Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-02-05

announced to the country in an Of.
fetal statement which said:
Official Statement
President Wilson's condition is
due to overwork. The trouble dates
back to an attack of influenza last
April in Paris from which he never
has fully recovered. The presidents
activities on this trip have overtax.
ed his strength and he is SUFFERING
from nervous eXhaustio His con.
dltlon is not alarming but it will be
necessary for his recovery that he
have rest and quiet for a consider.
able time"
1T IS fact that up to this time
Mr.. Wilson had not suffered a stroke
but the danger of one was recog.
nized).
with the announcement the coun.
try got its first information that the
president had broken down and on
September &c and 9th as his special
train rolled along toward Washing.
ton the president rested and slept
while Mrs. Wilson and DR.. Gravson
took turns being with him. They
arrived home Sunday morning. Sen.
TENDER 18th at IL o'clock.
For the first time in three DAVIS
Mr.. Wilson rose from his bed and
walked to the White House motor
car which awaited him. He looked
pale and drawn, but he walked, with
out assistance and returned the
greetings of a small crowd of trav-
ellers whom he passed in the rail
way station. Although there was
no crowd to welcome him outside
the raj way terminal. Mr.. Wilson. as
his car drove off, solemnly raised
his hat and bowed as if returning
greetings from a great throng, as
he had done so many times in the
past.
The incident was explained by
physicians as being a case of alb
straction heightened by his ex,
hausted condition and suggested by
habit. But it was .magnified into
rumor that Mr.. Wilson had lost
his mind. Subsequent events dis
proved it. conclusively but it lived
long and was, used freely by po-
litical enemies.
Stricken in Bath Room
That afternoon he was well
enough to take a motor ride in Rock
Creek park and for the next few
days DR.. Grayson prescribed a roll>
tine of mo work and no worry"
The coming visit Of the King and
Queen of the Belgians to the White
House was postponed and business
Of all forms was kept from him.
The regime of rest seemed to be
making good progress and on Sep
TENDER 80, DR.. Grayson announced
that the president had passed the
best day since the beginning of his
breakdowIl.s -, Ies@ was permitted to
sign some bills and congressional
resolutions. nominations and dictate
some brief letters. Everything went
encoura gingly until October I.
On the afternoon of that day Mr..
Wilson went for another motor ride
with his wife and DR.. Grayson.
During the evening all assembled
in one of the large rooms of the
executive mansion and enjoyed a
family motion picture show. Later
in the evening the president and his
doctor took a turn at billiards but
they did not play long. For the first
time since the illness began, DR.. Gray
son did not remain at the White House
but went home. During the night
Mr.. Wilson was up and about and
told Mrs. Wilson he was sleepeless.
About 4 o'clock on the morning of
October 5, Mrs. Wilson heard the
president in the bath room calling In
a weak voice. DIR. Grayson was
summoned and to his horror found
Wr. Wilson Frustrated on the bath
room floor. In a semi-conscious con-
dition he had fallen as If wounded
in the left leg, with the member
crumpled under him on the bath
mat.
The physician rolled the PROSTATE
form fully onto the rugs and then
crashing it by two corners dragged
his burden across the hall into
bed chamber, and finding himself
UNEQUAL to the task OF lifting the
president into bed alone. called Mrs.
Wilson, and, together, they succeed
ed. During all this ordeal the presI'
dents wife was cool and offered sug-
gestions to the physician.
In the Shadow of Death
Once in bed, the president seemed
to regain his senses and murmured
that he felt sleepy. r. Grayson
made a hurried examination of pulse
and heart and found them very low.
The tell-tale drooling of saliva
from the presidents mouth and the
twitching of the face were there
again. They wrote their own dag
nosis.
woodrow Wilson had been para
lyzed on his left side and lay in the
shadow of death. With the first
movement of his lips he extracted a
promise from the doctor and his
wife that his condition, if seriuos,
must not become known.
DR.. Grayson summoned from Phil.
adelphia, DIR. Francis X. Dercum. a
foremost specialist and one OF the
only two Americans ever received
into the Sociate de Neurolgic OF
Paris, the membership of which is
confined TO less than fifty Of the
worlds foremost scientists. He also
called in Rear Admiral Z. r. Stitt,
of the naval medical corps, a distin-
guished diagnostician, and DR.. Sterl-
ing Ruffin, OF this city, Mrs. VIII
sons family physician.
A two-hour consultation developed
the agreement that Mr.. Wilson had
suffered what is medically known rs
cerebral thrombosis blood spot in
one of the blood vessels in the right
side of his brain. Its effect was to
impair the motor nerves of the left
side as well as the sensitorY nerves.
The physicians concluded there had
been no lesion but that there was
danger of one. If the Clot were
hard one and should be swept along
in the blood circla,ion. to the heart
AMI jam valve the results prob.
ably would be death. If it were
soft clot there was hope of absorb.
ing it. On that slender hope the
battle for life began. An official bull
letin informed the country of q Sc
rious turn in the presidents condi-
ton. but did not disclose the cause.
For the next week Mr. Wilson
lowered between life and death.