Bisbee daily review., 1912-11-13
COL. ROOSEVELT
GOOD GUN MAN

Shortly after his inauguration as
president, Colonel Roosevelt sent
for a number OF Washington news
paper correspondents TO discuss
with them the rules governing the
hours and methods of collecting
news at the White House. During
the conversation reference was
made TO the assassin OF President
Mckinley. and Colonel Roosevelt
exclaimed: I'll bet he wouldn't
have shot me twice." The CORE
spondents inferred from this and
other remarks made by the colonel
that he would have returned the
assailant's fire with the qu.ekness
of a gunfighter of the plains.
Washington newspaper men and
many of Colonel Roosevelt's close
personal friends are sure that dur
ing his seven and a half years as
president he was never in the
streets without a revolver in his
pocket All this is told by a Wash
ington correspondent OF the New
York Times, who goes on to relate
number of incidents which show
that the nominee OF the progressive
party never depended wholly upon
a hired bodyguard for protection.
against assassins.
On the blustry winter day that
Elihu Root quit the cabinet of
President Roosevelt 20 return to
the practice Of law in New York,
Colonel Roosevelt walked over from
the White House to the Root resi-
dence to say goodby 20 his secre-
tary of state. upon whom he had
depended constantly for advice and
assistance, and in whose ability
and common sense he had such
faith. Mr.. Roots house was in
Jackson Place, the street forming
the western boundary of Lafayette
Square, the park opposite the White
House. The residence which Mr..
Root occupied was associated with
Washington most noted tragedy,
with the exception OF the assassina-
ton OF Abraham Lincoln, for it
was here that Gen. Daniel Sckles
was living with his wife when Sick
les killed Phillip Barton Key. Cen
eral Sickles was said TO have seen
Mrs. Sickles signal to Key from
a window of their home, Key be-
ing in the Washington club house
across the street, a building that
also has its tragic associations. II
was there that William II. Seward
was confined in a sick bed when
Payne, the associate of John Wilkes
I Booth, tried To stab him to death
on the night that Lincoln was shot
down by Booth. and it was in this
house that James G. Blaine died
twenty-eight years later.
Z In spite OF the cold wind Colonel
Roosevelt wore no oyercoat As be
sprinted across from the White
House to the Root residence, a
hundred yards away, the tails OF
his frock coat fluttered in the
breeze. exposing to the view Of the
cavalry men assembled to escort
Mr.. Root to the railway station,
the butt of a good-sized revolver
But If the then president knew
gave no sign that he was bothered
about it. In those days Colonel
Roosevelt was getting portly, and
the strain on the waistline Of his
frock coats had a tendency to make
his coat tails spread apart.
Many who attended the laying OF
the cornerstone of the Masonic TEN.
! pie in Washington during the
Roosevelt administration had con
vincing proof that the colonel al
ways went armed. While deliver
hg an GRAFTON on that occasion, he
hpushed back The skirt of his coat
TO reach for a handkerchief and
those who we're behind him saw
revolver peeping from the right
hand hip pocket of his trousers.
stnl another incident of thu
same sort marked visit Of Colo
mel Roosevelt. when president 4