ives. Detective Gallagher of Chicago seized Czolgosz's hand, tore away the handkerchief and took the revolver. The artillerymen, seeing the revolver in Gallagher's hand, rushed at him and handled him rather roughly. Meanwhile Ireland and the negro held the assassin, endeavoring to shield him from the attacks of the infuriated artillerymen and the blows of the policemen's clubs. Supported by Detective Geary and President Milburn, and surrounded by Secretary George B. Cortelyou and a half a dozen exposition officials, the President was assisted to a chair. His face was white, but he made no outery. He had been under fire before-in his youth when he was fighting for his country. He was brave as a young man and he had lost none of his courage. The President sank back with one hand holding his abdomen, the other fumbling at his breast. His eyes were open and he was clearly conscious of all that had transpired. He was suffering the most intense pain, but true to his noble nature his first thought was of others—one other in particular, his wife. He looked up into President Milburn's face and gasped: "Cortelyou." The President's secretary bent over him. "Cortelyou," said the Presi dent, "my wife, be careful about her. Don't let her know." His next thought was of the cruel assassin who had struck him down. Moved by a paroxysm he writhed to the left, and then his eyes fell on the prostrate form of Czolgosz, lying on the floor bloody and helpless beneath the blows of the police, soldiers, and detectives. The President raised his right hand, red with his own blood, and placed it on the shoulder of his secretary. "Let no one hurt him," he gasped, and sank back in his chair, while the guards carried Czolgosz out of his sight. The ambulance from the exposition hospital was summoned immedi. ately, and the President, still conscious, sank upon the stretcher. Secretary Cortelyou and President Milburn rode with him in the ambulance, and in nine minutes after the shooting the President was waiting the arrival of surgeons, who had been summoned from all sections of the city and by special train from Niagara Falls. One bullet struck the Chief Magistrate on the breast, was deflected by a bone and was soon after extracted without having done much damage, and the other inflicted a wound that appeared to be mortal. It penetrated the abdomen and could not be found. The would-be as sassin had evidently aimed for the heart. As the first bullet struck Mr. McKinley he lifted himself slightly on his toes, with something like a gasp. This movement caused the second bullet to enter the abdomen. With the second shot the President doubled slightly forward and then sank back. Detective Geary caught him in his arms and with the aid of John G. Milburn, president of the exposition, supported him as he was assisted to a chair, surrounded by Secretary George B. Cortelyou and numerous exposition officers. Whenever the President was moved his agony was extreme. The assassin had hardly fired the second shot when he was seized and borne to the floor by members of the Seventy-third Company, U. S. A., who had been detailed to the spot. It was only by the hardest kind of work that the man was brought out alive from the seething mass of enraged men, who sought to end his miserable life on the spot. The soldiers and police finally forced back the crowd and got the prisoner into a side room. The throng outside the Temple soon swelled to 50,000. Cries of "Lynch him!" started several rushes to the doors, but these the guards were able to break up. In a few moments detectives slipped the prisoner out and into a carriage and got him to police headquarters, but troops were obliged to clear a path for the vehicle through the crowd, which sought to get the prisoner away from his guards. The wounded President was swiftly conveyed to the emergency hospital of the exposition, and was on the surgeon's table in eighteen minutes. The President consulted his secretary, Cortelyou, as to the competency of the surgeons, and being assured they were of high standing, took ether, saying: "I am in your hands." The New York Medical Journal, after the termination of the case said: "At the time of his assassination President McKinley was probably in better physical condition than most men of his age who lead a sedentary life. So far as is known he was free from all organic disease, though his vitality may have been somewhat impaired by the fearful mental strain to which the duties of his office and its responsibilities and anxieties had long subjected him. "He was suddenly cut down by a cruel wound, but he bore it bravely, and there was little of the condition known as shock. This freedom from shock was correctly interpreted as showing that no considerable internal hemorrhage was going on. Without delay he was taken to a well equipped hospital and attended by surgeons of world-wide reputation and vast experience. The operation itself was performed by an exceedingly capable surgeon, who was assisted by others equally capable. It is certain that there was no technical fault in the operation, and it may be said with equal positiveness that it would have verged on madness to prolong the search for the bullet after it had been ascertained that it had not inflicted any very grave injury beyond that of the stomachascertained, that is to say, within the limitations of warrantable efforts. "The operation having been finished without seriously taxing the distinguished patient's vital powers, there followed at least five days of freedom from serious symptoms. This we say with full appreciation of the fact that the record of the pulse and respiration seemed ominous, for the high rate might have been due to any one of a number of condi tions not in themselves of grave import. The hopeful view was taken, and quite naturally, that it could be so explained. It is easy to be so wise after the event and to say that in this respect the surgeons were in error; err they certainly did, as the result shows, but to err in such a way argues no incapacity or avoidable lack of judgment-it simply, we repeat, illustrates the fact that the medical man is not a perfect being. "Gangrene was probably established two or three days before the fatal issue followed, but it could hardly have occurred very early without giving rise to more disquieting phenomena than augmentation of the pulse and respiration rates, which, as we have said before, might well have been due to some comparatively unimportant disturbance. To the wound of the kidney we attribute little importance further than arises from the fact that it made one more traumatic surface to become gangrenous." Nearly the whole nation partook of the error of the surgeons in being too hopeful. It seemed almost incredible for several days, though the wound was manifestly serious, that the President would not recover. He partook of the general feeling, asked for the news, asked for a newspaper and a cigar, and insisted upon asking his secretary for news of the world's affairs. The following official bulletins show the character of them without exception up to the relapse in the night, and that meant death was close at hand: Buffalo, September 8.-The public will be kept fully advised of the actual condition of the President. Each bulletin is carefully and conservatively prepared and is an authoritative statement of the most important features of the case at the hour it is issued. The people are entitled to the facts and shall have them. George B. Cortelyou, Secretary to the President. 3:20 a. m.-The President has passed a fairly good night; pulse, 122; temperature, 102.4°; respiration, 24. P. M. Rixey, H. Mynter. Geo. B. Cortelyou, Secretary to the President. 9 a. m.-The President passed a good night and his condition this morning is quite encouraging. His mind is clear and he is resting well; wound dressed at 8:30 and found in a very satisfactory condition. There is no indication of peritonitis. Pulse, 132; temperature, 102.8°; respiration, 24. P. M. Rixey, M. D. Mann, Roswell Park, Herman Mynter, Geo. B. Cortelyou, Secretary to the President. Eugene Wasdin. 12 m. The improvement in the President's condition has continued since last bulletin; pulse, 128; temperature, 101°; respiration, 27. P. M. Rixey. George B. Cortelyou, Secretary to the President. 4 p. m.-The President since the last bulletin has slept quietly, four hours altogether since 9 o'clock. His condition is satisfactory to all the physicians present. Pulse 128; temperature 101; respiration 28. P. M. Rixey. 9 p. m.-The President is resting comfortably and there is no special change since last bulletin. Pulse, 130; temperature, 101.6; respiration, 30. P. M. Rixey. Eugene Wasdin. Charles McBurney. The President's clothes, worn when he was shot, were removed at the Exposition Hospital, and sent to the Milburn residence, where the pockets were emptied. In his right-hand trousers pocket was some $1.80 in currency. With these coins was a small silver nugget, well worn, as if the President had carried it as a pocket piece for a long time. Three small penknives, pearl-handled, were in the pockets of his trousers. Evidently they were gifts that he prized and was in the habit of carrying all of them. Another battered coin, presumably a pocket piece, was in the left-hand pocket. The President's wallet was well worn and of black leather, about four inches by five. It was not marked with his name. In it was $45 in bills. A number of cards, which evidently had rested in the wallet for some time, were in one of the compartments. In a vest pocket was a silver-shell lead pencil. Three cigars were found. They were not the black perfectos which the President liked, but were short ones that had been given to him at Niagara Falls that day. On two of them he had chewed, much as General Grant used to bite a cigar. The President's watch was an open-faced gold case American-made timekeeper. Attached to it was the gold chain which the President always wore. No letters, telegrams or papers were found. There was not on the President's person a single clue to his identity, unless it was to be found in the cards in his wallet, which were not examined. The President's shirt was cut where the surgeons had ripped it from him in hastily preparing for the operating table. The following is the official report of the autopsy: "The bullet which struck over the breastbone did not pass through the skin, and did little harm. The other bullet passed through both walls of the stomach near its lower border. Both holes were found to be perfectly closed by the stitches, but tissue around each hole had become gangrenous. After passing through the stomach the bullet passed into the back walls of the abdomen, hitting and tearing the upper end of the kidney. This portion of the bullet's track was also gangrenous, the gangrene involving the pancreas. The bullet never was found. "There was no sign of peritonitis or disease of other organs. The heart walls were very thin. There was no evidence of any attempt at repair on the part of nature, and death resulted from the gangrene, |