MR. ROOSEVELT SHOT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1572, 16 October 1912, Page 7

MR. ROOSEVELT SHOT.

WOUNDED IN THE BREASTMAKES SPEECH WITH BULLET IN HIS BODY. DEMENTED MAN'S ACT. By felcfrrapli—Press Association -Copyritrlit (Rec. October 15, 9.30 p.m.) New York, October 15. Mr. Roosevelt has been shot by a demented man at Milwaukee and wounded in the breast. The attack was made outside his hotel as he was on his way to deliver n political address in the Milwaukee Auditorium. Mr. Roosevelt refused to allow the doctors to examine him, and proceeded to tho auditorium, where ho spoke to a huge meeting with the bullet still in his body. Towards the end of his address he became weak from the loss of blood and Was removed to a temporary hospital. ' When an announcement, was made during tho meeting that Mr.- Roosevelt had been shot, the audience was thrown into a state of panic. The chairman, however, begged the crowd to remain calm, and Mr. Roosevelt continued his speech. The audience cheered him frantically when, he refused to sit down. On an examination being made at the hospital the wound was stated not to be a fatal one. Mr. Roosevelt himself declares that too much fuss was being tnade' over a trifling matter. The ex-President's assailant was a man named John- Shrank, a resident of New York. Tho mob tried to lynch him after tho shooting, but were prevented by the police. \ . When arrested Shrank declared that atiy man seeking a third term as President ought to bo shot. He was searched at tho police station and documents found in his possession stating that ho had had a dream in which the late President M'Kihley's spirit visited him- tyid indicated Mr. Roosevelt as M'lCinlev's murderer, and asked Shrank to take vengeance on him. The man is undoubtedly crazy. . . ' ; Mrs. Roosevelt heard tho news while sne was attending a theatre in New York. AMERICA'S POPULAR HERO, ' GOOD OLD TEDDY. Mr ; Roosevelt (says a recent writer in the .Daily News') has made more noise ill tile world than any iiwin of his time. He is a megaphone whose very whisper sounds like hoarse thunder, and when he shouts, which not infrequently happens, ho is heard all round the seven seas. We luiow.him'ns we kntiV Punch (ind Judy— by tile thwack of his blows,'the crack" in his voice, Hie gleam of his teeth. His smile has become a legend like the fatness of Ealstaff or the squint of Wilkes. His huge laughter conies to us like a gale from the West; his jokes, his insults, his platitudes are as fnuiiliar as the latest jingle from tho Gaiety. He is the lion comique cn the world's stage s and when he roars we hold our sides'-and revel in his quips. "We've beaten them to a frazzle," he shouts when he is backing Mr. Taft, and the word delights two worlds. "My hat's in tho • ring," lie cries when he comes out to destroy his old friend, and the, hemispheres prepare to enjoy the spectacle of tho Two Macs chasing each other round the ropes with shouts nnd blows. He is tho Playboy of the Western World, rough, boisterous,' rollicking, sending his barbaric yawp over the roof of the world.

No man ever chrried the arts! of'Vthe demagogue so'far or achieved so much by them. The uewspapers may rage against him, tile Machine may work to overthrow him. He shouts , them all down, and wins by sheer high spirits and effrontery. "Boys, I have had a bully time," ho says to- the reporters who crowd around him, and the great heart of America throbs to that note of democracy. "Good old Teddy," shouts the crowd as his train comes to a standstill on his whirlwind campaigns. "Bully for you," replies "Teddy, aiid the victory is won.

"By. George! I am dee-lighted," is his universal welcome, and tlie expletive, prim enough for New England and jovial enough for the West, establishes him as the man of the people—frank, cordial, honest as the <tay, and not "too bright and good for htiman nature's daily food." He is tlie man

who hails you Tom or Jack, And proves by thumping on your back How he esteems your merit. And if, on the other hand, he calls men liars, and invents the "Ananias Club," lo which he consigns Senator Tillman nnd anyone who happens to stand in his way —well, that only shows what a blunt, straight-spoken fellow he is, and how thoroughly he may be trusted. And there is a breezy good'htnnour even about his brutalities that almost redeems them.

"The editor of your paper," ho said to a reporter who called to interview him, "is on infamous scoundrel and an unmitigated liar. Yes, sir, wlhit he is; but I know you can't help it. All heaven and earth couldn't keep him from being what /he is. Be good enough to tell him I said this. Now blaze away and I'll do the best I-can for you."

'When, after "a perfectly corking time," as President lie went lion-hunting in Africa, he returned through Egypt and Europe, preaching and lecturing wherever he went. No consideration .of etiquette or propriety could muzzle him. At Cairo he was advised, not to refer to the murder of the Prime Minister. "No," he said, "that is just what I want to say. If you don't care about it let's call the engagement off." At the Guildhall, as the guest of the City—and in the presence of the Foreign Secretarj-—he told us how we wero mismanaging Egypt, where he had spent about a week, and suggested that if we did not do the business on his lines we ought to get out. "You have erred," he said, ''and it is—for you (falsetto) lo— make good—your—error." , Wo took the impertinence with meekness; and then, chastened and reflective, went to lunch with him at tho Mansion House. At the Soi'bomic he told France a few things necessary to its salvation; at Berlin he explained to Europe that Rome .fell because.thc Roman citizens would not fight; at Budapest he delivered an oration on Hungary, before the fervour aiul inac-. curacy of which the most glowing utterances of the most extreme Magyar deputies paled into impartiality.

ASSASSINATED PRESIDENTS. During his terms as President, Mr. Roosevelt was frequently approached by mentally deranged persons, who wished to take his life, but their attempts were frustrated by the ample guard of secret service police whoso duty it is to watch over tlie safety of tho President.

Three of the twenty-seven Presidents of the United States—Lincoln, Garfield, and M'Kinley—were assassinated while in office. Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1805, from a pistol shot fired by John Wilkes Booth, who was killed near Fredericksburg, Va., on April 2G, 1805, by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Garfield was shot in the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881, aiid died at Elberon, Long Branch, N.J., on September Ift, 1881. The assassin was Charles Jules Guiteau, who was hanged nt Washington, D.C., on J)iue 30. 1882. M'Kinley was shot twice on September G, 1901, while in tho Temple of Music of the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, N.Y., and died from his wounds nt tho home of John CI. Milbum, Buffalo, on September 14, 1001. The assassin was Louis Czolgosz, who was electrocuted at Auburn State Prison, Now York, on October 2!), 1901.