Theodore Roosevelt 



and on the death of Mr. McKinley, succeeded to 

 the Presidential chair. 



Of the Presidents of the United States not a 

 few have been sportsmen, and sportsmen of the 

 best type. The love of Washington for gun and 

 dog, his interest in fisheries, and especially his 

 fondness for horse and hound, in the chase of the 

 red fox, have furnished the theme for many a 

 writer ; and recently Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Har- 

 rison have been more or less celebrated in the 

 newspapers, Mr. Harrison as a gunner, and Mr. 

 Cleveland for his angling, as well as his duck 

 shooting proclivities. 



It is not too much to say, however, that the 

 chair of the chief magistrate has never been occu- 

 pied by a sportsman whose range of interests was 

 so wide, and so actively manifested, as in the case 

 of Mr. Roosevelt. It is true that Mr. Harrison, 

 Mr. Cleveland, and Mr. McKinley did much in 

 the way of setting aside forest reservations, but 

 chiefly from economic motives; because they be- 

 lieved that the forests should be preserved, both 

 for the timber that they might yield, if wisely ex- 

 ploited, and for their value as storage reservoirs 

 for the waters of our rivers. 



The view taken by Mr. Roosevelt is quite dif- 

 ferent. To him the economics of the case appeal 



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