The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt Part 7

CHAPTER VII.

BACK AT SAGAMORE HILL.

The trip of ex-President Roosevelt from Mercy Hospital, Chicago, to his home at Oyster Bay, beginning the morning of October 21 over the Pennsylvania road is described here by one of the correspondents who traveled with him. Under date of October 21, he wrote at Pittsburg, Pa.:

"On a mellow autumn day whose warmth seemed to breathe a tender sympathy, Col. Roosevelt traveled from Chicago today on his way to Oyster Bay on the most extraordinary trip ever undertaken by a candidate for the presidency.

"Unable because of sheer weakness to show himself on the platform of his private car, the stricken Bull Moose leader, with blinds drawn in his stateroom, listened with throbbing heart to the soft murmuring of eager throngs as they cl.u.s.tered at the stations along the way. As the train rolled into Pittsburg tonight the colonel, shaken up by the jostling of the train, meekly confessed to Dr. Alexander Lambert, his New York physician, who with Dr. Scurry Terrell, are making the trip with him, that he was 'tired out.'

"'I'm going to put in a sound night of sleep,' he sighed, 'I'll be all right again in the morning.'

"The bullet nestling in the colonel's chest and the splintered rib gave him more discomfort than the wounded leader had counted on. As the train jolted at times the ex-President experienced piercing pain. But he bore it without a whimper.

"When night came the physicians agreed that although the tumbling of the train had caused the colonel more worry than he would admit, he would suffer no ill effects.

"The ex-President's leisurely jaunt through Ohio, for he is running upon a twenty-four hour train, was in truth an occasion of tragic quiet. The waiting throngs which half antic.i.p.ated that they would see the plucky third party fighter walk out onto platform of his car, stood in a respectful att.i.tude as they learned that the colonel was unable to see them.

"Almost the whole day the ex-President lay on a soft bed in his state room, reading, or when that grew irksome, dropping into restful slumber. Outside of his family, his stenographer, John Martin and the latter's wife, who boarded the train at Lima, the colonel saw no one.

He asked for quiet, feeling himself that he needed to conserve all the strength at his command for the long run to Oyster Bay.

"The ex-President started his jaunt homeward by fooling the newspaper men in Chicago. At Mercy Hospital the tip was allowed to filter out that the colonel would climb into an automobile at the front entrance.

Camera men adjusted their machines and a flock of newspaper men waited.

"Instead, the ex-President was wheeled to a side door to an automobile ambulance, into which he pulled himself.

"'I fooled them that time,' chuckled the colonel to Dr. Lambert, who climbed in after him.

"While the colonel was driven to the train, Mrs. Roosevelt, Miss Ethel and Theodore, Jr., took an automobile. So as to avoid the crowd at the Pennsylvania depot, the ambulance was taken to the train by way of a yard, the colonel's private car being drawn up for it. Only a few yardmen were there to salute the colonel as he stepped from the ambulance. They raised their hats and one of them cried:

"'Colonel, good luck to you!' Roosevelt lifted his right hand to his hat and gave a military salute."

Concerning the ex-President's appearance in Madison Square Garden, New York, on the night of October 30, a press dispatch said:

"Bearing no outward sign of the bullet in his breast, Theodore Roosevelt tonight hurled himself back into the campaign at Madison Square Garden. He spoke for forty minutes to the biggest meeting he has ever addressed in New York and to one of the greatest gatherings ever seen in that historic auditorium.

"More than 15,000 men and women welcomed him. Another vast crowd waited all evening outside in the hope that they might catch a word or two from the colonel as he departed. They were disappointed, for his physicians, fearing too great a tax on his strength, refused to permit him to make more than one address.

"The crowd inside cheered for forty minutes when Roosevelt, at twenty minutes past 9 o'clock led his guards into the Garden, climbed the steps to the speaker's gallery and stood before them. Bandannas and American flags waved like a moving forest, the shouts of the crowd and the drumming of thousands of heels on the floor drowned the band and every air that has been sung in the campaign from 'Everybody's Doin'

It' to 'Onward, Christian Soldiers,' boomed forth when the enthusiasts, wearied of plain cheering, of mooing like the moose, or of yelling: 'We want Teddy! We want Teddy!'

"The great hall whose galleries and arched ceiling were completely hidden with bunting and huge flags, made a marvelous picture as the colonel, leaning over the speaker's rail, his teeth snapping like a bulldog's, raised his left hand in first greeting.

"For three-quarters of an hour he stood there. Now and then recognizing a friend he would make a dash to the other end of the stand, a distance of twenty feet and wave his hand--always his left--in greeting.

"As he faced first to the left, then to the right, he awakened successive outbursts of cheers, and bandannas and flags were set in motion by sections, till red flushes ran over the crowd like waves.

"The colonel's speech was pitched in a solemn and impressive key. He made no direct allusion to the attack upon him. He made no attack upon any individual among his political foes. He named no names save those of Was.h.i.+ngton, Lincoln, Jefferson and Jackson.

"Deliberately avoiding the line of advance, which was punctuated with applause, he appealed for the votes of his auditors for the progressive cause, making no reference to himself and none to his achievements.

"With cheeks thinner than they were before the attack upon him, but with a brilliant color, with figure st.u.r.dy and erect, and with a voice that reached to every part of the hall, and never once cracked into the falsetto squeak that often characterizes it, the colonel seemed the picture of health. Not at all while he was speaking did he smile. All his gestures, save one or two were made with his left hand which, being farthest removed from the bullet wound, could be moved with impunity.

"Once or twice toward the end he brought his right hand down with a resounding slap on the rail of the speakers stand, but his face gave no indication that the gesture caused him pain. The flashlights which were set off at intervals during the address he faced without wincing.

"Col. Roosevelt was preceded by Senator Dixon, who presided, by Oscar Straus, candidate for governor in New York, and by Governor Johnson of California."

"Col. Roosevelt's physicians went into his state room to see him soon after the train left Englewood. They found him contentedly reading:

"'Col. Roosevelt is resting well and is very comfortable.'

"So well, indeed, was the ex-President that the doctor said he did not bother to take his pulse and temperature."

Col. Roosevelt arrived at Sagamore Hill at 10 o'clock in the morning of October 22.

When the ex-President's physicians left him at dusk they gave out this bulletin, impressing their insistence that Roosevelt devote himself to solid rest:

"Col. Roosevelt has stood the journey well, but, of course, is tired. The wound is still open and oozing. Rest and quiet are essential to him to avoid possibilities of wound infection. He will be able to see no one tonight. While Col. Roosevelt is extremely anxious to take up the work of the campaign we are not willing to say at this time that that will be possible.

"Jos. A. Blake.

"George E. Brewer.

"Alexander S. Lambert.

"Scurry L. Terrell."

The colonel was brought to Sagamore Hill in an auto from Sya.s.set, L.

I., without going to Oyster Bay, in order to avoid any crowd.

Flowers sent to Sagamore Hill by the school children of Na.s.sau county were the only tokens of public welcome for the homecoming.

When he arrived at Sagamore Hill the colonel's wound was dressed and he went to bed at once, with instructions to remain quiet all day. The physicians said the wound showed no ill effects from the trip.

Col. Roosevelt and his secretaries were busy on the train until late in the night of October 21, looking for an old speech of the colonel's on the trusts. This speech had been the basis of recent criticism by William J. Bryan, and after a secretary had unearthed it and Col.

Roosevelt had gone over it he said he intended to reply to Mr. Byran's criticism either in a statement or in a speech.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Automobile in Which Ex-President Roosevelt Stood when Shot.

Crosses Marked Where Col. Roosevelt and Schrank Stood.

George F. Moss, Owner and Driver of Automobile.]

CHAPTER VIII.

ARREST, APPEARS IN COURT.