Deseret Evening News

MAYOR GAYNOR
NOT AFRAID TO DIE
Tells of His Impressions at Time He Was Shot on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse.

TERRIBLE ROAR IN HIS HEAD
Swelled to Highest Pitch, Then Fell, Then Rose. Subsiding Into Continuous Buzz.

New York. Sept. 19 - Mayor Gaynor in a letter to his sister, Mrs. Mary E. Gaynor of Utica, N. Y., which is printed in the Evening Post today, tells of his impressions at the time he was shot on the steamer Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse.

The mayor said he had not read a line of what has been published of the shooting, nor did he remember the name of the man who shot him. Mayor Gaynor wrote:

"I was standing on the deck talking with Commissioners Thompson, Lederle, Edwards, Corporation Counsel Watson, my secretary, Mr. Robert Adamson, and several friends who had come aboard to see me off. Mr. Montt, president of Chile, and Mrs. Montt had just passed by and I had spoken a few words with them.

"Mr. Adamson pointed out that the ship was dressed with flags for me, but I said I did not think it could be for us. My next consciousness was of a terrible metallic roar in my head. It filled my head, which seemed as though it would burst open. It swelled to the highest pitch and then fell, and then rose again, and so alternated until it subsided into a continuous buzz. It was sickening, but my stomach did not give way. I was meanwhile entirely sightless.

SIGHT RETURNED.

"I do not think I fell, for when I became conscious I was on my feet. I suppose they saved me from falling, and they were supporting me. My sight gradually returned so that after a while I could see the deck and the outlines of the crowd around me. I became conscious that I was choking. Blood was coming from my mouth and I tried all I could to swallow it so those around me would not see it. But I found I could not swallow and then knew my throat was hurt. It seemed as though it were dislocated. I struggled to breathe through my mouth, but could not, and thought I was dying of strangulation. I kept thinking all the time of the best thing to do.

"In some way I happened to close my mouth tight and found I could breathe perfectly through my nose. I then believed I could keep from smothering, but I kept choking and my mouth kept opening to cast out the blood.

"I was not a bit afraid to die if that was God's will of me. I said to myself, just as well now as a few years from now. No one who contemplates the immensity of Almighty God and of his universe and his works and realizes what an atom he is in it all, can fear to die in this flesh, yea, even though it were true that he is to be dissolved forever into the infinity of matter and mind from which he came.

"Though the thing had not entered my head that morning, I was not surprised when I realized that I was shot. I had had a feeling for some weeks that I might be assaulted on account of the anonymous threats I was getting by mail. I had not received so many nor so regularly since I was opposing the ring corruptions and the McKane conditions in Brooklyn and Gravesend when I was a young man."

SCORES CERTAIN NEWSPAPERS.

Mayor Gaynor, in the letter, scored certain newspapers for the manner in which they had attacked him, saying:

Such journalism is, of course, in absolute defiance of the criminal law and it did enter my mind to publicly call on the grand jury and the district attorney to protect me from it, but I was weak and feared people would say I was thin-skinned. But the time is at hand when these journalistic scoundrels have got to stop or get out and I am ready now to do my share to that end. If decent people would refuse to look at such newspapers, the thing would right itself at once. The journalism of New York city has been dragged to the lowest depth of degradation. The grossest raileries and libels, instead of honest statements and fair discussion have gone on unchecked."