The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-14
Extra Editions of Newspapers Quick
Iy Bought by the People Wait
ing i'm the Streets.
EXPRESSIONS OF SORROW
TENDER Tributes PAID BY MEN
WHO LOVED THE PRESIDENT.
The Day VIII BE known n "BIack
Friday" in Indianapolis
What Men Say.

Yesterday was indeed Black Friday In
indianapolis. All through the day, from
the early morning hours when the first dis
couraging news came from the sick room
of the Nations beloved patient, an oppres-
sive weight of gloom hung over the city
and its inhabitants. 1t was a sharp change
from the buoyancy of Thursday evening
Then everybody was light-hearted and
glad, for the word was 1.-The President will
live"
The first effect Of the news Of the Presi-
dents sudden turn for the worse was TO
stun all who heard it. The faces OF peo-
pie at the newspaper Offices when they
read the depressing bulletins OF the early
morning yesterday took on an expression
that indicated that one personally dear to
them had been stricken.
Business in all parts Of the city was
transacted only spasmodically. The banker
dropped the note he was about to discount
to reach for an extra issue Of a newspaper
giving further particulars of the event
that has been the all-absorbing theme Of
thought and talk for a week past Clerks
in the great department stores and their
customers discussed in low tones with each
other the Presidents condition.
People meeting each other In shops and
stores, in offices the streets talked In
subdued tones. Not even when the city's
distinguished and loved lay dying in
his own home amidst his own people was
the public interest aroused to a higher
pitch or the public grief stirred to a
TO profounder depth.
The great newspaper facilities of this
city were never better demonstrated than
yesterday. Within a few moments after
the receipt of each important bulletin IT
was being given to the public by scamper-
ing, shouting boys in all parts OF the city.
Extras poured from the presses almost
without cessation throughout the day and
all that went from the different newspa per
offices were disposed Of without delay. No
conceivable item of news could have
brought about the wonderful demand for
papers that existed yesterday. The people
seemed insatiate for news OF the Presi-
dents condition Business men often stood
in the doorways of their stores and offices
with hands outstretched eagerly toward
the boys with the extra. In the residence
districts the women spent the greater part
Of the day on their doorsteps and porches,
reading every edition of a paper that was
offered
PREMATURE STATEMENTS.
. When about half-past o'clock extra edi-
tons of papers containing premature state
ments of the Presidents death were being
hawzed about the streets. the people that
bought them compressed their lips tightly
and exclaimed: 1T is not truer He is
not dead!' He cannot be deadi" They
were right. The President was not dead
and although the word came soon after
ward that he was unconscious and likely
TO die any moment everybody said. While
there is life there is hope" Grief had Wis
tied the city too lately TO be a welcome Wis
itor soon again.
Next to the dangerous condition of the
President, the all-absorbing topic Of con-
versation yesterday was What caused
this sudden change for the worse?" And
through the entire day a battle ragged the
combatants being the laity the one side
and the medical profession on the other
The laity unscientihc ones declared
unhesitatingly that the change in the
Presidents condition was due to the fact
that his physicians had given him solid
food before his stomach was in shape to
receive and digest IL.
The physicians Of Indianapolis almost
to a man, were loud in their praises OF the
way the Presidents case had been handled.
II was not wrong or foolish or madness
to give toast to the patient, they said.
Many OF the doctors here said that II Is
the rashest presumption TO question the
wisdom OF such physicians of Mann. Nc
Burney. Park and Wasdin, who stand at
the topnotch of their chosen profession.
Why" exclaimed one man, who is par
ticularly skilled in laparatomy. the opera
ton performed on Mr.. Mckinley after he
was wounded, 'Drs. McBurney and Mann
occupy a mighty narrow field by them
selves, and there are very few surgeons
I'm the country or even in the world that
are qualified TO rank alongside of them
DR.. McBurney is the discoverer of Nc
Burneys point. and as great al abdominal
surgeon as there Is anywhere in the world"
Local physicians insisted that the giving
of what has been termed solid food was
not the cause of the Presidents relapse
at all. In fact. the majority of the sur
geons here expressed il as their opinion
that if toast was given the President Ii
was administered in the form of crumbs
mixed with broth and thus il amounted
10 nothing more than liquid giuten-quite
different from solid food.
OPINION OF PHYSICIANS.
The consensus OF opinion among the best
surgeons of this city is that the President
had some latent trouble or defect Of the
heart. II is thought by some that possibly
his heart is not large enough for his body
and this fact accounts for his normal rapid
pulse of which so much has been printed
and said. Then, too. ii is believed that the
ssssssin's bulletin, which buried itself in
the muscles OF the back. may have at an
early stage of the case set up a low grade
or suppuration of sepsis. not sufficiently
pronounced to occasion the customary
symptom of septic poisoning. a chill. but
important enough TO cause a constant
though slight. rise of temperature and
acceleration OF the heart pulsations. The
pulse has never been commensurate with
the temperature" remarked a number OF
prominent local surgeons, and that fact
has seemed TO indicate a deep-seated. sub
tie trouble. one extremely difficult, If not
indeed impossible, 10 overcome
One OF the most striking evidences OF the
powerful hold the President had upon the
affections of Indianapolis was the fact that
the theaters Of the city We're but slimly at
tended yesterday. n visit TO each play