Theodore Roosevelt - Forgotten Tales and Vanished Trails

Going to Water.

From Scribners Magazine.

Copyright Special Contents Copyright 2001 by Palladium Press

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2014

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ISBN: 978-1-62873-796-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62914-051-3

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgments

A number of individuals have assisted or encouraged me during the compilation of this work. The concept of the Theodore Roosevelt Classics Library came from Les Adams fertile mind. His daughter, Amanda, has been a patient and persuasive taskmaster, guiding or goading me, whichever was needed, throughout the project. To Les and Amanda, along with the other fine folks at Palladium Press, I can only acknowledge what a pleasure it is to work with true professionals. Much the same can be said of Katharine Wiencke, copyeditor par excellence, who ferrets out my errors and polishes my prose in exemplary fashion. The staff at Winthrop Universitys Dacus Library has been helpful in procuring material through interlibrary loan and has assisted me in other aspects of my research efforts.

As always, there are debts of gratitude to my family, bastions of support amidst the constant uncertainty of the writing life. My parents gave me a love of literature and the outdoors, Mom as a librarian and Dad as a sportsman. Each passing year enhances my awareness of just what treasures these gifts were. This is the first book I have completed since my mothers passing, and any time I delve into a tale well told, memorys fond reflections help me turn the pages. Finally, to my wife, Ann, my daughter, Natasha, and my son-in-law, Eric, I tender heartfelt thanks for the patience and understanding that have made not only the present work, but all my literary labors, possible.

Introduction

Theodore Roosevelt has fascinated me since my boyhood. As a youngster growing up in the North Carolina high country, I avidly read everything relating to hunting and fishing that I could lay my hands on. The library in Bryson City was a small one, but fortunately the collection included several of Roosevelts outdoor-related works. Along with the writings of authors such as Robert Ruark, Archibald Rutledge, Havilah Babcock, and Nash Buckingham, they vicariously took me to fields of sporting dreams. Yet early on, realization dawned that Roosevelt was a different man from the other writers who were among my favorites. Those authors were all staunch sons of the Southern soil, while Roosevelt was a damn yankee. More significantly, Roosevelt had a tremendous impact not only as a writer but as a soldier, politician, diplomat, reformer, and visionary.

He was, in short, a true Renaissance man, and his advocacy of what he styled the strenuous life had tremendous appeal. Doubtless some of that appeal derived from my upbringing, a rearing in which constant adherence to a solid work ethic figured prominently. For a boy, though, the fact that a man who had become president could also be a noted hunter and naturalist had an irresistible attraction. I read and reread the books available to me African Game Trails, Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter, and Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail. Indeed, the only work I read more was one that probably stands as the most popular book on the outdoors ever written by an American: Robert Ruarks The Old Man and the Boy (1957). After all, Ruark was a fellow Tarheel, and as someone who was fortunate enough to have a grandfather as a sporting mentor, it was certainly easy for me to identify with his timeless tales of a boy growing up under similar guidance.

In time, however, my opinion of Ruark altered. He remains, to my way of thinking, an unexcelled sporting scribe, but as a human being he was in many ways a miserable failure. His personal life was a shambles, he drank himself to death before reaching the age of fiftyno one with an iota of common sense could call him a role model. On the other hand, appreciation of Roosevelt grows as one comes to know more of the man and his career. Such was the case as the starstruck perspective of a boy gave way to the more mature and cautious reflections of an adult.

My lifes path led me to a first career as a historian (writing on the outdoors being my second and present vocation), and most of my in-depth research focused on pioneering explorers, sportsmen, and colonial civil servants. Time and again the personal papers of explorers such as Sir Harry H. Johnston and Frederick C. Selous, other archives, and obscure publications reminded me of Roosevelt. So omnipresent was mention of the man in writings by and about those interested in Africa during the years before World War I that I decided to renew my perusal of his work. In some senses, this anthology is an outgrowth of those efforts, although there have been other manifestations of my interest in Roosevelt.

Almost two decades ago, for example, when named a distinguished professor by the university where I taught, I chose Roosevelt as the subject of an annual speech to the institutions honor students. The man and his milieu lay outside my primary field of study, British imperial history, but it seemed that one could offer nothing finer to the best and brightest among college students than a glimpse of his approach to life. Certainly to me, for whom the natural world has always been of surpassing significance, the fact that outdoor-related experiences loomed so large in Roosevelts life has been highly inspirational. I suspect that others who read this work, and its predecessors in the Theodore Roosevelt Classics Library, will concur in wholehearted fashion. With that by way of background, let us now take a fuller look at the career of this remarkable man, with particular attention being devoted to his evolution as a hunter, naturalist, and conservationist.

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Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., was born on October 27, 1858, in New York City. His parents were comfortably well off, living in an upscale area of the city and regularly taking extended summer vacations in the country. It might be stretching matters a tad to suggest that young Theodore was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but unquestionably he enjoyed many of the advantages associated with affluence. However, from a tender age Theodore (he loathed the nickname Teddy, which was not accorded him until he was a prominent national figure), for all the wealth and privilege that was his birthright, faced adverse circumstances.

He was a victim of recurrent and severe asthma attacks, and so sickly was the lad that he did not attend public schools. Instead, tutors were hired by the family, and there was the occasional stint in private schools. As a result, his education was a bit of a hodgepodge, although there can be no denying his intellectual powers. Always an insatiable reader, he enjoyed Joel Chandler Harris Uncle Remus stories, Robinson Crusoe, and most any romantic tale of history or adventure.