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Show , ! , ! ROOSEVELT'S ranch cabin! if! ISSr EXHIBITED Iljj'j Spoclal to The Tribune. (J j, ST. LOUIS, April 215. One, of the ob- I l jects of greatest contemporary Interest l( j i( at the World's Fnir Is tho log bouse In ,f' Ml' which Thoodore Roosevelt lived for two i ; or three years, in Billing; county. North . I J 1 ' Dakota, when ho was a ranchman and f cowboy. This old ranch house was I ' i , . purchased by the Statu ,o North Da- m 1 1 1 fcota and has been removed to St. J j ! Louis, whore it Ss.set up In the space J occupied by that State on the lloor of 5- ' the Palace of Agriculture. The house is built of logs, with a sou , roof, and is twenty-four feet long- and ' . fourteen feet wide. It contains three u M, rooms and an attic. One of the rooms IJ s was occupied by the future President l ! ns a bedroom Another was used as a living room, and the third was the kitchen. In the attic slept the men employed em-ployed by Mr. Roosevelt to assist him in bundling his range cattle. Searching- for Biff Game. In the early fall of 1883 Roosevelt, then 25 years of age and already In politics as a member of the New York Legislature, went to Medora. N D., In search of big game. Then, as now. Roosevelt was an eager sportsman. Up to the year before, that section o coun-trv coun-trv had been wild land. Two huuterf?, Joe and Sylvane Ferris, had built a hunting shack not far from Medora, on land which was occupied shortly by piitttemen from Minnesota, who put a herd of stock on the range land there. Their brand was the Mullesc cross, and that becamo the namo of the rancn When Rosevclt arrived Joe Ferns took him south on a buffalo hunt. Mr Kooaevelt realized the value of the "bad lands," as that region Is called, for a cattle country, and when he returned to the shack he bought the Maltese cross herd and other cuttle, engaging Joo Sylvane and A. W. Merrificld to handle them for him. "This ain't much of a shack you boys have got here," remarked Roosevelt, one day. "We'd better turn to and build something bettor. I expect to be here quite a while." The men sot to work, Ttoosevelt himself him-self lending a hand when needed, and built the commodious log house which has become plcluresquely historic. Roosevelt Installed himself in the downstairs bedroom, the rest of the men sleeping In tho attic, which was gained by a ladder poked through a hole In the kitchen celling. J Lived in tho Log1 House. 1 Young Roosevelt wont hack to New York to spend the greater part of the winter, returning to Medora in the spring of 1SS4. He remained there all through the summer and fall, living In the log house, except while absent on u hunting trip in the Big Horn mountains moun-tains and In New York when he went home to vote Sylvane Ferris says Roosevelt remained on the ranch until after Christmas that year. "The next May." says Ferris, I "Rooyovelt came back and accompanied me to the round-up as a common cowboy. cow-boy. He Insisted that we show him no favors because ho was a cattlo owner, but he took pot luck with the boys, Bharlng all our hardships. Atlcr helping help-ing us with tho round-up he stayed two months at the Maltese Cross ranch," "I'd like more quiet," Roosevelt ro-marked ro-marked one day to the Ferris brothers, and shortly thereafter he had built on the lilkhorn ranch, thirty-live miles north of Medora, a morc pretentious house, which ho occupied during the remainder re-mainder of his stay in North Dakota, This larger house long ago was torn down. It was built by two old hunting friends of Roosevelt from Maine, mimed Dow and Scwull. Becamo Deputy Sheriff. "While living In the Maltese Cross ranch house, Roosevelt was appointed a deputy sheriff for Billings County, and did good service In that capacity. He also did much writing, the Ferris boys say. while he lived In the log house. Near the house was a lull butte called Chimney butte, from Its resemblance resem-blance to a chimney. Roosevelt named his place "Chimney Butte Ranch," 1nt the name did not stick, owing to the fact that the cowboys cow-boys Insisted on calling It by the name of the cattlo brand the Maltese oroas. Roosevelt dated his book entitled "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman" from Chimney Butte ranch. As a matter of course the Ferrlsos and others who knew Roosevelt Intimately Inti-mately In those days have many tales to toll of his deeds during his Dakota ranch life. The old cabin Itself lelbJ one tale, by means of a Maltese cross formed by empty cartridge- shells which Roosevelt himself drove Into the end of one of the logs Just outside his bedroom. bed-room. This cross still remains, and is nn object of interest to World's Fair visitors. Articles Used by Owner. ' Many articles used by Roosevelt during dur-ing his ranch llfo have been collected for exhibition in the cabin. The rooms ore furnished as they were In those days. Among the articles used by Mr. Roosevelt at tho ranch, which have been secured by the North Dakota commission com-mission for this purpose are his heavy Sharp's buffalo rllle. his sealskin shaps, his tan leather hunting boots, the rubber rub-ber bag which he used to carry li s wearing apparel while hunting, his overalls, a straw hat that he wore, his mi 1 mil 11 1 mi 11 1 n iiuw llliw 1 ill II" big rocking chairs and other articles all of which he gave to friends when he departed to make his permanent home In his native State and become a national na-tional figure. It will be seen from this list of articles arti-cles that the ypung Roosevelt, though capable of enduring the hardships of plains life when he felt HkMTTTlf many luxuries while at him In hull house. The sealskin shaps it were the envy of his associates cwfi may be described as an over-kiroH or legglns worn by cowboys to Si their lcgrf from the wind As 9 1 1 shaps are of ordinary leather |