Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-07-11
Protecting the President.

In the police court at Oyster Bay,
Secret Service Officer Sloane has been
fined $40 for assaulting a photographer
who insisted on getting close to the
President in order to get a picture OF
him as he allighted from the train.
and in many newspapers harsh COM
ments have been made upon the ex-
cess of zeal which the officer showed
in protecting the President from an
innocent kodak. But the critics
should remember that it was not from
the kodak that Officer Sloane was
protecting the Chief Executive, but
from the possibility that a would-be
assassin was using an innOcent-look-
ing camera as an instrument of
destruction. There were 80 chances
In 100 that the camera was a per-
fectiy innocent one. But there were
10 chances that it might be the weapon
Of an anarchist. Those officers who
are entrusted by the nation with pro-
tecting the Chief Magistrate from the
fate which has overtaken in turn
Abraham Lincoln, Garfield and Nc
Kinley could not afford to take these
10 chances and were obliged to act
quickly and with decision. We have
seen the other day how, when the
people Of Madrid were throwing from
every window along the route flowers
at the equipage which was conveying
King Alfonso and his bride back to
the palace after the wedding ceremony,
two innocent-loOking bouquets. hardly
to be distinguished from the other
Coral tributes. concealed small bombs.
which spread death and destruction on
every side, killing 20 people outright
and injuring nearly a hundred others.
That was a new departure, and from
now on no ruler and no lady of royal
OF imperial rank will be able to submit
to the pretty custom of being pelted
| with flowers in token of good will and
| of welcome without the feeling that
| anyone Of these , nosegays may in
stantly consign him or her to eternity
President McKinley's assassin ac-
complished his fell design by conceal
ing his pistol within the folds of a
perfectly harmless looking handker-
| chief, which he drew from his pocket
as if to mop his face as he approached
and Inflated chief magistrate. Count
Cheremetieff, a left-handed connection
of the late car, and one of the princi-
pal dignitaries of his household, dice
suddenly from the effects of DOMINIC
a pair of gloves which had been filled
with deadly poison by the nihilist:
in the belief that they belonged to the
Emperor. And poor little Princes:
Ella of Hesse succumbed to the effect.
of a poisoned drink which had beer
specially prepared for her uncle
Nicholas ii. Death came to the lat
Abdul Assn in the shape of a per-
fectly harmless pair of toilet scissors
while nowadays every parcel, great o
small. that reaches the Amounted of tn,
Lord is rigidly investigated before i
comes into their hands lest it SHOULD
contain some Internal machine. Ever
the most dainty and appetizing- look
ing bOnbons have been known to b.
filled with nitroglycerin in lieu of tn
customary liquor or syrup. And, o
course, every reader Of history or no
nance recalls the poisoned rings of tn
Borgias. Each new invention afford
fresh opportunities for the ingenuit
of the assassin, and death turks in s
many extraordinary and unsuspecte
forms and in such wonderfully in
. nocent guises for the rulers of tn
world that their guardians cannot b
blamed for Declining to take any risl
|