New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-01
TILE LIST OF G UITEAU

sThe bangman was Guiteau's best friend
The machinery of the scaffold worked like a
charm. There was neither unseemly delay, nor
clumsy bungling, nor superfuOus agony. The
execution was one of the smoothcst and most
orderly ever witnessed, The assassin's neck
was broken by the fall, and death was instan
taneous. Not only was he spared every unne-
cessary pang but he was allowed a final source
of exquisite satisfaction-the privilege o max
ing "a dramatic exit with prayer and hymn of
his own manufacture. Never in the memory of
man was there such gallows scene. Nowhere
in the range Of literature has there been i'm
aginative genius that could have conjured so
extraordinary spectacle. 1t was Guiteau's
last chance to appear on an earthly stage and
recite his own compositions He made the
most OF it. He fairly begrudged his spiritual
conidant short prayer. He opened the death
scene by reading selection from Matthew III
orthodox prayer-meeting style. Then followed
a blasphemous prayer, in which the President,
the Government the country and the press
were denounced in turn. The cup of horrors
was already trimming, but the worst was still
to come. His own doggerel was drOned with
shrieks and tears-a death song fit only for the
imbecile Furies. He had exhausted his
talents. He was making a most sensational
exit. 1t was his last moment of morbid ego
tism. The deft hangman rang down the cur
tain with precipitate rush.
What was said while Guiteau was in Court
and IN prison will be said again. His conduct
on the galows will confirm the suspicion enter
tanned not only by soft-hearted sentimentalists
but by not few hard headed medical OBJ
servers, that he was not responsible agent.
But there is nothing in the gallows scene
which is not characteristic of the man and his
crime, and the sober judgment OF the country
will he that the medical experts and the jury
Judged Alright when they pronounced him sane
and responsible. The mental and physical
traits which made the man what he was were
nc more conspicuous III the closing scenes than
they were before the assassination and IN the
courtroom. He was IA clever sort OF fool,
quick witted in small ways, yet stupid withal.
He had ,s.lent enough to play part in his own
way while the trial was proceeding, yet was so
foolish and puerIle in his method that he did
not impose upon anyone Now he had repeated
these tactics before he reached the scaffold.
He had acted his part with a certain degree of
cleverness, awaiting himself of the aid of an
emotional clergyman, and evidently hoped by
his clumsy shifts and lodges to create All i'm
preston that he ought not to be hanged.
When the death scene came he betrayed himself
precisely as he had done in Court. The inter
lude between the "prayer" and the death
song" reveals not insanity but only the folly
which was so thinly yelled by cleverness.
u The idea" he said, is that of child babbling
to his mamma and his papa" The frantic
bumming of the doggerel was his last des-
perate effort 10y a well-calculated bit of down
right Stiffness to convince those around him
that he ought not to be hanged
Other characteristic traits were equally ap-
parent The craven who shot at his victims
back, and sank back in state Of utter collapse
when the van was fired upon, shook from head
to foot as the hour Of the execution drew near T.;