The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1865-08-02
WHOLE NO. 459.

WHOLE NO. 459.
The Scene OF the Military Exseutien
At Washington.
We extract the following from the cor.
respondence of the New York World:
THE WAY FRox THE TOWN TO THE PENrrES.
rIARY.
It was long and dusty Avenue, along
which rambled soldiers in blush white
coats, cattle with their tongues out, stray.
ing from the herd, and few negroes max.
ing for their cabins. which dotted the fer,
and vacant lots Of the suburbs. At the
foot Of this avenue, where q luke-warm
river holds between its dividing arms q
dreary edifice Of brick, the way was filled
with collected cabs and elbowing people,
abutting against . circle of sentinels who
kept the arsenal gate. The low, fat, dusty
white fields to the far left were also lined
with patrols and soldiers lying on the
ground in squads beside their stacked
muskets. Within these second blue and
nonotonous line extended. The drive
from the arsenal gate to the arsenal's high
and steel spiked wall was beset by compa.
MES of exacting sabremen, 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 q
woman were to be led out in shackes and
hung to beam. They had conspired to
take life, they had thrilled the world With
the partial consummation of their plot, they
were to reach the last eminence Of assas.
sins, on this parched and oppressive
noon, by swinging in pinioned arms and
muftled faces in the presence Of thousand
people.
THE PLACE OF DEATH.
I entered large, grassy yard, surround.
ed by an exceedingly high wall. On the
top Of this wall, soldiers, with muskets in
their hands, were thickly planted. The
yard below was broken BY irregular build.
ings of brick. I climbed By . fight of
rickety outside stairs to the central build.
ing, where many officers were seated ut the
windows, and looked awhile at the strange
scene in the grassy plaza. On the left, the
long, barred, impregnable penitentiary rose.
The shady spots beneath it were occupied
BY budding spectators. Soldiers were fill.
ing their canteens at the pump. A face or
two looked out from the barred Jail. There
were many umbrellas hoisted on the ground
to shelter civilians beneath them. Squads
of officers and citizens lay along the narrow
shadow Of the wall. The north side of the
yard was inclosed on three sides by colsmns
Of soldiers, drawn up in regular order, the
side next to the penitentiary being too short
TO admit of ingress from the prisoners door,
but the opposite column reached entirely up
to the north wall.
THE GALLows.
Within this inclosed area structure. to
be inhabited by neither the living nor the
dead, was fast approaching completion. 1t
stood gaunt, lofty, long. Saws and ham
mers made doiOrous music on it. Men, in
their shirt sleeves, were measuring it and
directing its construction in business way.
Now and then some one would ascend its
airy stair to test its frmness; others crawl
ed beneath to wedge its slim supporters, or
carry away the falling debris.
Toward this skeletons ediice all looked
With strange nervousness. 1t was the
thought and speculation Of the gravcst 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 noosed at the end. 1t was upheld
by three PROPS, one in the center and one
at each end. The props came all the way
to the ground where they wera morticed in
heavy bars. Midway Of them floor was
laid, twenty BY twelve feet, held in its posi-
ton on the further side by shorter props,
OF which there were many, and reached by
fifteen creaking steps, rallied on either side.
But this floor had no supporters on the side
nearest the eye, except two temporary 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 discovered
to be cheat, trap. = pitfall.
THE GRAVES.
Close by the foot Of the gallows, four
wooden boxes were piled upon each other,
at the edge Of four newly excavated pits,
the fresh earth of which was already dried
and brittle in the burning noon.
Here we're to be inferred the broken car.
casses when the gallows had let 60 its throt.
tie. They were 50 placed that, IS the vic.
TINS should emerge from the Jail door, they
would be seen near the stair, directly in the
line of march.
And not far from these, in some pit be.
meath the prison, where they had been 60
long and so forebodingly, the body of j.
Wilkes Booth, sealed up in the brick 6oor,
had long been mouldering. If the dead
can hear, he had listened many . time to
the rattle of their msnacles upon the stairs,
to the drowsy hum Of the trial, and the buz
OF the garrulous spectators; to the moan,
ing, or the gibing. or the praying in the
bolted cells, where those whom kindred fate
had given little lease upon life, lay waiting
for the terrible pronouncement.
DELAY.
Still there vas delay. The sun poked
into the new made graves, and made bills.
tering hot the gallows f1oor. The old pump
made its familiar music to the cool splash
of blessed water. The grass withered in
the fervid heat. The bronxsd faces Of the
soldiers ran Jumps Of sweat. The fils upon
the Jail walls looked down into the wide
yard yawningly. No wind duttered the
two battle standards, condemned to unfold
their trophies upon this coming proianstiou,
not yet arrived. Whyl The extent oi
grace has almost been attained. The sen.
tsnce gave them only till . o'clock. Why
are they so dilatory In being banged!
ENTER TEE DYING.
Suddenly tho wicket opens, the troops
spring to their feet, and stand st order arms,
the fsgs 60 up, the low order goes from
company to company. the spectators huddle
. little nearer to the scadold, al the writers