‚Comfort Coils‛ by D. J. Bryant, 2010 Gary Lehmann’s essays, poetry and short stories are widely published. Books include The Span I Will Cross (Process Press, 2004), Public Lives and Private Secrets (FootHills Publishing, 2005), and recently, American
Sponsored Torture (FootHills Publishing, 2007). Look for American Portraits in 2010 from FootHills Publishing. Website http://www.garylehmann.blogspot.com/
Garfield on Ice
On September 12, 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot twice as he passed unguarded through the Sixth Street Station of the B&P Railroad by a man who had been overlooked for a government appointment. One of the bullets lodged in his body, but the doctors could not find it. They sought help from Alexander Graham Bell who was attempting to modify his newly-invented telephone to act as a rudimentary metal detector. Bell and his assistant spent precious days trying to get his device to work. While the President lay dying in the White House, his doctors probed the wound with unsterilized fingers, thus giving the President a deadly infection. At last, to Garfield’s bed rushed Bell, and scan he did from head to toe— his new device did not just register one bullet but hundreds of them. It was only later that Bell discovered he was recording the bed springs.