ADVICE AND NEWS

Oyster Bay, May 7th, 1901

BLESSED TED:

It was the greatest fun seeing you, and I really had a satisfactory time
with you, and came away feeling that you were doing well. I am entirely
satisfied with your standing, both in your studies and in athletics. I
want you to do well in your sports, and I want even more to have you do
well with your books; but I do not expect you to stand first in either,
if so to stand could cause you overwork and hurt your health. I always
believe in going hard at everything, whether it is Latin or mathematics,
boxing or football, but at the same time I want to keep the sense of
proportion. It is never worth while to absolutely exhaust one's self or
to take big chances unless for an adequate object. I want you to keep in
training the faculties which would make you, if the need arose, able to
put your last ounce of pluck and strength into a contest. But I do not
want you to squander these qualities. To have you play football as well
as you do, and make a good name in boxing and wrestling, and be cox
of your second crew, and stand second or third in your class in the
studies, is all right. I should be rather sorry to see you drop too near
the middle of your class, because, as you cannot enter college until
you are nineteen, and will therefore be a year later in entering life,
I want you to be prepared in the best possible way, so as to make up
for the delay. But I know that all you can do you will do to keep
substantially the position in the class that you have so far kept, and I