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[pencil: February 7 1890]
..DA STATE JOURNAL, FR ..

WHITAKER'S ASSAILANT.

Details of the Attempted Assassination of the Bishop.

The following details of the attempted assassination of Bishop Whitaker at St. John's Protestant-Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia, on the evening of January 20th, will be read with interest by all who knew him in Nevada:

The occasion was the confirmation of eight candidates for membership by Bishop Whitaker. The congregation had just finished singing the first psalter, and were still on their feet, when a tall, light-complexioned and genteel-lloking young man, who wore glasses, standing in the front pew, drew a revolver from his pocket and, taking deliberate aim at Bishop Whitaker, fired.

David McCreight, a large and powerfull man, caught the assailant and wrenched the weapon, which was a 22-calibre, with six chambers, from his hands. Two other gentlemen assisted Mr. McCreight to hold him, while a third notified officer Hunter, who took the prisoner to the seventh district station house near by.

There was much excitement in the church and Mrs. Lattimer, wife of the rector, and several other ladies fainted at the report of the pistol.

When questioned as to whether he meant to shoot the Bishop or Rector of Lattimer, the would-be assassin, who said his name was David Alexander, said he most certainly meant Bishop Whitaker; that he had been waiting for a favorable opportunity to fire the shot, and that he would try again.

Alexander betrayed no signs of liquor, and behaved with composure. At the station house he said: "I was, till Friday, a clerk in the money order department of Strawbridge & Clothier's store. On that day I resigned my position in order to shoot Bishop Whitaker without bringing disgrace on my employers."

The man was seen in his cell by a reporter. He is boyish-looking, smooth-faced, light-complexioned and bright and alert in his manner. He talked in a perfectly rational way.

"Why did you shoot at the Bishop?" was asked. "To remove a vile hypocrite. one who favors rumsellers," was the reply,

He then went into a discussion he had with the Bishop last Spring, at the church of Rev. Charles W. Cooper, Twenty-first and Christian streets, when the Bishop said that the question of high license or prohibition must be settled according to each person's conscience. On the following day Alexander read in a newspaper that Archbishop Ryan favored high license. In Tuesday's paper he read an interview in which Bishop Whitaker was quoted as favoring high license. He then decided to write a letter to the Bishop to the effect that with Christ as an example his stand on the prohibition question was inconsistent.

"The Bishop," he continued, replied to the letter at some length, putting the same question back to me. The salient feature was: 'You have read the Bible. Can you say that your life is a model of Christ's?" and upon receipt of this," said the prisoner, "I vowed that I would kill him."

The youth was not excited, but it was evident that he is a religious maniac. In a calm manner he proceeded: "Friend, Bishop Whitaker is a vile hypocrite and a consort of rumsellers. I meant also to kill Rev. Dr. S. D. McConnell, rector of St. Stephen's Church, also a hypocrite and consort of rumsellers, whenever I got the chance."

Bishop Whitaker stated that he was as much surprised as any one that the young man should try to kill him, and at first did not think that a pistol had been fired, but that a fire cracker had been accidently exploded. He remembered receiving the letter from Alexander, and also his reply to the same. He considered the man insane.