Parker, Negro Hero, in Hands of Friends

Man Who Tried to Save McKinley from Murderer’s Bullet, Is Sent to Philadelphia

Special to The Inquirer.
     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.