The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt | Page 4

of his sincerity, his own revelation
of the unselfish quality of his devotion to the greatest movement of his
generation, will be the standard by which history will pass upon
Theodore Roosevelt its final judgment. This much they cannot take
from him, no matter whether he is now to live or to die."
To the men of America, who either love or hate Roosevelt personally,
these words from his speech must carry an imperishable lesson:
"The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech. But
I will try my best.

"And now, friends, I want to take advantage of this incident to say as
solemn a word of warning as I know how to my fellow Americans.
"First of all, I want to say this about myself: I have altogether too many
important things to think of to pay any heed or feel any concern over
my own death.
"Now I would not speak to you insincerely within five minutes of being
shot. I am telling you the literal truth when I say that my concern is for
many other things. It is not in the least for my own life.
"I want you to understand that I am ahead of the game anyway. No man
has had a happier life than I have had--a happier life in every way.
"I have been able to do certain things that I greatly wished to do, and I
am interested in doing other things.
"I can tell you with absolute truthfulness that I am very much
uninterested in whether I am shot or not.
"It was just as when I was colonel of my regiment. I always felt that a
private was to be excused for feeling at times some pangs of anxiety
about his personal safety, but I cannot understand a man fit to be a
colonel who can pay any heed to his personal safety when he is
occupied, as he ought to be occupied, with the absorbing desire to do
his duty.
"I am in this cause with my whole heart and soul; I believe in the
Progressive movement--a movement for the betterment of mankind, a
movement for making life a little easier for all our people, a movement
to try to take the burdens off the man and especially the woman in this
country who is most oppressed.
"I am absorbed in the success of that movement. I feel uncommonly
proud in belonging to that movement.
"Friends, I ask you now this evening to accept what I am saying as
absolute truth when I tell you I am not thinking of my own success, I

am not thinking of my own life or of anything connected with me
personally."
The disabling of Col. Roosevelt at this tragic moment was a great
strategic loss in his campaign. The mind of the country was in a
pronounced state of indecision. He had started at Detroit, Mich., one
week before and had planned to make a great series of sledge hammer
speeches upon every vital issue in the campaign, which plan took him
to the very close of the fight. He had planned to put his strongest
opponent in a defensive position, the effect of which, now that all is
over, no man can measure. Stricken down, an immeasurable loss was
sustained. In the years that lie before, when misjudgment and
misstatements, which are the petty things born of prejudice, and which
die with the breath that gives them life, shall have passed away, this
incident and the soldierly conduct of the brave man who was its victim
will have a real chastening and wholesome historical significance.
[Illustration: Page from Ex-President Roosevelt's Manuscript of Speech
Showing Bullet Holes.]
CHAPTER II.
SPEAKS TO GREAT AUDIENCE.[1]
Standing with his coat and vest opened, holding before him manuscript
of the speech he had prepared to deliver, through which were two
perforations by Schrank's bullet, the ex-President was given an ovation
which shook the mammoth Auditorium, Milwaukee.
[1] Stenographic Report from The Milwaukee Sentinel.
The audience seemed unable to realize the truth of the statement of
Henry F. Cochems, who had introduced Col. Roosevelt, that the
ex-President had been shot. Col. Roosevelt had opened his vest to show
blood from his wound.
Even then many in the audience did not comprehend that they were
witnessing a scene destined to go down in history--an ex-President of

the United States, blood still flowing from the bullet wound of a
would-be assassin, delivering a speech from manuscript perforated by
the bullet of the assailant.
Col. Roosevelt said:
"Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible," he said. "I don't
know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it
takes more than that to kill a bull moose. (Cheers.)