The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1912-10-15
FRIENDS LONC,WORR|ED
FOR FEAR OF ATTACK
Roosevelt Always Insisted lie
Could Look Out for
Himself.
MRS. ROOSEvELT'S DREAD
Tried to Dissuade Her Husband
From Running for Office
Again.
MRS. ROOSEvELT'S DREAD

WASHINGTON. Oct. 14.--Ncws that Cot
Roosevelt had been shot brought vividly
to the minds Of his friends here that
they had often expressed the fear when
| lie was in the White TJuse that he
would meet with some such attack.
They recalled. however, that Mr.. Roose-
welt when he was President always in
sisted that he could look out for him
self, and often resented the secret SER
vice guards following too closely on his
footsteps.
Mr. Roosevelt when he was President
always carried a loaded revolver in his
hip pocket. on several occasions when
he was speaking the wind lifting the
tails of his coat has shown to hi$
audiences the CLINT OF the revolver
handle. He never when he was Presl-
dent had occasion to Use the weapon.
There were. however. two or three times
when he did not hesitate to jump in
and use his own hands when he thought
there was any reason to fear for his
personal safety.
Mr. Roosevelts friends here said to-
night that the possibility Of an as
sassin firing at Mr.. Roosevelt has for
several years hung like pail oven
Mrs. Roosevelt's life. She earnestly
urged him not to consider running
again for the Presidency even before
Mr. Taft had been selected by him as
his successor. and again last summer
| Mrs. Roosevelt urged more strongly than
anybody else against her husband
again aspiring to sit in the White
House. Mrs. Roosevelt. in talking with
her friends. has often expressed the
fear that her husband might meet with
! some fatal injury in seeking office.
! Her opposition to Col. Roosevelts
ambitions for another term was so
strong that when she. had failed in her
own effort she summoned United States
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who was
Col. Roosevelt's warm friend.
While Col Roosevelt always insisted
that he could protect himself II he only
had warning. he was fully alive to the
dangers to which the President OF the
United States was exposed. He was
emphatic after Mckinley's death IN de-
claring that greater safeguards should
be thrown around the life OF the Chief
Executive. In talking OF McKinley's
I death with friends he said repeatedly.
4 however. that he did not believe Czolgosz
ever would have succeeded in firing a
second shot at him.
| President Roosevelt, while the at
tendance Of Secret Service guards often
annoyed him, realized the importance
Of their presence and was the frs,
President to have an unduly large force
Of these guards. When Mr. Roosevelt
became President the Secret Service
force sent men to guard his residence
and the. strictest orders were issued
that they should never let the Presi-
dent out Of their sight, save when he
was in the White House or In his home.
Roosevelt. on his trips in the present
campaign, had few guards occasion
ally. but they have been used chiefly as
a help In getting him through crowds.
He has insisted since he left the White
House that he was a private citizen and
had nothing to fear from any American.
Col. Roosevelt's habit of carrying
revolver got him into one or two en-
barrassing predicaments. At st. Paul.
for instance, he took another mans
overcoat by mistake and the fellow who
got the Colonels got a fine big ~ cali
bre revolver In the overcoat pocket.
Again he took off his overcoat In church
In Washington one day and left his
revolver lying in the pew.
When he went to call on Elihu Root
as the latter was retiring from the Cabi-
net the wind lifted his coat tails and
showed the steel barrel of his gun stick
ing from his hip pocket. The incident
greatly tickied troop Of calvarymcn
who were drawn up near Roots house,