Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-07-23
ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE
} VIRGINIA ADV ERTIS E 4
TERMS OF ADVERTISING:
A Stined City.
| From the New York Times. !

From the New York Tmesl
The bald statement of the range in the shade
Of the thermometer for the past three days,
conveys but faint idea Of the blistering heat
upon the city, of the sitting atmosphere that
weiphed upon it. The days were the hottest
of the year, and the succeeding rlgh hts were
exceptional and terrible in discomfort: The
davs baked the City-the nights scorched 1t !:
As evening came on the heat grew more
powerful, and night came bringing. torture IN
stead of relief There was no relief. There
was no reliet anywhere. On the housetops or
in the cellars in the densest part OF Baxter
street or upon the piers stretching into the
soundless. CLASSY river was heat, all prevad!ng,
,ll.nrostrating. :Men eschewed the convention
alities of life-Aung neck ties, collars, vests
and coats angrily away and searched wildly Tor
something cool. The ladies stirred not beyond.
the precincts of home and the devices they
adopted can be imagined but not stated. Child
rem walled with extreme discomfort and with q
seeming dread of something worse; horses tell
prone and lifeless on the streets.
Evening business came to stand: still save
about the soda-fountains and in the ice cream
saloons. Driven to desperate extremltles men
swallowed these in sheer despair but without
hoping for the relief that did not come. w no.
ever could walked and avoided the street car
ovens whoever was forced to take stage
cambered to the roof, and these vehicles went
up and down Broadway, crowded on top and
empty inside. A few desperate people entered
the theatres, a!lured by the placard: This
is the coolest place Of amusement in the City. -
The announcement was cool enough and there
was a hope that some OF its trlgidity might
to1 tbo ouditoriumc
To many homes of honest toll the torrid
days brought. disaster and wailing. Strong men
went out in the morning to do strenuous bat
tie for daily bread and with the evening came
not home. The missing ones were found IN
the wards of the hospitals gasping, unconscI-
Gus, or already dead
Opinions ola Prussian Executioner.
Reindel, the Prussian headsman, lives IN o
very fine house in the neighborhood Of Havel-
berg and is we'll of, but his neighbors studi-
ously refrain from holding any intercourse with
him. He says he never yet met with crlml-
nal who was to be beheaded but whose courage
finally gave way He thinks hanging would
be better mode OF execution, nearly every
criminal being afraid of the pain which they
think the axe, in cutting OF their heads would
give them. He says the most trying moment
for him is always that OF his confronting MS
victim for the first time tor the q ;, purpose OF
looking at his neck and cutting on ms halr.
An the women whom he beheaded, he says,
tainted as soon as they caught sight of him and
learned who he was and what he wanted of
them. He denounces as Wanton cruelty the
practice of reading oncemore to the criminal
the whole long sentence passed upon him at
ter he has reached the scafold. tie thinks
that there is still sensibility in the head tor
several minutes after it has been severed from
the trunk. A woman beheaded in Mecklen.
burg in 1866 had tainted on the scattold, and
seemed perfectly lifeless when she was tled to
the block. After her head head was OFT he
picked it up, and saw to his horror that the
ewes opened slowly, with an expression OF great
agony.
He thinks the most humane way OF exeeut-
ing criminals would be to kill them in an hour
or an hour and halt after their sentence. has
been announced to them, and not compel them
to walk Or ride to distant place OF execution,
but to execute them, if possible, in their own
prison; for the walk to the scafold, ne says,
is always dreadful torture for the criminal,
few of the strongest men being able to retain
their composure, while the Women without
exception, have to be carried to the block
Occasionally, he says, feeble women arouse
themselves at the last moment and offer the
most desperate resistance, so that he and bis
assistants once or twice were hardly able tc
fasten them to the block.
PARENTS AND CHILDREN.-Dr. Wayland
in his work on Moral Science, makes use OF
remark capable of much wider application thar
he has given it: "a parent who assiduously
follows his children throughout the various
steps of their education will find his OWL
knowledge increased, and his own education
carried forward vastly beyond what he would
have conceived possible There are very few