Bully!

"If I preach to you anything which I do not strive, with whatever haltings and shortcomings, myself to realize, then I am unworthy your paying heed to me."
~ from Realizable Ideals, 1919

I am planning to read Carry a Big Stick by George Grant from the Leaders in Action series, so I may be bringing more about Teddy Roosevelt to the blog. TR was a remarkable man. Homeschooled, he graduated from Harvard in 1880. He served as a New York state legislator, wrote many best-selling books on many subjects, ran a cattle ranch in the Dakota Territories, was U.S. civil service commissioner, police commissioner of New York City, under-secretary of the Navy, a colonel in the U.S. Army, governor of New York, vice-president under William McKinley, a two-term U.S. President, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner all before his 50th birthday!
He was devoted to his wife and family. He raised six children, but lost two of his four sons on the German front in World War I. Although immensely proud, he never fully recovered from their deaths. He died at home less than a year later on January 6, 1919.

Who goes there? An American!
Brain and spirit and brawn and heart,
'Twas for him that the nations spared
Each to the years its noblest part;
Till from the Dutch, the Gaul, the Celt
Blossomed the Soul of Roosevelt

Student, trooper, and gentleman
Level-lidded with times and kings,
His the voice for a comrade's cheer
His the ear when the saber rings.
Hero shades of the old days melt
In the quick pulse of Roosevelt.

Hand that is molded to hilt of sword;
Heart that ever has laughed at fear;
Type and pattern of civic pride;
Wit and grace of the cavalier;
All that his fathers prayed and felt
Gleams in the glance of Roosevelt.

Who goes there? An American!
Man to the core- as men should be.
Let him pass through the lines alone,
Type of the Sons of Liberty,
Here where his fathers' fathers dwelt,
Honor and faith for Roosevelt.
~ Grace Duffie Boylan