Wire to White House

TELEGRAPHIC CONNECTION WITH THE MILBURN HOME.
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Col. Montgomery Had It Promptly Established—Confidence of the People.

     The White House is in both telegraphic and telephonic connection with the Milburn residence in Buffalo, and bulletins from the sick bed of the President are received instantly. The prompt establishment of this connection is of interest. Colonel Montgomery, the signal service officer in charge of the war room at the White House, received the news of the shooting within a few minutes after it had occurred. He asked for telephone connection with the exposition grounds, and within six minutes he was in conversation with Mr. Bowen, one of the leading exposition officials. The telephone connection worked well and the White House had frequent messages regarding the President that night. In addition, many messages were sent from here. Shortly after the telephone was called into service and news was received that the President would be taken to Mr. Milburn’s home after the operation, a telegraph company was requested to put an instrument and line in Mr. Milburn’s home, so that the executive departments in this city could be in close touch with the President and those around him. It is stated that more rapid work was never done by the company. The line near the house was tapped and the connection made in the shortest possible time. Before the President had been taken to the house from the hospital the operator in the White House was talking to an operator in the Milburn home. Every minute since then an operator has sat at the instrument in Buffalo and a man has been at the key at this end of the line. Across the street from the Milburn house are two small tents, and in each of these is housed a telegraph office for the sending of news as to the President’s condition to all points of the world.
     Many officials in Washington and a number of people throughout the country depend on the White House for trustworthy news of the President’s condition. One United States senator in a distant state will not take news from any other source than the White House, and in Paris there is an American who insists that a cable message be sent him twice each day with full details of the President’s condition. The man in Paris declares that he cannot obtain trustworthy news there and he wants only that which can be trusted.
     The night of the shooting of the President a man went to a hotel in New York, obtained telephone connection with the White House and begged officials to call him by telephone upon the receipt of every bulletin regarding the President. He was one of those earnest friends of the President who would have nothing else. If the officials fail to call him he calls the White House.