EMBOLISM CAUSED DEATH

                Blood Clot, Physicians Announce, Killed Col. Roosevelt in His Sleep

                WORKED UP TO THE LAST

                Worn by Illness, Former President with Indomitable Will Kept Up Activities

                WAS IN PERIL IN HOSPITAL

                Embolism Then Threatened His Life--Rheumatism Traced to Tooth Infected 20 Years
                Ago

                Special to The New York Times

                     Oyster Bay, L.I., Jan. 6. -- Theodore
                     Roosevelt, former President of the United
                States, died this morning between 4 and 4:15
                o'clock while asleep in his bed at his home on
                Sagamore Hill, in this place.

                His physicians said that the immediate cause of
                death was a clot of blood which detached itself
                from a vein and entered the lungs.

                His sudden death took by surprise his physicians
                as well as all others who had been with him lately.
                It was announced that the blood clot was not
                directly due to the inflammatory rheumatism from
                which he had been suffering for two months, but
                must be traced to earlier conditions. One of the
                contributing causes was the fever which he
                contracted during his explorations in Brazil, when
                he discovered the River of Doubt early in 1914.
                This fever left a poison in the blood which had
                been a partial cause of several attacks of illness
                which he had suffered since that time.

                Colonel Roosevelt was working hard as late as
                Saturday, dictating articles and letters. He spent
                Sunday quietly, but looked and felt well, until
                shortly before 11 o'clock, when he had difficulty in
                breathing. After treatment he felt better and
                returned to bed.

                Mrs. Roosevelt looked in to see how he was
                sleeping at 2 o'clock this morning. He then
                appeared normal. Two hours later, James Amos,
                an old negro servant of the family, formerly with
                them at the White House, thought that there was
                something wrong with the manner in which
                Colonel Roosevelt was breathing. Amos had been
                placed in the next room to keep a close watch
                over Colonel Roosevelt, and went at once to the
                bedside. He was alarmed at the hollow sound of
                his breathing and summoned the trained nurse.
                When she arrived, the breathing had stopped. Dr.
                George W. Faller of Oyster Bay, the family
                physician, was summoned, and found that life had
                left the body a few minutes before.

                Statement By Physicians

                Later, the following statement was given out by
                Dr. Faller and Drs. John H. Richard and John A.
                Hartwell of New York, who had Colonel
                Roosevelt under their care at Roosevelt Hospital:

                Colonel Roosevelt had been suffering from an
                attack of inflammatory rheumatism for about two
                months. His progress had been entirely
                satisfactory and his condition had not given cause
                for special concern. On Sunday he was in good
                spirits and spent the evening with his family,
                dictating letters. He retired at 11 o'clock, and at 4
                o'clock in the morning his manservant who
                occupied an adjoining room, noticed that, while
                sleeping quietly, Colonel Roosevelt's breathing
                was hollow. He died almost immediately, without
                awakening. The cause of death was an embolus.

                George W. Faller, M.D. John H. Richards, M.D.
                John A. Hartwell, M.D.

                An embolus is a clot of blood. Dr. Faller said that
                it had probably occurred in the lungs, but might
                have been in the brain.

                Colonel Roosevelt was taken from Roosevelt Hospital to Oyster Bay to
                spend Christmas with his family, but was expected to return for further
                treatment. The inflammatory rheumatism was due, in the opinion of his
                physicians, to an infected tooth, which had originally given trouble twenty
                years ago. Inflammatory rheumatism is not known to be a cause of embolism,
                and it is not believed that the rheumatism was responsible for his death,
                although it may have contributed to it.

                Colonel Roosevelt suffered from pulmonary embolism at the Roosevelt
                Hospital three weeks ago, and was then in a critical condition for a time, but
                his recovery was thought to be thorough.

                Mrs. Roosevelt was the only member of the family at home when the death
                occurred. Captain Archibald Roosevelt had left yesterday with his wife,
                formerly Miss Mary S. Lockwood, for Boston, on receiving word that her
                father was dying. Lieut. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., is in France with the
                Army of Occupation. Captain Kermit Roosevelt is also in France. His
                daughter-in- law, Mrs. Richard H. Derby, and her two children had been at
                Sagamore Hill for Christmas, but had gone to Aiken, S.C. All the members of
                Colonel Roosevelt's family now in this country at once started for Sagamore
                Hill on learning of his death.

                Colonel Roosevelt himself had no idea that he was seriously ill, and was full of
                interest in everything in the world and full of plans for the future. He was
                vexed over his two months of invalidism. When he was asked about his health
                by visitors his reply was a vigorous "Bully!" He deceived not only himself, his
                family, and his friends as to the seriousness of his condition, but deceived his
                physicians as well.

                Dr. Faller said that he had been paying two visits a day regularly to Colonel
                Roosevelt since his return to Oyster Bay and believed that he was improving.

                Evaded Physician's Inquiries

                "When I called on him last night at 8 o'clock, which was the regular hour for
                one of my visits," Dr. Faller said, "I wanted to know his condition, but I could
                not get him to tell me anything about his case. He talked about almost
                everything except himself and his condition of health. His months of illness had
                not made much change in his appearance. He was ruddy, and, to outward
                appearances, nearly as sturdy as ever. I left him on my first visit in the evening
                apparently improving rapidly and feeling first-rate.

                "I was called again at about 11 o'clock by the nurse. I found Colonel
                Roosevelt looking about the same, but he said that he was having trouble to
                get his breath, and that he felt as if his heart would stop beating. He was
                interested in his condition, but not worried. He had no idea that he was in
                danger.

                "After I had been with him for some time he said that he felt better. When I
                was called again he was dead."

                Colonel Roosevelt had not been confined to his bed at all by illness since he
                returned from the hospital. He had been down to the village in his automobile
                once and had several times taken walks about his estate. He felt well
                generally, but was considerably troubled by pains in his right hand, which was
                still badly swollen by rheumatism.

                Colonel Roosevelt was considered only partially recovered from the
                rheumatism when he left the hospital on Christmas morning to have Christmas
                dinner with his family. He was met on his arrival at his home by the two Derby
                children. One of them hailed him by saying:

                "Come on, Grandpa, and see what Santa Claus has brought."

                Colonel Roosevelt started to be very cautious and to take good care of
                himself on his return to his home, but he was soon back in his old stride,
                dictating letters and articles with his normal prolific energy. He spent most of
                the afternoon on Thursday dictating, and resumed his work on Saturday.
                According to his physician, he was dictating letters only a few hours before his
                death.

                His last work was on editorial articles for The Kansas City Star, and on an
                article for the Metropolitan Magazine. About the last thing he did was to write
                a long letter to his son, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., in which he enclosed proofs
                of his last article for the Metropolitan.

                The last words uttered by Colonel Roosevelt were to his colored servant
                Amos after he had retired, and they were:

                "Please put out that light, James."

                One of Colonel Roosevelt's last visitors, outside of the physicians and his
                family, was John Gerardi, a barber. Colonel Roosevelt usually made a
                practice of shaving himself, but since he has been ill, he has been visited
                regularly by Gerardi.

                "He was in the sitting room in an easy chair yesterday," said Gerardi, "when I
                came in. He started to get up and said, 'Hello, John,' in the friendly way he
                always spoke. Then he said:

                "'You don't have to send any of your circulars to me when you want
                something for the feast of Saint Rocco. Come yourself, John.'

                "He shook hands with me, when I was through. He was one fine man. If
                anybody was sick or needed help in the village, you never had to go to
                Colonel Roosevelt but once."

                Mourning in Oyster Bay

                The village of Oyster Bay was stunned by the news of his death. Colonel
                Roosevelt was appreciated by the village as a world figure, but he also was
                looked upon as much of a fellow- townsman as the village blacksmith or any
                other local citizen. The Oyster Bay flag was lowered at once to half mast,
                crepe went up on the fire house, the rooms of the Masonic Lodge and
                elsewhere in the village, while all the residents of the town went about with an
                appearance of deep personal grief.

                Colonel Roosevelt was a member of the local lodge of Masons, and never
                failed to keep up his interest in it. He had made a habit for many years of
                visiting Masonic lodges wherever he went, as a member of the Oyster Bay
                lodge, and, returning, to tell his brother Masons here of his visits. He found
                Masonic lodges when he was in Africa at Mairobe, and in South America he
                found a lodge on the Asuncion River. The Masons here knew from Colonel
                Roosevelt of the doings of Masonic lodges in all parts of the world. The
                members of the local lodge suggested a Masonic funeral yesterday, but this
                was dropped when the wishes of the family became known.

                When Colonel Roosevelt returned from his South American journey in 1914,
                he gave the first account of his discoveries in an address at the local church,
                months ahead of the announcement of the discovery of the mysterious
                Brazilian River, now the Rio Teodoro, in a magazine. He was a village
                institution as the master of ceremonies over the Christmas tree in Christ
                Episcopal Church, and in the role of Santa Claus at the Cove Neck School,
                near Sagamore Hill, where all of his children learned the A B C's. Last
                Christmas was the first time that Colonel Roosevelt had failed to take charge
                of these functions since he left the White House, with the exception of the
                Christmas of 1913, when he was on his way to South America. His son,
                Captain Archie, took his place last Christmas as the Santa Claus of the Cove
                Neck School.

                Colonel Roosevelt's old negro servants were inconsolable. James Amos, to
                whom he addressed his last words, and his coachman, Charles Lee, had been
                with him since his White House days. Charles Lee was the son of a man who
                had been the personal servant of General Robert E. Lee. Charles Lee had
                been an employe of the late General Fitzhugh Lee, and left the service of the
                General to go with Colonel Roosevelt when the latter was in the White
                House.

                "I have lost the best friend I have ever had," said Lee, when he could find
                voice, "and the best friend any man ever had."

                The servants and the old personal friends of Colonel Roosevelt, as well as the
                members of his family, were especially affected by the news of his death,
                because they thought he was getting well rapidly. Bulletins of the Colonel's
                condition had come to the village from Sagamore Hill by word of mouth every
                day since he had been home, and the story always was that the patient had
                said he was feeling "bully" and "great."

                The news of his sudden death was not believed when it first came to the
                village. When it was verified by the local physicians, photographs of Colonel
                Roosevelt, many of them autographed, appeared in shop and residence
                windows draped in mourning.

                Flood of Telegraph Messages

                The telegraph office was hardly opened when telegrams of condolence began
                to arrive. They were soon coming in too fast for the single operator. Two
                more telegraphers were put to work, but the volume of messages was soon
                far beyond their capacity to receive them.

                W. Emlen Roosevelt, a cousin, living near the village, was the first relative of
                the family to arrive in the morning after the news of Colonel Roosevelt's death.
                He had called at Sagamore Hill yesterday and found Colonel Roosevelt in
                good spirits, so that the news staggered him. He reported that Mrs. Roosevelt
                had borne the death of her husband with great fortitude. Mrs. Theodore
                Roosevelt, Jr., arrived during the morning.

                Others who called at the home today were Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Douglas
                Robinson, Elon R. Hooker, former Treasurer of the Progressive Party;
                Joseph W. Bishop, and Miss Josephine Stryker, Colonel Roosevelt's private
                secretary.

                Five airplanes from Quentin Roosevelt Field flew in "V" formation over
                Sagamore Hill in the afternoon and dropped wreaths of laurel about the
                house. They flew very low, sometimes circling just over the tops of the trees,
                and letting fall the wreaths within a few feet of the house.

                The airplane squadron was under the command of Lieutenant M. S. Harmon.
                Three of his fellow pilots were Lieutenant L. G. Williams, Lieutenant Coates,
                and Lieutenant Parnell. Quentin Roosevelt Field, which is between Mineola
                and Westbury, was so named after the death of Colonel Roosevelt's son in
                France.

                Lieutenant Harmon announced that an airplane watch would be kept over
                Sagamore Hill until the hour of the funeral on Wednesday. The watch will be
                maintained night and day, one plane relieving another.

                Colonel Roosevelt was a personal acquaintance of hundreds of the American
                air pilots, especially those on Long Island, many of whom had been his guests
                at Oyster Bay. Every week that he has been at home since the war began he
                had been visited by men from all branches of the service. The War Camp
                Community Service made a practice of taking about thirty men from Camp
                Mills or other military, naval, and aircraft stations to visit Colonel Roosevelt
                every Saturday afternoon. He would be on the front porch, waiting to give
                them a regular Roosevelt welcome and to assure them that they all came to
                Sagamore Hill on "the most favored nation" basis. He took great pleasure in
                showing these boys over his trophy rooms, where the two most striking
                exhibits were the gigantic elephant tusks presented to him by King Menelik of
                Abyssinia and a great tome in which was engrossed and illuminated the entire
                pedigree of ex-Emperor Wilhelm, autographed and dedicated by him.

                Colonel Roosevelt took the deepest pleasure in the letters which he received
                from many of these soldiers after they had reached the other side and gone
                into action. He was in regular correspondence with some of them.

                Broken by Quentin's Death

                Only the members of Colonel Roosevelt's own family and his most intimate
                friends knew how deeply he suffered because of the death of his youngest
                son, Quentin, who was killed in an airplane combat in France on July 14.
                This, however, is believed to have been one of the contributing causes of his
                death.

                Colonel Roosevelt received his first inkling that this had occurred when a
                correspondent at Oyster Bay brought him a dispatch, censored until it was
                unintelligible, but containing some reference to one of the Roosevelt boys. As
                soon as he read it Colonel Roosevelt took his visitor into another room, so
                that Mrs. Roosevelt should not learn the topic that was under discussion.

                "Theodore and Archie are in hospitals," he said. "Kermit is on his way from
                Mesopotamia to France. It must be Quentin."

                When the news was confirmed next day, Colonel Roosevelt, who had always
                declared that families should accept cheerfully the sacrifice of their sons in the
                war, went to his office at 347 Madison Avenue as usual, attended to his
                work, and later issued a statement in which he said that he and Mrs.
                Roosevelt took pride in his death. The following day he kept his engagement
                to address the unofficial Republican State Convention at Saratoga Springs,
                where the enthusiasm for him resulted in a unanimous attempt to induce him to
                run for Governor.

                Colonel Roosevelt's recent illness followed within a week after his long and
                strenuous address at Carnegie Hall just before the election, which he made
                the occasion of a reply to President Wilson's appeal to the people to elect a
                Democratic Congress. On the Saturday night following this speech he was
                troubled with a badly swollen ankle. When this continued he went to
                Roosevelt Hospital, where it was found that he had inflammatory rheumatism,
                complicated with other troubles. Dr. J. H. Richards, one of his physicians who
                treated him at Roosevelt Hospital, said today that a detached clot of blood
                had nearly caused the death of Colonel Roosevelt while at the hospital, and
                that it was recognized that there was some danger of a second such attack.

                "Pulmonary embolism is not a usual occurrence in cases of inflammatory
                rheumatism," he said. "Embolism comes in childhood but not ordinarily in adult
                life."

                The inflammatory rheumatism which the Colonel suffered was traceable
                twenty years back to an infected tooth, it was said. While he was at the
                hospital the rheumatism spread to nearly every joint in his body. At the time
                that he left the hospital, however, the attending physicians issued a statement
                that the disease was taking a normal course and nothing extraordinary was
                recognized in his condition.

                Carried Schrank's Bullet

                At his death Colonel Roosevelt carried in his body the bullet which was fired
                by Schrank, at Milwaukee during the Presidential campaign of 1912, which
                nearly resulted in Colonel Roosevelt's death, because he went on and
                delivered his speech immediately after the attack.

                This and other shocks to his constitution, it was said, might have contributed
                to the condition which finally brought about his end. Colonel Roosevelt
                survived innumerable accidents and dangers to his life, which might have left
                some mark on his constitution. When he first entered the White House, his
                Secretary of State, John Hay, concluded a letter of praise for Colonel
                Roosevelt by saying: "He will not live long."

                He referred to a series of accidents to the President, each one of which was
                not far from fatal. Of all the accidents which Colonel Roosevelt went through,
                that which left the worst effects happened in South America. He tore his leg
                badly when he was thrown from a boat while descending the River of Doubt
                and the wound became badly infected. While ill from this he suffered an
                attack of fever. His health was never sound for any long period since his
                return from South America early in 1914.

                This wound in his leg was directly responsible for the complication of diseases
                which sent him to the hospital in February of last year, where for a time his life
                was despaired of. He suffered from a fistula and from an abscess in the ear,
                which stopped just before it reached the mastoid process.

                Even after this illness his energy would not allow him to lead a cautious life.
                Shortly after his recovery he undertook a trip in the West for the National
                Security League and made a number of speeches. It was during this tour that
                he had his historic reconciliation with ex-President Taft at the Hotel
                Blackstone in Chicago.

                In June, while he was in the Middle West, he had a severe attack of
                erysipelas, but refused to go to a hospital. In spite of intense suffering, he
                made speeches at Omaha, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. Taking his physician
                with him he made a 120-mile automobile trip to keep speaking engagements
                and returned to Indianapolis leaving his physician a "wreck," while he was
                fresh and vigorous physically though in a good deal of pain. He came home by
                train and spent a part of his first day chopping wood.

                Besides carrying a bullet in his body, Colonel Roosevelt was partially blind
                and partially deaf. The sight of his left eye was destroyed while he was in the
                White House in a boxing match. The hearing of one ear was destroyed by the
                abscess in his ear last February. He had suffered from broken ribs on
                numerous occasions, mostly in falls from horses, and a strained ligament on a
                rib caused him a severe attach of pleurisy in 1916. After that attack he was
                ordered by his physicians to give up violent exercise, but this advice he would
                not follow.

                Colonel Roosevelt would never go to a physician unless he was in a bad way.
                He would not admit that he could become ill and the idea of regular
                examinations and medical care never attracted him. He was perplexed and
                indignant with himself when the attack of disease came on in February of last
                year which sent him to Roosevelt Hospital. This began with a fainting spell, the
                first of the kind he had ever suffered. When he recovered consciousness and
                learned what had happened, he exclaimed:

                "What a Jack I am."

                When he was at a farm in Stamford, Conn., in 1917, reducing flesh by the
                most violent exercise conceivable, in spite of medical advice that violent
                exercise was dangerous to him, he became very angry over a report that his
                health was seriously impaired and issued a statement, in which he said:

                "That is a complete fake. I haven't seen a physician for months. No human
                being told me to cancel a speaking engagement or take a complete rest."