Canton People Say Bulletins Were Doctored

SAID THERE THAT RELATIVES AND CLOSE FRIENDS KNEW
DEATH MUST COME.
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TALK ABOUT TELEGRAMS SENT BY SENATOR HANNA
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Two That Were Flatly Contradictory Sent Within Period of Seven Minutes.
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WHAT MISS MARY BARBER SAID.

     CANTON, O., Sept. 18.—Strange stories concerning the bulletins and interviews given out by doctors during the time that President McKinley lay suffering at Buffalo are afloat in Canton. Here, in the home of the martyr, information that has never appeared in the public prints is current upon the streets, and it [is?] of a nature that causes the Cantonians to cherish sullen anger and to speak, plainly and openly, that which has been but dimly suspected elsewhere.
     It was known, from the first, that William McKinley must die. So say his townsmen. They have learned it bit by bit.
     The public remembers that, when news of the shooting reached Senator Hanna, he rushed to Buffalo by a special train that annihilated time and distance; and that, upon his arrival, he sent to Cleveland a telegram of which the wording was soon in dispute. The press said that the telegram reported the President as in a very critical condition. Senator Hanna vigorously declared that it reported the President as doing well.

Two Telegrams Were Sent.

     Senator Hanna sent two telegrams, say the people of Canton, and they, at least, are satisfied with the evidence upon which their confident assertion is rested. Here is the story:
     The Senator’s first telegram was to his son, Dan R. Hanna. Telegraph companies and their employes [sic] are supposed to maintain secrecy as to what is flashed over the wires, but, with the President stricken down by an assassin, discipline was relaxed in all that bore upon his case. Soon it was known, in every office of that company, and to some outsiders, as well, that Senator Hanna [had?] wired that the President was dying.
     The news of the sending of this message reached W. W. Clark, a prominent Cantonian who is a personal friend of the McKinley family, president of a local bank and head of the Diebold Safe Company. Mr. Clark called up the superintendent of the telegraph company, relying upon his acquaintance with that official to obtain the required information, and asked if the Senator had sent such a message.

Text of the Messages.

     “Senator Hanna has sent two messages,” was the reply. “The second was filed just seven minutes after the first. I will read you both.”
     The first message was: “The President is dying.”
     The second message was: “Recall my former telegram. The President is doing well.”
     This is one link of the chain of evidence forged by the Canton folk. Here is another:
     Early in the week following the shooting, Miss Mary Barber, who had been ministering to the invalid wife of the wounded President, came home to Canton. At the same time, Senator Hanna and other relatives and friends of the President, as well as members of his official family, left the Exposition City. It was reported that they left because the President’s recovery was practically assured.

What Miss Barber Said.

     When Miss Barber reached Canton she told her intimates, it is said, that the condition of the President was absolutely hopeless. That she had been told by those in charge of his case, that death was a matter of but a short time. The bulletins and statements of the doctors were, it will be remembered, more encouraging then than at any other time.
     The people feel that the condition of their distinguished citizen was concealed for a purpose. They do not assert, openly, just what that purpose was, but their anger shows strong disapproval of what they believe that it was.