Mr. McKinley’s Humor

Answer to Doctors When They Ordered Him Not to Talk.

     Stories revealing the late President’s quaint humor during his last week on earth are being told from day to day in Buffalo. This one comes from one of the consulting physicians, who, while the President’s condition the last of the week was regarded as serious, did not wish to see it in print. On Monday, when every one was happy over the apparent improvement in the President, Drs. Mann, Park, Rixey and Mynter were in his room feeling his pulse and getting the necessary data for a bulletin.
     “The President kept up a running conversation with us, and for very good reasons we did not want him to exhaust his strength uselessly. One of the doctors stepped to the bedside and said, ‘Mr. McKinley, you are not to talk; we have decided you must not talk.’
     “The President’s big, dark eyes were bent on the one who gave the order,” said the narrator, “and, without moving a muscle of his face, said, ‘Well, I suppose you gentlemen think you don’t have a chance very often to boss the president of the United States, and now you are improving your opportunity.’”
     The shot was so unexpected that the doctors looked at each other in pleasant amazement and when they got outside the sick room they all had a good laugh.