The most noted heart specialist in the country, Dr. Janeway of Washington, was summoned during the morning.
The advance of death may be read in the bulletins which were issued by the physicians and others and sent by the newspaper reporters to their respective papers.
Beginning at 10:28 a. m. Dr. Mynter announced that the President had a fighting chance. Then came, at 1:45, “The President is sleeping and an examination will be postponed until later.”
Then for a time no information came which would give the watchers outside any clew as to the positive condition of the patient within. Suddenly a carriage came up at a rapid speed and Dr. Stockton jumped out. He bore what appeared to be a case of surgical instruments.
It was not until after this that the information came that during the morning Mrs. McKinley had been in the room for a brief time, but the fact that her husband was dying was not imparted to her, and every effort was made to keep any suspicion of the true condition from her.
Colonel Alexander came from the house at 2:20 and declared the President had just awakened from a sound sleep which lasted an hour and a half. It was rumored, however, that the sleep was caused by the use of drugs and that Mr. McKinley was really dying.
At 4:45 p. m. Secretary Hitchcock and Secretary Wilson arrived and passed hurriedly into the house. They would answer no questions.
The anxiety of the watchers outside was abated somewhat immediately after this, however, by the appearance from the house of Mrs. Abner McKinley and her daughter, Mrs. Herman Baer. The women drove away, and, it was argued that, were the President in any immediate danger, they would not have left the house.
The President’s physicians issued a bulletin at 4:50 which stated that there had been but a slight improvement since the last official bulletin was issued. This notice said the pulse and temperature were practically the same.
A few minutes after the posting of this bulletin Harry Hamlin came from the house. He would not speak, and, summoning a carriage, he drove away at full speed.