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Parker, Negro Hero, in Hands of Friends
Man Who Tried to Save McKinley from Murderer’s Bullet,
Is Sent to Philadelphia
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ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., March 23.—James
Parker, the negro who tried to save President McKinley from assassination
at Buffalo, and who was lodged in the City Hall here yesterday after
being picked up on the street in a deplorable mental and physical
condition, was released tonight and sent to friends in Philadelphia.
Parker stood within a few feet of
President McKinley and witnessed the murder of the chief executive
of the Nation. He saw Czolgosz draw the revolver, concealed under
a handkerchief, and point at President McKinley. Parker made a grab
for the murderous weapon, but he was not quick enough. The deadly
bullet had sped on its mission before he could seize Czolgosz. Parker
was one of the first persons to grab the murderer and helped to
hand him over to the police.
In an interview today Parker, who
is over six feet in height, said: “I am not crazy, as the police
suppose. I have been weakened by an attack of paralysis. The murder
of Mr. McKinley worried me. Some people thought I could have prevented
it if I had been quicker, but I couldn’t. After the assassination
I was presented with a purse by persons who saw me grab Czolgosz,
and then I was appointed to a position in a Federal court in Washington.
During the past few years I have been wandering about the country.”
The police declare that Parker has
been made a wreck by taking too many drinks with thousands of persons
whom he has met in his travels about the country since the murder
of Mr. McKinley.
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