Morton Hall in 59th Street, near Fifth Avenue, and he said that the ruling classes he saw there were "a jolly enough lot." He had "a bully time," and was not at all afraid of soiling his hands. The "boys" did not understand "just what his game was," but they voted him a "good fellow," without any of the airs of the silk-stocking crowd.

Pretty soon he found himself in a hot debate at one of these meetings, and, from the applause which his speech received, he has confessed that he was confident of victory. But when it came to a ballot, the silent nod of the boss decided the issue, and the youthful politician was amazed to find his motion was lost by a vote of 95 to 3.

It chanced, however, in the fall, when it came time to send a man to the Legislature, that the bosses fell out among themselves and the little bosses made up their minds that if they could get Mr. Roosevelt's friends, his "swell friends," to come out to the primaries and vote for him, they could teach. a lesson to the big boss, a man named Jacob Hess. But Mr. Roosevelt had not gone into politics to get an office before he earned it, and he refused to be a candidate. They were shrewd, however, and

they taunted him. Where was his public spirit, where was his sense of duty to the dear people? Then he offered to find some older man, who would stand as a candidate. All whom he called upon really could not think of doing it; they were too busy. Finally he himself had to go into the fight or be sneered out of the councils of the district. And he stood. Once he entered the fray, he went in to win, and it was not long before the old boss made a virtue of necessity and accepted him.

The district was a long, narrow strip of Manhattan Island, with Fifth Avenue running up the middle, and stretching from 40th Street to 80th Street. It was known as the "Diamond Back District," because of the wealth of its residents. In the same region William Waldorf Astor was running for Congress on the ticket which carried Theodore Roosevelt's name for the Legislature, and he was scattering his money and kissing all the babies on his way. Boss Hess very kindly came around to Roosevelt and offered to introduce him to his constituents. Naturally he started in with the saloons. Their first call was on a Sixth Avenue barkeeper, who assumed, of course, that if elected, Roosevelt would be against

raising the price of saloon licenses. The candidate, however, was not sure about it; in fact, he thought there was a good deal to be said in favor of a high license law, and the first thing the astonished Hess knew Roosevelt was arguing along that line with the indignant saloon-keeper. There was no use in trying to get votes for a fellow like that, and the boss gave up the electioneering trip among the saloons right there.

Thrown on his own resources, Roosevelt dropped that kind of campaigning and started in to canvass the homes of the district. The homes responded. Fifth Avenue caught the infection of the young man's enthusiasm. His friends rallied around him. Millionaires solicited the votes of their butlers and coachmen. There was a fusion of all sorts and conditions of people in the cause of the democratic young aristocrat, as there has since been in a far larger constituency, and Roosevelt scored an honorable victory on election day, while Astor, running for Congress, went down in a disgraceful defeat and left the country.

IN POLITICS

A member of the Legislature of 1882-83-84. The youngest man in the House. Fighting the bosses. - Nominated for Speaker, 1883, by the Republicans, who then abandon him. - "I was absolutely deserted." - But he does not sulk.-"My first real lesson in politics." The Roosevelt Committee investigates New York City in 1884.-A great political victory.-Mr. Roosevelt Delegate-at-Large and Chairman of the New York Delegation in the famous National Convention of 1884. - Opposes Blaine's nomination for President, but does not leave the Republican party. — Retires from politics.

MR. ROOSEVELT was only twenty-three and the youngest man in the Legislature when he took his seat at Albany. It was not long until he was one of the most widely known members, for he showed his fighting qualities from the start.

"It was a particularly disagreeable year to be in the Legislature," he has said. "The composition of that body was unusually bad." There arose a scandal concerning a judge, but the machine ordered silence. Roosevelt, however, moved his impeachment, and, standing alone, he pressed the issue, day after day, until on the eighth day the public opinion

of the state came to his support and his motion was carried by 104 to 6. Once beyond his reach, however, the measure was suppressed by the bosses, and when he came up for re-election, they started in to suppress him as well.

Many of the good people of his district, who vowed it was a shame for the machine to try to defeat him, could not be moved to give him any active assistance. One of them, who was wildly indignant that there should be any opposition to a good young man, when asked to stay at the polls on election day was very sorry that he had an engagement to go quail shooting. Nevertheless, Mr. Roosevelt was reëlected, although his party was routed almost everywhere, for that was the year in which the Democrats, under Grover Cleveland, swept the state by nearly two hundred thousand majority.

The new Legislature was Democratic, but the Republicans did the best they could for Mr. Roosevelt and gave him the honor of their nomination as Speaker. While this vote did not seat him in the Speaker's chair, it conferred upon him the leadership of the minority.

He did not hold that place long, however, for he