The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-02-20
GallOws "reminiscences.

"reminiscences Of New York reporter,
who has been present at thirty execu-
tions:
"I wonder if it hurts to be hanged ?"
said he who sat at the feet of this Gam
aliel of the moose.
"Probably not, after the first twitch
of the cord is felt, and, although 1 can
not claim any personal knowledge of
that part of the business, my belief can
scarcely be said to be purely conjectural.
I once talked with man who had been
hanged by a party OF blythe but hasty
gentleman in California. They mistook
him for horsethief, an error for which
manner when their attention was called
to the fact that he was the wrong person,
which, fortunately for him, was just in
time to save his life. He said that his
sensations we're first consciousness of
a terrific crash, as if all created things,
himself among the rest, had simulta-
neously exploded. That was probably
when the mule was led out from under
him. Then he seemed to be floating in a
sea of red light, heaved and tossed upon
glowing billows that swirled round and
round, as if in whirlpool, to the sound
of harmonious roaring. And after
that he knew nothing until he found
himself lying upon the grass, breathing
with great difficulty and pain, bleeding
from little cash in his neck where they
had cut the moose, and trying to under
stand the profuse apologies of the
spokesman of his entertainers"
cit must be horrible thing for man
to know that he is going to die shame
full death for a crime of which he is in
nocent."
Theoretically, he ought to be sus-
tanned by the consciousness of his in
nocence. Practically, the horror of the
situation depends upon the man him
self-independent of guilt or innocence.
The bravest man ever saw die was one
who avowed frankly the preparation of
the murder for which he was hanged.
AS to how really innocent men accept
the situation, ] have not much ex-
perience upon which to base an opinion,
as out of all the thirty that have seen
hanged there was but one that deemed
guiltless-tbe unhappy victim of
judicial murder. That was a poor
wretch named Lee, if I remember
Alright, who was hanged at Waukegan,
ILL.,, in 1865, as the supposed murderer
of an old woman by the name of Ruth
Briden. studied we'll the evidence in
his case, examined him, and did what no.
body else seemed to have thought it
worth while to dc-sought out who else
than he in the community had stronger
reasons than he could possibly have had
to wish old Ruth Briden dead. 1 satis-
fed myself that there was one man
r,n nj s,,a IL
would have pFofited largely through
family connection by her death, and
that man, I found, had been especially
and remarkably active in pressing the
prosecution and conviction of Lee.
There was nothing about the condemned
mans personnel or record to encourage
suspicion of him other than that he was
shiftless, poverty. stricken, friendless
vagabond, who sometimes got drunk I;
but he was the easiest man in the COM
munity to hang, somebody ought to be
hanged, and so they strung him up.
The deputy sheriff, to whom I expressed
my conviction of the poor fellows ipno-
cence, laughed at me. He was big,
good-hearted, rough man, who had been
Mortified by the atrocity of the butchery
| OF Mrs. Briden, and was easily swept
along with the tide of popular feeling
against the prisoner, which had been
artfully set in motion by interested
parties. But, six months afterward, I
met him in Chicago, and he said to me
What You said about that hanging of
ours disturbs my mind great deal, and l
have spent both time and money in in
vestigating that case for my own satis-
faction. And tell you now, 1 am con-
vinced that we hanged an innocent man
that day The tears stood in his eyes,
and his voice trembled as he spoke.
Unfortunate Lee his last prayer was
for his wife and little child, far away in
the East; his last words calling upon
God to Judge his innocence. But he
died courageously."