The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1866-06-14

stand The rope was pulled, the traps
fell, and their soft whirr and rush d,ed
into silence as they struck the padded
sides. The body of Anton Probst drop
ped with single, heavy thug and remain
ed perfectly still. In two minutes there
are spasmodic tremblings in the legs; ID
three minutes slight quiverings in the
sides and oscillations of the body. In
FIVE minutes all is motionless forever, and
humap retribution is complete. Every
thing was conducted amid profound 81
lence. IF Sheriff Howell desired quiet
ness he secured it to projection. From
the beginning to the end of the scene not
a sound was heard from the throng OF
men.
AFTER THE EXECUTION.
At ten minutes after IL o'clock the
immediate witnesses of the execution
hastily left the Jail yard, and then the
people left out by Sheriff Howell obtain
ed entrance to the prison through the
kindness of such cosmopolitan and liberal
spirits as Lieuts Fuller, Frank Hamp-
ton, High Constable Clarke, and Keeper
Money.
The Sheriff has been extremely partlc-
ular as to iutruders, but his hospltalltles
to those who entered were more devout
than orthodox Having pulled the gal
lows cord With his own hand, he also tap
ped the Bourbon, and many good people
who represented public interests, prepar-
ed themselves for the spectacle of the jail
ward, by fortifying their poor earthly car
cassos with Monongahela juices.
Arrived at the angle of the Jail yard,
where Probst, in tight flannel shirt, coarse
shoes, gray mixed pants, and white
death-cap, hung suspended, with his toes
just reaching the gallows hurdle, we all
stood around the body, questioning the
German priest, and the earliest musketo
of the season perched upon the criminal
face, while blue bottle flies of ambitious
proportions, were making themselves at
home with his sleeve and shirt bosom.
He seemed to be loosely knit though
heavy fellow, just the picture of thous
and Germans, who had enlisted in the t.
Mon armies, and he swung so quietly and
passively that it WAS hard to recognize in
his boyish figure the deliberate murderer
of whole family of pretty infants and
unsusp6cting country people.
Directly he was cut down, and falling
all in heap, ga lump Of flesh, chaos oi
cold clay, his carcass was placed upon
the ancient hurdle, used commonly tC
wheel bread into the corridors. After i
had proceeded few yards the priest stop
ped it, and proceeded to read, alternately
the burial services, the crucifx meantime
being placed upon coarse blanket, Gov
ering the whole stature of the dead man
Some of the people during this procedure
stood uncovered, though the mass com
pared the gameness of Probst's death with
others they had witnessed, in opinion con
cluding that he was simply a repentan
savage, who neither apprehended the en-
ormity of his ofTense nor the reality oI
repentance When all had looked upor
the corpse satisfyingly, it was wheeled to ;
little door beneath one of the corridors
ana WhlIe the PRISONERS With Itpious Id
ces pressed against the slim windows
looked themselves purblind to see the re
suit of death, a number of physicians con
nected with the Jefferson Medical Col
lcge, carried the body to chair within
and proceeded to institute a series of an
atomies upon it.
They first examined the retina will
powerful lenses, worked BY electric sparks
and then cut out the right eye with pin
GERS and forceps After this they applied
galvanic currents to the lips and temples
!, and the man with the broken neck wen
through the mockery of gasping, breath
ing and trembling. This experiment wa
instituted by DR.. B. Howard Rand, Gel
ebrated chemist in Philadelphia, and h
watched it till sick at the stomach, anC
then gladly left the body of the murderer
to avoid sitting in the dense air nauseat
ing with the sickening details of the spec
tacle.