Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-02-14
4nrAru By CHARACTERIZATION"

aS
about it. Were hanging the most pain
full Of exits from this vale of tears and
struggle for riches and honor, this at
tempt to cast reproach upon /. as a legal
mode Of closing the books Of capital
offenders might be we'll enough. But
the number who dare the penalty, ad.
ded to that other melancholy procession
Of weary mortals who choose it as the
end-all Of earthly life, leads as to pre-.
sumo that death by strangulation is not
clothed with peculiar terrors to all men
and women. If there is to be q death
penalty there is no good reason for
changing the mode. The French, who
experiment on everything, and aim to
reduce dying to a science, choose the
OK as the most humane Of all scpara-
tons Of souls from bodies. The Span
ish, who are somewhat famous for re-
6ning the modes Of cruelty procticed
toward criminals Of all grades, use the
sarote, claiming it to be the most hui
name. The Sultan and his subordinates
resort to the bowstring. The gallows
is Anglo Saxon, and, like all the inven-
tons Of that sturdy family, is plain,
practical and unpretendiug. Az ON
ployed under legal sanction it costs very
little, is simple in construction and et-
fective in operation. As operated BY
the Courts, the prisoner is invited to
ascend a platform in full view of the
audience, where the rope is attached,
the hoodwink pulled down over the VIC
tins eyes, and by a cunning continuance
the floor gives away under his feet. If
the rope be long tho fall dislocases the
neck and death is sudden and painless.
Otherwise, the subject dies by straugu-
latiou. But in the hands Of tho enter
prisiug C~opstables Of His Honor, Judge
Lynch, the subject is placed on a horse,
conducted under 9 tree, the rope hitched
to a limb thereof and the horse flliped
from beneath him or the subject is
placed on the limb, the rope adjusted
properly, and then the victim is made
to fling himself down. The result is
the same in both cases, but we rather
give preference to the orderly arrange
ments made by the Sheriff rs an officer
Of Court.
Now, nothing is further from our pur-
pose than a serious discussion Of capital
punishment. We agree with that quaict
somebody who says that hanging is
about as "poor a purpose as a man can
be put to-" and at the same time con-
cede the incarcerating a man for life is
only not worse. To say that the law
should take nothing away from man
that i. cannot restore, is to say that it
should not take away his liberty. For
ten years in the Penitentiary cannot DO
restored. 1t is, commonly, lost time;
and it can never be less than ten years
of liberty deliberately denied to a hu-
man being. If God gives life, so he
gives liberty /; aud according to Patrick
Henry and others, liberty is the life Of
life. Is it, We ask of the opponents Of
death penalty, because death is as pain
full in itself as the dread of it, that they
oppose judicial killing2 Or is it because
life is too sacred to be at the mercy OF
Courts Of Justice7 We know that the
spectacle of on execution is not edify-
iug, but the contrary, rather. 1t is
easy enough to fancy that n would
not apply to the Sheriff for a deputation
on such an occasion. But the penalties
of the law are none Of them pleasant,
either to the Judge who pronounces SEN
tence, or to the officers who carry them
out. Nor are the exhibitions Of human
~depravity pleasantto look upon. Neither
murder mol robbery are edifying; why
should the punishment DO edifying 70
the spectator It seems to US that the
objections to hanging apply as properly
to imprisonment. It is folly to suppose
that evil-minded men 60 away from a
visit to a prison with serious thoughts.
It is net likely that any man commits
crime with the expectation Of being
caught and punished. He hopes to
escape, and, unfortunately, in most
cases, does escape. Such is the record
of crime in this State; for thus far, We
believe there has been but n man
hung by the officers of the law since its
first creation as q Territory, and not
one since it became a State. There is
a prospect, however, that one or two
~murderers will meet their doom In
Storey county during the year 1868.