Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-05-16

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When ali Is drearyart smiling or,
Unchanged, unshrinking to the las
And green when even Hope is G li,-
Last Sensation of CatsISnI.
Joseph Waltz was lately hung il
Catski1l, New York, for killing Har
mon HOlcher, an Albany scissors
grinder. In his cell he had been play
ing pranks that looked like insanity
and there was q strong effort to get
him pardoned or reprieved. He haC
some skill in drawing and embellish
ed the walls of his cell with astrolog
ic and cabalistic signs and dOggere
verses of his own mechanism. Among
other things there was a balloon done
iii different colored lead, in which he
was soon to sail to the moon. The
moon was drawn on the walls, too,
and the sun, and q great variety OF
stars of lesser magnitude. Waltz also
amused himself writing crazy letters.
In these letters he pretended to reveal
other murders which he had commit
ted, and sent the authorities TO hunt
for the relics and evidences of previ-
GUS crimes. These searches were
fruitless and the monstrous crimes
with which Waltz charged himself
were believed to be myths. There
was, however, very little doubt that
he killed Holcher, the scissors grinder,
and he was to be hung for this muir
der, on May-day. As time wore on
and he got no reprieve, he ceased to
act like a human being, refused to
converse with anybody, and hOwled
and growled like wild beast. Cha's.
Ernst was his keeper in Jail and was
to be his hangman, and Ernst was
popular in CatskiI. He was quite a
character in town, good company, and
a dare-deyil. He showed that he was
not afraid of Waltz by often going to
sleep on a lounge in the doomed mans
cell. April Both Ernst fell asleep
there and never wakened up. Waltz
took the opportunity to break his
present keepers and prospective exc
cut1oner's skull, and slowed the body
away in a corner. He then armed
himself with Ernst's pistol, and it is
thought he intended to make a bold
dash for liberty, but he failed, and
was even afraid to use the pistol, He
was promptly caught, ironed and lock-
ed up. The body of Ernst was placed
in a cell opposite that of Waltz, and
between the two cells was a hall in
the center of which rope was hang
ing with a moose at the end of it. The
rope came down through hole ia the
ceiling, and this was all that the pris-
oner could see of the apparatus of
death. There was lever in the story
above, and Weighs 70 do the lifting
when the mans meek was IN the
moose.
Waltz was but Twenty-Five. His
father and mother were living in
town, and he had a good looking Sis
ter. The father kept away, but his
mother and sister visited him on that
last day. He would not speak word
to them, or even look at them, and
the two poor distressed women plead
ed with him for hours to show some
sign of recognition of them and re-
pentance of his sins. He gave no
sign. Now the news of the death of
Charles Ernst had got outside, and the
town was stirred up into a tremendous
excitement. 1t had not been so thor
oughly awakened since the old Rip
Van Winkle days. Everybody sus-
pended business and the people began
to surge in crowds, and cry "Lynch
him, lynch him." A leading merchant
of Catskill, bearing the name of JEFF
ferson Davis, got up on some high
steps and harangued the populace.
He called upon the people to break
into the jail and hang Waltz-and
among other infiammatory things
said: ''Dix may reprieve the damned
wretch, and we sagift to make a fin
ish of him now. Who'll get a rope?i'
Bob Comfort, a carpenter, filed with
enthusiasm, ran off and presently re-
turned with a good length Of strong
rope, coiled. Swinging It over his
head, he cried: 'tCome on, boys; let's
lynch him; let's do our duty" And
the vast angry crowd surged against
the jail walls. They got erowbars and
commenced banging the doors, and
that poor mother and sister heard the
sounds and knew exactly what they
meant. The mob began to throw
stones and mud through the window
into Waltz's cell, and Waltz lay there
and growled like a beast and cursed
like demon. The women finally left
him for their own safety. Bob Com
fort got into a position where he
could see through the window, and
distinctly saw Waltz. He asked for q
pistol, saying he could ''plump" him
sure. But the others wanted to have
a hand in it too, and they insisted on
the hanging programme. The sheriff
came and tried to Rise his voice and
interpose his auth4rity. The many
headed monster Ignored him The
coroner was in the Jail building, and
from a window told the crowd that
Ernst was not dead, aud the noisG
they were making was endangerine
the wounded mans life. This was {
false figure of speech, but it had the
desired effect. The people did not
want to injure Charley Ernst, and they
slowly and sullenly withdrew. May
day Waltz was hung on that rope
which reached down from the ceiling
like a monster arm to drag a life int
an unknown world, and Ernst's body
still lay in the opposite cell Tha
mother and sister saw the last of tn,
wretched man. After the hanging
WaltZ's father came briskly into tn
hall, and glancing at the dangling
body, turned to the sheriff, who wa
the hangman for the occasion, AM
shook him heartily by the hand, as /
to say it was q good job. But 1t /
dangerous for a hangman to sleep il
a doomed mans cell the day befor
execution.