"It will only be a minute before I will be out."
I also heard the Colonel tell Mr. Cochems to say or do nothing that would frighten the people.
The appearance of the Colonel on the platform and the circumstances connected with it have been fully described. Col. Lyon, just before the address of Col. Roosevelt was made, suggested to me that it was very important that the crowd should not press around Col. Roosevelt and to make arrangements to prevent that. I went back and found three men who said they were detectives, and I asked them to come on the stage and to make arrangements so as to prevent the crowd from pressing around Col. Roosevelt. Mr. Cochems, in the mean time, had gone in front of Col. Roosevelt so as to catch him if he should fall, and had made all arrangements to prevent the crowd from rushing on the platform after the address was finished.
Col. Roosevelt, after the address, walked through the aisle, which was kept open from the stage door, to the automobile; as he got into the automobile he shook my hand and said that he wanted it made emphatic that he blamed no one; that the city authorities were not to blame, nor was any blame to be attached to any one that had charge of this meeting; that it was an accident and could not have been prevented; that it might have happened anywhere; and repeated the importance of making that clear, and that that was his feeling.
That was just before he left in the auto for the Emergency hospital.
The following statement was made by Capt. A. O. Girard, who was in the automobile when Col. Roosevelt was shot. The statement was made in the office of the district attorney on Oct. 16, 1912.
I was asked by the secretary of the Progressive State Central committee to go to Racine and meet the Colonel, having been with him in his department and been his body guard before, and take some papers down. The Colonel requested that I stay with him for the evening and after we got at the hotel I stood in front of the door so he wouldn't be disturbed, and also at the dining room door.
While sitting in the dining room door there was a slight, dark man who said he came there especially from New York to see the Colonel, and was very persistent and wanted to open the dining room door and see him at the table. I finally forced him away. He was sallow complexioned, 28 or 30 years of age, I imagine, had a dark overcoat on, not so extra well dressed, smooth face. I noticed his eyes particularly—they were rather shifty—and he was very, very persistent in getting to the dining room. He was a man of about five feet ten; this happened at 7 o'clock at the Gilpatrick dining room.