e just a little afraid he
would pass them by. When the meeting was over, they went off as happy as
a lot of children, and one of them said, 'Say, fellows, Teddy's just all
right yet, ain't he?' And another answered: 'Told you he would be. He's
a white man through and through, none whiter anywhere.'"

The banquet was held in the Auditorium Theatre building, and was said to
be the largest ever given in Chicago. Many distinguished guests were
present, both from the North and the South, and the place was a mass of
flowers and brilliantly illuminated, while a fine orchestra discoursed
music during the meal. When Theodore Roosevelt arose to speak, there was
cheering that lasted fully a quarter of an hour.

The speech made upon this occasion is one not likely to be forgotten.
Previous to that time the word "strenuous" had been heard but seldom,
but ever since it has stood for something definite, and is much in use.
In part Mr. Roosevelt spoke as follows:--

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of
the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labor and strife; to
preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who
desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shirk from danger,
from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the
splendid ultimate triumph."

Another paragraph is equally interesting and elevating:--

"We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies
victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt
to help a friend; but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in
the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail; but it is worse
never to have tried to succeed."

And to this he adds:--

"As it is with the individual so it is with the nation. It is a base
untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice
happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better is it to
dare mighty things to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by
failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy
much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows
neither victory nor defeat."[1]

[Footnote 1: For other extracts from this speech, see Appendix A, p.
297.]

[Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt]

CHAPTER XXI

THE CONVENTION AT PHILADELPHIA--THEODORE ROOSEVELT SECONDS THE
NOMINATION OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY--BECOMES CANDIDATE FOR