The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1878-02-28
EXECUTION BY IMPALEMENT.
One Horrible Method of Administering
Justice in Japan.

EXECUTION BY IMPALEME EMF.
One Horrible Method of Administering
Justice in Japan.
From the Hornet Annual
One morning while was at Yokohama
I was informed that criminal was about
to be publicly put to death, and the NOR
bid curiosity which has more or less
strong hold upon most of us induced me
to sally forth and witness the execution.
This is what I saw: When I reached
the place appointed for carrying into
effect the capital sentence, the unfortu-
nate convict, fine-looking japanese, in
the prime of youth and strength. was
standing under a huge post in the mid
die of little posse of guards. The
post had cross-piece. Nearly nude he
was standing erect, but as motionless as
statue, while his fearless but dreamy
eyes gazed straight into the distance be-
fore him, as if he was looking at some
far off object looming upon horizon
visible only to his abstracted vision.
There was no token of terror in his de-
termined face, no sign of shrinking in
Lis quiescent but tensely strung body.
Presently there was movement among
the little knot of those surrounding him.
His jailers moved aside, and there strobe
native, clad from head to foot in q dress
of dingy yellow. The executioner-for
it was he-was accompanied by q couple
of assistants, who carried some half
dozen long, round bamboo rods, about
couple of fingers thick at their largest
end, and tapering to half that size at the
other, which was sharply pointed. The
rods were laid upon the ground, and the
trinity of death clapped hold of the iv-
ing statue before them. In a trice the
human efigy. who made no attempt at
resistance, and who, as far as observed,
never even opened his lips, was grimly
dangling on the post, his arms stretched
out right and left along the
cross-piece. There was now q
slight pause. The executioners dallied
with the bamboos, and the poor creature
ad-eagled on the post still looked
into the shadowy distance, still was
dumb; but 1 thought I could detect a
yellow pallor stealing up his face. Per-
haps he was collecting all his resolution
to meet the terrible ordeal he knew was
close upon him. The principal execu-
toner, who meanwhile had selected a
couple of bamboos to his mind, now
stepped to the left side of his expectant
victim, spat upon the point of one of
mis- weapons, and, with a twisting, push
ing motion, thrust it easily into the
flesh, about halfway between the hip
and the arm-pit The poor wretch upon
the cross turned his gaze slowly down
upon his iormentor, and his lips slightly
opened. But he made no struggle-he
uttered no cry. His resolution, his
courage, were superhuman. I looked at
the executioner. He was calmly cont1n-
uing to push and wriggle the bamboo
further and further into the body. In a
couple of minutes, though it seemed
much longer, the bloody point of the
instrument emerged from the top OF the
sufferers shoulder. There was slight
exclamation of satisfaction from the
crowd, just the sort of hum that escapes
from those watching daring swimmer
when his head appears above the surface
after long dive, and the fend at the 9th
er end of the bamboo stopped wriggling,
let go his hold, and stepped back. Now,
l thought, he is going to give the
poor tortured creature his coup dc grace.
Not a bit of it. He crossed to the oppo-
site side of the post, calmly inserted the
second weapon in the came spot on the
sufferers other flank, and worked away
till it, too, came out above the armpit
All this time not single groan, not one
despalrlng cry for mercy, escaped the
man thus doubly impaled. His head
dropped little upon his chest and his
eyes were half closed, but he was evil
IDENTIFY alive and conscious. At this mo-
ment, to my amazement, the executioner
and his assistants, picking up the unused
bamboos, began to walk away "What, -
[ asked, A." is the execution ended? Are
they going to leave the man in that fear
full agony?" "Oh. yes" I was told,
" ali is over. The criminal is finished
with. He viii die presently-in an
hour, two hours, or, as be seems very
strong, perhaps not till nightfall; but
nobody will touch him any more. The
bamboos will be left in him, and, when
he is quite exhausted, he will expire. -
L could bear no more. I was powerless
to interfere, but, sick at heart, I turned
on my heel, loathing the barbarous
cruelty L had just witnessed, and ours
ing the damnable civilization that per-
united 1t. L learned afterward that the
unfortunate wretch had fingered ten
long hours before death (Which in Japan
would seem as brutal as justice) remem-
bered and released him.
His slow death is accounted for by the
fact that japanese executioner is care
fully taught to avoid the vital organs of
the criminal he has to impale. The more
slowly the victim expires the greater the
reputation of his hatcher.
A desperate Man to Meet in the Dark.
As respectable and respected banker
OF this city was, couple of nights ago,
walking home from the cars, he met q
haggard and desperate-lcoking man at a
lonely corner, and discovered that he was