations. I remember seeing in the New York "Tribune," about this time, an interview with Roosevelt in which he said that he might like to go into politics, but that he had no constituency, by which I understood him to mean that his prolonged absence from New York had put him completely out of touch with political affairs there. It is reasonably clear that at this time and during his term as Civil Service Commissioner, Roosevelt had no expectation of entering politics. Meantime, in November, 1890, he had published a history of the City of New

York; in 1893, in two volumes, "The Wilderness Hunter"; and in April, 1895, in conjunction with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, "Hero Tales from American History."

In April, 1895, Roosevelt was appointed Police Commissioner in the City of New York, and continued in that office until April, 1897. Again he filled a position which led nowhere in politics, however great the opportunities for service that it offered, evidence that opportunity for service without the slightest regard for political advancement was the controlling motive of Roosevelt's life.

His sense of humor, often light, sometimes grim, but always palpably present or lurking in the near background is well illustrated in an article on the Vice-Presidency, written in September, 1896; speaking of the Southern Populists, he said:

They distrust anything they cannot understand; and as they understand but little, this opens a very wide field for distrust. They are apt to be emotionally religious. If not, they are then at least atheists of an archaic type. Refinement and comfort they are apt to consider quite as objectionable as immorality. That a man should change his clothes in the evening, that he should dine at any other hour than noon,

impress these good people as being symptoms of depravity instead of merely trivial. A taste for learning and cultivated friends, and a tendency to bathe frequently, cause them the deepest suspicion. . . . Senator Tillman, the great Populist, or Democratic, orator from South Carolina, possesses an untrammeled tongue any middle-of-the-road man would envy; and, moreover, Mr. Tillman's brother has been frequently elected to Congress upon the issue that he never wore either an overcoat or an undershirt, an issue which any Populist statesman finds readily comprehensible, and which he would recognize at first glance as being strong before the people.

In April, 1897, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President McKinley, John D. Long, of Massachusetts, being Secretary. This was a most congenial place for Roosevelt, and he devoted himself with his customary energy to the duties of his office. He not only got the navy ready for war, but, to put it mildly, did not shrink from the then impending conflict with Spain. Against the urgent advice of most of his friends, he resigned his position May 6, 1898, and entered the military service as lieutenant-colonel,1 First United

1 He declined the Colonelcy. " Fortunately," said Roosevelt, "I was wise enough to tell the Secretary that while I believed Í could learn to command the regiment in a month, yet that it was just this very month which I could not afford to spare, and

States Cavalry Volunteers, "The Rough Riders," organized by Colonel Leonard Wood and himself. Secretary Long said of him:

He was heart and soul in his work. His typewriters had no rest. He, like most of us, lacks the rare knack of brevity. He was especially stimulating to the younger officers who gathered about him and made his office as busy as a hive. He was especially helpful in the purchasing of ships and in every line where he could push on the work of preparation for war. Almost as soon, however, as it was declared, he resigned the assistant-secretaryship of the navy to accept the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Rough Rider regiment in the army. Together with many of his friends, I urged him strenuously to remain in the navy, arguing that he would there make a signal reputation, and that to go into the army would be only to fight mosquitoes on the Florida sands or fret in camp at Chickamauga. How right he was in his prognosis and how wrong we were in ours, the result has shown. He took the straight course to fame, to the governorship of New York and to the presidency of the United States. He has the dash of Henry of Navarre without any of his vices. His room in the Navy Department after his decision to enter the army, which preceded for some time his resignation as Assistant Secretary, was an interesting scene. It bubbled over with enthusiasm, and was filled with bright young fellows from all over the country, college graduates and old associates

that, therefore, I would be quite content to go as LieutenantColonel, if he would make Wood Colonel."