And possibly as a fitting wind-up, as all sublunary things must come to an end, George E. Jones, of Little Rock, Ark., and G. E. Russel, of St. Louis, Mo., undertakers, spoke pathetically to their fellow-members of the League (I trust not expectantly) of the advance in the science of embalming and other facilities for conveying them to that "bourne from which no traveller returns." The session was "a feast of reason and a flow of soul" from its commencement until its close. And, as ever has been the case on our upward journey, there were women lighting the pathway and stimulating effort; for during the sessions Mrs. Albreta Smith read a very interesting paper on "The Success of the Negro Women's Business Club of Chicago"; a delightful one was read by Mrs. Dora Miller, of Brooklyn, N. Y.; "Dressmaking and Millinery" was entertainingly presented by Mrs. Emma L. Pitts, of Macon, Ga., the ladies dwelling on the great good that was being done by their establishments by teaching and giving employment to scores of poor but worthy girls, and thereby helping them to lead pure and useful lives. I have given this exhibition of what the Negro is doing the foregoing space for encouragement and precept, because I believe it to be the key to unlock many doors to honorable and useful lives heretofore barred against us. [Illustration: WILLIAM McKINLEY, Late Martyred President of the United States. With a Record for Statesmanship, Patriotism, and Justice Imperishable--"His Life Was Gentle and the Elements so Mixed in Him, that Nature Might Stand Up and Say to all the World, 'This is a Man.'"] CHAPTER XXIX. Leaving Chicago, and having business with the President, I visited him at Canton, was kindly received, and accomplished the object of my visit, little thinking that, in common with my countrymen I was so soon to be horrified and appalled by an atrocity which bathed the country in tears and startled the world in the taking-off of one of the purest patriots that had ever trod his native soil. The tragedy occurred at 4 o'clock p. m., on the 6th of September, 1901, in the Temple of Music on the grounds of and during the Exposition at Buffalo, N. Y. Surrounded by a body-guard, among whom was Secret Service Detective Samuel R. Ireland, of Washington, who was directly in front of the President, the latter engaged in the usual manner of handshaking at a public reception at the White House. Not many minutes had expired; a hundred or more of the line had passed the President, when a young-looking man named Leon Czolgosz, said to be of Polish, extraction, approached, offering his left hand, while his right hand contained a pistol concealed under a handkerchief, fired two shots at the President. James Parker, a colored man, a very hercules in height, who was next to have greeted the President, struck the assassin a terrific blow that felled him to the floor, preventing him (as Czolgosz himself avers in the following interview) from firing the third shot: