The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-05-10
"MONSIEUR DE PARISH
Idence OF the London Daily News. !

Correspondence OF the Londcn Daily News.l
M. de Paris is dead do not speak
Of the Prince who takes his title from
the French capital; but of that sinister
person, who, according to Joseph de
Maistre, is. after the Priest, the MAIN
stay of social order, of political tram
guilty; the eilminator of the rankest
weeds of humanity; thet terror oftheevil
doer, and vet an object of loathing to
the just man; the executioner of Paris.
NJ. de Paris made his exit from life,s
stage on the morning of Good Friday.
Death gave him but a short notice.
He was, when returning to his house i'm
the Boulevard Beaumarchats from
hearing StdJat at st. Eustache, taken
suddenly i'll, and died some moments
after, just as lie reached home. A few
days previously he had expressed fear
that he would prove the victim of his
recently extended sphere of official
duties; for in point of fact, since NJ.
Dufaure became Minister of Justice, NJ.
de Paris had a right to the style and
title of NJ. de France. Within the last
ten months he had to do the work OF
the eighty-four departmental execution
eTs, whose posts NJ. Theirs abolished
from motives of economy. A dread
full arrear of business fell upon his hand
in consequence of the closing of the
Law Courts in the invaded depart
ments. Lemettre, the Tropmann of
the North, was the last person NJ. de
Paris sent out of the world. Three
days before he presided at the triple eX-
ecution at Charities; and on his way to
the Pas de Calais he assisted at the de-
capitation of a woman who had aided,
in lS7l, in murieringa peddler, and then
attempting to lay her crime at the door
of the Prussians. From fear that if
Lemettre were sent by rail from the
town where he was convicted to the
scene of his crimes, where he was TO be
executed, the train conveying him
might cross that of the Prince of Wales,
he and NJ. de Paris, attended by four
gendarnles, were locked up in a prison
van, and sent jolting for thirty miles
distance over a roughly paved road.
This dismal journey greatly fatigued the
headsman, who, when he made it, was
past seventy, and had exercised his
CHASTITY calling fifty-four years.
The real name of M. de Paris was
Aimable Marie Jean Baptiste Heind-
r1ch. He was an Alsatian, and the son
of the Public EXecutioner of Toulon,
where he made his debut on the gull
lotine at a quadruple execution. That
(accorling to Joseph le Maistre), instrI-
ment of public health was then infinite
Iy more clumsy than it now is. Fifty
years ago stolid impassibility and mus
cular power were the qualities chiefly
looked for in an executioner. The flu
ture Nj. de Paris possessed these quail
ties in rare degree, together with a
faculty for mechanical contrivance and
a strong ambition TO perfect DIR. Gull
1otino's invention. Canning, in the
Anti-Jacobin, spoke of touching
with fairy hand the frolic pit. " In
his time it required great amount of
muscular force to get through the eXccu-
ton of any one who made u struggle
for life. In the best of cases nothing
short of Il strong tug at a sort of cable
brought down the cold steel knife upon
the PATIENTS head. The new decapi-
tating machine of the R0quette Prison,
constructed to replace the one sOlemnly
burnedby the Commune, has all Heind-
rich's successive improvements. He
christened it "Jacqucrine, and took
an almost paternal pride in pointing out
its projections. When the sphere of his
btAiNo " itC Allt
of France, lie bargaincd with the Par
quet that, whenever he should be sent
to preside AT a provincial execution, he
was TO take Jacqueline along with him.
An eminent member of the French Bar
took me some years ago with party of
American young ladies To see, as Paris
lions, Heindrich and the ;,ncestresses of
Jacqueline. NJ. de Paris then lived in
the rural suburb of NaloiS Champerret.
He inhabited a pretty and very retired
villa in Rue du Bots, just skirting the
Park of Neuilly. The garden was sur
rounded by ivy-cOlored walls. Some fine
old trees shaded corner OF the house.
Heindrich loved turf and fine art, and
was, when We invaded his domain,
watering Il close-shaven lawn, in the
center of which stood a marble cupid
The miSchievouS little god was i'm the
act of letting an arrow fly at nymph
some yards distant from him. NJ. de
Paris seemed bewildered at the sight of
the visitors. The writer of this letter
was introduced rs n person wanting
some guillotine statistics for a beneVO-
lent society, and the young ladies as
mere curious sight-secrS-thc daughters
of an American Judge. Our cicerone
Informed NJ. Heindrich that, being I'M
able to see the Chamber of Horrors in
Blue Boards castle, they were deter
mined TO have peep at the monster he
had rendered so adroit. This compE-
mant told. The hcadman, who ut first
looked very suriy, became merely
stolid. He was Il very tall, muscular
fellow, with blue, German eyes, thick,
straight, ask-colored hair, heavy face,
and sluggish movements. He apollo
giZed in very good French for being
caught in his shirt-sleevcs, and asked
permission TO leave us for Il moment to
dress, before taking us TO see four cast
of guillotineS that We're standing i'm the
coach-house. Meanwhile he begged us
10 step into his driwing-room, where
there was a piano and an easal with
paints and paint-brushes lying near il.
An old servant who stole out of an adj
jaccnt kitchen during the masters alb
sence to chat with the strangers, who
informed us that they were bought for
the young lady, then under a disguised
name at the most fashionable convent
school in Paris. The "young ladyu
was HeindIich's adopted daughter.
She knew nothing of her putative
fathers profession. There was also "a
young gentleman at the Prince I'M
perlaHs Lycee, near NanVes. Before
the master of the house returned, the
garruous crone managed TO enlighten
us rs to his domestic arrangements, and
the manner in which he was summon
ed from his household gods to discharge
his public functions. \ lancer brought
him the summons from the Parquet in
variahly mt nine in the evening. Hor-
Tible detail-whcn the fatal miSsivc was
received, the headman, after ordering a
solid repast for three in the morning.
in order TO strengthen his nerves. went
into the coach house with an assistant,
who served him for gardener, to OPP
crate on 4 calf, which he kept for the
purpose of rehearsing. The headsman
returned, wearing his official suit of
black, and a white cravat. He did the
honors of the coach-house with quiet
ease, offered to send for a calf, which
he said would cost him nothing, where
upon 10 test some recent improvements
he had effected in his instrument. One
of the questions put 10 him 10y me, in
my assumed character of a member of
a benevolent society, was, whether he
thought the separated head continued
t. live after il rolled into the basket.
He pondered few minutes, us if 10
IL L.. n. i