Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-05-24
THE LASH IN ENGLAND.
CaIcraft and the Cat-O'-Nine Tails.
Translated for the Cincinnati Commercial
from L'Internntional.

I lTNnSlateu Tor Htut LlDcllntliH OOmmeTclHl
from international.
He received twenty-five lashes with
the cato mine tails on his bare back.
4 His name was William Terry. His
crime was TO have waited for a, lady in a
deep house-door at o'clock in the even
ing and to have attempted to strangle
her with his two hands Dragging be-
fore the police court and thence before
1 the criminal assizes of the Old Bailey,
he had been sentenced to seven years
penal servitude and to receive twenty
| FIVE lashes with the cato mine tails on
his bare back.
Last week William Terry was taken
from his cell to the hogging room, where
were assembled the Governor of New
gate, surgeon, two magistrates, several
representatives of the press and Cal
craft, the executioner. They had taken
us across small garden surrounded by
high walls, which were surmounted by
short iron pixies, and adjoining on one
side, to the prison chapel. A very
strong door led into a spacious room,
where formerly convicts worked, but
which is now used for fogging garroters.
The first thing which met our view
here, as we entered the room, was a.
wooden instrument, whose lower part re-
sembles drum, and this wooden drum
is surmounted by fwo arms in the shape
of cross While we were examining
this, the jailers entered.the.room, pushing
before them the garroter Terry, who was
naked to thewaist,F3 u WWNF n
Terry is only twenty-five years old,
He is short and heavy-set, exceedingly
muscular and strong. He is as pale as
corpse; large red spots appear on his
deadly pale cheeks, his restless eye runs
over the whole hall and fixes itself then
in terror on the instrument of torture.
Calcraft approaches him. Heis scarce
ly taller than the garroter; he still looks
very strong and robust, although the
contrary has been asserted in regard to
him; his hand is perhaps, trembling a
little, but it still brandishes the terrible
cato mine tails with much dexterity.
The executioner, goes to work without
saying a word. he seizes Terry by the
shoulders and pushes him toward the
machine The garroter starts back in
terror, but each Of the jailers seize one
of his arms, and drag him few steps
forward
We said before that the wooden instru
ment consisted of sort of drum and
post with two horizontal arms
The drum is divided into two equal
parts, one of which, the front one, is
movable, and can be raised and lowered,
while the other is fixed. As the
top of the drum is pierced in the
middle by two circular holes, the drum,
upon being opened, divides these holes
into halfmoons. Calcraft hurriedly
pushes Terry into these halfmoons
so as to completely encase the legs of the
convict in them He then closes the
drum so that the prisoner legs are fas-
tened in the holes as completely as the
" lunette" of the guillotine holds the |
neck of person whose head is to be cut
off. q fg
The ankles are likewise fastened in a
lower bottom, which contains also two
holes. M Oh. t4n0a
Terry tries to disengage his legs and !
wants to make movement, but he feels /
that his limbs are fastened, as it were, in
a vice. He utters howl and struggles
frantically, trying to push back with his
hands the jailers and the executioner,
The drum is surmounted by "a post, which
at the height of the shoulders contains
two horizontal arms pierced with two
holes that are destined to hold the wrists
of the criminal as in vice. Terry, not
withstanding his desperate efforts, soon
is utterly unable TO move his legs and
arms and his back is now ready for the
fiogging. M
Calcraft takes from the hands of one
of the jailers the terrible cato nine tails
with its many knots, and waits.
The magistrates consult one another
with their eyes, and one of them, max
ing sign with his hand, says: 4
Begin"
The executioner puts forward his left
foot, throws his body back, and almost
at the same moment the whip falls verti [
cally down on the back of the victim.
A dull, prolonged cry, in which be- {
trays itself as much impotent rage as s
pain, issues from the garroters breast. I
His cry has not yet died away on his '
lips when a second stroke enters the same :
place as the first. {
A shudder causes Terry forehead, as c
il we're TO undulate; he utters roar, '
like a wild beast, and commences shak- (
ing the machine ffantically. The cat q
again through the air, and seems I
to bury itself in the victims flesh A q
single bloody stripe appears on the lower
part of Terry back. y
Until then the intense pain had 0
wrested from the bandit only inarticulate Z
sounds, but'at the fourth stroke it vented 5
itself in painting phrases. {
40 Qodf a Godf Strike mo IN the I,
cried Terry struggling vio- v
lently. and foaming at the mouth. &
Calcraft pays no attention to his sup v
plications, and his whip falls with more
force than ever upon the lower part Of v
he back Of the wretched man. For v
moment il seems as though Terry will 4
really succeed IN breaking the machine p
that holds him. ~ 1'lla - e
20 Codl o Godl' he howls out he q
,prns mel OH have pity on mel He v