very one he came in contact with was willing to swear allegiance to
the Bull Moose party, and personal allegiance to, the genial Bull Moose
himself. He was so friendly and cordial, so natural and free, so happy
and genial and so inclined to 'jolly' us all that we felt on terms of
intimate friendship with him almost immediately, and yet through all
this freedom of manner he maintained a dignity that never for an
instant let us forget we were in the presence of a great man.

"It is almost unbelievable that he could have been as unruffled and
apparently unconcerned as he was when he really was suffering, and when
he did not know how serious the wound was."

"GOD HELP POOR FOOL."

"I asked the colonel how he felt about the prosecution of the man who
shot him," said Miss White, "and he said, 'I've not decided yet, but
God help the poor fool under any circumstances!' and the tone he used
was one of kindly sympathy and sincerity, and without one trace of
malice or sarcasm.

"He seemed kindly interested in everything that any one said to him.
Miss Elvine Kucko, one of our nurses, shook hands with him when he was
about to go and said she was sorry the shooting had happened in our
city. The colonel consoled her by saying it might have happened
anywhere. I broke in with a remark to the effect that he would have
felt even worse had it been perpetrated by a Milwaukeean, and that we
were glad it was a New Yorker who did the deed.

"'You cruel little woman!' the patient ejaculated, and I remembered
then that New York was the ex-President's state."

When he was ready to go, Miss White offered him a sealed envelope and
told him his cuff buttons, shirt studs and collar buttons were in it.

"No, you can't do that with me," he said, "I want to see! I don't
intend to get down to Chicago without the flat button for the back of
my collar."

Miss White joined him in a laugh as she pulled open the envelope and
counted each one separately into his hand. That flat bone button that
he treasured hid itself under one of the others and he had to have a
second count before he was satisfied that he was not going to be
inconvenienced by its loss when he should next care to wear a collar.

Doctors and nurses questioned the ex-President's coat being warm
enough, but he assured them that the coat was one he had worn in the
Spanish-American war, that it was of military make and would keep him
warm enough in a steam-heated Pullman.

When the ba