Killing of the President

Man Who Caught the Murderer of McKinley Tells of the Incident.

     T. B. Parker, who was the first man to reach Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, after he fired the shot that was fatal, spoke to a large and attentive audience at St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal church last evening.
     Mr. Parker led up to the story of the assassination by telling of his own former life, of his service as mail carrier in the south and later as deputy sheriff in Savannah. He followed the story of his own life through all its phases up until that time when he had begun service as a waiter in one of the restaurants at the Pan-American exposition. Then he told of the vast concourse of people gathered in the Temple of Music on the exposition grounds to hear the president speak and of the line that gathered in restless enthusiasm and good will [sic] to greet the president and shake him by the hand. It was late for him to report to duty and he tried again and again to crowd before Czolgosz, who moved forward in the line slowly and grudgingly, but the guards held him back in his own position.
     “Immediately in front of Czolgosz,” he said, “was a little girl, and as the president shook her by the hand he smiled and spoke a word to her and we all watched her and President McKinley, while Czolgosz pressed forward with his hand bound in a white cloth, and, speaking no word, raised the white-bound hand and fired twice. It was done very quickly and before anyone could stop him. I jumped forward and struck him in the face as he tried to fire again. The blow dazed him and he fell to the ground, while I grappled with him and began choking him. I had him about the neck and the others, trying to reach him trampled on the two of us, and I felt almost dead when the crowd cleared away from about us.”
     Then he told of the noise, the confusion and the masterliness of the wounded president [as?] the great concourse of people began to realize what had really been done.
     Before Mr. Parker spoke there was a short program of musical and other selections by members of the congregation and friends and a reception was tendered to him before the evening broke up.