The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

THE LAUNCHING OF A MAN 5;
earliest Western pioneers. No one can very well criticise our
President for emulating the example set by his worthy ances-
tor in identifying himself with the great West. Theodore
Roosevelt, whom in our bursts of enthusiasm we call "Our
Teddy," came honestly by his instinct to go out West and get
broadened out.
This ancestor of tvv'o centuries and a quarter ago estab-
lished a boat yard at the head of the Ohio River at Pittsburg,
and built the "New Orleans," the first steamboat that ever
plowed its way through this watercourse.
HIS BOYHOOD
Theodore Roosevelt was born in that old, aristocratic por-
tion of New York known as Gramercy Park. The family resi-
dence was in East Twentieth Street, just beyond F"ifth Avenue,
the number being 28. Many of the people in that neighbor-
hood remember most vividly the childhood days of "Little
Teddy." One of the neighbors, in speaking of his infancy and
boyhood days, has said:
"As a young boy he was thin-shanked, pale and delicate,
giving little promise of the amazing vigor of his later life.
To avoid the rough treatment of the public school, he was
tutored at home, also attended a private school for a time
Cutler's, one of the most famous of its day. Most of his sum-
mers, and in fact two-thirds of the year, he spent at the
Roosevelt farm near Oyster Bay, then almost as distant in
time from New York as the Aclirondacks now are.
"For many years he was slow to learn and not strong
enough to join in the play of other boys; but as he grew older
he saw that if he ever amounted to anything he must acquire
vigor of body. With characteristic energy he set about
developing himself.
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