Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 1

Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 1

 Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt

 

Author: Daniel Henderson

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

In the following pages Daniel Henderson has presented in condensed form

the life story of Theodore Roosevelt. The writer has made no serious

effort to go into the details of his official and political career or

to deal with the great questions of foreign and home policy which came

up during his public career.

 

Theodore Roosevelt’s activities were so varied and the field he covered

so wide, that no work of this kind can give more than the barest

outline. Nevertheless, the book is so written as to give those who

may read it a general idea of his boyhood, his youth, and many of the

things he did, his high ideals, his purity of purpose, his intense

patriotism, his love of the outdoor life, and his understanding not

only of towns and cities, but of the wild places of the world and the

people, animals, and birds who dwell in them.

 

The story brings out his intense Americanism, his love of fair play,

and his fearless and straightforward character. He stands out as a man

whose life was characterized not only by devotion to country and truth,

as he saw it, but to the best interests of mankind. While his spirit

was one of intense Americanism, his sympathies were as wide as the

world.

 

It is a book especially fitted for the youth of the country, and the

record of achievements therein will serve as an inspiration to all who

read it.

 

Theodore Roosevelt was the most inspiring and, consequently, the most

dominant figure in our national life since Lincoln, and his influence

on American youth and upon our people as a whole will always be an

uplifting one.

 

His life will always be an inspiration for greater effort and for

higher ideals.

 

“Great-Heart” is dead but his influence lives on!

 

[Illustration: Leonard Wood]

 

Major General U. S. Army.

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

 

 

The purpose of the writer has been to show why Rudyard Kipling thought

Theodore Roosevelt the incarnation of Bunyan’s character “Great-Heart,”

and to reflect the romance and inspiration contained in Roosevelt’s

life.

 

The work has been approached from the viewpoint of one who was not a

partisan; of one disposed to be critical; of one who, however, viewing

Roosevelt’s career as a whole, was so moved by its grandeur that he

became impelled to play what part he could in perpetuating the memory

of this inspiring American among his people.

 

Moreover, there was a natural attraction to write of him whose

career from birth to death was a panorama of adventure and climax

and achievement; of him whose life had in it those elements which

create literature--that human stuff that makes immortal such books as

Plutarch’s Lives and Robinson Crusoe.

 

Full justice to his subject the author could not hope to render.

Powerful indeed will be the pen that adequately describes Roosevelt’s

life of struggle and triumph, with its warfare against bodily handicaps

and political prejudice; warfare against wild beasts in dense jungles;

warfare against hunger and exhaustion on inconceivably hard journeys of

exploration; warfare against predatory wealth; warfare against men in

high places who would grind the faces of the poor; warfare to prepare

America to stamp out forever militarism and bloodshed; warfare to lead

the race to the loftiest goals.

 

The writer does not therefore promise that every motive and deed of

Roosevelt’s life will be chronicled in this book. He has tried to

be faithful to the main facts, and to so group these facts that the

narrative will be vivid and moving--typical of the man about whom it

is written--so that not only the few, but also the many, will find

enjoyment and uplift in the story. The author will be content if the

average man or woman or boy or girl, feels beating through these pages

the warm pulses of him who was indeed--“Great-Heart.”

 

DANIEL HENDERSON.

 

 

[Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt]

 

 

 

 

THE CONTENTS

 

 

CHAPTER PAGE

 

I “A Reg’lar Boy” 1

 

II Roosevelt in the Bad Lands 12

 

III Broncos and Bears 30

 

IV Champion of Women and Children 47

 

V Keeping Fit 61

 

VI Roosevelt’s “Cops” 70

 

VII Roosevelt’s Influence on American Naval Affairs 85

 

VIII Roosevelt’s Rough Riders 99

 

IX Campaigning in Cuba 110

 

X The Great Peace-Maker 134

 

XI Roosevelt’s Political Victories 145

 

XII First Years in the Presidency 160

 

XIII Good Will Abroad; a Square Deal at Home 173

 

XIV The “Bull Moose” 187

 

XV From White House to Jungle 193

 

XVI The River of Doubt 208

 

XVII Roosevelt’s Part in the World War 214

 

XVIII Great-Heart 233

 

 

 

 

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

PAGE

 

Theodore Roosevelt’s Portrait Frontispiece

 

Roosevelt in the Bear Country 16

 

Just Before Entering Yellowstone Park 32

 

Roosevelt, the Fighter 48

 

Roosevelt, the Man 49

 

Combination Photograph Showing Roosevelt in Characteristic Poses 80

 

Roosevelt Addressing an Interested Audience 96

 

Before the Battle of San Juan 112

 

Hall at Sagamore Hill 128

 

Family Group Taken While Roosevelt Was Governor of New York 144

 

Roosevelt’s Cabinet in 1908 160

 

Roosevelt’s Arrival at Gardiner, Mont. 176

 

Roosevelt as a Grandfather 192

 

Roosevelt’s Home, Sagamore Hill 208

 

Roosevelt’s Service Stars 224

 

Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill 228