"Usually a secret-service agent is stationed by the President’s side when he receives the public, but on this occasion President Milburn stood at the President’s left. Secretary Cortelyou was at his right, and a little to the rear. Opposite the President was Secret-Service Officer Ireland. {60} Eight or ten feet away was Officer Foster. When all was ready, the line of people was permitted to move, each one pausing to shake the hand of the President. He beamed upon them all in his courtly way. When one stranger timidly permitted himself to be pushed along without a greeting, the President called out, smilingly, ‘Hold on, there; give me your hand.’ Mr. McKinley would never permit any one to go past him without a handshake. He was particularly gracious to the children and to timid women. Here, as we have often seen him in Washington and elsewhere, he patted little girls or boys on the head or cheek and smiled at them in his sweet way. A woman and a little girl had just passed, and were looking back at the President, proud of the gracious manner in which he had greeted them. Next came a tall, powerful negro—Parker. After Parker, a slight, boyish figure, a face bearing marks of foreign descent, a smooth, youthful face, with nothing sinister to be detected in it. No one had suspected this innocent-looking boy of a murderous purpose. He had his right hand bound up in a handkerchief, and this had been noticed by both of the secret-service men as well as by others. But the appearance in a reception line of men with wounded and bandaged hands is not uncommon. In fact, one had already passed along the line. Many men carried handkerchiefs in their hands, for the day was warm.