Chapter I: 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!

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.

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