Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-02-22
Iry existence a subject of fearful curl

existence a subject of fearful curl
| osity.
Experiments of the working of the
guillotine were made first upon " sub
jects" in the dissecting rooms. Be-
ing found successful, the first victim
was Pelletier, whose case bad led to
all the proceedings we have described.
He was robber and murderer, and
deserved his fate. Others followed.
In single executions the machine work
ed. But on the 18th of July it failed.
Five criminals were to be taken off.
The heads of four had fallen. But
when the fifth had been strapped to
the bed and swung under the axe, the
uplifted iron creaked, moved and stop
ped. The grooves of wood had swol-
len from the blood. Samson, alarm
ed, threw the weight of his body up
on the back of the axe and called up
on his assistant for help. 1t was a
wretched massacre, too brutal for
narration, outdone in cruelty only by
the hiGeous brutality of more than
| one public execution in our own coun-
try this very past year. Public indig-
| nation was aroused. The execution.
er barely escaped assassination on the
spot. 1t was narrow chance for the
guillotine as well. The same instru.
ment was never tried again. Metal
grooves were substituted, and never
afterwards, not on the tenth of .Au-
gust, with its holocaust of innocent
victims, nor when "the son of ST.
Louis ascended to heaven, nor at the
execution of the Queen, nor when at
the murder of the Girondists, the Rev.
olution, like Saturn, devoured its own
children, did the guiIlotine fail of its
purpose. 1t became proverb during
that carnival of blood, La guiLLotine
"a tyours.
If visitor in Paris cares to take
the trouble, be may see ia shed, back
Of the Rae de la Pair, the very gull
lotine, surrounded by empty barrels
and broken boxes, which Samson
worked and the blue blood of France
consecrated. 1t is an ngly monster,
and. like the window of Charles |. at
Whitehall, or the block in the Tower,
recalls no pleasant memories. The
Convention of 1895 prepared list
of the victims of the guillotine during
the Reign Of Terror. They amount
to 2,026. Able Montgaillard pro-
nounces 1t incomplete. His list num-
bers 4, lilo. But he includes the "fu-
| silladed" and nogaded" as WE'LL
In either case it is a horrible sum of
human lives. But it is not the two
hundredth part of those who perished
in the seven years war to soothe the
Pompadour, whose vanity had been
stung by an epigram!
| 1t has frequently been stated that
Guillotin died by the instrument to
which he gave name. A recent re-
viewer in the Westminster Quarterly
falls into the same error. 1t was not
so. He was, indeed, arrested during
the Triumvirate, and for many months
| suffered the torture common to the
wretched crowd Of prisoners, of ex-
| pecting daily his name to be called,
not as " suspect" for his record as
a sansculotte was clear, but as sus-
pected of being I" suspect" He esca-
ped, however,-lived to see the Res
toration,-and died in Paris, on the
26th of May, 1914, at the age of rs.
Among the phenomena of the gull
lotine, mentioned by Dauban is that
| of the Indifference to death which the
constant working of the guillotine
produced. Adam Lux was glad to
put his head under the axe which had
touched the neck of Charlotte Corday.
Girey Dupre, the advocate of the Gi
roQdists, who, before the tribunal, had
pronounced their virtues TO surpass
those OF Aristides or Sydney, went,
chanting their praises, to his death.
Even Philip Egalite begged of the
| judges not to delay his execution till
evening. One idea seemed to pos
sess all brains. The panier of the
| guiIlotine which received the head of
your friend yesterday, Of your conf
dental servant this morning, of your
foe tonight, and might perhaps re-
ceive that of yourself tomorrow, be-
came an object of attraction almost
irresistible. In the crowd that hurl-
ed itself after the tumbrels on its way
to the place Of execution, mingled
among the cdnaiILe, were men of sci
ence, scholars, and gentlemen of leis-
ure. At the guillotine they forced
their way to the front of the barriers.
Not a word or motion of the victim,
not pang or struggle, were they will
! ling to lose. Who knew ?-they
themselves might be the next to fol-
low, and in their unbelief in future
state of existence they were prepar-
ing their minds for the worst of this.
NJ. Bertin, who was no admirer OF
Madame Roland, speaks of her intre-
pidity at the scaffoId. He witnessed
the execution of 407 persons, 1l9 of
whom we're women. There is sug-
gestive statement among his bald re.
cords worth translating. Fear" he
says, "predominated among the con-
demned. Their faces were pale
Shivering almost always occurred
The eyelids were painfully open and
from the headless trunk, after the
blow, only a few drops of blood fell.
Fright had turned the circulation back
to the heart. From that of Madame
Roland, on the contrary, two jets
sprang, as if she died in the exaltation
of life.
| A story comes from Bangor of the
death, in the Maine wilderness, Of