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of practical politicians and statesmen to guard and guide the wellloved land in its progressive march toward the consummation of what its sincerest friends hoped for it. We have said that he was "out of it." But is it possible for a man of strength to ever cease from allegiance to what has once called forth his best efforts? From the time of his earliest manhood, even when at Harvard, he had determined to do his utmost for the country which his progenitors had loved and did their best for. In the seclusion of the fierce western winter, beside the roaring log fires of his ranch-house, surrounded by the rugged cattlemen, the cow-boys who paid little heed to the civilized aspects of cities, his mind surely went out to the city where he had been born-the city where over two hundred years before the first Roosevelt that had come to the country held office; and he more than likely knew more about matters at home than had he been in the feverish din of town life, an important part of it. The newspapers sent him told him much, but his past experience was his best factor in understanding the why and wherefore of the events the papers chronicled. He understood Tammany as well as its most enthusiastic supporter, and Washington was an open book to him. It is Emerson who has said that we who linger in one place have the faculty, if we possess reasoning imagination, to bring all foreign or far-off countries to us; that travel, while it broadens the mind of a man, and makes him receptive of impressions, does not necessarily give a clearer understanding of the lands we visit than may be ours if in some sequestered spot we read and think and apply our reading and our thought to their legitimate purpose. Mr. Roosevelt was always a reader and a thinker; with all his impulsiveness of manner and impatience with anything that was not straightforward and direct, there has been a vein of peculiar gentleness and poetic insight into the motives of men. His love of nature would prove him to be anything but an austere man expecting impossibilities from frail humanity,

but that same love of nature would make him irritable in the presence of what is vague and uncertain in the dealings of those around him. In his ranch he conned the reports of the doings of the day in places far away from him, in the purlieus of the cities, in the precincts of Washington, which is no city at all, and he figured out within himself the possibilities that were in store for a reformer who would go East and delve into politics once more.

But he was not yet ready to go into the crowded vortex of civilized life; he was with nature and the rough element that is honest till it takes on the gloss of civilization's fictions. Here he would stay, adding to his physical well-being by close companionship with nature, and when the time came for him to once more go into active public life, if he should be needed he would be ready. He was now a ranchman, a hunter, and his life was affiliated with the stern side of nature in the West, that West of which he should write with the clear understanding that characterizes everything which he undertook to comprehend.

CHAPTER IV.

Americans and Mexicans on the Plains-The "Bad Man" of the West-Claim jumpers-Horse-thieves-A Noted Desperado-Opening a Cowboy Ball-The Frontier and Women-Character of the Cowboy-Indians-An Indian Adventure-Organizing a Troop-Loss of Boat-Capture of Boat-thieves and Taking them to the Sheriff-Dogged Determination a Characteristic.

F all free men, the hunter is the freest. He is responsible to

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no man but himself. He chups and saws the logs for his hut, or he makes a rude dug-out on the side of a hill do duty as a domicile, with a skin roof and flap for his door, and no man preceded him in ownership of it. He buys some flour and salt, and when he can afford them, sugar and tea. But he does not buy much at a time, for it must all be carried hundreds of miles on his horse's back. He has a bunk covered with deer skins for a bed, and a kettle and a frying pan are his only kitchen utensils. Mr. Roosevelt lived as the other hunters, with but few more conveniences. His enthusiasm in bringing down big game never deserted him in his expeditions to the Rocky Mountains. But the old style hunter has gone out, and the cow-boy takes his place. The cow-boys are typical men of the plains. They are hard working, faithful men, but they will Once while on a wagon trip Mr. Roosevelt got caught while camped by a spring on the prairie because of his horses all straying. A few miles off was the camp of two cow-boys who were riding the line for a large southern cow-outfit. He did not even know their names, but happening to pass by them he told them of the loss of his horses, and they came to him the day after with all the missing horses, having hunted for them for twenty-four hours. They were Texans, quiet, clean cut, pleasant spoken young fellows, yet to his

get into scrapes.

surprise he found that they were fugitives from justice. They were complaining of the winter weather, and spoke of their longing to go back to the South. The reason they could not do so was that the summer before they had engaged in a small civil war in one of the wilder parts of New Mexico. It had originated in a quarrel between two ranches over respective water rights and range rights. There were collisions between bands of armed cow-boys, cattle were harried, camps burned down, and the sons of the rival owners fought one another to the death when they met in the drinking places of the miserable towns. Soon the thinly veiled jealousy that ever exists between the Americans and Mexicans was laid bare, and when the original cause of the quarrel was adjusted, a fierce race fight took place, which was quelled by the arrival of a strong sheriff's posse, but not until after a couple of affrays in which blood was freely shed. In one of these the American cow-boys of a certain range drove out the Mexicans from among them. In another affray, to avenge the murder of one of their number the cow-boys gathered from the country lying round about and stormed the "greaser," or Mexican village where the murder had been committed, killing four of the inhabitants. Mr. Roosevelt's two acquaintances had borne a part in this last offense and were "wanted" by the authorities. They talked plainly with their new friend, and it is not often the case that plainsmen talk freely, being as a rule reserved with strangers, and are sure to dislike men whom they meet for the first time.

At another time, at a ranch not far from his own Mr. Roosevelt found among the cow-boys gathered for the round-up two Bible-, reading Methodists. He found them as strait-laced as possible, but they did not obtrude their opinions upon any one, and were firstclass workers and so got along well with the other men. Among the associates of these two were two or three ruffians, as loose of tongue as of life. Says Mr. Roosevelt, "Generally some form of stable

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