Seneca and spent much of his time reading. Czolgosz then left for Cleveland, though what he did there is uncertain; he may have picked up anarchist literature or procured more money. After Cleveland, Czolgosz went to Chicago, where he saw a newspaper mention of President McKinley's impending visit to Buffalo. He returned to Buffalo, as yet uncertain of what he would do; at first, he only sought to be near the man who to him embodied injustice. On Tuesday, September 3, he made up his mind. Czolgosz later stated to the police: It was in my heart, there was no escape for me. I could not have conquered it had my life been at stake. There were thousands of people in town on Tuesday. I heard it was President's Day. All those people seemed bowing to the great ruler. I made up my mind to kill that ruler. On September 3, Czolgosz went to Walbridge's Hardware Store on Buffalo's Main Street and purchased a .32-caliber Iver Johnson revolver. He had as yet no clear plan for the assassination of the President. The following day, William and Ida McKinley arrived in Buffalo by train. The cannon that fired a salute to the President on his arrival in the city had been set too close to the track, and the explosions blew out several windows in the train, unnerving the First Lady. About a dozen people on the platform, believing the damage was caused by a bomb, shouted "Anarchists!" As William McKinley stepped down from the train to the official welcome, Czolgosz shoved his way forward in the crowd, but found the President too well guarded to make an attempt on his life. A day at the fair; excursion to Niagara Falls McKinley's trip to Buffalo was part of a planned ten-day absence from Canton, beginning on September 4, 1901, which was to include a visit in Cleveland to an encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic; he was a member as a Union veteran. The McKinleys stayed in Buffalo at the Milburn House, the large home of the Exposition's president, John G. Milburn. On Saturday, September 7, they were to travel to Cleveland and stay first at the home of businessman and future Ohio governor Myron Herrick, a friend of the President, and then with McKinley's close friend and adviser, Ohio Senator Mark Hanna. Upon arrival in Buffalo, the presidential