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Background
Roosevelt, stunned but a moment, sprang into action. He would head to the side of the stricken President; he would leave the island, by rowboat, by yacht, by train; he would wire, immediately, for more information. Here, hastily scrawled on the back of a railroad timetable, is that urgent, and respectful, message:
Director of Hospital or House at which President lies Buffalo NY.
Wire me at once full particulars to Van Ness House Burlington Vermont.
Theodore Roosevelt
Vice President
Roosevelt’s unusual use of the appellation “Vice President” was added, no doubt, to assure any and all that he was not, nor would not for a second presume to be, anything but the Vice President.
But as this message is, in and of itself, historic, one needs but to turn it over, to see the historian’s hand – the anonymous recording, in pencil, of exactly what Roosevelt said on hearing that President McKinley had been shot, and later, on hearing that McKinley would survive. “I am so inexpressibly shocked & horrified that I cannot say anything,” Roosevelt first remarked. Upon learning that McKinley was likely to recover, he said, “I am overjoyed to express it feebly." His joy, however, would be short-lived: eight days later, McKinley was dead, and Roosevelt, the President.
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Director of Hospital ^or House at which President lies Buffalo N.Y.
[text is crossed out] Wire me at once full particulars to
[text is crossed out] Van Ness House
Burlington Vermont
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
[text is crossed out] Vice President
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"I am
So Inexpressibly shocked
& horrified that I cannot
say anything"
Rutland
Railroad.
TIME TABLE
No. 1.
______
For the Government of Employees only
______
TAKING EFFECT
At 12:01 A. M.,
Sunday, January 20, 1901.
DESTROY PREVIOUS TABLES.
______
Rutland R. R. Book of Rules,
Dated 1900,
Will take effect with this time card,
and every employee whose duties are in
any way prescribed by these rules, should
make themselves conversant therewith.
______
PERCIVAL W. CLEMENT,
PRESIDENT
W. S. JONES,
Gen'l Superintendent.
THE TUTTLE CO. PRINTERS, RUTLAND VT.
When The News came
that Prest. likely to recover
"I am overjoyed to express
it feebly"