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Inside the Temple of Music at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York U.S. President William McKinley was publicly meeting with and shaking the hands of ordinary citizens. The event came to a tragic end though when the anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot the president twice in the abdomen with the wounds eventually leading to his death.

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Inside the Temple of Music at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New YorkU.S. President William McKinley was publicly meeting with and shaking the hands of ordinary citizens.

Leon Czolgosz walked into the room where the president stood at the front of line filled with men who wished to shake his hand. He advanced to that line. At that moment The Temple of Music was filled with just that. The music of a large pipe organ filled the entire place with the soft sound of Schumann’s Träumerei. At the front of the line behind the president stood two other men whose identities Leon did not care about, and behind them the man he recognized as Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Then behind that large mustached behemoth of a man where several rows of chairs that filled the room and around them potted plants and trees, and behind them where banners that where colored in the design of the American flag which covered the walls behind them. As Czolgosz walked toward the line another man passing by him struck his side sending Czolgosz back a step. When he turned to the man he watched as he walked on without an apology or reply. Czolgosz grit his teeth in frustration at the action of the fellow and at the fact that the room was so crowded that it might happen again. Then he felt a tinge of fright and looked down at his right hand. He was relieved to see that the cloth he had placed to bandage his hand was still in place as well as the thing in his palm which the cloth hid. He continued with his approach to the line when a large black man over 6 feet tall took the place in front of him. Czolgosz paused for a moment as he was struck by the imposing figure in front of him but not wanting to have his goal in mind delayed any further he took the place behind the negro.

Secret Serviceman George Foster stood beside the President as he shook the hand of man, after man, after man. And George Foster eyed man, after man, after man as they approached the President. Each one he inspected as if they might be willing to harm the president in any such way. He inspected the line of people as it advanced when he took notice of a man in line with what appeared to be a hand bandaged in white. He wandered what reason there might be for the man to have his hand dressed as it was. Had he perhaps had it injured, maybe he had cut himself earlier, or was he hiding a weapon beneath it? As he took notice of that something even more eye catching came to his attention. In front of the man with the bandaged hand was an imposing negro whose height may have been 6 feet and 6 inches tall! When inspecting the black mans face he wondered if he recognized it as the one belonging to a negro named James Parker who had been fired by the Plaza Restaurant set up at the exposition some time before. "Why is he in line?" Foster wondered. The man certainly wouldn't take any frustration caused by his current job state out on the president would he? Whether he did or did not Foster made sure to keep his eye on him.

As Frank Parker stood in line he wondered about many things. What he would do about his job, what he would do about himself getting older and older as it made it harder to find another, and why he was here. "To see the President" he reminded himself, and to see the man who cared about colored people like he to fight for their rights in the Civil War. Yet not enough to change as many laws that affect the lives of coloreds while he was in office as Parker had hoped. He looked around the MusicTemple and at the extravagant decorations that had been set up for the event. He turned his body while doing so to take it all in. He then struck the body of another man behind him with his right hand by accident. "I'm sorry" he then said to the fellow as he turned around so that he did not have to stare into the eyes of the white fellow for longer than he wanted. As he did turn he thought about how his hand felt when he struck the man behind him. While thinking about it Parker knew that the part of the man he had struck was the man's own hand which as he as seen when he turned was bandaged in a white cloth. Yet when Parker made contact with the man’s hand it did not feel like an impact made with human bone and flesh but something much harder. Parker pondered on how strange that was for a moment and turned around again. "So you got hurt?" he said to the small white fellow behind him. The man looked at him wide eyed and said "Uh, yes." Parker then repaid "It must have been bad when I hit you just now it felt like you where wearing a brace. Did your brake it?" "Yes" said the man with the bandaged hand "it was an accident at the plant I work at." Parker then watched as the man held his bandaged hand with his free one and rubbed it. He didn't see what he expected though when he saw that the cloth covering his hand lifted father than he thought it would even with a brace. Then he thought of why a man would even cover his hand if his injury was that of a broken bone which did not always need a bandage, let alone one over a brace. "Ah" Parker then replied as he awkwardly broke eye contact with the fellow and faced forward again. He was now the fourth person in line to shake hands with the president. Parkers mind then went blank with fear. "What is that man behind me doing?" he thought. "Was that thing a gun? Is he going to try and kill the president?" where also question that came to him. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to make sure that the fellow behind him didn't mean any harm but he didn't know how to do it without making a scene. Yet if he didn't try, and the man did mean harm, he might have to spend the rest of his life with the guilt that he didn't do anything at all. Parker then saw as another man walked off from the front of the line which made him the third before the president. Parker swallowed and thought about what he was about to do next.

Parker turned and made sure to strike the hand of the man behind him again, and this time on purpose. The hand of the bandaged man was flung to his side by the force of Parkers own. "Hey! What are you doing?" he shouted. Parker heard the words coming from the man's mouth but only looked in surprise as part of the cloth that covered his hand came undone and showed the end of a gun's barrel. "What are you doing?!" Parker shouted as he grabbed the man’s arm with his right hand and the man's shoulder with his left.

"Get off me!" is what George Foster heard coming from the fellow behind the black man who had held his attention for the few moments before as that very black man now seemed to be attacking him. As George advanced so as to end the struggle the negro shouted "He has a gun!" That stopped George cold. He then looked down at the white mans arm as it was held in the large negro’s grasp and saw beneath the cloth that had covered that hand before had become loose and beneath it indeed was a gun. Foster then shouted to his fellow agent Albert Gallagher "Al, get the gun! Get the gun! Al, get the gun!"

A struggle then ensued as Albert Gallagher then grabbed at the gun in the man's hand but only caught the cloth covering it. The fellow in question shouted and tried to raise the gun when the large black man who was trying to keep hold of him punched him in the face and sent him to the ground dropping the weapon. A mob then came upon the fellow with people kicking him and kneeling down to punch him. "What the devil?!" could be heard shouted from Vice President Roosevelt’s lips as men ran in front of him and the President as a means to protect them.

Frank Parker stood back and looked down at what passed before him. He saw the man who just a moment before had been in his grasp now on the ground curled up as a means to protect himself as angry men attacked him like a swarm of angry wasps. Security men then pushed through the crowd and grabbed the beaten and bruised fellow up as another grapped the gun from the floor and both were carried off.

President William McKinley pushed aside one of the army personnel that surrounded him. "Stand back sir" is what the fellow said. "Nonsense" is what William McKinley then replied to him "The danger is now passed." He watched as the security men dragged away the man who a moment before perhaps had tried to kill him. He then saw some bystander run up and punch the fellow one more time after having been beaten already. "Go easy on him boys." he then shouted to the men holding the fellow as they forced him away. He then looked over to see a large black man looking on in what seemed to be shock. McKinley walked up to him and addressed him by saying "Son, what's your name?” The large man then looked at him and answered "Parker, sir. James Parker." McKinley looked at the man straight in the eye and said "Well Mr. Parker I think you just saved a President's life today, and I was wondering if you might do me the honor of shaking your hand?"

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The assassination of President McKinley is an interesting piece of history that I just learned about and I decided to propose this alternate situation to explore what might happen if he had not died. I'd like to use this set up to hear from you about what you might expect to be different from a world in which McKinley finished his presidency and how it might affect things from the economy, race relations, Teddy Roosevelt’s political goals, the government’s military policies, and the world in general. GO!

Edit: I just fixed several spelling errors, so sorry about that.
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