The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt | Page 2

Johnston Emergency hospital, Milwaukee, where his wound is dressed. At 12:30 o'clock he is taken on a special train to Chicago, then to Mercy hospital.
October 15, 1912--Schrank is arraigned in District court, Milwaukee, and admits having fired the shot. He is bound over to Municipal court for preliminary hearing.
October 18, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt passes crisis in Mercy hospital, Chicago.
October 21, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt leaves Chicago for his home at Oyster Bay, R.I.
October 22, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt reaches home after a trip not seriously impairing his condition.
October 26, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt takes first walk out of doors.
October 27, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt celebrates his fifty-fourth birthday.
October 30, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt speaks to an audience of 16,000 in Madison Square Garden, New York, over 30,000 having been turned away. He is given an ovation lasting forty-five minutes.
November 1, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt again speaks to an audience filling Madison Square Garden. But for his request that it cease so that he could speak, the ovation would have exceeded that of October 30.
November 3, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt makes his last campaign speech at Oyster Bay, R.I.
November 5, 1912--Ex-President Roosevelt votes at Oyster Bay, R.I.
November 12, 1912--John Flammang Schrank pleads guilty to assault with intent to murder before Judge August C. Backus in Municipal court, Milwaukee. Judge Backus appoints a commission of five Milwaukee alienists to determine, as officers of the court, Schrank's sanity.
November 14, 1912--The sanity commission begins examinations of Schrank.
November 22, 1912--The sanity commission reports to Judge A. C. Backus in Municipal court, Milwaukee, that Schrank is insane and was insane at the time he shot ex-President Roosevelt. Schrank is committed to the Northern Hospital for the Insane at Oshkosh, Wis. Judge Backus in making the commitment orders that in the event of recovery Schrank shall face trial on the charge of assault with intent to kill.
November 25, 1912--Schrank is taken to the Northern Hospital for the Insane, Oshkosh, Wis., by deputies from the office of the sheriff of Milwaukee county.
CHAPTER I.
THE SHOT IS FIRED.
RELATED BY HENRY F. COCHEMS AFTER THE SHOOTING.
At 8:10 o'clock on the night of Oct. 14, 1912, an attempt was made to assassinate Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in the city of Milwaukee. Col. Roosevelt had dined at the Hotel Gilpatrick with the immediate members of his traveling party. The time having arrived to leave for the Auditorium, where he was due to speak, he left his quarters, and, emerging from the front of the hotel, crossing the walk, stepped into a waiting automobile.
Instantly that he appeared a wild acclaim of applause and welcome greeted him. He settled in his seat, but, responsive to the persistent roar of the crowd, which extended in dense masses for over a block in every direction, he rose in acknowledgement, raising his hat in salute.
At this instant there cracked out the vicious report of a pistol shot, the flash of the gun showing that the would-be assassin had fired from a distance of only four or five feet.
Instantly there was a wild panic and confusion. Elbert E. Martin, one of Col. Roosevelt's stenographers, a powerful athlete and ex-football player, leaped across the machine and bore the would-be assassin to the ground. At the same moment Capt. A. O. Girard, a former Rough Rider and bodyguard of the ex-President, and several policemen were upon him. Col. Roosevelt's knees bent just a trifle, and his right hand reached forward on the door of the car tonneau. Then he straightened himself and reached back against the upholstered seat, but in the same instant he straightened himself, he again raised his hat, a reassuring smile upon his face, apparently the coolest and least excited of any one in the frenzied mob, who crowding in upon the man who fired the shot, continued to call out:
"Kill him, kill him."
I had stepped into the car beside Col. Roosevelt, about to take my seat when the shot was fired. Throwing my arm about the Colonel's waist, I asked him if he had been hit, and after Col. Roosevelt saying in an aside, "He pinked me, Harry," called out to those who were wildly tearing at the would-be assassin:
"Don't hurt him; bring him to me here!"
The sharp military tone of command was heard in the midst of the general uproar, and Martin, Girard and the policemen dragged Schrank toward where Mr. Roosevelt stood. Arriving at the side of the car, the revolver, grasped by three or four hands of men struggling for possession, was plainly visible, and I succeeded in grasping the barrel of the revolver, and finally in getting it from the possession of a detective. Mr. Martin says that Schrank still had his hands on the revolver at that time. The Colonel then said:
"Officers, take charge of him, and see that there is no violence done to him."
The crowd had quickly cleared from in front of the automobile, and we