420 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS would distinguish himself in college, but such was not the case. He is not a product of our educational system, and, no doubt, he was more or less a misfit in Harvard University, for he did not and could not enter into its life to any vital extent. Probably its greatest advantage to him was his acquaintance with its students, and the opportunity it gave him of studying life. Mr. Roosevelt, unlike most ambitious men, did not, after quitting college, take up any of the learned professions. He leisurely set about his life work in a way peculiar to himself. Something like an instinct in the lives of young men of ability pushes them out and takes them abroad in the world. We have all read of the delightful wanderings of Benjamin Frank- lin; have wondered why it was that Lincoln left his native state, thinking that some experience in his boyhood instinc- tively had told him that he was not suited to the environment in which he lived. It was some such longing as this, rather than an adventurous spirit, that led Theodore Roosevelt to take up life on our western plains as a cowboy. His years of
- roughing it" developed his physique, making him one of the
hardiest men of his generation. After several years in the West he went back to New York City and at the early age of twenty-four was nominated for the General Assembly. Mr. Roosevelt was in a district where a young man of high and noble ideas was just the man through whom one political machine could defeat another. Generally such novices are used only as a forlorn hope. At this time Mr. Roosevelt was in a position similar to that of Mr. Lincoln when he was running for the nomination for the presidency. It was then that the notorious politician, Norman R. Judd, un- invited, became Mr. Lincoln's political manager; and as Lin- coln dropped Judd conveniently so Roosevelt gently dismissed his manager. The lesson Mr. Roosevelt learned in this cam- paign was a key to his subsequent political success. As his career began, so it continued — always opposed by the most corrupt politicians; yet in the end defeating them. His rise was not meteoric, but like that of the stars in the night. He sometimes met with failure and ate the bread of
