1881 Man

To have witnessed the assassination of a U. S. President is something to remember all one's lifetime. To have collared the assassin is a distinction, a thing to tell about, that has come to only three groups of men in the history of the land. One of those men, the man who collared Charles J. Guiteau in Washington's old Sixth Street railroad station a few seconds after he shot President Garfield, last week observed the 50th anniversary of the occasion by granting press interviews.*

Robert Andrews Parke, the national hero of July 2, 1881, was special Washington agent of Baltimore & Potomac R. R. It was his duty to arrange transportation for the President or any other dignitaries going and coming at the capital. President Garfield wanted to go to commencement exercises at Williams College in Massachusetts, which his two eldest sons were entering that autumn.* It was an ominously warm day. Special Agent Parke, having seen that all was aright with the presidential train, stood in the ladies' waiting room. He vaguely remembered having been interrupted by a calm, lithe little man who asked a lot of questions. Evidently just another traveler. Agent Parke was watching now for the fine horses that drew the carriage of Secretary of State James Gillespie Blaine.

James Abram Garfield had been in office only four months but already he was tired. He leaned heavily on Secretary Elaine's arm as they got out of the carriage and entered the waiting room. Agent Parke started walking to meet them.

Suddenly from a jutting behind the officials, he saw the calm, lithe little traveler emerge, draw a huge bulldog revolver, fire twice. The President crumpled at Agent Parke's feet. The hot waiting room reverberated horribly.

Thinking quickly, Agent Parke paid no attention to the fallen President but rushed past, seized the assassin by neck and wrist and held him, shouting: "This is the man!" until relieved by policemen. Assassin Guiteau was a disappointed office-seeker whom both Garfield and Elaine had ordered kept off their premises. He had wanted, apparently, a consular appointment.

Reminisced Hero Parke last week: "I thought the President was going to die right there.* I tried to speak to him but he could not recognize me. Mrs. Sarah E. White, the mistress of the waiting room, rushed up and lifted the President's head into her lap. He vomited a little. The station had been empty but the news spread and soon there were several thousand people about us. They got a Pullman mattress and carried the President to a room upstairs."

Some time later a Congressional committee presented Hero Parke with a piece of the fringe of the flag in which John Wilkes Booth's spurs caught as he leaped from the theatre box after assassinating President Lincoln.

Quick-thinking Mr. Parke, now 80 and white-whiskered but still erect, still spry, remembers also trips he arranged for Presidents Cleveland and McKinley. Best of all he remembers the transcontinental funeral of California's Senator George Hearst, father of the chain-publisher, of which he still cherishes the bills for champagne, wine & whiskey; and the grand tour of the U. S. taken by Princess Eulalia of Spain in 1893, for which he laid out the itinerary. About that time he was called into consultations which led to building the first taxicab-- "not for speed, but to eliminate horse-droppings from the street"-- in Philadelphia. Since that time he has lived in quiet retirement, except when horse races are being run. He boasts more of having seen every Kentucky Derby than of having known every President since Lincoln. Cried he last week: "God willing, I shall see Twenty Grand race again !"/-

Only once since 1881 has Hero Parke figured in the public prints. In 1927 he overheard a Manhattan park employe using abusive language to some women. He intervened and after a long, much-publicized court fight, made the fellow publicly apologize.

*John M. Fry who directed the party which cornered John Wilkes Booth in a Virginia barn twelve days after he had shot President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, died last week in Seward, 111. Detective Ireland of the U. S. Secret Service seized Leon F. Czolgosz by the left arm immediately after he had shot President McKinley, Sept. 6, 1901.

*Garfield sons: Harry Augustus, now president of Williams College; James Rudolph, one-time Roosevelt secretary of the Interior; Abram, Cleveland architect; Irvin McDowell, Boston lawyer. All are living.

*Only one shot hit him, in the back. He died of the wound at Elberon, N. J. on Sept. 19.

He was present when Twenty Grand won at Aqueduct last week. (See p. 30.)

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