Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1880-06-19
A Warm Corpse.

] must dwell upon very ugly story
to-day, which has caused q great deal Of
excitement among the lower classes, and
which would be the general topic of con.
cersation still had not death put an end
to it. Some months ago two women re.
turning from a visit to Ro' mia, where
their husbands are garrisoned, were muir
dered in a wood in stsab, in Hungary.
The murdcrers were arrested and could
not deny their crime, but they did not
confes, the motive, which is unknown to
this 4ay One of the ruffians died in
prison before the sentence was spoken.
ihe other was sentenced to bs hung. A
week ago the execution took place, and
as it was carried out in public, great
crowds. eager for something uncommon,
horrible. surrounded the scaffold. The
murderer's name was Tabaks, and he be-
longed to the lowest class of the country
population. When the cord was already
around his neck he expressed h desire
of addressing the public, and began say
ing with emphasis worthy of an orator,
II die willingly, but my dear ladies and
gentlemen Here the executioner
interposed and withdrew the trap-door,
so that Tabaks died in the act of speech,
without knowing it, as it were, and with
out a struggle. The executioner had
been most earnestly entreated by doctor
of medicine, professor, to provide him,
for once, with warm corpse" To COM
ply with this wish he shortened the
legal eight minutes" for which q crimi-
nal should hang, to three, and handed
the corpse over to a physician, who
declared Tabaks to be entirely dead.
The body was spread upon the marble
table in the anatomy room and professor
and students prepared for the dissection,
which, had they been in anything OF a
hurry, might have become vivisection.
All of a sudden the body moved, first its
feet and then its hands, and at last
trembled violently all over. The pro-
fessor did not lose his presence of mind,
bue calmly sent to the authorities to ask
if Tabaks was to be restored to life, or
executed again before he awoke! In
the meantime, he thought this duty as a
human being to do all he could do to
restore the life which had so unexpect-
edly shown itself After an hours hard
rubbing and inhaling of salts, 1abaks
was sufficiently recovered to understand
that he had come to life this side of the
Orcus. not the other side, as he At first
believed. He swallowed a plateful of
soup and then fell prey to violent fever,
while his neck swelied in most alarm
ing manner This was all we heard on
the first day, besides vague information
81 to the authorities being uncertain
whether the half slain man should not
be hanged again more thoroughly.
There was a universal outcry against
this. 1t was said that Tabaks had
atoned for his crime by suffering what
the officers of the law had declared
to be death. More can not be exacted
by the law. No man may be killed
twice. While people were watching for
the knights and ladies on their way to
the second and third representation OF
the tournament described in my last
letter, the general topic of conversation
was Tabaks. The mans death, which
took place exactly twenty.four hours
after his execution, happily put an end
to the controversy, anu Pity Ior tne
sufferer was the universal feeling. BE
had raved during . whole night, and
suffered tho most horrible spasms, and
had % often attacked his nurses that il
was found necessary to tie him to his
bed. The probable consequence will be
the removal of the execut,oner from his
ugly Office, which he had discharged with
20 little Vienna Correspondence
New York World.