CHAPTER III. 



Exposing Graft in New York State 



THE career of a lawyer, which was the first idea of the college 

 graduate, did not long hold the ambitious young man. Engag- 

 ing in legal study in the office of his uncle, Robert B. Roosevelt, 

 at the age of twenty-three, he at once took part in the political affairs 

 of his district, and with such energy and effect that he was elected as a 

 State representative before the year ended. It happened, as he tells 

 us, in this way: 



"After leaving college I went to the local political headquarters, 

 attended all the meetings and took my part in whatever came up. 

 There arose a revolt against the member of Assembly from that dis- 

 trict, and I was nominated to succeed him and elected." 



A rapid beginning this for so young a man. His innate power 

 must have been very evident to meet with the sudden recognition. 

 His legal studies ended then and there, for from that time on he was 

 too deeply engaged in public duties to be able to devote time to so 

 exhausting a pursuit as the law. 



It was in the fall of 1881 that he was elected, and when he entered 

 the State House at Albany in 1882 he was the youngest member of 

 the Assembly. Yet he was full of ideas, overflowing with energy, and 

 instead of keeping in the background, as such youthful legislators are 

 expected to do, he soon made himself a storm center in the House. 



Beginning with a study of his colleagues, within two months he 

 had classified them all, dividing them into two classes — the good and 

 the bad. The former were decidedly in the minority, but the young 

 Assemblyman lost no time in identifying himself with them, and this 

 with such force and ability that he was soon their undisputed leader. 

 There was corruption, abundance of it, deep and intrenched, corrup- 

 tion much of which had slept serene and undisturbed for years, and it 

 was against this that he couched his lance. 



(3O 



