New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-14
. 1oppopS or H1NGIyG.p

De Ouincev. in his Second Paper on Muir
" der considered as one of tho Fine Arts" lays
due emphasis on the disgusting botch-work too
often made of Homicide, which ought to be
performed in q neat, Clearly, apt, dexter
GUS, graceful, artistic manner, and which is in
danger of falling into disrepute from the back
handed clownish, awkward. bungling manip-
ulations of its practitioners, whose fingers seem,
for the nonce, to be all thumbs. The World,
having read a chapter of De Quincy, pitches
into its fellow Democrats up in the Pike County
mountains of Pennsylvania, who lately did the
Job for Charles 0rme, lasling and gashlng them
in this outrageous style:
ct is certainly one OF the most remarkable as well as
repusye hangngs record The prisoner was brought
out and placed-paradec rather IN the presence OF
so tho scaod and was then carried BACK
20 his cell again in the vague expectation that reprleVe
might arrive during the interval between IL a. N. and
p While the prisoner wa thus parsdte sd ne gave
whereat disgusting discussion arose between nm ana
eGsher as to whether TINS DOaly a y. 40 name
upon him before after his tna OF previous 70 OF suUse
auent TO his cOmmtta 10 the care OF TINS oncla ms
controversy was continued d NV He When he waS
brought again 20 be hung at the moment wnen the
clumsy drop erked from under him. the rope broke
and the prisoner fell yioenay TO ths grounu ne was
then takon up and stranged his neck was not broken
his commissions were violent, ana ne was ~ minutes III
This horrible hanging is ty no means exceptional In
fact these frghtful features seem 10 attend nearly
execution In TINS country We give, elseHHgio uiiei
extracts from the accounts Of two hangings TINS year
wherein the bunging butdlery pr9cuoeu Dy Oloi ,h
victim was kicked of from The scafiold, ana was nhaly
choked by the executoner the seoonS case inc a
was dumped down on the platform before ne was
dead, and then violently erked up again accounts
consequent double triple hanging OF the man. are SO
common especially at te Wet as TO lead one To suppose
that the only decenty conducted executions in '.as
region are the summary hanggs by ynchers where the
victim is suspended from lmh, aud snort ahu sure
work made OF the business The failure 10 oreak tne
mans neck and his slow murbr by strangulatlon, SO
frequent that II scarcely eXcit@ comment -,
we submit that I'M, torture rs more 11daen and
arc attended with little suffering TO the murdered person.
Next that without WORD as TO the proprety OF I'M
Propriety, the justice or nluce the necessity or Gso
essness OF capital punishment II IS clear tha so l0s "a
he done in a decent name IL the subjects OF this
punishment TO submit TO SOW ana terrible totture o'
nnepdn bower Of rotten ropes or the weight sustain
ing power OF i'll buiIt platforms the western sheriff wno
ooroforned his before hanging him. has sci an OK
ample which sherifs everywhere should follow
The World is of cOuBe aware that we dis
sent from its dicta very rarely and with great
reluctance; yet we are compelled to do so In
this case. We think the Stroudsburg Demo-
cratic officials performed their work in fit,
becoming manner Hanging is such mean
business that only mean men can usually be
coaxed to have a hand in tive will presume
that this case stands forth a striking exception
TO the general rule. But, when good men are in
yolyed in it Gas we will suppose to have been
the case mt Stroudsburg) hey feel so mean be-
cause of the work they are engaged in, that
il amounts to the same thing. A consciousness
that they are engaged in dirty mess makes
the sheriff and his assistants blunder and bog
gle from first to last and to turn out piece
of work that a lot of miGreant boys hired to
hang dog would be utterly ashamed OF. 1t
is the thing done that mikes the doing so re-
pulsive and unscemly from beginning to end.
Hence, we shall witness no improvement in the
average performance of choking match, and
ought to witness none. The spectacle ought to
disgust, and it does. We trust it will continue
to be oathsOme in all it, belongings and ac-
cessories. as it must be il its essence. Being
all wrong is the way to being all right.