Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-06-12
NO. Al.

not 10 De disappointed of an opportunity for
dissection. This atrocious case gave rise to
much indignant comment at the time.
In 1857 tailor, named Patrick Redmond.
was hanged at Cork, for highway robbery.
After hanging less than the usual time, the
body was cut down and conveyed hastily to
the house OF an actor, named Glover, who
found means by friction and fumigation to
revive him. Redmond had the credible su-
dacity to go to the theatre the same even
ing, and to the horror of the audience, pub
licly thank Glover for having saved his life.
The present century has not been without
It's instances. About fifty years ago, SER
want girl was convicted of administering
poison to the household of n farmer, In a ft
of passion at some petty injury. A legal
doubt having led to the pOstponement of the
execution, the steady demesnor of the girl
led to her being employed as q servant by
the jailor at Durham. One morning the
governor received, much TO his regret and
to the regret of many of the citizens, an Or
der for the immediate execution Of the girl.
She was hanged, but the rope broke; and the
wretched girl remained crying at the foot of
the gallows, while a man hastened off on
horseback TO fetch new rope. This dis
tressing scene was scarcely case in point.
so far as concerns resuscitation after hang.
ing, but 1t is one of the instances of deferred
executions, which are so bad, because they
give rise to hopes destined to disappoint-
ment.
In another instance mentioned, like the
foregoing, in Notes and Queries) a boy Of
only thirteen or fourteen was capitally con-
victed, but respited indefinitely on account
Of his youth. He remained in the iail at
Worcester, was found to be docile lad, and
became general favorite, both with the
jailer and the prisoners; everybody believing
| that his full pardon would soon come One
day he was playing at ball, in the yard, full
of life and glee, when suddenly, to the utter
dismay of the jailer and inmates of the
prison, an order arrived, after many weeks
of delay, for the execution of the poor lad;
and the execution accordingly took place.
An instance more in point is that of man
who was executed at Tyburn, and whose
| apparently dead body was purchased by
surgeon for dissection, and brought to hia
| house.
A servant wishing to see the body stole
into the room, and found the man sitting up.
right on the dissecting table. The surgeon,
a humane man, shipped him off quietly to
America, where he amassed fortune,
which in gratitude he bequeathed to his
henefactor.
Sir Jonah Darlington, in his personal
Sketches, mentions the case of one Lani-
gan, who was hanged for the murder of
| Captain 0'FlahertY. Lanigan survived by
some means which are not explained; and
Sir Jonah saw him at the house of Mr.. Ian
der, in the Temple, He was smuggled over
to Abbeyille, where he died many years at.
terward in the monastery of La Trappe..
Some OF these momentous escapes have
plainly depended on the imperfections of the
gibbet as compared with the drop. These
imperfections lead to the abandonment of
the one kind of dead apparatus for the other
Several statements have been made in the
public journals from from time to time con.
cerning the 'last gibbet;' but many of these
are destitute of meaning, unless we take into
account the exact particulars of each case.
In 1856 the Examiner said:--
"a few days ago (ApriD, the last gihbet
erected in England was demolished by the
.workmen employed in making the extensive
docks for the Northeastern Railway Com
pany, at Jarrow slake, on the Tyne.
This statement was shortly afterwards
disputed; for, later in the same year, glib.
bet was still left standing on Ditehiing Com
mon, in Sussex. It was known among the
surrounding villagers as Jacobs Post, " be-
ing named after culprit concerning whom,
a copy Of verses was long current in the
neighborhood, recording, among other things
that
At Horsham Gallows he was hanged there,
The thirty y-hrst Of August that same year:
And where he did the crime, they took the
pains
Tobring him back and hang him up in chains.
1t has been stated that the last gibbet
erected in England was at Saffron Lane,
near Leicester, in 1s42; it was soon removed
by order of the Secretary of State for Home
Affairs. Whatever may be the exact date,
however, when the last gibbet was erected,
and the last demolished, 1t is certain that
I eAS NAoP AeS Dooh aAhhustl II Hol qulteg SUI
stituted for it in England and the United
States. In the old gibbet the wretched cul-
prit was turned off from ladder, at height
which 1t was supposed, would elevate him
sufficiently above the ground or platform;
whereas the drop consists of trap door,
, which, being suddenly opened by the with.
drawal of bolts underneath, causes the whole
weight of the culprit's body to be in an in.
, slant at the mercy of the moose.
, Some of the instances OF escape are doubt.
, less attributable to the careless way in which
the prisoner was turned off the scaffold, OF
rather ladder, on which he assembled to the
r gibbet; some the insertion of tube which
might prevent the construction of the throat
l some to. the opening of an orifice in the
} windpipe by an expert surgeon; some to
natural hardening of the windpipe, which
r occasionally happens; and some to a stea
collar, connected with an elaborate system
r of braces and bandages. These varieties Of
d fer calculations of most of the cases of re
d suscitation that have been recorded.
n ~-NN-~
IS IT is well said that every independent Re
Il publican removed by Andrew johnson is tn,
e unspiking Of a powerful gun, while every
2 new appointment, dependent, as such ap
| pointment must alxvava he ur,or tha oonN a.