ffered so greatly from
asthma and other troubles that he was not able to attend school
regularly.

When he was still a small boy, however, he made a resolution to gain
the bodily strength that he needed and set about conquering the
weaknesses that handicapped him. He secured a set of boxing gloves from
his father, and with great determination went to work to learn how to
defend himself from the other boys in his neighborhood, who were prone
to annoy him because he was an easy victim. He became fond of athletics
of all kinds and was intensely interested in naturalism intending at
one time to make science his life work; and he drilled himself in doing
the things that were difficult for him to do, until, though naturally
somewhat timid or shy, he did not know the meaning of the word fear,
and has been looked on as a prodigy of courage, both physical and
moral.

Roosevelt was popular in Harvard University, and gained a number of
steadfast friends who stood by him throughout his life. He received his
degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1880, and soon after married a girl named
Alice Lee. After a brief trip to Europe, where he climbed the
Matterhorn in Switzerland, he settled down to the study of law in
Columbia University, and at the same time learned its more practical
side in the downtown law offices of a relative.

But Roosevelt had not yet found himself. He had no love for the law,
and cast about for some career in which his natural energy could show
itself to better advantage. He no longer desired to be a naturalist,
for the scientific side of that profession was too sedentary for him.
He had wished to be an author, and for some time had been working on "A
History of the War of 1812," which was published soon after he left
Harvard. But in politics he found the career he was seeking, and soon
became influential in the Republican Club of the assembly district to
which he belonged, where, in spite of the fact that he was considered a
"silk stocking" because he was a gentleman, he gained the liking of the
political bosses and was elected to the State Assembly.

The slightly-built young man wearing glasses and with the reputation of
a college dude was not taken seriously in the Assembly at first, but it
was not long before he had become one of its leaders and a man of
national reputation.

He won fame in his first term by rising one day and demanding that a
certain judge be impeached. He was received with ridicule and laught