Sharp County record., 1882-09-07
CAPITAL Punishment in the Seventeenth
Century.


Capital Punishment in the Seventeenth
Century.
There was every element of callous
brutality in the manner OF inflicting
the extreme penalty OF the law. From
the time of sentence to the last dread
moment the convict was exhibited as a
show, or held up to public contempt
and execration. Heartless creatures
focked to the jail chapel to curiously
examine the aspect OF condemned male
factors on the Sunday the Jail sermon
was preached. Those men who had
but a short time to live mingled freely
with their fellow prisoners, recklessly
carousing, and often making boast
that they laughed to scorn and re ected
the well-meant ministratiOns of the or
dinary. The actual ceremony was to
the last degree cold-blooded and want
ing in all the solemn attributes betit-
ting the awful scene. The doomed was
carried in an open cart to Tyburn or
other appointed place; the halter al
ready encircled his neck, his collin was
at his feet, by his side the chaplain or
some devoted amateur philanthropist
and preacher ike Silas Told, striving
earnestly to improve the occasion. For
the mob it was high day and holiday;
they lined the route taken by the ghaSt-
ly procession, encouraging OF fouting
the convict according as he happened to
be a popular hero or unknown to.crim-
inal fame. In the first case they
cheered him to the echo, offered him
bouquets of flowers, or pressed him to
drink deep from St. Giles Bowl; in the
latter they pelted him with filth and
overwhelmed him with abuse. The
most scandalous scenes occurred on the
gallows. The hangman often quarreled
with his victim over the garments,
which the former looked upon as law
full perquisite, and which the latter was
disposed to distribute among his friends;
now and again the rope broke, or the
drop was insufficient, and Jack Ketch
had to add his weight to the
hanging body to assist strangula-
ton. Occasionally there was a per-
sonal conflict and the hangman
was obliged to do his office by sheer
force. The eonvicts were permitted to
make dying speeches and these orations
were elaborated and discussed in New
I gate Weeks beioie me 'g5'tedS day. 'w>hffft95'
down in the yelling crowd beneath the
gallows spurious versions were hawked
about and rapidly sold. 1t was dis
tinct gain to the decency and good Or
der of the metropolis when Tyburn and
other distant points ceased to be the
places of execution, and hangings were
exclusively carried out in front of New
gate, just over the debtors door. But
some of the worst features of the old
system survived. There was still the
melodramatic sermon in the chapel
hung with black, before large congre-
CATION collected simply to stare at the
convicts squeezed'into one pew, who in
their turn stared with mixed feelings at
the coffin on the table just before their
eyes. There was still the same tumul-
tuous gathering to view the last act in
the tragedy, the same bloodthirsty mob
swaying to and fro before the gates, the
same blue -blooded spectators, George
Selwyn or My Lord Tom Noddy, who
breakfasted in state with the jailer, and
so got box seat or rented a window
opposite at an exorbitant rate, The
populace were like degenerate Romans
in the amphitheater waiting for the
butcher to begin. They fought and
struggled desperately for front places;
people fell and were trampled to death,
hoarse roars came from thousands of
brazen throats, which swelled into ter
rible chorus as the black figures of the
performers on the gallows stood out
against the sky. "Hats off, Down
in front!' These cries echoed and re-
echoed in increasing volume, and all at
once abruptly came to an end-the bolt
was drawn, the drop had fallen, and the
miserable wretch had gone to his long
home. Good Literature.