President McKinley shot

BUFFALO, N.Y., SEPT. 6 (AP) - Just a brief twenty four hours ago the newspapers of the city blazoned forth in all the pomp of headline type "The proudest day in Buffalo's History."

Tonight, in sackcloth and ashes, in somber type, surrounded by grewsome borders of black, the same newspapers are telling in funereal tones to a horrified populace, the deplorable details of the blackest day in the history of Buffalo.

President McKinley, the idol of the American people, the nation's Chief Executive and the city's honored guest, lies prostrate, suffering the pangs inflicted by the bullet of a cowardly assassin, while his life hangs in the balance.

Out on Delaware Avenue, at the home of John C. Milburn, president of the Pan-American Exposition with tears on her face and with a heart torn by conflicting hopes and fears, sits the faithful wife, whose devotion is known to all the nation.

It was a few moments after 4 o'clock this afternoon, while the President was holding a reception in the Temple of Music on the Pan-American grounds, that the cowardly attack was made, with what success time alone can tell.

Standing in the midst of thousands, surrounded by every evidence of good will, pressed by a notely throng of people, showered with expressions of love and loyalty from enthusiastic multitudes, all eager to clasp his hands-amid these surroundings--and with the ever-recurring plaudits of an army of sight-seers ringing in his ears, the blow of the assassin came, and in an instant pleasure gave way to pain, admiration to anger, folly turned to fury and pandemonium followed.

Tonight a surging, swaying, eager multitude throngs the city's main thoroughfares, choking the streets in front of the principal newspapers, scanning the bulletins with anxious eyes, and groaning or cheering in turn at each succeeding announcement, as the nature of the news sinks or buoys their hopes.

Down at police headquarters, surrounded by the stern faced inquisitors of the law, is a medium sized man of common-place appearance, with his gaze fixed on the floor, who presses his lips firmly together and listens with an air of assumed indifference to the persistent stream of questions, arguments, objurgations and admonitions with which his captors seek to induce or compel him to talk.

It was just after the daily organ recital in the splendid Temple of Music that the dastardly attempt was made. Planned with all the diabolical ingenuity and finesse of which anarchy or nihilism is capable, the would-be assassin carried out the work without a hitch, and should his designs fail and the President survive, only to Divine Providence can be attributed that beneficent result.

The President, though well guarded by United States Secret Service detectives, was fully exposed to such an attack as occurred. He stood at the edge of the raised dais upon which stands the great pipe organ at the east side of the magnificent structure. Throngs of people crowded in at the various entrances to gaze upon the Executive perchance to clasp his hand and then file their way out in the good-natured mob that every minute swelled and multiplied at the points of ingress and egress to the building.

The President was in a cheerful mood and was enjoying to the full the hearty evidence of good will which everywhere met his gaze. On his right stood John C. Milburn of Buffalo, president of the Pan-American Exposition, chatting with the President and introducing him especially to persons of note who approached. Upon the President's left stood Private Secretary Cortelyou.

It was shortly after 4 o'clock when one of the throng which surrounded the Presidential party, a medium-sized man, of ordinary appearance, and plainly dressed in black, approached as if to greet the President. Both Secretary Cortelyou and Mr. Milburn noticed that the man's hand was swathed in a bandage, or handkerchief; reports of bystanders differ as to which hand. He worked his way amid the stream of people up to the edge of the dais until he was within two feet of the Chief Executive.

The President smiled, bowed and extended his hand in that spirit of geniality which the American people so well know, when suddenly the sharp crack of a revolver rang out loud and clear above the hum of voices, the shuffling of myriad feet and vibrating waves of applause that ever and anon swept here and there over the assemillage.

There was an instant of almost complete silence. The President stood stock still, a look of hesitancy, almost of bewilderment on his face. He then retreated a step, while a pallor began to steal over his features.

The multitude, only partially aware that something serious had happened, paused in surprise, while necks were craned and all eyes turned as one to the rostrum where a great tragedy was being enacted.

Then came a commotion. Three men threw themselves forward as with one impulse and sprang toward the would-be assassin. Two of them were United States Secret Service men who were on the lookout and whose duty it was to guard against just such a calamity as had here befallen the President and the nation. The third was a bystander, a negro, who had only an instant previously grasped the hand of the President. In an instant the assassin was borne to the ground.

His weapon was wrested from his grasp, and strong arms pinioned his down.

The multitude which thronged the edifice began to come to a realizing sense of the awfulness of the scene to which they had been unwilling witnesses. A murmur arose, spread and swelled to a hum of confusion, and grew to a babel of sounds, and later to a pandemonium of noises.

The crowds that a moment before had stood mute and motionless, as in bewildered ignorance of the enormity of the tragedy, now, with a single impulse, surged forward toward the stage of the horrid drama, while a hoarse cry welled up from a thousand throats, and a thousand men charged forward to lay hands upon the perpetrator of the crime.

For the moment the confusion was terrible. The crowd surged forward regardless of consequences. Men shouted and fought, women screamed, and children cried. Some of those nearest the doors fled from the edifice in fear of a stampede, while hundreds from the outside struggled blindly forward in the effort to penetrate the crowded building and solve the mystery of the excitement and panic which every moment grew and swelled within the congested interior of the edifice.

Inside, on the slightly-raised dais, was enacted within these few feverish moments a tragedy so dramatic in character, so thrilling in its intensity, that few who looked on will ever be able to give a succinct account of what really did transpire. Even those who attended the President came out of it with blanched faces, trembling limbs and beating hearts, while their brains throbbed with a tumult of conflicting emotions which could not be clarified into a lucid narrative of the events as they really transpired.

Of the multitude which witnessed or bore a part in the scene of turmoil and turbulence, there was but one mind which seemed to maintain its equilibrium, one hand remained steady, one eye which gazed with unflinching calmness, and one voice that retained its even tenor and faltered not at the most critical juncture. They were the mind and the hand, and the eye and the voice of the President.

After the first shock of the assassin's shot he retreated a step. Then, as the detectives leaped upon his assailant, he turned and walked steadily to a chair and seated himself, at the same time removing his hat and bowing his head in his hands.

In an instant Secretary Cortelyou and President Milburn were at his side. His waistcoat was hurriedly opened, the President meanwhile admonishing those about him to remain calm and telling them not to be alarmed.

"But you are wounded," cried his secretary. "Let me examine."

"No, I think not," answered the President. "I am no badly hurt, I assure you."

Nevertheless his garments were hastily loosened, and when a trickling stream of crimson was seen to wind its way down his breast, spreading its tell tale stain over the white surface of the linen, their worst fears were confirmed.