I. The Boy Who Collected Animals 1 II. In College 10 III. In Politics 18 IV. "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail" 28 V. Two Defeats 37 VI. Fighting Office-Seekers 44 VII. Police Commissioner 50 VIII. The Rough Rider 58 IX. Governor of New York 70 X. President of the United States 81 XI. The Lion Hunter 99 XII. Europe and America 110 XIII. The Bull Moose 120 XIV. The Explorer 131 XV. The Man 137 XVI. The Great American 149 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Mr. Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Theodore Roosevelt About 10 Years Old 33 Mr. Roosevelt as a Hunter 48 President Roosevelt Speaking in Atlanta 81 The Rough Rider (Cartoon) 96 President Roosevelt in the Saddle 113 President and Mrs. Roosevelt and Children 128 President Theodore Roosevelt 144 THEODORE ROOSEVELT CHAPTER I THE BOY WHO COLLECTED ANIMALS If you had been in New York in 1917 or 1918 you might have seen, walking quickly from a shop or a hotel to an automobile, a thick-set but active and muscular man, wearing a soft black hat and a cape overcoat. Probably there would have been a group of people waiting on the sidewalk, as he came out, for this was Theodore Roosevelt, Ex-President of the United States, and there were more Americans who cared to know what he was doing, and to hear what he was saying, than cared about any other living man. Although he was then a private citizen, holding no office, he was a leader of his country, which was engaged in the Great War. Americans were being called upon,--the younger men to risk their lives in battle, and the older people to suffer and support their losses. Theodore Roosevelt had always said that it was a good citizen's duty cheerfully to do one or the other of these things in the hour of danger. They knew that he had done both; and so it was to him that men turned, as to a strong and brave man, whose words were simple and noble, and what was more important, whose actions squared with his words. He had come back, not long before, from one of his hunting trips, and it was said that fever was still troubling him. The people wish to know if this is true, and one of the men on the sidewalk, a reporter, probably, steps forward and asks him a question.