SEEKING ROMANTIC ADVENTURES. G3 



of natural history. Irving, Hawthorne and Poe were great favorites 

 of his and Robert Burns was a constant companion. We find in 

 Theodore Roosevelt's own book entitled: ''Hunting Trips of a 

 Ranchman; Being Sketches of Sports of the North Cattle Plains," 

 much to charm and instruct. Only a brief outline can be given 

 here of the exciting times in the far west of the man who has 

 become our most distinguished citizen. 



THE HOME RANCH OF COL. ROOSEVELT. 



On the Northwest border of North Dakota — six hundred miles 

 from St. Paul — where the Little Missouri winds its course through 

 the Bad Lands, is the town of Medora, surrounded by huge buttes of 

 scorched clay. About eight miles from the little town is "Chimney 

 Butte," the home ranch of Col. Roosevelt. The little house is built 

 of logs; in fact it is a log cabin one and a half stories high. The 

 first story contains a kitchen, living room, and a private room for 

 Col. Roosevelt when he visits the ranch. As cowboys sleep any- 

 where little attention was given by cowboy Roosevelt to sleeping 

 apartments. In bad weather they spread their blankets on the 

 floor upstairs. To the right is the stable, while in front is the horse 

 corrall. This is built in circular form to prevent crowding and 

 jamming in corners. Whenever a horse is wanted the whole herd 

 is driven in. 



The ranch building is most picturesque. From the low, long 

 veranda, shaded by leafy cottonwoods, one can look across sand 

 bars to a strip of meadow — behind which rises the sheer cliffs. 

 From the doorway of his log cabin Col. Roosevelt has killed a deer, 

 and big game abounds in the vicinity. He has worked here in a 

 flannel shirt and overalls tucked into alligator boots, side by side 

 with his cowboys during many an exciting round-up, at night to 

 sleep on bear skins and buffalo robes, trophies of his skill as a 

 hunter. ''When he first went West they called him the 'four-eyed 

 tenderfoot,"' says Mari^ Twain. The cowboys soon changed their 

 mind about the "tenderfoot" from New York. 



Herds of cattle roam over the unsurveyed "Bad Lands" as far 

 as 200 miles at times. The "Round-up" always brings them home. 



