The Parents of Czolgosz

     Paul Czolgosz, father of the anarchist assassin, lives with his family at 306 Fleet street, Cleveland, O., and during his residence there has always had the respect of his neighbors. Mrs. Czolgosz, the assassin’s stepmother, who is now in Buffalo, is a quiet woman, neat and cleanly in appearance, but not possessed of much education. The entire family, it would seem with the exception of the anarchist, has had little use for books of any kind. The elder Czolgosz has little sympathy for his revolutionary son, and openly expresses the conviction that he should be hanged for his crime. The anarchist’s father does not believe that his son is crazy, although he has no hesitation in saying that he is weak-minded. Leon, he says, was a boy who was always easily led, and who, unaided, would never have conceived the plan of killing the President. It is absurd, he says, to believe that the young man was not led on by abler, older, and wiser heads than his own. Mr. Czolgosz says there is no doubt that his son was sent by others to Buffalo primed and persuaded to make the attempt. The assassin’s father [21][22] used to live on a farm near Alpena, Mich., before he came to Cleveland. He has eight sons—all of them by a first wife, now dead, and five of whom reside in Michigan. Mrs. Czolgosz agrees with her husband in the opinion that her stepson must have been set on by older and abler minds. She does not believe that her anarchistic stepson could have had courage enough of himself to go to Buffalo and court death by killing or trying to kill the President. Leon, she says, never was a healthy boy, and used to spend his time playing with children rather than associating with young men of his own age. According to her, the anarchist was unable to do manual labor. Mrs. Czolgosz would not believe at first that it was really her son who had tried to kill the President.