Public-domain ebook
by Remey, Oliver E.; Bloodgood, Wheeler P.; Cochems, Henry F.
Language: en3,854 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - American·History - Modern (1750+)·History - Warfare
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #21261.
The work is a contemporaneous historical narrative of the October 1912 attempt on former President Theodore Roosevelt’s life, compiled by three men who were directly involved in the incident: Henry F. Cochems, then chairman of the Progressive Party’s national speakers’ bureau and a passenger in Roosevelt’s car; Wheeler P. Bloodgood, a Wisconsin Progressive delegate; and Oliver E. Remey, city editor of the Milwaukee Free Press. The opening chronologically lists the key moments, from the shot fired by John Flammang Schrank outside the Gilpatrick Hotel, through Roosevelt’s rapid transport to hospitals in Milwaukee, Chicago, and finally his return to Oyster Bay, to the series of speeches he delivered despite the wound. The narrative proceeds with a vivid, first‑person account of the shooting, describing the chaotic crowd, the swift subduing of Schrank, and Roosevelt’s calm, blood‑stained appearance as he insisted on speaking to a packed auditorium.
Written in the brisk, reportage style of early‑20th‑century journalism, the book blends factual chronology with the personal recollections of its three editors, preserving the language and rhetorical flourishes of the era. Its voice is that of eyewitnesses who emphasize Roosevelt’s stoic determination and the political stakes of the Progressive campaign. Readers who enjoy detailed primary‑source accounts of American political history, the Progressive era, or the dramatic intersection of personal bravery and public spectacle will find this account compelling. It also appeals to those fascinated by the mechanics of early‑1900s media coverage and the way a nation rallied around a wounded leader in real time.
The opening · free to read
This book is written, compiled and edited by Henry F. Cochems, Chairman of the national speakers' bureau of the Progressive party during the 1912 campaign, and who was with Col. Roosevelt in the automobile when the ex-president was shot, Wheeler P. Bloodgood, Wisconsin representative of the National Progressive committee, and Oliver E. Remey, city editor of the Milwaukee Free Press, who necessarily followed all incidents of the shooting closely.
The story told is an historical narrative in the preparation of which accuracy never has been lost sight of.
CHRONOLOGY.
October 14, 1912--At 8:10 o'clock P.M., John Flammang Schrank, of New York, a paranoiac, shoots ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in the right side with a 38-caliber bullet as the ex-President is standing in an automobile in front of Hotel Gilpatrick, Milwaukee. Schrank is immediately arrested, after a struggle to recover the revolver and protect him from violence. Col. Roosevelt, bleeding from his wound, is driven to the Auditorium, Milwaukee, and speaks to an audience of 9,000 for eighty minutes. Immediately after his speech he is taken to the 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.
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 drove through, Col. Roosevelt waving a hand, the crowd now half-hysterical with frenzied excitement.
After rounding the corner I drew the revolver from my overcoat pocket and saw that it was a 38-caliber long which had been fired. As the Colonel looked at the revolver he said:
"A 38-Colt has an ugly drive."
Mr. McGrath, one of the Colonel's secretaries riding at his right side, said:
"Why, Colonel, you have a hole in your overcoat. He has shot you."
"I know I am good now; I don't know how long I may be. This may be my last talk in this cause to our people, and while I am good I am going to drive to the hall and deliver my speech."
By the time we had arrived at the hall the shock had brought a pallor to his face. On alighting he walked firmly to the large waiting room in the back of the Auditorium stage, and there Doctors Sayle, Terrell and Stratton opened his shirt, exposing his right breast.
Just below the nipple of his right breast appeared a gaping hole. They insisted that under no consideration should he speak, but the Colonel asked:
"Has any one a clean handkerchief?"
Some one extending one, he placed it over the wound, buttoned up his clothes and said:
"Now, gentlemen, let's go in," and advanced to the front of the platform.
I, having been asked to present him to the audience, after admonishing the crowd that there was no occasion for undue excitement, said that an attempt to assassinate Col. Roosevelt had taken place; that the bullet was still in his body, and that he would attempt to make his speech as promised.
As the Colonel stepped forward, some one in the audience said audibly:
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