The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1877-10-19
TvAKENED To DIR.

PARIS, Sept. li.-Pierre Jean Wei
ker, the odious assassin Of little girl
in the Rue Nationsle-she was eight,
and he strangled her with her skipp-
ing-rope, outraged her dead body and
went to sleep using her corpse as his
pillow-has been guillotined. The
warrant designated as the hour about
$50 A. NJ" and somewhat after mid
night the machine arrived and was
noiselessly set up with wooden screws
only about one hundred and fifty per-
sons being attracted to The scene be-
sides the military and police. One OF
them was woman. II was 4:4S
when NJ. Roch had every thing in
working order and tried the fall Of the
AK; then he and his assistants, Jacob,
the Chief Of the Detective Service,
and the Able Crozes, who has accom-
panied so many scores Of murderers TO
the guilotine, and whose hack, No.
AS. is rs much part Of the process
sion as NJ. Roch's van, entered the
prison. Welker was a fearful cow
ard, who had wept and moaned and
torn his hair when sentence was pass
ed, and when he was placed in the
condemned cell, but he believed the
merciful falsehood that forty days
must elapse before the carrying out of
sentence, which Jail attendants always
tell to confding prisoners; aud, think
ing he had still some time left to him,
and also having faith that his petition
for mercy would be heard, he had got
ten over his terror, ate freely and
slept soundly. So soundly was he
sleeping this morning that neither the
opening Of his cell door nor the light
of the lanterns disturbed him. Jacob
shook him by the shoulder, and the
clerk said loudly, "Wake up, Welk-
er, your petition has been rejected;
you must prepare to die A horrible
sound, half the cry Of wild beast,
half death-rattle, issued from the
miserable mans throat, and he fell
hack on his bed, convulsively biting
the coverlei. "Have you any thing
to say Do You want some brandy?'
asked Jacob; but Welker did not hear
him. and lay racked by oonvulsive
shudders. lie was lifted out of bed
and made vain effort to draw on his
trousers, but he could not stand, and
tumbled again upon his couch. The
veins of his forehead and temples
stood out like knotted cordage, his
eyes were flmy, his jaw had fallen
and cold sweat was pouring down
his ashy face. The Able Crozes
spoke to him earnestly. Roch asked,
ado | hurt you?' as he bound his
hands, but Welker made no answer,
heard nothing. was as one dead. ln-
deed, the attendants were urged to
make haste or he would die OF fright
in their hands. Two of them had to
carry him out with his arms round
their necks, his head hanging on the
right shoulder, and his legs trailing on
the stones behind them. The priest
walked backward before him to shut
out the sight of the machine OF death,
but the merciful precaution was need
less. Welker knew nothing. His
body fell upon the plank like a bag Of
sand, and a moment later the AK fell.
Owing to the difficulty Of placing the
inert body in position, the ax shored
away the head diagonally, taking off
a part of one shoulder, and leaving a
piece of the jaw attached to the other.
So large was the murderer's skull that
il got iammed in the bucket into
which il fell, and could only be shak-
en- out by pounding on the inverted
vessel. Ii was 4;48 when the officers
entered the prison to take out their
man; il was 5:0G when the ak fell, the
time occupied being three minutes
less than was taken in the case of Bill
loir. Roch thinks that with all cir
cumstances favoring him he can re-
duce the time to twelve minutes-that
is to say, there win he for the Grimm
al an interval of less than ten minutes
between sleep and death. But how
many ages of mental agony in those
ten minutes