Was Teddy Roosevelt hit by a trolley car?

[sailor]

Did ye see what th’ prisidint said to th’ throlley man that bumped him?" asked Mr. Dooley.

“I did not,” said Mr. Hennessy. “What was it?”

“I can’t tell ye till I get mad,” said Mr. Dooley

I have heard that President Theodore Roosevelt lost an eye when he was hit by a trolley car but I have not been able to find any confirmation on line except for this humorous piece written at the time. It is a pretty funny piece about the use profanity and I was going to post the following quote in a thread about profanity in the pit but Lynn closed it saying “this isn’t the forum or the message board for gratuitous vulgarity” which left me scratching my head.

"Swearin’ belongs to some thrades,–like printin’, bricklayin’ an’ plumbin’. It is no help at all, at all to tailors, shoemakers, hair-dressers, dintists or authors. A surgeon needs it but a doctor niver. It is a great help in unloadin’ a ship an’ sailor men always swear–th’ cap’n an’ mate whin wurruk is goin’ on an’ th’ men befure th’ mast at meals. Sojers mus’ swear. They’se no way out iv it. It’s as much th’ equipment iv a sojer as catridges. In vigorous spoort it is niciss’ry but niver at checkers or chess an’ sildom at dominoes. Cowboys are compelled to use it. No wan cud rope a cow or cinch a pony without swearin’. A sthrick bringin’ up is th’ same as havin’ a wooden leg on th’ plains. Profanity shud be used sparingly if at all on childher–especially girls–an’ sildom on women, though I’ve knowed an occasional domestic: ‘Damn ye’er eyes’ to wurruk wondhers in reg-latin’ a fam’ly. Women can’t swear. They have th’ feelin’ but not th’ means. Westhern men swear betther thin Eastern men though I mus’ say th’ mos’ lib’ral swearers I iver knew come fr’m Boston.

So there it is for what it’s worth. But, to repeat the OP: Was Teddy Roosevelt hit by a trolley car and did he lose an eye as a result?

[KenP]

IIRC, TR lost the site in one eye (but not the eye) in a boxing match while he was President.

He was involved in (or narrowly escaped) a trolley accident in which the trolley driver was killed.

That’s from memory. I’m sure a TRaphile will be along to correct my errors and add the details.

[Reeder]

He lost his eye in a boxing accidnt…

Blind in one eye as a result of a boxing accident during his White House years, he wore thick glasses.

http://www.umkc.edu/imc/roosevlt.htm

[Nametag]

From this site:

Roosevelt was riding in an open landau with Massachusetts Governor Murray Crane and presidential secretary George B. Cortelyou. The electric trolleys had been temporarily barred from movement while the President’s entourage passed through; however, one trolley from a considerable distance outside of Pittsfield was later than expected in completing its last run allowed before the hour of the ban. As the trolley approached, its passengers urged the motorman to get closer to the president’s landau. The motorman, in the excitement of the moment, was not aware of a turn of the tracks to the right in a narrow bend and could not thus avoid hitting the president’s landau. The trolley struck the left rear wheel of the carriage and plowed through the front wheel, upsetting the carriage and throwing all of its occupants onto the road. William Craig, a Secret Service agent, had been sitting on the driver’s box beside the coachman and was thrown out and run over by the trolley Governor Crane was unharmed; Cortelyou took a severe injury to the back of his head. President Roosevelt suffered a cut lip, cuts to the face and a bruised leg.

Within a short time the leg bruise began to swell and form an abscess; however, Roosevelt went on with his speaking schedule in West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina. While at Indianapolis, Indiana, he expressed discomfort about his leg which he admitted had caused him pain for several days. Doctors examined him and recommended surgery to drain the leg and reduce the swelling. He was given a local anesthetic and while gritting his teeth was said to have kept talking throughout the surgery. The leg continued to bother him throughout the rest of his life and is thought by some to be the cause of the phlebitis he suffered from in later years.

[sailor]

Nametag, thanks for that link. The page is most interesting and exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. TR has a most interesting biography. Now I have to wonder what the president of the US was doing boxing .

[BobT]

TR was into physical fitness before it became fashionable. He also played tennis, but wouldn’t allow himself to be photographed in tennis clothes because it thought it would be a bad image for him.

This was also a guy who went hunting a lot and decided to go to war pretty much for fun.

Boxing was and is still is considered to be a good form of exercise by some if you can get past the part about punching someone in the head so hard that you could give them a concussion. I doubt that TR was headgear.