ROOKE 



6694 



ROOSEVELT 



bluish green in colour and spotted 

 with brown and purple. The male 

 often shares the duty of incubation 

 with the female. Out of the breed- 

 ing season the rookery is usually 

 deserted, and the birds roost else- 

 where, though in some cases they 

 pay frequent visits to the nesting 

 site. Rooks are very gregarious, 

 and their morning and evening 

 flights to and from the feeding 

 grounds are familiar sights in the 

 country. The food consist? mainly 

 of grubs and insects, and in this 

 way the birds more than compen- 

 sate the farmer for the seed that 

 they consume. See Eggs, col. plate. 

 Rooke, SIR GEORGE (1650-1709). 

 Ensiish sailor. Going to sea as a 

 lad, he saw much service against 

 the Dutch and 

 gained a good 

 reputation as 

 a seaman, being 

 promoted rear- 

 admiral in 

 1690. The vic- 

 tory of Bar- 

 fleur, 1692, 

 was practic- 

 Sir George Rooke. ally due to 

 English sailor Rooke's gal- 

 lantry and seamanship, and he 

 was knighted in 1693. Lord com- 

 missioner of the admiralty in 1694, 

 he became commander-in-chief of 

 the Mediterranean fleet in the fol- 

 lowing year, and in 1697 of the 

 Channel fleet. On the outbreak of 

 the war with France, 1702, Rooke 

 sailed with 14,000 men under the 

 duke of Ormonde, and by a bril- 

 liant and daring attack seized 

 Vigo and totally destroyed the 

 Franco-Spanish fleet anchored 

 there. In 1704 he assisted in the 

 capture of Gibraltar, July 21, and 

 the following month fought a 

 determined but indecisive battle 

 off Malaga. He died Jan. 24, 1709. 

 Rookwood. Municipality in 

 Cumberland co., New South Wales, 

 Australia. The necropolis, 9 m. by 

 train from Sydney, is on the route 

 to Paramatta. There are meat- 

 preserving works and brick-fields. 

 Pop. 5,450. 



Roon, ALBRECHT THEODOR EMIL, 

 COUNT VON (1803-79). German 

 soldier. Born April 30, 1803, at 

 Pleushagen, 

 near Kolberg, 

 the son of an 

 officer, he en- 

 tered the Prus- 

 sian army in 

 1821. Very in- 

 dustrious, h e 

 made a repu 

 tation as a 

 writer by works 

 on in i 1 it a ry 

 geography, while he 



general staff, and acted as tutor to 

 Prince Frederick Charles, mean- 

 while rising from rank to rank. In 

 1848 he saw a little actual warfare, 

 and with the support of King 

 William I began the work of re- 

 forming the army. He had a hard 



/\&~a&f^^Cf-- 



Count von Roon, 

 German soldier 



taught the 

 cadets, lectured, served on the 



struggle, but in 1859 he was made 

 minister of war and in 1861 

 minister of marine. He held the 

 two posts until 1871, and the fruit 

 of his labours was seen in the wars 

 against Austria and France. In the 

 former war he commanded a 

 division. In 1871 he was made a 

 count and in 1873 a field-marshal. 

 In 1871-72 Roon was president, of 

 the Prussian ministry, and he died 

 Feb. 23, 1879. His memoirs were 

 edited by his son, 1892, who also 

 wrote his Life. 



Roorkee OR RURKI. Town of 

 the United Provinces, India, in 

 Saharanpur dist. It is situated in 

 the E. of the dist. and has rly. 

 connexions with Dehra, Saharan- 

 pur, and Najibabad. The Thoma- 

 son Civil Engineering College is the 

 most noted of this type of educa- 

 tional institution in India ; the 

 town is the headquarters of the 

 Ganges Canal administration, and 

 contains the canal workshops. It 

 was a mud village before the 

 canal was constructed. Pop. 13,900. 



Roosevelt. River of Brazil, 

 formerly known as the Rio Dubida 

 or Doubtful River. It is an affluent 

 of the Madeira, and was explored 

 by the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedi- 

 tion in 1914, and re-named after 

 Theodore Roosevelt. Rising in 

 Matto G rosso state, it flows N. for 

 930 m. to join the Madeira above 

 Taboral. See, Through the Brazilian 

 Wilderness, T, Roosevelt, 1914. . 



Roosevelt,OFRANKLiN DELANO 

 (b. 1882). American politician. 

 Born Jan. 30, 1882, in New York, he 

 was educated at Harvard and after- 

 wards, in law, at Columbia Univer- 



sity. In 1907 he became a barrister, 

 was a member of the senate of New 

 York, 1910-13, and in 1913 joined 

 the Democrat administration as 

 assistant secretary of the navy. 

 He remained at the navy office 

 (luring the Great War. 



Roosevelt, THEODORE (1858- 

 1919). American politician, author, 

 and traveller. He was born in New 

 York, Oct. 27, 1858, of an old New 

 York family, and entered politics 

 on his graduation from Harvard. 

 At once he stood out as a champion 

 of good government and, as leader 

 of the Republicans in the New 

 York state assembly, 1882-84, as 

 Federal civil service commissioner, 

 1889-95, and as New York City 

 police commissioner, 1895-97, he 

 fought corrupt politicians and all 

 who battened on vice. During this 

 period he spent a year on a ranch 

 and established his reputation as 

 a big game hunter. 



When the Spanish War began 

 Roosevelt was assistant secretary 

 of the navy. He resigned to be- 

 come lieutenant-colonel of the 

 Rough Riders regiment he raised, 

 which distinguished itself at San 

 Juan Hill in Cuba. He returned, a 

 popular idol, to be elected governor 

 of New York state, 1899-1900. 

 His term was a miserable period 

 for the bosses of his own party. 

 Characteristically, he never broke 

 with them, but forced them to sub- 

 servience. They therefore planned 

 to be rid of him by making him 

 vice-president of the United States ; 

 but President McKinley was assas- 

 sinated in Sept., 1901, and the 

 forceful reformer thus unexpectedly 

 succeeded to the office of president. 



Reciprocity with Cuba, then an 

 American dependency, was forced 

 on the Old Guard, and in 1902 

 Roosevelt began his attack on the 

 trusts and " special interests " ; rail- 

 way re bates in favour of big shippers 

 were made illegal and the bureau of 

 corporations was established to 

 control large industrial combines. 

 Foreign affairs felt the same touch. 

 Germany sought to seize a Carib- 

 bean Sea port, but the sudden 

 mobilisation of the American navy 

 foiled her ; Colombia tried to 

 block the building of the Panama 

 Canal, but a revolution tore from 

 her the territory needed, and cleared 

 the way for the commencement in 

 1 904 of that great engineering work. 

 Americans were proud of their chief 

 executive officer, and re-elected 

 him president in 1904 by an enor- 

 mous majority over bis Democratic 

 opponent. O 



In the negotiations leading to 

 the end of the Russo-Japanese War 

 (1905), Roosevelt fought strenu- 

 ously for peace, thus earning in 

 1906 the Nobel Prize; and two 



