=Study Questions.= _1._ Describe Roosevelt's boyhood. _2._ What influence did his family life have on his character? _3._ Show how Roosevelt's character was revealed by the boxing bout. _4._ What sort of a young man was he during his college days? _5._ What was his first political experience and what did he learn from it? _6._ What did Roosevelt accomplish as head of the Police Board? as Assistant Secretary of the Navy? _7._ Explain his connection with the Rough Riders. _8._ Tell how Roosevelt came to be President and what he accomplished in that office. _9._ What was Roosevelt's political nickname and why was it given to him? _10._ Relate his activities from the time he retired from the presidency to 1914. _11._ Tell what was his attitude toward the World War and the part he played in it. _12._ What become of the treaties Taft supported? _13._ Tell of some good laws passed while he was President. _14._ What did Taft do at the close of his administration? =Suggested Readings.= ROOSEVELT: Hagedorn, _Boys' Life of Theodore Roosevelt_; Morgan, _Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the Man_; Hale, _A Week in the White House with Theodore Roosevelt_; Riis, _Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen_. WESTWARD EXPANSION AND DEVELOPMENT THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT OF POPULATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORTATION [Sidenote: =The gold seeker=] [Sidenote: =Three routes to the Pacific coast=] [Sidenote: =New discoveries of gold=] =193. The New West.= We have seen how the discovery of gold in the sand near the American River over one hundred miles from San Francisco started the tremendous rush to the Pacific coast. The gold seekers went by three routes: by ship all the way around the Horn, the longest and stormiest way; by ship to Panama and beyond, a way beset by danger from fever in crossing the isthmus; and by long overland trails on which travelers suffered untold hardships from losing their way on the sandy plains or among the mountains. Many hundreds perished from sickness and hunger. In 1858, ten years later, gold was discovered near Pike's Peak; in 1859, silver was found in what is now southern Nevada. People streamed westward in ever-increasing numbers. Long lines of covered wagons, called "prairie schooners," filled with fortune seekers toiled over the plains and mountain trails. "Way stations" sprang up along the routes of travel, to supply the needs of immigrants. These supply stations soon grew into towns. Then came the discovery of gold in what is now Idaho and Montana, and in the Black Hills of the Dakotas. The westward tide of population broadened. It filled the bounds of the United States from the Dakotas to Texas; but it was the lure of gold and silver that caused all this early development.