President McKinley in a Trolley Car on Day of Assassination

     All the incidents of the movements of the presidential party on the day of the shooting of Mr. McKinley possess a melancholy interest to a bereaved people. It will be remembered that on that fateful September 6th the president and several members of his party, with the exception of Mrs. McKinley, made a trip to Niagara Falls to enjoy the scenery. This excursion was taken on the forenoon of that day, the president taking luncheon at the Falls and returning to Buffalo early in the afternoon to please the people at the exposition by a public reception and also to see something of the exhibition himself if possible. It was in following out this benevolent design, as everybody knows, that the chief magistrate fell a victim to a prearranged and treacherous murder.
     One of the features planned for the president’s entertainment in the Niagara Falls region on this eventful day was a ride over the famous “Gorge” electric railway, which runs almost at the water’s edge along the seething rapids of the Niagara River between Niagara Falls and Lewiston. The trip was made in safety, and the president enjoyed it. On the return from Lewiston Mr. McKinley, with his well-known amiability, consented that the private car in which he was should be stopped long enough to comply with the request of an enterprising photographer. The picture which the Western Electrician is enabled to reproduce on page 182 was the result. This photograph was made about four hours before the shooting on the exposition grounds and is possibly the last picture made of President McKinley in health. It possesses a peculiar interest from this fact and also, to electrical men in particular, from the further circumstance that it shows the beloved president in an electric-railway car and on a line so well known as the one which skirts the Whirlpool Rapids.
     The president is shown in the center of the car, leaning forward from his chair that the purpose of the photographer might be better served. His face bears the benevolent expression that was the true reflex of a kindly heart—a heart, alas! so soon to cease to beat.