50 
ROOSEVELT’S BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 
At the age of eleven years, young Roosevelt made a voyage 
across the Atlantic with his father. A boyhood friend, by name 
George Cromwell, tells several amusing incidents of the Euro¬ 
pean voyage. It was a great event in 1869 to cross the Atlantic, 
particularly for youngsters, all of them under eleven years of age. 
“As I remember Theodore,” recalls Mr. Cromwell, “he was 
a tall, thin lad, with bright eyes and legs like pipe-stems. 
“One of the first things I remember about him on that 
voyage was, that after the ship had got out of sight of land he 
remarked, half to himself, as he glanced at the water, ^ I guess 
there ought to be a good many fish here.’ Then an idea sud¬ 
denly struck him, and turning to me he said: ‘George, go get 
me a small rope from somewhere, and we’ll play a fishing game.’ 
I don’t know why I went at once in search of that line, without 
asking why he didn’t go himself; but I went, and it never 
occurred to me to put the question. He had told me to go, and 
in such a determined way that it settled the matter. 
A MASTERLY LEADER FROM BOYHOOD. 
“ Even then he was a leader—a masterful, commanding little 
fellow—who seemed to have a peculiar quality of his own of mak¬ 
ing his playmates obey him, not at all because we were afraid, but 
because we wanted to, and somehow felt sure we would have a good 
time and get lots of fun if we did as he said. 
“ Well, I went after the line and brought it to him. While I 
was gone on the errand he had thought out all the details of the 
fishing game, and had climbed on top of a coiled cable ; for, of 
course, he was to be the fisherman, 
“‘Now,’ he said, as I handed him the line, ‘all you fellows 
lie down fiat on the deck here, and make believe to swim around 
like fishes. I’ll throw one end of the line down to you, and the 
first fellow that catches hold of it is a fish that has bit my hook. 
He must just pull as hard as he can, and if he pulls me 
down off this coil of rope, why, then he will be the fisherman and 
I will be a fish. But if he lets go, or if I pull him up here off the 
deck, why I will still be the fisherman. The game is to see how 
