CHAPTER III.

ROOSEVELT IN THE EMERGENCY.

After Colonel Roosevelt had finished speaking at the Auditorium, the
effect of the shock and loss of blood from the shot, was quite manifest
in his appearance. Despite this fact, however, he walked with firm step
to an automobile waiting at the rear of the big hall, and guarded by a
group of friends, was driven rapidly to the Johnston Emergency
hospital. Preparation had there been made for a careful examination and
for treatment by Dr. Scurry L. Terrell, who attended Col. Roosevelt
during his entire trip, Dr. R. G. Sayle and Dr. T. A. Stratton, both of
Milwaukee.

At the hospital, Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood, a surgeon of the faculty of
Johns-Hopkins university, was invited into the consultation. The
Colonel's first thought had been to reassure Mrs. Roosevelt and family
against any unnecessary fear, and before he received treatment, he sent
a long reassuring telegram, together with a telegram to Seth Bullock,
whose telegram was one of the first of the stream of telegrams which
began pouring in for news of the patient's condition.

During the preliminary examination of the wound by the doctors in the
Johnston Emergency hospital, preparations were completed to secure
X-ray pictures under the direction of Dr. J. S. Janssen,
Roentgenologist, Milwaukee. Dr. Janssen secured his views and left for
his laboratory to develop the negatives.

While these negatives were being secured, it was determined by the
doctors that no great additional danger would be incurred if Col.
Roosevelt were moved to a train, and by special train to Chicago, which
plan he had proposed, so that he might be nearer to the center of his
fight. He was moved by ambulance to the train, which left Milwaukee
shortly after midnight.

In the meantime, the completion of the X-ray pictures disclosed the
fact that the bullet laid between the fourth and fifth ribs, three and
one-half inches from the surface of the chest, on the right side, and
later examinations disclosed that it had shattered the fourth rib
somewhat, and was separated by only a delicate tissue from the pleural
cavity.

By a miracle it had spent its force, for had it entered slightly
farther, it would almost to a certainty have ended Col. Roosevelt's
life.

Upon Dr. Janssen's report of the location of the bullet, there was a
period of indecision, during which the train waited, before the
surgeons concluded that the patient might be taken to Chic