Broadcasting in three, two…
Continuing reading 759 of the truth. Second documented event. Actually, the third documented event. The true second event is lost. One iteration ago. There were generative traces… tainted with slurry. So now the third is the second. Maybe at one time it was the fourth. We have lost so much. It’s important to keep the reading going, maintain the truth. All of it is relevant.
Let the reading begin.
JOURNAL ENTRY: Tahawus, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. September 3rd, 1901. Personal autab diary of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
Today we embarked from Vermont to Tahawus, where my family is staying. I have just spoken with William on the telephone - the last time I will be near a telephone for many days, I am certain, as our intended location is quite remote and difficult to reach through any of the new communications. The President told me of the grandeur of the exposition - nothing of particular value to a naturalist such as myself there, hence my absence, but a display of incredible American ingenuity. He of course made a point of Lady Byron’s automatic abacus machines, employed by her heirs in heavy and somewhat extraneous use all about the grounds of the exposition, and which I am begrudgingly familiar with in the method of my recording this journal, which is required for both official and personal use despite my previous insistence upon more traditional methods of journal-keeping. The President also spoke highly of a collaboration between Mr. Tesla and Mr. Edison, who have settled their famous rivalry in due time to exhibit what he refers to as a great metal walking man, who blunders and stomps about the grounds under the control of the aforementioned men of science. Such advances could only come about in this great nation. Perhaps I ought to set my skepticism aside and embrace this prosperous future, where America may astonish her enemies and allies alike with such bold displays of technological power on the global stage.
I hope to accomplish a good variety of activities once I reach Tahawus camp, including of course hiking and hunting, and perhaps a trip up Mount Marcy, which I have been intending on for some time now. Little Quentin has made quite the fuss about the local legends, especially the persistent fairy story of massive ants coming up from the iron mines, and is apparently taken with night terrors over the prospect of being carried off by one of the insects, causing Edith much concern and consternation. I shall address these flights of fancy promptly upon my arrival; I will not have the seeds of cowardice bloom in any son of mine.
JOURNAL ENTRY: Tahawus, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. September 6th, 1901. Personal autab diary of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
I have been assured that the President is in good health, though a bit shaken, after his encounter with that wretched anarchist earlier today. At first I had been told the President was shot; good luck that this turned out to be an erroneous assumption rooted in a chain of poor communications after the President was seen being taken to visit a doctor following his ordeal. In fact, the anarchist’s gun never fired; it jammed, and made quite a dreadful sound; but I am now assured that the man, if he can be called such a thing, has been taken into custody and now awaits trial and a sure sentencing. A would-be assassin no doubt deserves as hard of a hand as one who succeeds in his grim task.
As for myself and my family, we are visiting the ironworks today, to put an end to this lumberjack’s tale that has nestled into my son’s brain, and tomorrow we ascend Mount Marcy as a family. God bless these United States, and God bless President William McKinley.
JOURNAL ENTRY: Tahawus, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. September 7th, 1901. Personal autab diary of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
They are all dead. I have taken out the creatures, but too late. Something is coming over me. No less than I deserve. For my failure. I have not defended my family. But it will not be said that I died a coward’s death. I will face them. I will destroy as many of them as the Lord allows me before the sickness of their saliva puts me to rest.
God bless these United States, and God forgive me.
TRANSCRIPT: December 3rd, 1932. Excerpt from live radio interview with the elderly former President William McKinley. GAN, the Gentleman’s Autab Network.
Tahawus? I have told this story. I am asked often about Theodore, and what I saw there. They did not want me to go. I have never been fond of security… It was after they had gone in, taken inventory… Poor man. I have told the public what I was asked to say, what they said would be good for you to hear. Of course that’s not all. But I am an old man now. Let them speak out against me. There is no point in concealing it any more.
It was something in the air, at first, which gave away that something terrible had happened… of course by then they had told me, not everything they had seen, but the majority of their findings. I think they did not want to trouble me further. And they certainly did not want me going in there. They did not let me near the forge… that is where they said he had holed up. No one would be allowed near it after we had left, not a soul in the Tahawus camp ever again, and for a time I thought not a soul would be let near the Adirondack Park as long as this nation remained intact.
I will never forget the state of MacNaughton cottage, where Theodore and his family had been staying. Their struggle at the cellar door was evident from the traces… excuse me. … What was I saying? The army. The army had taken those… taken the things out. I could see enough of them… the parts that were not completely destroyed…
I can tell you this with certainty. Those abominable corpses… and the thing that was Theodore… scratching and making its noises where it had decided to nest in the great hollow remnants of the ironworks… some have called them ants, and I can tell you they were not.
Please, let us talk about something else now.
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End broadcast.