The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

ROOSEVELT THE PRESIDENT 3g
pardon of an only son, who has committed some offense of a
criminal nature, or in violation of the military laws of the
army or navy of the United States. There is no difference in
his treatment of this woman in black and that accorded to the
great Secretary of State.
CABINET MEETINGS !
On cabinet days, Tuesdays and Fridays of each week,
beginning at eleven o'clock each day, the President sits at the
head of the big cabinet table, and listens while each cabinet
officer brings up matters of importance in his respective
department. The President receives visitors of all classes
between nine and eleven o'clock, and is often engaged for fif-
teen or twenty minutes past the cabinet hour, but he 'receives
all who are waiting for him before he goes in and takes his
seat in the big chair at the head of the cabinet table. A cabi-
net meeting is not such a solemn affair as it has often been
represented. By right of precedent, the Secretary of State is
the first man to bring up before the President and his fellow
cabinet officers any business that he may have to lay before
them. If he has no business, or when he has concluded with
what he has to say, the Secretary of the Treasury, ranking
next in the official family, commences to talk about matters in
his department, and this is the procedure followed unless the
questions under consideration are of unusual or extreme
gravity, when departmental affairs are laid aside and the
President and the entire cabinet discuss the subject which has
been brought forward.
A SPLENDID HORSEMAN
Upon reaching his offices after luncheon in the afternoon,
the President's custom is to see such visitors as are waiting