Cried for His Blood
Wapello County Woman Saw Exciting Time at Buffalo.
SAYS THE CROWD WANTED CZOLGOSZ
Clamored for Possession of the Man Who Shot President McKinley—
Would Have Lynched Him Had It Not Been for the Police.
Deputy County Clerk H. J. Wing is
in receipt of a letter from his mother Mrs. M. J. Wing of Agency,
who has been spending the summer in the east, in which she tells
of her visit to Buffalo and the exposition and being within ten
feet of President McKinley when he was shot last Friday. At first
Mrs. Wing did not know what had happened, and was greatly surprised
at the actions of the dense crowd in which she was enveloped. Soon,
however, she discovered the truth, and as she was getting to a place
of safety she saw the would-be-assassin dragged to the carriage
in which he was taken from the grounds.
Mrs. Wing is one of the most highly
respected citizens of Wapello county [sic], where she has lived
many years, and has been visiting relatives near Buffalo for nearly
three months. On President’s day at the exposition she, in company
with some friends, decided to visit the big show. She had gotten
inside of the Temple of Music when the President arrived and was
near the platform upon which he was holding the reception. Mrs.
Wing stood and watched the President for several moments as he bowed
and shook hands with the vast throng about him, when suddenly she
heard two sharp reports. She thought at first these were rafters
breaking beneath the platform on which the President was standing.
Soon the crowd began getting excited, and suddenly she saw the men
struggling with the man who had done the shooting. The crowd had
by this time worked itself into a frenzy of excitement and she began
trying to get outside of the building.
Try to Mob Czolgosz.
In this she was successful and just
as she reached the outside of the building she saw the wagon with
Czolgosz in it trying to drive through the crowd. She says great
crowds of people were hanging on the side of this, catching the
wheels and horses and in fact every place they could get hold of,
trying to get at the assassin. The driver on the front seat was
whipping the horses with all his might, and trying to get away.
In this he was successful, and she saw the carriage drive out of
the grounds with the man lying inside.
Says Crowd Would Have Mobbed Him.
In her efforts to get away from
the crowd, Mrs. Wing later moved over near the emergency hospital
and was nearby when President McKinley was moved from there to the
Milburn residence. Mrs. Wing says the crowds in Buffalo that night
were very wild and if they could have gotten hold of the man who
shot the chief executive there would have been no doubt of what
they would have done to him.
|