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 While
extending in friendly greeting his hand of fellowship, in the Temple
of Music at the Pan-American Exposition, William McKinley, President
of the United States, was shot down at the hands of either an Anarchist
or a lunatic, a few minutes after 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
The assassin
was captured and is safely in custody, while the President has undergone
an operation and is at the home of President Milburn of the Pan-American
Exposition, whose guest he has been. Grave fears are entertained
as to his recovery, the second bullet having entered the abdomen,
completely penetrating the stomach. It has not been found and further
search for it has been abandoned for the present. The first bullet
struck the breast and did not penetrate. When Mrs. McKinley was
told of the tragedy she was at the home of Mr. Milburn and it was
reported that she bore up well although still an invalid.
THE
WORLD'S ANXIETY
The world is pouring its messages of regret into the doorway of
the Milburn home. Thousands of telegrams have been received, and
an effort has not yet been made to open them, but they all go to
show the effect of the tragedy has had upon the entire world.
Buffalo is
now undergoing the most trying ordeal in its history. Her guest
of honor, the nation's ruler and the respected colleague of the
rulers of all civilized nations, lies between life and death within
her own doors. No adequate description may be attempted of the impression
this tragedy has made upon the people of Buffalo. Everywhere people
are so horrified that the crime is discussed in the shortest sentences,
and many are the expressions of revenge.
MILITIA
ON WAITING ORDERS
Exciting mobs have gathered about the 1st Precinct Police Station,
wherein the assassin is a prisoner, and the police have been kept
busy all night dispersing them. Fearing the worst might come, the
militia had been ordered into readiness. Governor Odell has arrived
and the 65 Regiment is under waiting orders. A few minutes after
the President was shot, the Midway closed and last night the entire
Exposition grounds were in darkness and deserted.
 ASSASSIN'S
CONFESSION
The assassin, in a confession made to the District Attorney, court
officials and the police at midnight, said that his name was Leon
Czolgosz, that he was 28 years old, a blacksmith, and that he had
come to Buffalo from from his home in Cleveland three days ago with
the express intention of assassinating the President. He said he
had been a student of Emma Goldberg, the Anarchist, had approved
her doctrines and did not believe in this form of government. He
described with accuracy and with seeming pride the preparations
he had made to kill the President, how he had practiced in folding
the handkerchief about his hand so as to conceal the revolver, and
described how he had shot the President.
To a Courier
reporter District Attorney Penney gave the substance of Czolgosz's
confession as follows:
"This man has admitted shooting the President. He says he intended
to kill; that he has been planning to do it for the last three days
since he came here. He went into the Temple of Music with murder
in his heart, intending to shoot to kill. He fixed up his hand by
tying a handkerchief around it and waited his turn to get near the
President, just as the newspapers have described. When he got directly
in front of the President he fired. He says he had no confederates,
that he was entirely alone in the planning and execution of his
diabolical act."
This in substance
is the confession made by Czolgosz, who is a German-Pole and says
his home is in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio. He is 28 years old,
unmarried, and has seven brothers and two sisters living there.
He worked for a time in the wire mills at Newark, Ohio. He exhibits
no signs of contrition and acts as if he had done a praiseworthy,
instead of a dastardly, act.
The President,
with Mrs. McKinley, had been to Niagara Falls up until 3:30 o'clock,
when his special train brought them to the Exposition. There, Mrs.
McKinley took a carriage to the Milburn home, she feeling fatigued.
The President and his party were driven to the Government building,
where a light lunch was served, and then the President, accompanied
only by President Milburn, Secretary Cortelyou and the Secret Service
men, drove to the Temple of Music, where it had been arranged to
have a public reception.
NUMEROUS
SOLDIERS
The President had taken his position under a bower of palms, and
to his left was President Milburn, to his right Secretary Cortelyou,
and opposite them Secret Service operatives Ireland and Foster.
They were so arranged that the crowd would have to pass in single
file. Along the aisle down which the public must pass were numerous
soldiers from the 73d Sea Coast Artillery and guards from the Exposition
police.
The President
was never in a better mood; he was smiling from the moment he stepped
into the building, and when he announced that he was ready for the
doors to be thrown open, he appeared as though the coming on-slaught
of handshaking was to be a long-looked-for pleasure.
MUSIC
OF THE ORGAN
Two hundred people had not passed the President when the tragedy
which was to startle the world turned the joyous scene into one
of indestructible excitement, assault and pandemonium. Organist
Gomph had reached the highest notes in one of Bach's masterpieces
on the great pipe organ, and as he stopped at the height to let
the strains reverberate through the auditorium the two shots rang
out.
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