REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 73 



"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the 

 doctrine of the strenuous hfe, the life of toil and effort, of labor and 

 strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the 

 man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink 

 from danger, from hardships, or from bitter toil, and who out of these 

 wins the splendid ultimate triumph." 



It was the kind of life that Roosevelt loved. He was strenuous 

 in everything, in his executive acts, his legislative demands, his exer- 

 cises and pleasures, his walks and rides. An amusing example of his 

 strenuosity in this direction is that long walk in which he led a party 

 of army officers through a broken country, wading streams, climbing 

 and descending hills, facing all sorts of difficulties, until they were 

 utterly worn out, while their leader showed no trace of weariness. 



Roosevelt, in addition to his Presidential term, had another life, 

 that home life which all of us possess in some measure and which he 

 thoroughly enjoyed. The society of his wife and children was more 

 to him than all the stately show and empty adulation of his official 

 position. His home at Oyster Bay, Long Island, is a place of great 

 attraction and one which any man might well enjoy. Standing on the 

 crest of a little hill and approached by a steep and winding roadway, 

 part of which runs through a thick wood, it presents a picturesque 

 aspect when first seen. From it appears a beautiful view in every 

 direction, and especially that over the waters of the Sound. Shade 

 trees of many kinds stud the lawn and a broad porch runs around three 

 sides of the house, shaded in front by a luxuriant Virginia creeper. 

 Within, the house is beautifully furnished, and in nearly every room 

 are trophies of the hunter's life on the Western plains or mementos 

 of the soldier's life on Cuban soil. President, or Governor, or Colonel, 

 or Commissioner Roosevelt, or whatever we may call him, is never so 

 happy as when sitting quietly at home with his wife and children. 

 Home is to him the dearest place on earth, and he never suffers the 

 cares that fall upon him thickly without to invade Its hallowed pre- 

 cincts. Here he finds his one place of rest, of that relaxation of which 

 he permits himself so little. With his wife — a woman of beauty and 

 charm, one able to keep pace with him in his outdoor walks — his 

 daughter Alice, the child of his first v/ife, and his five other children, 



