33 They preferred, moreover: Haller, American Medicine in Transition, 1840–1910, ix.
34 Even those doctors willing to try: Rothstein, American Physicians in the Nineteenth Century, 256; Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 73.
35 “had the physician in charge abstained”: Gerster, Recollections of a New York Surgeon, 206.
36 “Do not allow probing”: Dr. E. L. Patee to Lucretia Garfield, July 3, 1881, James A. Garfield Papers, Library of Congress. Patee understood gunshot wounds as well as any of the doctors circling the White House, and better than most. Just a few years after graduating from Ohio’s Western Reserve Eclectic 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”: “A Great Nation in Grief,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.
27 “This crime is as logically and legitimately”: Cleveland Herald, July 3, 1881.
28 “when a child”: Quoted in Chidsey, The Gentleman from New York, 354.
29 “Men go around with clenched teeth”: Quoted in Ackerman, Dark Horse, 385.
30 In a New York prison, two inmates: New York Times, September 16, 1881.
31 “While there is no intimation”: “Thunderbolt at Albany,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.
32 “that the ex-Senator had asked”: “The Scenes Up Town,” New York Times, July 5, 1881.
33 “Gens: We will hang”: Platt, The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt, 163.
Chapter 16: Neither Death nor Life
1 As his train pulled into the station: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 17, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
2 “Everywhere people go about”: “A Cloud Upon the Holiday,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.
3 Even the Fourth of July celebrations: Celebrations had also been canceled in nearly every other city in the nation.
4 “Men looked eagerly to the flag-pole”: “The Events of Yesterday,” New York Times, July 5, 1881.
5 “down upon the Executive Mansion”: Ibid.
6 “To Mrs. Garfield, a slight token”: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 17, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
7 Although his temperature had fallen slightly: Doctors’ notes, July 14, 1881, National Museum of Health and Medicine.
8 “severe lancinating”: Ibid., July 3, 1881.
9 “tiger’s claws”: “At the Patient’s Bedside,” New York Times, July 5, 1881.
10 More difficult for Garfield to deny: Doctors’ notes, July 4, 1881, National Museum of Health and Medicine.
11 Garfield had for years suffered: Garfield, Diary, June 15–July 19, 1875, 3:85.
12 Finally, a doctor told him: Ibid., May 24, 1875, 3:85.
13 Garfield had avoided such drastic: Peskin, Garfield, 433.
14 He received a wide variety of rich foods: Bliss’s notes, 11, National Museum of Health and Medicine.
15 “He was nauseated”: Quoted in Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 89.
16 “No sick or injured person”: Gaw, A Time to Heal, 8.
17 “Patients, no matter how critical”: Ibid.
18 The structure had been built into sloping ground: Seale, The President’s House, 536.
19 “packed with vermin”: Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 80.
20 “sanitary requirements of a safe dwelling”: “Condition of the White House,” New York Times, September 7, 1881.
21 The plumbing system had been built: Seale, The President’s House, 536.
22 “pest house”: Feis, Mollie Garfield in the White House,
74.
23 “The old White House is unfit”: Quoted in Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 80.
24 “notoriously unhealthy”: Hoogenboom, Rutherford B. Hayes, 469.
25 “greatly influenced by the miasma”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 578.
26 Four servants in the White House: Mackenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, 236.
27 In a desperate effort to ward off malaria : Paulson, “Death of a President and His Assassin,” 83; Deppisch, “Homeopathic Medicine and Presidential Health,” 3.
28 “You can’t imagine anything so vile”: Harriet S. Blaine and Beale, Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine, 229.
29 “Scarcely a breath of air”: “Another Weary Night Watch,” New York Times, July 6, 1881.
30 “Sitting to day on my piazza”: Stephen Upson to Lucretia Garfield, July 3, 1881.
31 Others suggested hanging sheets: Letters to Lucretia Garfield, Library of Congress, Garfield papers.
32 Finally, a corps of engineers: Reports of Officers of the Navy: Ventilating and Cooling of Executive Mansion, 4. Nine years later, Willis Haviland Carrier designed the first system for controlling not only temperature, but also humidity.
33 In the president’s office: Telegram from Joseph Stanley Brown to R. J. Jennings, the owner of a company in Baltimore that had a cooling device, quoted in Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 83.
34 Although the system worked: Seale, The President’s House, 523–24. “They found some kind of compressed air machine,” Garfield’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Mollie, complained in her diary, “& it made a horrible noise when it became full of air.” James A. Garfield Papers, Library of Congress.
35 “cool, dry, and ample”: Seale, The President’s House, 524.
36 “wonderfully patient sufferer”: Paulson, “Death of a President and His Assassin,” 79.
37 “never approached him”: Bliss, “The Story of President Garfield’s Illness,” 301.
38 “Thank you, gentlemen”: Rockwell, “From Mentor to Elberon,” Century Magazine, 437.
39 “witty, and quick at repartee”: Ibid.
40 “The vein of his conversation”: “A Great Nation in Grief,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.
41 “I do not believe that”: “At the Patient’s Bedside,” New York Times, July 5, 1881.
42 Although Garfield rarely mentioned: Rockwell, “From Mentor to Elberon,” Century Magazine.
43 “What motive do you think”: “A Great Nation in Grief,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.
Chapter 17: One Nation
1 “You were not made free merely”: “Colored Men Visit Garfield,” New York Times, October 21, 1880.
2 “the high privilege and sacred duty”: Garfield, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1881.
3 “give the South, as rapidly as possible”: De Santis, “President Garfield and the ‘Solid South,’ ” 449.
4 “felt, as they had not felt before”: “Southern Sympathy,” New York Times, July 20, 1881.
5 “united, as if by magic”: Bundy, The Nation’s Hero, in Memoriam, 242–43.
6 “the whole Nation kin”: “Jefferson Davis on Guiteau’s Crime,” New York Times, July 16, 1881.
7 “I felt lighthearted and merry”: United States v. Guiteau, 601.
8 “His vanity is literally nauseating”: Hayes and Hayes, A Complete History, 405–6.
9 “He spoke with deliberation”: Ibid.
10 “He objected strenuously”: Ibid., 406.
11 “I want you to be sure”: Ibid., 499.
12 “I don’t want to appear strained”: Quoted in Ackerman, Dark Horse, 406.
13 Before returning to his cell: Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 65.
14 He believed that he would be released: Rosenberg, The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau, p. 46.
15 “by the hundreds”: Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 91.
16 “a conviction would shock the public”: United States v. Guiteau, 2246.
17 So carefree was Guiteau: Rosenberg, The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau, 45.
18 “I am looking for a wife”: Hayes and Hayes, A Complete History, 451.
19 “For twenty years, I have had an idea”: Hayes and Hayes, A Complete History, 452.
20 He was in contact with everyone: Mackenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, 235.
21 “Alec says he telegraphed”: Mabel Bell to her mother, July 20, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
22 At this point in his experiments: Bell, Upon the Electrical Experiments, 15.
23 He had adjusted the coils’ size: Ibid., 8–11.
24 Most important, he had decided to borrow: Ibid., 5.
25 Bell and Tainter had already begun testing: Mackenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, 236.
26 Seven years earlier, while working: Bruce, Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude, 121.
27 “more nearly approximate”: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 17, 1881, Bell Family Papers; Mackenzie, Alexander Graham Bell, 236.
28 On July 20, as promised: Bell, “Volta Lab Notes,” July 19, 1881.
29 Bliss, who had brought for the inventor: Clark, The Murder of James A. Garfield, 86. The bullets are in the collection of the National Museum of American History.
30 “Ball can certainly be located”: Bell, “Volta Lab Notes,” July 9, 1881.
31 “If people would only make their bullets”: Bell, Upon the Electrical Experiments, 46.
32 In its earliest form, the induction balance: Ibid., 7, 11.
33 Always a serious young man: Grosvenor and Wesson, Alexander Graham Bell, 62.
34 The Volta Laboratory, moreover, was far: Gray, Reluctant Genius, 217.
35 So unhealthy was the laboratory: Mabel Bell to Eliza Bell, June 23, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
36 “headache has taken root”: Bruce, Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude, 201.
37 “Alec says he would rather die”: Mabel Bell to Eliza Bell, June 23, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
38 “epistolary silence”: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 26, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
39 “Alec says he is well and bearing”: Mabel Bell to her mother, July 20, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
40 “I want to know how you are personally”: Mabel Bell to Alexander Graham Bell, July 16, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
Chapter 18: “Keep Heart”
1 “I hope the dangers are nearly passed”: Lucretia Garfield to Mrs. Logan, July 14, 1881.
2 Although she continued to spend: Feis, Mollie Garfield in the White House, 88.
3 “I hope I shall not disappoint you”: Shaw, Lucretia, 91.
4 “Blundered!”: Lucretia, Diary, April 20, 1881, in Garfield, Diary, 641, 4:641.
5 “In these few weeks of trial and anxiety”: “The President’s Wife,” New York Times, Aug. 28, 1881.
6 “She must be a pretty brave woman”: Mabel Bell to Alexander Graham Bell, July 25, 1881, Bell Family Papers.
7 “His gradual progress”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 31.
8 “day of thanksgiving for the recovery”: “Thanksgiving for the President,” New York Times, July 13, 1881.
9 “You keep heart”: “A Typical American Family,” New York Times, July 25, 1881.
10 “Every passage of his bowels”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 18.
11 “rarely spoke of his condition”: Ibid., 14.
12 His only link to the outside world: “Still Brighter Prospects,” New York Times, July 8, 1881.
13 “Strangulatus pro Republica”: Theodore Clarke Smith, The Life and Letters of James Abram Garfield, 2:1193.
14 “There was never a moment”: Rockwell, “From Mentor to Elberon.”
15 Finally, nearly a month after the shooting: Harriet S. Blaine and Beale, Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine, p. 220.
16 “But I move the diaphragm”: “Still Brighter Prospects,” New York Times, July 8, 1881
.
17 “I won’t talk to you”: “At the Patient’s Bedside,” New York Times, July 5, 1881.
18 Friends and family members in Ohio: “The Feeling in Cleveland,” New York Times, July 4, 1881.
19 “Everywhere,” one reporter wrote, “hope and confidence”: “The President’s Fight for Life,” New York Times, July 7, 1881.
20 “out of danger”: Harriet S. Blaine and Beale, Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine, 221.
21 “large quantity”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 38–39.
22 “neither ashamed nor afraid”: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 130.
23 “was looking very well”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 39.
24 “he is feverish”: Ibid., 40.
25 “drenched with a profuse perspiration”: Ibid., 41.
26 “the President bore”: “Complete Medical Record of President Garfield’s Case Containing All of the Official Bulletins,” 25–26.
27 He vomited repeatedly: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 43.
28 “weak solution of car bolic [sic] acid”: Ibid., 42.
29 Unbeknownst to his doctors: Autopsy of James A. Garfield, 4.
30 An enormous cavity: Ibid., 3.
31 “We received every morning”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 23.
32 One man sent the doctors plans: Ibid.
33 A man in Maryland wrote to Bliss: Prichard and Herring, “The Problem of the President’s Bullet,” Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics, 2 (May 1951), 625–33.
34 Although Bliss admitted: Ibid., 626.
35 “had a suspicion”: Ibid., 627.
36 “bullet has pierced the liver”: “A Great Nation in Grief,” New York Times, July 3, 1881.
37 At least one doctor in Washington: Baker, President Garfield’s Case, 1–8.
38 Baker even drew up a diagram: Ibid.
39 “I felt,” he would later explain, “that it was improper”: Quoted in Rutkow, James A. Garfield, 117.
40 “These bulletins were often the subject”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 19.
41 “If the slightest unfavorable symptom”: Reyburn, Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield, 19.