§ 51 Poor Aim but Good Intent
After his retirement from the presidency Colonel Roosevelt was making one of his periodical trips through the Southwest, when word came to him in a town in New Mexico that one of his old Rough Riders, a cow hand, was in jail on a serious charge over in Arizona and craved that his beloved commander would come to see him and, if possible, aid him in his present troubles.
Promptly the Colonel crossed the line. In a small brick coop of a county prison he found the veteran. When greetings had been exchanged through the bars, Col. Roosevelt said:
“Jim, I’m certainly sorry to see you in this place.”
“Kernel,” stated the captive, “I’m sorry ’bout it myself. And I’m hopin’ you kin use your influence to git me out pronto. They really ain’t got no right to keep me locked up. My bein’ here is all due to a mistake anyway.”
“A mistake?” echoed the Colonel. “Why, I understood you were charged with some serious offence—shooting somebody, wasn’t it?”
“Well,” said the prisoner, “it’s true I did shoot a lady in the eye. But it was an accident, Colonel.”
“An accident?”
“Yes suh, a pure accident. I wasn’t shootin’ at that lady at all. I was shootin’ at my wife.”