Colored Men in Raptures Over Parker

IF HE SHOULD MEANDER DOWN MICHIGAN STREET HE IS
CERTAIN OF ROYAL WELCOME.
——
NEGROES GREATLY WORKED UP.

     The colored population of Buffalo is proud of big Jim Parker, the negro who, if the published accounts are to be believed, was instrumental, in part at least, in preventing Czolgosz, the assassin, from firing a third bullet into the body of President McKinley.
     Although Parker is comparatively a new arrival there isn’t anything within reason that he can’t have at the hands of the colored people of Buffalo, not to mention the white people of the nation. Already there is talk of a monster cake walk in his honor.
     Yesterday afternoon four colored men boarded a William Street car. Gradually the conversation turned to the attempt on the President’s life. When Parker’s name was mentioned a big fat negro with skin as dark as the raven’s wing, said loud enough for everybody in the car to hear:
     “Parker is a credit to our race. We colored folks should be thankful that it was a colored man who opportunely prevented the assassin from killing the President. He is a greater man than Fred Douglass, and he is as black as a crow. The brave act of Parker’s will do much to lessen the hostility lately growing against the colored race.”
     Just then the party was joined by four dusky maidens who had boarded the car. One of the chocolate-colored women broke in rapturously as follows:
     “That man Parker is a black angel. I could hug him to death. I think he is a relative of mine. My grandfather’s name was Parker. I’m sure that he is related to me in some way.”
     Another negro then discovered that he had a granduncle by the name of Parker. It was nothing but Parker, Parker, and the conversation was greatly enjoyed by the white people in the car.
     If big Jim Parker should meander down Michigan Street in the vicinity of William Street and should be recognized, Admiral Dewey’s home-coming would be made to look cheap. The colored people are worked up as they never were before over Parker’s heroic act.
     Parker states that he is a negro, pure and simple, and that whatever of glory there is due for his part in Friday’s affair belongs to the negro race. An incident in the man’s life, as related by his friend, Attorney J. A. Ross of this city, is worth repeating. Parker’s mother, when she writes to him, always adds the postscript: “I am praying for you, Jim.” When Parker answered the letter he received [after] the shooting, he put this postscript on: “Keep on praying, mother.”