The President’s Wife

THE calmness with which the President asked, “Am I shot?” the lack of excitement or of any other expression, the evident absence of any kind of fear of what might be before him in the next hour, is the kind of bravery that sends a feeling of pride in their chief officer through the veins of all Americans. Whatever else Mr. McKinley is, he is a brave man—a man who has exhibited in this critical moment the dignity of a Christian and a soldier.
     Very few, if any of us, can begin to appreciate the devotion and affection of Mrs. McKinley for her husband. More than once the President has actually saved her life by his influence over her. She believes in him so thoroughly that whatever he tells her she knows to be true. Her ill-health, the strain of constantly recurring nervous attacks, would long ago have forced her to give up the struggle, but relying on her husband, filled with absolute confidence and affection for him, she has held on to life. And now when he lies near death the sick woman has borne the news of his danger, and is ministering to him with as calm attention as any one of those about him. There is something here that is as old as the hills, but that never fails to seem new and fine, because it shows a little of the beautiful and the true side of humanity.