The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-02-12

In the Hdricidn .HiScCUdHy tnere IL a
curious true relation of the bloody ex-
ecution lately performed by the com
mandment of the Emperor's Majesty
upon the persons of some chief statesmen
and others in Prague, IL June, 1921"
Nearly all the condemned were men of high
degree. First of all came the Earl of Schlck
} he stretched forth his neck, holding up his
head, which the executioner struck of with great
deXterity and nimbleness. An unfortunate DIR.
Jessenius underwent an unexceptionally dread
full punishment. Coming TO the scaffod last
of all the executioner took him presently and
tied his hands upon his back, and then, sitting
down upon his knees, a black cloth being laid
open under him, he still calling upon the name
of God, when the executioner. with little pair
pincers, pulled out his tongue and cut it of with
"A knife and thereupon presently after he
cut of his head with hiH sword. These execu-
tons (there were twenty-four) were performed
by the executioneer of Prague with four swords. !"
Decapitation 10y the AK Aourished
especially in the seventh century, and i'll
France was mostly i'll vogue under Richie
lieu. But hanging was the punishment
for inferior crimes up to the appearance
of the guillotine. The most notable
decapitations in England may be said to
have taken place under the Stuarts.
Raleigh behaved with extraordinary
GOODNESS and dignity on the scaffold. He
asked for the AK, and when there was a
delay in producing it, added, 81 prithee
let me see it dost thou think that l am
afraid of il" He passed the edge lightly
over his finger, and smiling, observed to
the Sheriff, "this sharp medicine, but
a sound cure for all diseases" or words
to that effect.
No record of so dreadful beheading
has come down as that of his Grace the
Duke of Monmouth, in 1856. The Duke
gave the eXecutioner handsome fee,
with reiterated iniunctions to dispatch
him at once, but the man-the renowned
Jack Ketch-had on this occasion quite
lost his nerve, and only severed the head
after repeated hacking.
1t was not until the time of Charles
III. that Temple Bar was selected for the
ghastly exhibition of dead bodies and
quarters Sir Thomas Armstrong's re-
mains are stated to have been the first
exhibited there, in January, 1854 Hor-
ace Walp0le says that in August, 1746,
he passed under the new heads-for the
old ones remained there for years-at
Temple Bar, where the people made a
trade of letting spy-glasses at a penny
look
In the seventeenth century an execu-
ton would seem to have been quite
popul&r sight, even with very humane
persons Evelyn took an interest in
them
AT executions, " (at Rome) he writes,
in 164t q" | saw one, a gentleman, hanged
in his cloak and hat, for murder. They
struck the malefactor with club that
first stunned him, and then cut his throat.
At Naples they use frame like ours at
Halifax, F." to which we shall subsequent
ly allude.
AT Venice, in the Same year, he writes {:
" saw wretch executed who had muir
dered his master, for which be had his
head chopped off by an axe that slid
down frame of timber between the two
tab columns in st. Mark piazza, at the
sea brink-the executioner striking on
the axe with beetle, and SO the head
fell off the block.
Pepys evidently delighted in exeeSl-
ti0ns On April 19, 1862, he goes to a
diapers corner shop and "did see Bark
stead, Okey, and Corpet, drawn toward
the gallowB at TiburA they all looked
very cheerful" In the following June,
''ahout III o'clock, having n room got
ready for MS, we all went to the Tower
Hill, and there saw Sir Harry Nane
brought The scafiold was so crowded
that we could not see it done.
The most resolved man (and Pepys spoke
with a very large experience that ever
died in ihat manner. De
sired they would let him die like gen
tlemAn and Christian, and not pressed
and crowded as he was. On June Is
he writes, 80 The courage of Sir II. Vane
at lis death is talked of everywhere as a
miracle.
In February, 1862, he accompanies
DIR. Scarborough and some of his friends,
after dining at Surgeons Hall, "to see
the body of a lnsty fellow, seaman, that
was hanged for robbery. 1t seems one
Dillon, of a great family, was, after
much endeayOr to have saved him,
hanged with silken halter this sessions,
of his own preparing, not for honor only,
but it being soft and sleek it do slip close
and kills, that is strangles presently
whereas, stiff one do not come so close
together, and 30 the party may live the
longer. But all the doctors at table con-
clude that there IL no pain at all in hang
ing, for that it do stop the circulation of
the blood, and so stops all sense and mo-.
ton in an instant In January, 1868,
Pepys is "up to get place to see Tur-
ner hanged, and got for shilling to
stand upon the wheel of cart in great
pain above an hour. At last he was
flung off the ladder in his cloak
In 1868 there is dreadful disappoint-
ment. away with Mr.. Pierce, the sur
geon, toward Tyb,rn, to see the people
executed, but came too late, it being done:
two men and a woman hanged.
France has upon its records the chron-
icle of some exceptionally terrible execu-
tons by breaking on the wheel and tear
ing asunder.
In 1856 there was published in Paris
for the Historical Society of France
highly interesting journal Of the reign of
Louis XIV, by M. Barber, apocdt au
Parten,ent dc Paris. This gentleman
gives detailed account of one Of the
most terrible executions that ever took
place, that of Daniens, in 1857, for
attempting the life of that most utterly
despicable Of modern monarchs, Louis
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