54 ROOSEVELT'S BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 



I have taken most of iny exercise in the ' cow country ' or moun- 

 tain liunting." 



Theodore Roosevelt is the third graduate of Harvard Uni- 

 versity to hold the highest honor in the gift of the American peo- 

 ple. John Adams and John Quincy Adams were graduated from 

 Harvard. It was in 1825 when J. Q. Adams became President. 

 Now comes Roosevelt. Roosevelt entered Harvard in 1876, 

 when he was eighteen years old. His work in college was char- 

 acterized by the enthusiasm and earnestness which have become 

 known to all the people as dominant traits of his character in 

 public life. 



When he came to the Cambridge college he was a slight lad 

 and not in robust health, but he at once took a judicious and reg- 

 ular interest in athletics, and in a little while the effects were 

 apparent in his stalwart figure and redoubled energy. He 

 wrestled and sparred and ran a great deal, but never indulging in 

 athletic work to the point of injury. 



EARNEST AND MATURE STUDENT. 



In his studies young Roosevelt was looked upon "as pecu- 

 liarly earnest and mature in the way he took hold of things," as 

 one of his classmates put it. Ex-Mayor Josiah Quincy, of Boston, 

 who was in college with Roosevelt, says of him: 



" He exhibited in his college days most of the traits of 

 character which he has shown in after years and on the larger 

 stage of political life. In appearance and manner he has changed 

 remarkably little in twenty years, and I should say that his lead- 

 ing characteristic in college was the very quality of strenuousness 

 which is now so associated with his public character. In what- 

 ever he did he showed unusual energy, and the same aggressive 

 earnestness which has carried so far in later life. 



" He exhibited a maturity of character, if not of intellectual 

 development, greater than that of most of his classmates, and was 

 looked upon as one of the notable members of the class — as one 

 who possessed certain qualities of leadership and of popularity 

 which might carry him far in the days to come, if not counter- 



