The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

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HOW ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT
the shoulders of Theodore Roosevelt. Thus it happened that
the man who four years ago was the Republican candidate
for vice-president visited nearly one-half of the States of the
Union and carried the banner of his party into the thickest of
the battle.
A DIFFICULT TASK
It is difficult to explain in cold type the physical task of
traveling from 10,000 to 15,000 miles, of making from ten to
twenty vigorous campaign speeches a day, and of keeping up
the strain for eight consecutive weeks; but Theodore Roose-
velt was equal to the task. He traveled, of course, in a special
train, and he made that train his home in those eight weeks
of strenuous campaign endeavor.
Mr. Roosevelt closed the memorable campaign in iqoo by
visiting two hundred towns and cities in the State of New
York, beginning the tour at Weehawken on October 22d, and
closing Saturday night, November 3d, in New York City.
THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY
Every one is familiar with the triumphant election of
McKinley and Roosevelt, and with the latter's record as presi-
dent of the Senate and with the terrible catastrophe which
occurred on September 6, 1901, when Leon Czolgosz assassi-
nated President McKinley in the Temple of Music at the Pan-
American Exposition at Buffalo.
Mr. Roosevelt was in Vermont when the tragedy occurred
and hurried at once to the side of the stricken chief; here he
remained until the physicians stated that President McKinley
would probably survive, when he hastened to join his wife and
children in the Adirondack Mountains, where to his horror
and surprise a message was brought him that the President's
condition had changed for the worse.