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