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Destiny of the Republic - Candice Millard [151]

By Root 1097 0
Institute, which he had attended at the same time as Garfield, and the Starling Medical College in Columbus, Patee had moved to western Kansas. A devoted abolitionist, he had been among the first to enlist in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. During the war, he had established a hospital on the front lines and, afterward, had devoted much of his time to treating the freed slaves who flooded into Kansas.

37 “old men”: Girdner, “The Death of President Garfield,” Munsey Magazine, 547.

38 Both men had attended Lister’s talk: Paulson, “Death of a President and His Assassin,” 81.

39 “these gentlemen used no buttons”: Godlee, Lord Lister, 391.

40 “would in many cases sacrifice”: Pasteur and Lister, Germ Theory and Its Applications to Medicine, 136.

41 “bear the severest scrutiny”: “Dr. Hamilton Much Pleased,” New York Times, July 6, 1881.

42 “I think that we have”: “A Medical View of the Case,” New York Times, July 8, 1881.

43 As Bliss spoke, smoke from his cigar: “Still Brighter Prospects,” New York Times, July 8, 1881.

44 “the most admirable patient”: “A Medical View of the Case,” New York Times, July 8, 1881.

45 “If I can’t save him”: Quoted in Ackerman, Dark Horse, 403.

46 “I cannot possibly persuade him to sit”: Mabel Bell to her mother, July 8, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

47 “like a Chinese lantern”: Bell, Upon the Electrical Experiments, 47.

48 Deciding to run a few quick tests: Bruce, Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude, 344; Tainter, “The Talking Machine,” 18.

49 In a simplistic way, the technique anticipated: In November 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen took an X-ray of his wife’s hand, which showed her bones and wedding ring.

50 The problem was that: Bell, Upon the Electrical Experiments, 47–48.

51 “returned vividly to my mind”: Ibid., 4.

52 “The currents induced”: Ibid., 2–3.

53 “When a position of silence”: Ibid., 3.

54 “brooding over the problem”: Ibid., 4.

55 “great personal convenience”: Ibid.

56 “received an urgent request”: Tainter, “The Talking Machine,” 18.


Chapter 15: Blood-Guilty

1 “Information had reached them”: “Guiteau in Jail,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.

2 “There were many who felt”: “A Cloud upon the Holiday,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.

3 “While it seems incredible”: Ibid.

4 “roar of indignation”: “Brooklyn Much Disturbed,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.

5 Rumors spread that a group: “Bulletins Still Eagerly Watched,” New York Tribune, July 6, 1881, cited in Menke, “Media in America,” 652.

6 On the top floor: Kalush, The Secret Life of Houdini, 177.

7 “a particular friend”: “A Talk with the Assassin,” New York Times, July 5, 1881.

8 Soon after settling into his cell: “A Great Nation in Grief,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.

9 “lobbying like any henchman”: Ackerman, Dark Horse, 363.

10 As he scanned the message: “Garfield Shot,” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, July 2, 1881.

11 Across the street, the sidewalk: “Seeking for the Latest News,” New York Times, July 4, 1881.

12 As Conkling and Arthur entered the hotel: “At the Fifth Avenue Hotel,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.

13 “More than one excited man”: Ibid.

14 So suffocatingly crowded: Ibid.

15 By the time Conkling had his hands: Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1881.

16 “great grief and sympathy”: Ackerman, Dark Horse, 384–85.

17 “Chet Arthur?”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House, 181.

18 “simple vanity”: Reeves, Gentleman Boss, 5.

19 Arthur was also widely known: Karabell, Chester Alan Arthur, 30.

20 “I do not think he knows anything”: Harriet S. Blaine and Beale, Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine, 309.

21 “There is no place in which the powers of mischief”: Quoted in Reeves, Gentleman Boss, 241.

22 “a statesman and a thorough-bred gentleman”: “Seeking for the Latest News,” New York Times, July 4, 1881.

23 “Republicans and Democrats alike”: “A Cloud Upon the Holiday,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.

24 “Arthur for President!”: Williams, Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, 23.

25 “There is a theory”: “Guiteau in Jail,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.

26 “I am a Stalwart”:

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