HE BRINGS A GRAVEYARD TO LIFE AND INCIDENT- ALLY COMES TO CLOSE GRIPS WITH A BEAR. Facing p. 40 THEODORE ROOSEVELT PAGE FROM THE DIARY OF THEODORE Roosevelt, Aged THEODORE ROOSEVELT AT THREE, AT NINE, AND AT TWENTY-ONE REFORM WITHOUT BLOODSHED ELKHORN RANCH FROM ACROSS THE LITTLE MISSOURI THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONER Facing p. 154 GOVERNOR ROOSEVELT AT SAGAMORE HILL COMMISSIONER ROOSEVELT AT HIS DESK AT POLICE 154 Page 171 ONE OF MR. ROOSEVELT'S QUIET DAYS DIGGING THE CANAL. UNCLE SAM: "HE'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME" THE FIGHT OF HIS LIFE THE "BIG STICK" IN A NEW RÔLE THE VERY SIMPLE MESSAGE OF THE BIG STICK. HE "TALK ABOUT BEING PRESIDENT!" A STRENUOUS VISITATION OF OLD EUROPE SEEING Roosevelt "My Boy!" "THINGS HAVEN'T BEEN THE SAME, THEODORE!" Facing p. 342 ACKNOWLEDGMENT IN recording his indebtedness to many men and women in the making of this book, the writer of it must inevitably place at the top of his list his deep obligation to the central figure of his narrative. Colonel Roosevelt has from the outset aided him in his researches with characteristic generosity. He has opened doors which only he could open; he has turned over to him the diaries of his boyhood and his later hunting-days; with a patience and good nature which showed no abatement he has allowed himself to be catechized in person and by letter. Scarcely less great is the author's debt to Colonel Roosevelt's sisters, Mrs. W. S. Cowles and Mrs. Douglas Robinson, who have turned over to him Colonel Roosevelt's letters to them, covering a period of almost forty years. The friends of his youth in Maine and of his manhood in Dakota, Willam W. Sewall and Mrs. Sewall, of Island Falls, Maine, and Mrs. Wilmot Dow (now Mrs. Fleetwood Pride, of Houlton), have, in response to Mr. Roosevelt's "Tell all you know about me. Tell the worst you know and the best you can conscientiously say," dived into dusty recesses for old letters and countless memories of days which remain in a sense a golden age to them. Joseph Murray, who inducted Theodore Roosevelt into politics; Edward Bourke and Otto Raphael, who served under him on the New York police force; William Loeb, Jr., who was his private secretary as Governor, Vice-President, and President; Nathaniel Elsberg, who fought at his side in Albany, Lawrence Abbott and others-have in one way and another given help that has been invaluable and is herewith gratefully acknowledged. The author's obligations to various books dealing with this phase or that of Theodore Roosevelt's career are wide and deep. Foremost again stands his indebtedness to the subject of his narrative, who has, to the good fortune of the present biographer and all who shall succeed him, told with vigor and charm of his adventures in politics and in the wilds of Dakota, Africa, and Brazil. He is in |