Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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| he looks fine as host. I can almost hear my woman reader say, “What do they eat at a White House breakfast?” Oatmeal, eggs and bacon, coffee and rolls—there is one morning’s menu. I don’t think they would object to my telling, and I like to think that in thousands of homes all over our land they are sharing the President’s breakfast, as it were. It brings us all so much nearer together, and that is where we belong. That was why I told of the children’s play. And if there is any who thinks that his sporting with the little ones when it is the hour of play makes him any less fitted for the work he has to do for all of us,—why, he never made a bigger mistake. Ask the politicians and the place-seekers who come to see him in the early hours of the afternoon, and hear what they think of it. |
| From breakfast to luncheon the President is in his office, seeing the people who come from everywhere to shake hands, or with messages for the Chief Magistrate. |
| Along in the afternoon the horses are brought up and the President goes riding with Mrs. Roosevelt or alone. Once I heard him tempt Secretary Root to go, and the Secretary |