ything had to be as
shipshape as if we were at West Point. And it was a good thing, too, for
it kept the sickness from spreading."

The sea-breeze is strong at Montauk, and this soon began to tell upon
all who were sick, putting in them new life and vigor. Here every
possible attention was given to those who were down, so that ere long
many were up again and as well as ever.

When he had a little time to himself, Theodore Roosevelt would gather a
few friends around him, and either go to the beach to bathe or go off on
a long horseback ride. War was to him a thing of the past, and he was
once more willing to become a private citizen as of old.

In those days the camp at Montauk was constantly crowded with visitors
from New York City and elsewhere, who poured in upon every train. All of
the soldiers who had been to Cuba were hailed as heroes, and had to tell
their stories many times.

"Every soldier had a crowd following him," said one private. "The
visitors wanted to know how we had fought, how we had been treated by
the government, how things looked in Cuba, and a hundred and one
other things. Most of the visitors, especially the ladies, wanted our
autographs, and I had to write mine as many as forty times a day. I
remember one of the men, a cowboy from Oklahoma, couldn't write, and he
got so upset over this that every time somebody asked him for his
autograph he would run away, saying he had forgotten to do something
that he had been ordered to do. When I and some chums went down to New
York to look around, all the folks stared at us, and many insisted on
shaking hands and treating."

[Illustration: COLONEL ROOSEVELT AT MONTAUK POINT. (_Photograph by Pach
Bros., New York._)]

The uniforms the Rough Riders had worn in Cuba were in rags, and many
had boarded the transport barefooted. The rags were saved as trophies of
the occasion, and many are still in existence.

At Camp Wykoff, as the place was called, there was a large hospital for
the sick, and to this many came to do what they could for the sufferers,
who were now given every possible attention. Among the visitors was Miss
Helen Gould, who had used her ample means for the benefit of the sick
all through the war, and who now continued to play the good Samaritan.
President McKinley and many of his cabinet likewise visited the camp,
and saw to it that everything in the hospital and out of it was as it
should be. The sick were presented with the best of fruits