The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-08-21
PUBLIC EXECUTIONS.

ernor. During this year there have been
number Of executions in the state, several OF
which were in public. We have no discus
sion 10 make, pro or con in this article, on
capital punishment. 1t is the law of the
state, and as long as 1t remains, It should be
carried into effect. Under the statute, If we
mistake not, all executions for crime must
be in private, in the county Jail ,or jail-yard
If it can be done, otherwise at some conve-
nient place, to be selected by the sheriff.
Now, in our opinion, all these executions
should be in private, with just as few people
as possible to witness them. The effect we
take it, will be more impressive upon
the public. They will then be invested with
solemnity, an awfullness, of which they
are shorn by public exhibition. The
more mysterious, the more hidden, the
more enshadowed you make an act or thing,
the profounler the impression it makes,
and the deeper the hold it takes upon the
minds and feelings of the people generally
The imagination goes to work then to sup
ply what actual knowledge cannot, and
when the mystery has about it the gloom Of
death, as in the caso of hanging, terror and
fear are aroused. The object of capital
punishment is to restrain and deter others
from committing crime. Yesterday hun
dreds and hundreds came to the city to wit.
ness the hanging on the Trinity river bank
Old men and women, and their sons and
daughters, young IN and women, and
even children, st!ired 10 their holiday
clothes, were here to see the sight, 10 look
upon fellow being rs he underwent the
throes OF dissolution, as he writhed in the
agonies of death. A circus with its trick
mules, its clowns and its monkies, would
hardly have attracted larger, more eager
crowd. 1t is revolving to contemplate wo
men and tender children, anc
even men, crowding and joss
ling around q gibbet to see {
man die. All ones finer feelings are shocked
at the thought that a morbid curiosity cal
prompt people to desire TO behold so sicken
ing tragedy as felon expiating his crime
on the gallow.. And then the effect in
tended by the law to be wrought is in {
great measure lost. With surging mass o
people around him, sea of upturned face
about him, and all eyes upon him, TIT
criminal for the nonce becomes hero. III
makes speech; hethanks God, in most casea
that he is prepared to die, that his soul ha
been cleansed with redeeming grace, and taa
he is about to ascend straight to glory, tt
dwell forever in the mansions of the blesl
The murdered victim sleeping in his grave
whose soul was sent suddenly to Its last &C
count, without, perhaps, prayer, a wal
even for mercy, is forgotten by the throng
while they listen to the words of the
| forgiven murderer. We do not NEAR
to say the criminal ought not t.
be forgiven, we do not mean to say
that the dews of salvation have not taller
upon him, but we do mean to say, that il
our opinion his announcement his last dying
asseveration Of the reception of sanctiRet
love is calculated to make him hero in tn,
minds of that very class of people the Law
means to deter from similar offences 70
which the culprit is to be executed. The.
say in their minds and hearts, "What Is hang
ing but straight path to heaven; but al
exaltstion of the man who suffers the penal
ty? Thousands Of people come to see him
to pity him, to sympathize with him." An
straightwsy they 60, some of them, withou
fear Of such punishment, without dread o
such death, and il they have vengeanc
to wreak the impulse to do it is stimulated
If they &c. into passion and malice is borl
10 their breasts, they are not restrained b.
any remembrance OF the death they witnesses
on the .cafflli. Let the law be changes
SO that all executions shall b
in private, and invested with as much 0
mystery as possible. In England hanging
in former times were made as revolving q
possible No criminal was permitted t
make hero of himself. He was carried t
the gbbet in as ignominious manner 3
could be, and his neck broken without re
gard to any of the amenities and his bod
left to hang in irons, to tester in the sun, t
become the food of vultures. There wa
terror in such executions, and even the mos
brutal and depraved shuddered at tn
thought of such death, and fear throttle
the murder that might Turk in their hearts
We are no advocate of such method, bu
while capital punishment is the law of tn
land, make it a horror let the bare though
of death by the halter be dread and
nightmare 10 the viciously disposed and tn
violent. We advocate that hangngs
strictly private, and Invested of everythin
calculated to make them gala occasions, {
invest the culprit with the odor Of sanctit
before the gaping crowd.