The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-11
u,nts ON Hanging.

was wont to relate how one fine morning he
rode accidentally into town in which an exc
cution. as he was only then and there in
formed was about to take place. ''l put the
braid on. " said he, in his homely way, "and
was out of that town in less than ten
minutes" This was somewhat different from
George Selwyn's taste. He had gone over
specally to Paris to witness Damien's raCllng
and after all, the crowd was so great that he
could not get near the scaffold. Upon his ex-
planning his grievOus disappointment to a
French soldier, that polite warrior cried out at
once: "NIake way for Monsieur He is an
Englishman and an amateur" The amateurs
of the gallows are not all dead yet; and many
of them experience Mr. Selwyn's difficulty
without encountering an equally polite official
The unlucky persons who would enjoy the
spectacle most are the very ones who are most
sedulously kept out. Thus, upon the execution
of Aulgus, GOetz, and Case, the other day,
at Cincinnati, the sacrfcial solemnites were
much disturbed by thousands of enthu-
sastlc amateurs, who howled for admis-
sion to the iail-yard and who howled in
vain. They danced, they raved, they swore,
they pleaded for their share of the fine moral
drama going on inside; but they were snubbed
by sheTii1s, and they were snifed at by police
men, until they are said to have grown abso-
lutely 'ferocious" for the religious instruc-
lized by about one hundred and fifty disciples.
With three to hang, they might at least have
hanged one outside as just taste, morsel,
sop, tub to the whale, specimen, solace
lust little better than nothing. But they
didn't. The one hundred and half consti-
tuted kind of close corporation of the faith
of the cervical fracture. Many were called,
but few were chosen, which was fun to the
few, but misery to the many. The clergy
men in attendance should certainly have
gone out and made little speeches. describing
the inside mysteries, to the mob. 1t would
have been pleasant and profitable to have
had direct intelligence from eye-witnesses COM
municated with all possible celebrity. Mobs
are not very sweet-tempered at the best; and
we fear that the thousands" on this occasion
went home with more whisky in their stomachs
and more sin in. their hearts than could pos
sibly have been good for them. What made
the matter all the worse upon this occasion
was, that a new gallows of peculiarly in
teresting construction was employed -
machine which is described as a model of art
in its own fascinating way. ''It consisted" !"
we are told, 'of platform with double door
trap, which fell upon the touch of pedal
communicating with lever below. stout
beam ran across the gallows, and to this the
ropes were attached" 1t was erected under a
large tent or pavilion. patent gatlOws,
three ropes, and pavilion No wonder the
excluded mob were mad
Then, again, the conduct of the condemned
men would have been like witnessing fine
sensational drama, such as the multitude
delight in. Goetz cried out, "Heads up, boys!
Let us die like men ~ "Case danced forward
laughingly, and had to be restrained for
decency's sake" This reminds us, with the
speech of the hardened boy that he wanted
'to die by two o'clock, to be in time for the
train, !" Of Macpherson's FAREWELL
"Sae rantingly sac wantonly,
Sac dauntingly gaed he;
He play'd spring and danc'd it round,
Below the gallows-tree."
wen die like men," said Aulgus, in re-
sponse to Goetz's appeal. All this is very
frightful. The priests furnished the piety,
and the men furnished the pluck-one might
have hoped that the distribution would have
been little different. Perhaps it was as we'll
that the populace was kept outside. They
would only have seen, if they had been
admitted, how easy it is for bad men to die
shameful death, without fear and without
finching. Most persons, good or bad, die
decently when death is inevitable; and 1t is
not true, as general rule, that those who are
executed exhibit any terrOrs particularly dis
tressing. These three culprits suffered for the
crime of numbering clerk for the sake OF his
money But the same dissolute course of life
which had educated them for murder, har-
| dened them for the gallOws and the dull,
| brutal, besotted soul, which Kills for nlthy
lucre, is not of a nature to experience any ter
rors at the prospect of death and Judgment
| We object to these executions because they
are not even the examples which they pre-
| tend to be. man with homicidal heart
does not, day by day, plan special gratiiica-
| ton of the murderous instinct, he succumbs
at last to temptation and opportunity; and
when these are too strong for him, they are
| also too strong for the dread of a possible y
| tribution. He does not weigh the chance of
| the gallOws at ALL when he has determined to
| strike. If he kill in chance-medley, his ap-
| prehensions are certainly no quicker. 1t is
| the special vice of his character that he is not
| in the habit of weighing cOnsequences-hOw
| then can the fear of the gallows govern his
actions, more than any other fear The fault
| is in his reason, and in his perverted faculties
how then shall reason guide him even under
| the influence of a rational fear How spe-
cally shall it guide boy like Case, not fifteen
wears old, and with the vices of fifty There
| is nothing better settled than that the love OF
| crime, and the qualification of passion, is
| stonger than the fear of the gallows. The eX-
perience of mankind has deprived us of our
| best argument in favor OF it but we go on
| hanging murderers because we do not know
what else to do with them. Some tine, we
may discover better method OF disposition.
| r. IlIII IoI0154fII