Czolgosz’s Early Career

     Cleveland, Sept. 7.—Leon Czolgosz, the assailant of the president, half a dozen years or more lived in the far southeast end of the city. Those who knew him cannot understand how he ever plucked up the nerve to do his daring deed. He lived on a suburban farm, but was not active in farm work, seeming not to care for the drudgery incident to the life. Shortly after coming to this city fifteen years ago, Leon’s father started a saloon, in the rear of which a small building was used as a rendezvous and meeting place for a dozen or fifteen men who called themselves anarchists. Leon was too young to be a member of them, but he was a great listener to the harangues that these men indulged in, and they probably had some effect on his mind. Leon finally became more or less of an idler, his health never gaining a robust condition. His effeminancy was the cause of more or less comment among his acquaintances. Leon making his companions largely among children, with whom he spent a greater part of his time, acting as they acted and being shy at the approach of older persons. At length he left home and became a wanderer. The last definite information from him was a letter received from Seneca, N. Y., written on the 15th of July. The idea of a plot being hatched in this city to kill the president is not given serious thought by the police nor by those who have known Czolgosz for the past ten years. They regard his desperate deed as the result of a sudden inspiration to do something to attract public notice, and, perhaps, having been inspired by what he had heard at various times during his younger years. Czolgosz was looked upon as being a harmless fellow by those who knew him best. Portraits of the assassin printed today show a young man with a bright looking face, almost innocent in its expression. His features are ordinary in contour, and he would pass as a good-looking young man. He is smooth shaven and his face is boyish in appearance.