Assassination News from a Ticker

     Mr. Walter Armbruster has a unique souvenir of the tragedy which shocked the nation last Friday afternoon. Mr. Armbruster was in Chicago at the time the news was flashed over the wire of the attempted assassination of President McKinley. About 3 o’clock in the afternoon he was in the Great Northern hotel watching the “ticker,” which is a telegraphic instrument that transcribes messages as received over the wire, upon an endless paper ribbon. These tickers are the same kind of instruments used on the board of trade. A few men were standing by the instrument in the Great Northern listening to reports of the ball games by innings in the eastern cities. Suddenly, in the midst of the sporting news, the following words were ticked slowly on the tape: “President McKinley shot twice in stomach by stranger, who was caught.”
     The operator at the instrument jumped from his chair and shouted, “My God! Look at that!” All of the other men who had been watching the ribbon were startled by the intelligence which it conveyed, and in a few minutes an immense crowd had gathered in the corridor in the vicinity of the ticker. It was not long afterward when the newspapers issued extras and the details of the tragedy soon became known. Mr. Armbruster secured as a souvenir the piece of paper ribbon on which these fateful words were recorded, and will keep it as a memento of the day.