Exonerates Secret Service

Secretary Cortelyou Says the Government’s Watchful Men Are in No Wise to Blame.

     WASHINGTON, Sept. 7.—The secret service headquarters are gradually bringing together every available bit of information which will show the antecedents of the would-be assassin of President McKinley at Buffalo and will establish whether or not he is a member of any of the anarchist groups. The information already in hand warrants the positive statement that he is not connected with the anarchistic organization at Paterson, N. J. A search of the criminal records of the secret service fails to disclose anything concerning Czolgosz and he does not appear to have been among the desperate cranks who have visited Washington from time to time and have been spotted by the government officers.
     He is referred to in the advices forwarded to the headquarters here as fairly well dressed, of apparent intelligence and somewhat pleasing looking under normal conditions. There is said to be nothing about him to indicate that he was a criminal. But the manner in which he fired his revolver through a handkerchief attracts the attention of the officers, as indicative of unusual criminal shrewdness. The secret service men are well versed in the ruses resorted to by assassins, but the device of the handkerchief appears to be altogether novel and of a character to baffle detection.
     A dispatch has been received stating that Mr. Cortelyou, the president’s secretary, witnessed the entire affair and completely exonerates the secret service agents from any blame. Men in Buffalo are keeping in close touch with the headquarters here and, having done all that was possible to apprehend the assassin, are now turning their attention to such care and protection as may be thrown around the president during the present hours of great popular agitation. One dispatch received at headquarters here today states that the president was resting easily and that his chances were six in ten in favor of his recovery.