music to his ears; "the guttural booming and clucking of the prairie fowl and the great sage fowl in spring," are among the notes he has described in his books, and "the honking of gangs of wild geese, as they fly in rapid wedges; the bark of an eagle, wheeling in the shadow of storm-scarred cliffs; or the far-off clanging of many sand-hill cranes, soaring high overhead in circles, which cross and recross at an incredible altitude. Wilder yet and stranger are the cries of the great four-footed beasts; the rhythmic pealing of a bull elk's challenge, and that most sinister and mournful sound, ever fraught with foreboding of murder and rapine, the long-drawn bay⚫ing of the gray wolf."

While most of his Wild West days were given to action, Mr. Roosevelt never was without his books. Even when he went forth with nothing but hardtack to eat and nothing but his buffalo bag in which to sleep, he was likely to find a place somewhere for a book or two. Moreover, his best writing was inspired by the Plains. In the quiet times on the ranch he wrote, at first for the magazines, stories of his legislative experiences and of his ranching and hunting. In that period, too, he wrote the "Life

of Thomas Hart Benton," the first statesman from beyond the Mississippi; and the most important contribution he has made to historical literature, "The Winning of the West," was an inspiration of the Dakota plains.

REËNTERS POLITICS

--

Called from his ranch to be a candidate for mayor of New York in the fall of 1886. Defeated, but satisfied with his lively campaign. - December 2, 1886, marries Miss Edith Kermit Carow in London. The bride and groom friends from childhood. — Her English and American ancestors. - On the stump for Harrison in 1888. -Appointed on the National Civil Service Commission, May, 1889. A fighting member, he has pitched battles with postmasters and collectors, representatives and senators, and even a Cabinet officer.

BESIDE the open fire at Elkhorn, Mr. Roosevelt read in a New York newspaper that he had been nominated for mayor of the great metropolis by the Independents. That was in the fall of 1886. He accepted the recall to public duty and started at once for the East. His own party gave him its nomination and he stood as the Republican candidate for the chief magistracy of New York.

There was small hope of success at the polls in a constituency so strongly Democratic. Nevertheless, he went in as if he meant to win, and soon the ranchman from the Bad Lands was going from ward