The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-07-26
A Hanging.
"REMINISCENCES OF ABBEVILLE
BY AN EX.ABBEVILLIAN OF
OVER FORTY YEARS.

Abbeville in my day and before had
a way of hanging folks by their neck,
under Court orders, until the spinal
marrow was broken, or the windpipe
80 sprung aud dismantled as to be tota.-
ly unfit for future use, with such in
cidental effects upon the corporeal sys-
tenn rs may reasonably be supposed to
follow. "Our fathers" thought the
borrowing of o horse without the
owners knowledge and consent and
forgetfulness to return him, was suffi-
cient to entitle the borrower to such
artistic treatment as above mentioned {;
and to him who took the life Of anoth-
er, except in defence of his own, they
with one voice, except few PERSONAL
ly interested to the contrary, said "see
how his wind-pipe will stand the
rope" And they saw. Ibelieve our
fathers had better ideas than their de-
scendants under the influence of the
mock humanitarianism of this day
and age, and that their stern senti-
ments and practice better subserved
the great ends of human law-the pre-
vention of crime and the safety and
protection of human life. No "hard
up" "or crazy" pleas were worth law
yer's notebook or utterance.
I witnessed q hanging once in a
graveyard about four hundred yards
West of the public square. 1t was in
1885, and the subject was one Kindred
Kitchens, probably the worst man
that ever lived in AbbeviIle. He had
murdered an old man of or near eigh-
ty years old-his own age was be-
tween thirty and forty years. The
victim was acting rs bailiff for Trib-
ble's Beat and think it occurred at
Tribble's store. The old mans offence
was levying on Kitchens horse while
he was in the grocery. He retook the
horse by violence, seized the old man
by the hair and drew his knife across
his throat, almost severing his head
from his body, leaped the fence near
by, dropping the knife reeking with
blood, and escaped. He was after
wards captured, tried and condemned
to rope stretching. TO tell all the bad
deeds imputed to this man would fill
pages and thrill the blood to write or
listen to them. The most brutal was
on one occasion coolly sharpening his
knife to the keenness of a razor, and
gaugeing the point between his fingers,
seized his wife, telling her he was 60
ing to see how near he could come to
killing her without doing it, and with
her feeble fame in lis powerful
grasp, he drew the knife from ear to
ear, touching without cutting the jugu-
lar vein. Hold your temper ladies',
he has suffered for it.) Yet this poor
creature. .clung to him when all others
turned their backs and spurned him,
did all she could for his defence be-
fore the law and made the last appeal
on her knees before Gov. McDuf1e,
whose presence she reached on foot
and wearied to exhaustion. No one
would sign her petition nor loan her a
horse for that errand. On the fatal
day she was present to receive his re-
mains and give them a decent inter-
nlent.
This writer then a half-grown man
wanted to see hanging and especial
ly to see that man hung, and to make
sure work OF it, as soon as the gallows
was erected, two days before, selected
as his seat sapling within ten feet,
and before the crowd assembled-not
lCSo tbou l"O thouSdlu Cdllc, placed
himself in the top as q squirrel or
Opossum would have done. recol-
lect an over-anxious boy got very tired
in holding his position two hours be-
fore the centre of attraction and es-
cort arrived, and then full hour occu-
pied by religious services and the
speaker entitled to the floor. The lat
ter announced himself prepared" to
60, "and wanted to see and shake
hands with all he had quarreled with
and fought, and they went in shoals,
I thought it would take all day. On
ly one stood back his brother-inlaw,
Nat McCollister, and seeing him
he called him up and they made
friends leach bore upon his person
not less than twenty scars inflicted by
The knives of each other) this ceremo-
ny over the speaker drew from his
pocket some "poetry!" which he ask
ed the privilege of reading and which
net no objections-all about his wife
md children. Prefacing his lines he
,aid: "Genteel men Pam a gWine to-