More on the Roosevelt Assassination Attempt

A recent article reminded me of one of my favorite historical incidences, the attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt.

This is one of those events that is utterly inconcievable today: though he had been shot in the chest, he refused medical attention and demanded to give the speech he had arrived to make. He carried on extemporaneously for 50 minutes waving the bloodied notes of the speech he was going to make before finally heading to the hospital.

Here is a search for all articles from the New York Times historical archives that contain “Roosevelt” for October 15, 1912, the day after the assassination attempt.

Some of the highlights:

SPEECH ROOSEVELT MADE WHILE WOUNDED.; Talking for 50 Minutes, Without Waiting for His Wound to Be Dressed, the Colonel Says He is Uninterested in Whether He is Shot or Not, and That His Concern is for Many Other Things and Not in the Least for His Own Life.

MILWAUKEE, Oct. 14. — Col. Roosevelt spoke fifty minutes at the Auditorium after being wounded.

Bullet In Right Breast, Doctors Say Wound Is Not Serious.; LUNG NOT PENETRATED

MILWAUKEE, October 14. — Col. Theodore Roosevelt was shot and wounded in the right breast in front of the Hotel Gilpatrick shortly before 8 o’clock to-night. Col. Roosevelt was about to enter his automobile to go to the Auditorium for his evening address, when a man rushed up and fired at close range.

Manly stuff.

Incidentally, I recently discovered that Martin Scorsese is making a movie based on probably the best book ever written about him, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. The book chronicles Roosevelt’s life up to the time he became president upon McKinley’s assassination.