Another madman, a workman from Minneapolis named Peter Elliott, has
been arrested by the Detective Service which now protects President Roosevelt, and sent to an asylum as a dangerous lunatic. He tried to shoot a policeman in the vestibule of the White House. These cases, which occur too frequently, suggest that the President is in even more danger than most European M,narchs. That is, probably an exaggeration, the Kings con- cealing as many of the threats and attempts directed against them as they can; but the President's danger must be great. America is full of "cranks," and they are as apt as European semi-maniacs are to let their thoughts fasten on the President of the Republic as the ultimate source of their grievances, whether imaginary or real. The most remarkable point in the business is the rapid increase in these attempts, both in America and Europe. Is that due to an actual increase in homicidal insanity, or an effect of the way in which modern journalism pours a sort of electric light upon the figures of the great, so that they are always visible P There are fifty references now even to our own King where there used to be five.
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