President McKinley came to Buffalo early in September to see the fine
display and let the people see him, and on the 6th he stood with smiling
face while many hundreds of visitors passed by and shook hands with him.
In the midst of all this there came a loud, sharp sound. A pistol had
been fired. The President staggered back, with pallid face. Men shouted;
women screamed; a crowd rushed towards the spot; the man who held the
pistol was flung to the floor and hundreds surged forward in fury. "He
has shot our President! Kill him! Kill him!" they cried. The guards had
a hard fight to keep the murderer from being torn to pieces by the
furious throng.
The man who had shot the President belonged to a society called
Anarchists, who hate all rulers and think it their duty to kill all
kings and presidents. Poor, miserable wretch! he suffered the death he
deserved. But his shot had reached its mark, and after a week of fear
and hope, President McKinley died. He was mourned by all the people as
if each of them had lost a member of his or her own family.
You probably know that when a President dies the Vice-President takes
his place. McKinley's Vice-President was a capable man named Theodore
Roosevelt. He was very fond of tramping through the wilds and of hunting
wild beasts. At the time we speak of, when the news of the death of
President McKinley was sent abroad, Vice-President Roosevelt was off on
a long tramp through the Adirondack Mountains of New York, perhaps
hoping to shoot a deer, or possibly a bear.
When the news came, no one knew where he was, and dozens of the
mountain-climbers were sent out to find him. As they spread out and
pushed forward, the crack of rifles could be heard on all sides and
megaphones were used to send their voices far through the mountain
defiles. But hour after hour passed and the shades of evening were at
hand, and still no answer came; no sign of Roosevelt and his party could
be traced. Finally, when they were near the high top of Mount Marcy,
answering shots and shouts were heard, and soon the hunting party came
in sight.
When Mr. Roosevelt was told the news they brought--that the President
was at the point of death--he could hardly believe it; for the last news
had said that he was likely to get well. He knew now that he must get to
Buffalo as soon as he could, so that the country should not be without a
President, and he started back for the clubhouse from which he had set
out at a pace that kept the others busy to keep up with him.
Night had fallen when he reached the clubhouse, but there was to be no
sleep for him that night. A stagecoach, drawn by powerful horses, waited
his coming, and in very few minutes he was inside it, the coachman had
drawn his reins and cracked his whip, and away went the horses, plunging
into the darkness of the woods that overhung the road.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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