The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-07-10
Tle Morfalk gost.
MONDAY, JULY 10, 1865.
THE CRIME EXPIATED.
FOUR coNsrIRAToRs HAEeED.
Correspondence Of the New York worldl

lcorrssp0ndencs Of the New York worldl
1aI WASHINGTON, July 7.
It was long and dusty avenue, along
which rambled soldiers in bluishly white
coats, cattle with their tongues out,
straying from the herd, and few ne
groes making for their cabins, which
dotted the fiery and vacant lots of the
suburbs. At the foot of this avenue,
where lukewarm river holds between
its dividing arms a dreary edifice OF
brick, the way was filed with collected
cabs and elbowing people, AUDITING
against circle of sentinels who kept the
arsenal gate. The low, fiat dusty white
fields to the far left were also lined with
patrols and soldiers lyingo on the ground
IN squads beside their stacked muskets.
Within these second blue and monot-
onous line extended. The drive from
the arsenal gate to the arsenal's high
and steel-spiked wall was beset by COM
panies of exacting sabermen, and all the
river bank to the right was edged with
blue and bayonets. This exhibition of
war was the prelude to very CHASTITY
| but very popular episode--an execution.
Three men and a woman were to be led
| Out Al S1ldChACS dllu llullS W q UcdIlts--
They had conspired to take life, they
consummation of their plot, they were
on this parched and oppressive noon, by
swinging in pinioned arms and mufaed
faces in the presence Of thousand
people. 4-.e..t
The bayonets at the gate were lifted as
I produced my pass. 1t was the last
permission granted. In giving it away
the General seemed relieved, for he had
been sorely troubled by applications
Everybody who had visited Washing
ton to seek for an office, sought to see
this expiation also. The officer at the
gate looked at my pass suspiciously: ~
don't believe that all these papers have
been genuine" he said. Is an execu-
ton, then so great a warning to evil
doors, that men will commit forgery to
see 1t? 60 z-
THE PLACE OF DEATH.
/ entered alarge CLASSY yard, surround
ed by an exceedingly high wall. On
the top Of this wall, soldiers with mus
kets in their hands, were thickly plant
ed. The yard below was broken by ir-
regular buildings of brick. climbed
by flight of riokety outside stairs to
the central building, where many of
ficers were seated at the windows, and
looked awhile at the strangescenein the
grassy plaza. On the left the long, bar
red impregnable. penitentiary arose
The shady spots beneath 1t were occupi-
ed by budding spectators. Soldiers
were filling their canteens at the pump.
r,n 1o.o1yad mt from tl,x, hot.r
ed jaii. There were many umbrellas
hoisted on beground to shelter civilians
beneath them. Squads of officers and
citizens lay along the narrow shadow Of
the walls. The north side OF the yard
was enclosed on three sides BY columns
of soldiers drawn up in regular order,
the side next to the penitentiary being
short to admit of ingress from the pris-
oner's door; but the opposite column
reached entirely up to the north wall.
THE oALLows.
Within this enclosed area structure
to be inhabited by neither the livingnor
the dead, was fast approaching compile
ton. Itstood ,gaunt lofty long. Saws and
hammers made dolorous music on it,
Men, In their shirt sleeves, were meas
uring it and directingit its construction in
a business way. Now and then some
one would ascend its airy stair to test
it's frmness; others crawled beneath to
wedge its slim supports, or carry away
the falling debris.
Towards this skeletons edifice all
looked with strange nervousness. 1t
was the thought and speculation Of the
gravest and the gayest,
1t was the gallows.
A beam reached, horizontally, in the
air, twenty feet from the ground; four.
awkward ropes, at irregular intervals,
dangled from it, each noQsed at the end.
1t was upheld by three props, one in the
center, and one at each end. These props
came all the way to the ground, where
they were morticed in heavy bars. Mid
way of them floor was laid, twenty by
twelve feet, held In its position on tue
farther side by shorter props, Of which
there were many, and reached by fifteen
creaking steps, rallied on either side.-
But this flour had no supports on the
sides nearest the eye, except two tenn
porary rods, at the foot of which two
Inclined beams pointed menacingly,
held in poise by ropes from the gallows
floor.
And this floor was presently discover
ed to be a cheat, trap, pit-fall.
Two hinges only held it to its firmer
half. These were to give way at til. ia
tai moment, and leave the shallow and
unreliable air for the bound and smoth-
ering to tread upon.
The traps were two, sustained by two
different props.
central support.
Was this all?
Not all,
Close by the foot of the gallows four
wooden boxes were piled upon each
other at the edge of four newly eXca-
waited pits, the fresh earth of which was
already dried and brittle in the burning
noon.
Here were to be inferred the broken
carcasses when the gallows had let sc
Its throttle. They were so placed thai
as the victims should emerge from. the
| goal door they would be seen near the
stair directly In the line of march.
And not far from these, In some pi
below the prison where they had beef
90 long ana so forebodingly, the body o
o,hn Wilkes Booth, sealed up in tn,
br;cb door, had long been mouldering
Iftha n cad can hear, he had lstene,
many a TN ne to the rattle of their mana
clos ynon tb, stairs, to the drowsy hun
Of 1T the trial ana the bab of the garrulou
spectators; to the ,.usasing, or the gliding
or the praying i'm TIE bolted cells 'wher'