Czolgosz Awaits Execution

Only Two Weeks More of Life for McKinley’s Assassin.

     Albany, N. Y. (Special).—Supt. Cornelius V. Collins, of the New York State department of prisons, will send a request to Secretary Hay to designate an official representative of the United States Government to be present at the electrocution of Leon F. Czolgosz, the murderer of President McKinley, which will take place in Auburn prison some time in the week of October 28.
     Only 26 witnesses will be present in the chamber of death when the sentence is executed. Warden Mead, of the prison, has sent to Superintendent Collins the requests he has received for permission to attend the electrocution, over 1000 in all. The law limits the number of witnesses, and the superintendent will decide who they will be.
     Statements to the effect that Czolgosz is in a continuous state of collapse and that he breaks down and weeps every time anything is said to him concerning the electrocution are denied. Superintendent Collins had a talk with the condemned man some days ago and at that time Czolgosz said he knew he had to die. He expressed no fear as to the electrocution, but said he would not care to go outside the prison, for he believed the people would kill him.
     Since his confinement in Auburn prison several thousand letters have been received for him at the prison, as well as a large number of express packages containing flowers and fruit. The letters, flowers and fruit have not reached the condemned man. The flowers and fruit have been sent by church societies, as have a number of letters consoling him in his last moments. Other letters have come from cranks who have written about the species of torture to which they would put him if they had the execution of justice in his case. It is stated that it would cause surprise if the names of senders of fruit and flowers were made public.
     The State prison department has pursued a uniform policy in regard to Czolgosz. An effort has been made to prevent the murderer from gaining any notoriety while awaiting death and to surround him by as perfect an isolation from the world as possible.