dignity that never failed him, and the perfection of manner that has never been surpassed by any incumbent of the White House.

I once saw him come down the main stairway to greet a distinguished Archbishop who was to be a luncheon guest. A small dog had arrived that morning from Oyster Bay and had not yet seen the head of the family. The joy of the little animal was so overwhelming as his master came down the stairs that, forgetting everything, the President was on the floor with the dog while the Archbishop stood at at-. tention eight or ten feet away. But Mr. Roosevelt was himself again as President in fifteen seconds, and the Archbishop enjoyed and perfectly understood the boyishness of the nation's head; for the Archbishop, though an old man, had a boyish heart and knew the President well as a man whose sense of propriety was never really at fault.

I remember on another occasion a conversation with the most experienced of the White House ushers. This man had been attached to the White House staff through a number of administrations. He was waiting for the President to come down to breakfast, and with a sweeping remark that was complimentary about former incumbents of the White House, he went on to say:

"But there was never any man here like this man. He begins earlier; works harder; sees more people, and puts in longer hours than anybody who has ever been President. Yet he is never tired, no matter how late he works; and he always comes down the stairs in the morning looking as fresh as the dew on the roses! And he steps up to me and says, 'Well, Dhow is everything about the place? If anything is going wrong just let me know and we will have it

straightened out at once." " At that moment the President came down the stairs with a firm tread, a clear eye, and a radiant smile, justifying everything that the admiring usher had said.

His marvelous executive ability was due in great part to the habit he had formed of constant industry and of perfect concentration of mind. Many people can accomplish a creditable amount of work if undisturbed and if allowed to work consecutively at one thing. Mr. Roosevelt could not only work without being sensitive to disturbances, but he could turn rapidly from one thing to another, compass each fresh situation, and bring to bear his whole power of decision. I have seen him for many hours at a time working at his desk in the White House offices, dealing with a great number of matters that were of vastly different degrees of importance. It need not be said that things which for one reason or another could not be settled were not rashly disposed of merely for the sake of clearing his desk. But if the case was in hand, he did not hesitate. He was never groping in the valley of indecision. His was neither the parliamentary temperament nor the judicial temperament, but it was in the highest sense that of the executive. He could lay out his work and perform it.

A President who is not only willing, but anxious, to see people will not be left in solitude. Mr. Roosevelt, who could have had a third term with an overwhelming endorsement of the country but for his own firm resistance, did not step down to private life with the sense of relief that men feel who are fatigued and overburdened. He was able to say that he "liked his job" and that he had had a "corking good time." This is perfectly true; and it was due to a remarkable power of adjustment and balance. Mr. Roosevelt had

been busy, buoyant and happy in a number of previous periods when doing different kinds of work.

He lived in the White House what for him was a normal existence. While public affairs of great moment had their full claim on his time and effort and were never neglected, he had also time for family life, for recreation, for reading and study, and for the stimulus and pleasure of social intercourse. During all these years in the White House there was probably no family in the United States that enjoyed a more agreeable domestic life, with due regard for privacy, with vast attention to reading and to the processes of education, and with constant devotion to the proper requirements of sport and recreation.

Mr. Roosevelt's knowledge of books in many fields was unsurpassed, while it may be suggested that Mrs. Roosevelt's acquaintance with the best books for children and young people, through practical experience in the domestic circle, was hardly equalled, excepting perhaps by a few specialists having charge of children's rooms in our public libraries.

President Roosevelt found so much zest in his daily exercise that it ministered undoubtedly to his efficiency as a public servant. While dealing with matters of the utmost delicacy and importance through the earlier hours of the day, it was no unusual thing for him to have the telephone busy in arranging to have three members of his so-called Tennis Cabinet present at exactly four o'clock. His exercise was usually vigorous, and always taken in a systematic way, leaving him with ample time for the other parts of his daily program.

At a given hour in the forenoon, the folding doors from his private office opened upon a large company of people assembled in the adjoining Cabinet Room.