Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/124

 92 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS surprise. His entire inexperience led him to mis take the clapping of hands for a conversion of morals; but the approval was only a good-natured and half-ironic encouragement to a young begin ner who seemed in his innocence to be advocating reform, and it went no further the morals and the votes remained as if Mr. Roosevelt had not existed. Nevertheless, he had made an impression. Very soon after this first attempt there was a revolt in his district, the Twenty-first. Dissatisfaction with some of the leaders led to a split, and the party in revolt chose Roosevelt as their candidate to the assembly. The close of 1881 saw Theodore Roosevelt a member of the New York Assembly from the Twenty-first district, and identified so closely with the cause of decent politics, and so plainly a type of clean patriot, as to win from his opponents, the routine politicians, the men with no creed save their pocket, the name of Silk Stockings. With such a name the politicians of the pocket expected that the young reformer s career would be short-lived. To their somewhat limited vision he had everything against him. He was highly educated; he came of a line of forefathers who had been well-to-do, and also public spirited for the sake of the common welfare instead of for their own; and he belonged to what is called Society. These were heavy odds, in their opinion, against a