A Landmark Race With the Bull Moose

ON Oct. 14, 1912, as Theodore Roosevelt campaigned in Milwaukee as the Progressive Party candidate for president, he was shot point-blank in the chest by a Brooklyn bartender named John Schrank, who opposed Roosevelt’s quest for a third term. Despite his bleeding wound, Roosevelt insisted on being taken to a hall to deliver the 50-page speech he had prepared, prefacing it by telling the crowd about the assassination attempt but adding, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

Bull Moose was the popular name for his party, based on Roosevelt’s earlier comment that he was “fit as a bull moose” to become president again.

On display now at the Oyster Bay Historical Society are two leaves from the speech and the steel eyeglass case that Roosevelt had in his pocket. The bullet passed through them before entering his body, and the holes are clearly visible....