The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1878-11-09
FRENCH EXECUTIONS.
HOW the Guillotine Does It's Terrib 10
Work at La Roquette.

never known before hand. The
) processes which follow upon son.
tence of death take from three 70
SIX weeks, but all is done in private
and the convict only hears that his
appeals have boen rejected, when
the governor Of the prison wakes
nm up on the morning of tho exc
cutlon. Executions constitute ono
: OF the sights of Paris, which fast
lvlhg tourists arc expected to
witness. The walters at Brebant's
and the Caife Anglais inform ioyous
young roystorers that the guillotino
is to be ut work at daybreak. and
opera hats, dust coats, and the
fumes If Cuban cigars will be found
mlngllng with blouses, flat caps,
ana the smoke of clay pipes on the
PLACE de In Roquette at the fatal
hour. La Roquottc is the Newgate of
fars. 1t has only become so since
1852, for Of old, mon we're taken
from the Bicetre to be executed on
the Place de Greve (now Place dc
Hotel dc Ville) at O'Clock in the
afternoon, to the great hindrance of
public business. Subsequently tho
fiaco st. jacques was usel for the
tell purpose, and the hour of execu-
ton fixed at 10; nov the headman
performs his work at live in summer,
ana at about seven in winter Five
iiagstones fixed in the roadway, at
some twenty paces from the prison
door, mark the spot where tho |
gnlllotine rises. It's tall posts are
no longer red, but O. dark green.
and there il no scaffold platform. 80
til It the convict has no stops to
cllnb. When he has pissed
through the innermost limo of
solalers, VINO surround the instru-
ment of death, he finds himself sud-
den! y opposite the bascule. The
headmGns three assistants seize
hun and push him against this
board which forthwith pivots and
assumes horizontal position. At
this moment the doomed man, who
has been taken, in some sense, by
surprise, invariably struggles, and
has to be forced forward by the
shoulders and hair till his neck pro
trudes through semicircular !
cannot oifsan M tff9 fe9otk knife; Being
he might roll off the basAeatls5n' baasAea sne IN. man
must be held with on iron grip
until O second semicircie closes
upon the first, and imprisons his
neck. The instant this is done
NJ. Roch touches spring, and the
broad triangular knife, weighted
with fifty pounds of lead, glides
down the grooves like carriage
window, slices the head from the
trunk, and rebounds with dull
thud on two India rubber cushions
One assistant, who has held the
head by the hair, drops it into q
small wicker basket, half full of
saw-dust; the Two others seize the
headless body, from which blood is
flowing in torrents, and which kicks
in nervous convulsons, and fling
it into longer basket. Then both
receptacles are hoisted into close
hearse, which trots off to the
Cemetery of Clamart, attended by
a mounted police escort, and fol-
lowed by the prison chaplain in a
cab after which the executioner's
assistants begin washing down the
"bois de justice" with mops and
pailfuls of water. Within q couple
of minutes from tho time when the
convict shows himself under the
archway of La Roqnette, the whole
performance is ended.
| Now what preparation have
French convicts to meet their fate
In England it is considered just to
let man know the date of his exe-
tion, in order that he may purify
his soul to meet his Maker in
France the mistaken kindness is
shown of allowing convict to hope
on till the very end. He spends all
his time in cell with two other
prisoners and two wardens, and
may smoke or play cards to the top
of his bent. How can the minis
trations of chaplain have any
serious influence under such condi-
tions? The sight of aces and
knaves. the company of prisoners
under sentence for some piece Of
roguery, the fumes of tobacco, and
the buoyant talk of wardens, who
!. are expressly bidden to say every
thing that may encourage the
? criminal to believe that he will be
respited. These are not incentives
TO true repentance. It is much to
| be feared that too many French