The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-21
HAYS SECOND BLOW
HAS WITNESSED THE DEATH OF
 TWO PRESIDENTS.
Was Lincoln's Secretary-Ambassa- dor to Great Britain and Secre- tary of State Under
 President Mckinley.

Secretary of State John Hay is pass | ing through the sad experience of wit | messing the death of a second President | to whom he was not only officially bu | personally attached, says a Washington 1 special to The Chicago Record-Herald
 It is not often that a public man l. placed in so delicate and affecting q DO | stion. Secretary Hay was almost as close | ly attached to Abraham Lincoln as he had been to William Mckinley, and it hai | been his lot to see both men give up If: | by the assassins bullet. l From practicing lawyer before th' | Supreme Court of Illinois, Secretary Hay passed to Washington to become the | Secretary and aid-de-camp of President | the civil war an assistant adjutant-gen- | erai and colonel by breVet. He was | close enough to the President in his daily life to form portentously strong esti- | mate of his character, and he was in 1 the civil war life of Washington so deeply as to have cognizance of nearly all of 1 importance that went on. Feared an Assassin. | He feared the assassination of Presi- | dent Lincoln. In his (and Nicolays) work From the very beginning of his Pres l tdency MT. Lincoln had been constantly | subject to the threats of his enemies: and the warnings of his friends: l no notice Madmen frequently made thelr way to the very door of the executive offices and sometimes into MT. Lincoln | presence
 Anent this a story is told of President | Hayes. who when one day about to re- | tire from his working room, asked his l messenger if there was any one waiting to see him.
 "Only two, and one of them Is crazy"
 Send in the sane one," said the Pres ident
 A grave looking man was introduced. who announced himself as the emperor of the world. The President rang his bell and told the messenger if that was his idea of sanity, to send in the maniac. Lincoln Braved Dangers.
 Secretary Hay continues in his story of MT. Lincoln's position:
 Although he freely discussed with the officials about him the possibilities of dan ger. he always considered them remote, is the habit of men constitutionally brave. and positively refused to torment himself with precautions for his own safety.
 ''He would sum the matter up by say. ing that both friend- and strangers must of ways and places; his life was there fore in reach of any one, sane or mad. who was ready to murder and be hanged for it: that he could not possibly guard against all danger unless he were to shut himself up in an iron box, in which con- dition he could scarcely perform the du- ties of President; by the hand of mur- derer he could only dic once; to go con-
 
 over.
 ''He therefore went in and out before the people, always unarmed. generally unattended. He would receive hundrds of visitors in a day, his breast bare to pistol or knife.'
 The rest Is known. Secretary Hay, then Major Hay, sat in the White House that fatal night of April fl, 1865, with Robert T. Lincoln. while President, wife and friends smiled down from their box in Ford's Theatre upon beautiful Laura KeeneS SThey were in an upper room of the mansion chatting when a crowd of people. burst in with the intelligence that Lincoln, MT. Seward and most of the
 Both men ran downstairs. and finding a carriage at the dor drove rapidly to Tenth Street. to the house where the President had been taken. They found nle. all screaming, all panic stricken Friend and son fought their way to the house. and at the doorway, pr. Stone, bending down to young Lincoln, said:
 There is no hope"
 moment and then hastened to the side of his distracted mother. Major Hay en- tered the presence of the President and remained there or in the house until his death early the next morning.
 Called by Mckinley.
 From such a tragedy and such scenes the young soldier passed on to his diplo- matic career and the call to President McKinley's Cabinet In 1898 as Secretary of State. Now after the most charming and confidential relations with President Mckinley he is witness to his death un- der circumstances somewhat similar to those of Lincoln.
 It is little wonder that his heart Is touched, that this veteran of 63 years experience has laid much upon him, asked him to bear much.