Colored Hero in Town

James R. Parker Complains That Things Are Too Easy for Him in This Hard World.

     James R. Parker, the negro who first grappled with the assassin of the late President McKinley at the Temple of Music, at Buffalo, was in this city this morning, on his way to Pittsburg [sic], where he will lecture before an audience composed of negro veterans of the civil war, who are holding a convention in that city. While here Parker was surrounded by a little group of people at Union station and they listened to his story of the shooting with no little interest.
     Parker is a man over six feet in height with huge shoulders and muscles as hard as wood. He said he was directly behind the assassin when the two fatal shots were fired and that he grappled with him and they both fell heavily to the floor. The excitement was intense and it was with difficulty that the assassin was saved for the legal execution that awaits him in the near future.
     Speaking of himself, Parker said that since the public attention has been directed toward him he has had little difficulty in securing a livelihood. In fact he says that his difficulty now is to keep from accepting all sorts of positions that are offered to him. “Why, when I started away from Buffalo, where I now have temporary quarters at No. 117 Clinton street [sic], I was beseeched by a number of people who wanted me to accept offers to deliver several lectures in various parts of the country.” Parker is from Atlanta, Ga., but will likely locate in Buffalo.