Page of Theodore Roosevelt speech hit by bullet in 1912 assassination attempt uncovered

The first page of a thick manuscript that helped slow a bullet and save the life of Theodore Roosevelt during a 1912 assassination attempt has been uncovered by a presidential historian in Pennsylvania. Signed by the 26th president, who at the time was seeking another term in the White House after leaving office almost four years earlier, the document from Roosevelt was found in the possession of a private collector and has not been seen in more than a century. It formed part of a lengthy, typewritten speech that Roosevelt folded in two and tucked in his breast pocket at a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin , on 14 October that year. It bears two holes from where a bullet tore through before striking his metal spectacles case. Wounded, but not mortally so, a bleeding Roosevelt told the crowd he had been shot, then proceeded to deliver his speech. He slumped down once finished and announced: “OK, I’m ready for the doctor,” historian Nathan Raab, of the Raab Collection, said. “Can you imagine that happening today?” Raab remarked. “No. The president would be whisked away, and rightfully so. But, in this case, I’m not sure they thought: ‘Oh, maybe there’s a second person’, or they figured: ‘OK, well, we got the guy.’” Raab said he was aware of the existence of only two other pages from Roosevelt’s speech from that day still in existence – but he believes this one, which he values at $150,000, is more significant for two reasons. …