The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-08-21
Crime ard Its Penalties.


M.'. Bdmcfott.
Crime and Its Penalties.
The day has forever gone for the hor-
rors of torture to be deemed fitting ac
cessories of the extinction of life. 1n
the earlH asss Of the world not only
criminals but prisoners of war were
killed with frightfpl torsures. The old
Assyrian bas- -reliefs represent victori,
0l1s paAnarbhs Boring out the eyes of
their captives, and fayiIlg ali9e, burn
ing. while hacking with harrows and
other sharp instruments were common
practices. After the capture OF Jeru-
salem by Titus SO many of the Jewish
prisoners were doomed to crucifxion
that not wood enoxgh could be found
to build crosses on which to stretch
them.
nent specially provided Tor religious
heretics.. In these days OF womon s
rights it will appear singular that fe-
male offenders were often sent to the
stake when their male accomplices were
hanged. Such was the case with Cath
serine IHayes. who kEfufdered hef hus-
band in TIandon 81 ceI1SsEzsyJr ---ss'sd g bali
ago. In 1857 female slave OF Captain
Goldman. of Medford, Mass, was burned
for poisoning her master, while man
who was IMPLICATED in the same crime
was hanged. A woman was burned in
England for coming false money IS late
as 1853. Persons convicted OF treason
in England are still, we believe, liable
to be hanged, drawn and qrartered.
This sentence has not been carried out
OF late, and was often robbed of many
of it's terrors in earlier times, but 1t was
more than once enforced with all It's
horrors, 4 contemporary writer tells
us of one of the rebels under the house
of Lancaster, who was at first
hanged until he was half strangled. On
being let down still alive, he was dis
emboweled by sharp knife IN the
hands of the executioner, the contents
of his abdomen and then his heart being
next drawn forth. The duartering OF
his remains was the last act in the re.
voting tragedy. Implement Is still
practiced by Mohammedan tyrants, and
we read only few months ago of its in
fiction on three thieving officials.
Death comes to the victims of this saw
age punishment with much OF the slow
ness and torture of crUcifzioD.
The torments to which Ravaillac was
subjected for the assassination of Henry
". of France, and century and half
later Daniens. for scratching Louis XIV.
with q penknife, aretoo shocking for de-
tail. It is sufficient to say that after
having been placed on racks several
times during their trial they We're burn
ed on various parts of their body with
melted lead, burning pitch, and scaid-
ing oil, had their leg bones mashed by
wedges being driven between the Hmb
and an iron boot, and were finally torn
in nieces by four horses attached to
their arms and legs. Yet these horri-
bIe snectacles we're witnessed by thou
sands of interested gentlemen and ladies
of the court. George SelWyr, VINO mad
a strange love of witnessing executions,
even went from london to Paris to see
the last torments of DamIens.
Torture was not abolished III France
until about the time of the revolution
of 1889, and in Germany 1T continued IN
| vopue for numbe of years longer.
The dungeons of Nuremberg castle and
| tbe counc1 house at Ratisbor contain,
among other devilish inventions, a large
| variety of racks, iron boots and wire
gloves, to be heated red hot before De-
| ing put on; boots into which wedges
were driven; the Spanish pear, which
resembled that fruit in shape when tirst
mt in the mouth, but could be made
to open, thus half choking the victim
and causing him fearful pain by stretch
ing oren his jaws. Besides these there
is at Nuremberg a cradle filled with
iron teeth, like those OF harrow, III
which man, afterwards found to be IN
nocent, was rocked as late as loOd,
There is also an iron virgin, box OF
| the form and size of a woman standing
on her feet. The inside of the door Is
full of long spikes, which, when 1t was
closed, would penetrate the eyes anc
body of the condemned. Beneath Is q
trap through which the corpse might OF
dropped into deep vault below.
Breaking on the wheel was common
punishment on the Continent during
the last century. The prisoner Wa'
placed on an X-shaped, or st. Andrew s
cross, lying fiat. The executloner witt
an iron bar would successfully breal
the bones of the arms and legs both be
| low and above the elbows and knees
and finally, if humane, end the prison
er's sufferings, or, as the phrase went
give him coup de grace, by heav!
! blow on the breast. The process com
pleted. the broken-limbed wretch wa
laid on the circumference of a wheel
whence the name of the penalty.
| When Elizabeth, the Czarian OF Rus
sia, abolished capital punishment, sh'
retained that of the knout. Inc hog
gines with this instrument could easily
be made fatal, so heavy were the blow
that might be struck with 1t. MOI
few persons were thus put to DEATH. Il
| a land where executions were for tim
| a nominally extinct institution.
The humane DR.. Guillotin, OF France
suggested decapitation as substitute
for more cruel modes of execution. a
has already been mentioned in our col
umns. he did not fall victim to his N
vention. for he died natural death L
1914 Nor was he the inventor OF a
apparatus which has given an unenvls
able notoriety to his name. Similarly
constructed machines were in existenc
in the sixteenth century, and perhap
earlier.
The opponents of hanging have mad
canitaI out of the many blunder1Dg an
needlessly-protracted attempts to carr
II ont which have recently been made
and have suggested severing the SPIN
and crushing the neck by the SPANS
parrote. electric shocks, and other sui
stitutes. There is no doubt room fo
Improvement, and need for greats t'
carefulness yet the introduction OF fh
drop. iusuring in most instances tl
breaking Of the neck, is greatadvane
on the old plan of dropping cnlPr
from ladder in cart. Under this la'
method he must almost always haN
slowly perished of strangulation.
Near the close of the last century
was seriously propos in England, at
: period when crimes of excessive bruta
ity we're very frequent. to put stop
4 them by terror. The means suggeste
? was throwing convicted offenders into
g den wild beasts. The proposition
, it need hardly be said, was never ca
4 ried into effect Cincinnati Gazette.
Herding on the Plains.