large. So that fortunes were gathered in ranching. But it is significant that there are no cattle kings, even in the country where the cattle industry has been most largely followed. The woods of Michigan and Wisconsin have produced lumber kings; the hills of Idaho and Nevada and half a dozen other States have presented mining kings to the nation, and the sugar kings and kings of various other industries abound everywhere. But the cattle king has been always a star of brief shining, and his domain has never been an extensive one. He did a great deal in the development of the frontier country, and contributed much to the food supply of the world. But he did pretty well, as a general rule, if he took out of the business as much as he put inand enjoyed life while the occupation lasted.

As for Mr. Roosevelt's experience in ranch life, it can only be said that he was most happy in it, and that while it did not add greatly to his fortunes, it did not entail a failure. It came at a period in his life-perhaps the only one he could have found-when he had the time for it; when it fitted into the rounding and filling of his personality. In some measure it contained the elements of a special wisdom, of which he

seems to have taken advantage, and it withdrew him so far from "the madding crowd" that he had opportunity for much writing which his countrymen have very keenly enjoyed.

His "Ranch Life in the Bad Lands" was one of his most valuable ventures.

CHAPTER VII.

ROOSEVELT AS AN AUTHOR.

FIRST AUTHOR TO BECOME PRESIDENT

BEGINNING AS EDITOR OF HIS COLLEGE PAPER, HE DEVELOPS STRIKING LITERARY TALENT SUCCESS OF HIS FIRST WORK, "NAVAL WAR OF 1812," "WINNING OF THE WEST,”’“THE STRENUOUS LIFE AND OTHER ESSAYS," "OLIVER CROMWELL"-A VOLUMINOUS

WRITER.

For the first time in the history of America an author is at the head of the Government,—an author, too, of whom the country may well be proud. It lends a radiance to letters in the new world to have for the first citizen of the land a man who is not only a statesman and a historian but a poet as well, for in all his writings Mr. Roosevelt discovers that broad comprehension and deep sympathy with nature in all its forms that is the delight of the poet and is possessed by him alone. It is astonishing that one who has taken such an active part in the political life of the nation, as well as that of his native State and city, should have found time to produce so many volumes on subjects requiring great research as well as an intimate knowledge of the histories of

many governments and the lives of many peoples. Not only has Mr. Roosevelt in the "Winning of the West" given to the world the best record of the settlement and development of America, but he has written into the pages of that splendid work the very spirit of the nation and illumined the stirring drama of the settlement of these States with the glory of sublime patriotism which cannot fail to have a marked influence on the minds of the coming generations.

It has been claimed by some that the historian should be one in whom the faculty of the imagination was almost, if not entirely, lacking. These critics hold that history should be a colorless record of facts as they transpired, and that the thought of the author should have no place in the record of the times he would portray. If this be the true criterion by which a historian is to be judged, then is Mr. Roosevelt going far afield when he sets himself to write history. His mind is so active and his thought so positive that the compilation of facts and dates without their accompanying significance would repel him in the same measure that he is attracted by fierce battles on sea and land, and the individual in

stances of heroism and devotion. It is this faculty of the imagination that places Mr. Roosevelt's writings on American subjects in the front rank of all our country's records and gives to his descriptions of frontier life a genuine value. Much that he has written has its foundation in actual experience, and he describes these events with a fidelity to nature and a dramatic power that must thrill the dullest reader, while to those who are familiar with the scenes and actions which make up the greater part of his books on the Far West, his writings have an indescribable fascination.

For a man who is still young Mr. Roosevelt has a large number of books to his credit. He has been barely twenty years out of college. Sixteen of these years he has spent in active and laborious public service. A man who has been a member of the Legislature, Civil-Service Commissioner, President of the Police Board of New York, Vice-President of the United States, and President, all within a score of years, could hardly be expected to be a voluminous writer. But in that period Mr. Roosevelt has published a half a dozen serious works on history and biography, three original works on hunting and