ROOSEVELT’S BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 
49 
opposite kind. It meant something to be a Roosevelt. More was 
expected of every member of the family than would have been 
expected of anyone with a name less honorable. It was some 
advantage, and at the same time it involved a good deal of respon¬ 
sibility, to be connected by blood and birth with an old Knicker¬ 
bocker family that had helped for generations to make the history 
of New York. 
It was the Roosevelt idea that a boy should be taught to run 
alone, be independent, be something more than a pampered weak¬ 
ling. Money was intended to help a young man, not to handicap 
him. Young Theodore might have lived on his fortune and 
made his life one of sport and pleasure, but to do this he would 
have had to be something besides a Roosevelt. Such an aimless, 
empty, worthless career would have been contrary to all the 
Roosevelt family history and achievements. There is no good 
reason why the self-made men should all be poor. It is possible 
to become great in spite of money. 
HIS APPEARANCE WHEN A BOY. 
Mr. Ray S. Baker, in a sketch of Mr. Roosevelt, says this of 
his boyhood : “As a young boy he was thin-shanked, pale and 
delicate, giving little promise of the amazing vigor of his later 
life. To avoid the rough treatment of the public school, he was 
tutored at home, also attending a private school for a time—Cut¬ 
ler’s, one of the most famous of its day. Most of his summers, 
and in fact two-thirds of the year, he spent at the Roosevelt farm 
near Oyster Bay, then almost as distant in time from New York 
as the Adirondacks now are. For many years he was slow to 
learn and not strong enough to join in the play of other boys; 
but as he grew older he saw that if he ever amounted to anything 
he must acquire vigor of body. With characteristic energy he 
set about developing himself. He swam, he rode, he ran ; he 
tramped the hills back of the bay, for pastime studying and cata¬ 
loguing the birds native to his neighborhood; and thus he laid 
the foundation of that incomparable physical vigor from which 
rose his fnture prowess as a ranchman and hunter.” 
H. B. G.—4 
