52 
ROOSEVELT’S BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 
bringing up a boy. Altbougb a man of wealtb and position he 
tangbt bis children—the four of them, two boys and two girls—the 
virtue of labor, and pointed with the finger of scorn to the despic¬ 
able thing called man who lived in idleness. With such teach¬ 
ings at home, it is no wonder that Theodore was moved to declare: 
“ I was determined as a boy to make a man of myself ” 
His vacation days and little outing excursions to the farms of 
his uncles gave the boy a fondness for country life, which found 
appreciation in later years in these words: 
I belong as much to the country as to the city, I owe all my 
vigor to the country.” 
RESOLVED TO MAKE SOMETHING OF HIMSELF. 
In New York he was an example of the strong-spirited, well- 
educated young Knickerbocker of the better class. He had no 
need to work,” says a writer in McClure’s. “ His income was 
ample to keep him in comfort, even luxury, all his life. He might 
spend his summers in Newport and his winters on the continent, 
and possibly win some fame as an amateur athlete and a society 
man; and no one would think of blaming him, nor of asking more 
than he gave.” 
Such a life, however, was not according to his taste or the 
high ideal of manhood and splendid achievement he had placed 
before him. He was not a dreamer, not a builder of air-castles. 
Better than the moderate wealth he had inherited were the family 
traits, the strong common sense, the noble purposes and true ideas 
of worldly success, which were as much a part of him as his fond¬ 
ness for fun and athletic sports. Let every American boy 
remember Mr. Roosevelt’s saying that in early life he resolved to 
make something of himself 
He attended a preparatory school, in order to fit himself fot 
entering Harvard College. It was customary with the teacher in 
this school to call on the boys for declamations. Theodore at that 
early period lacked many of the graces of oratory, which he seems 
to have acquired afterward ; and, like most boys, when he was the 
victim of embarrassment his memory was more or less treacherous. 
