Middletown transcript., 1882-01-27
AROUT HANGING.

Hanging is the most approved plan OF
of murderers. But all muir
derers are not hanged. Some escape by
breaking prison, others by buying a
jury, but the greatest number by pre-
meditated insanity. That is, they go
crazy just long enough to kill somebody
they want out Of the way, then they
shake their brains up and say they are
all right again. They would have us
believe that they were just crazy pro
tenn. This is the great American in
sanity dodge which has saved hundreds
of murderers from about as much hang
ing as they needed. Guiteau relied on
it to save his neck, but it don't seem
as though it were going to work salts
factorily to him.
Few persons who are hanged take
enough interest in the event to tell
their friends about it and describe their
feelings during the proceedings, after
it is over. But, according to the news
papers, there are a few men in the
world who have survived the ordeal of
hanging and can tell all about how they
felt while they were in state Of sus-
pense. They are still here because they
were cut down early and resuscitated.
Their experience is valuable to science
and must be highly interesting to those
who have an early engagement to be
hanged. They say, these men who
have been hanged and survive, that
after the first shock, they experienced
no feeling of distress, save perhaps a
sort Of choking sensation-a difficulty
in breathing, as it were. Some have
even gone so far as to say that after the
first unpleasantness had passed away
they experienced sensations that were
truly delightful. But, notwithstanding
this testimony in favor Of hanging as
an easy way to die, it is not SO accepted.
Next to being talked to death it is gen
orally considered by good authorities to
be one of the most distressing ways in
which a person can be put out of the
world.
Some sentamentalists contend that
murderers should not be hanged. They
argue that hanging does not reduce
crime. We are not prepared to say
that it does, but one thing we are pre-
pared to say is, it reduces criminals.
Of course, it must be shocking to the
finer feelings of a murderer to hang him.
The occasion Of his hanging is not one
to which he can look forward to with
pleasure. He may be bashful and
shrinking i'll his disposition, and strong
ly prefer not to appear as the cynosure
of all eyes on any public occasion, and
particularly at hanging. He may be
uRaccustomed to public speaking, and
feel that it would not be proper or be-
coming for him to appear upon a plat
form before his friends without making
a few remarks becoming the occasion.
Or again, he may feel that these people
who will come to see him hanged may
be total strangers, to whom he canhope
for no proper introduction. Those who
have appeared before an audience of
strangers, even on the most trivial oc-
casions, without an appropriate intro
duction, must have felt embarrassed,
and to be hanged before an assemblage
without being introduced to it must be
even more trying to a sensitive man.
But taking all this into consideration,
and giving due weight to the argu-
ments advanced by sentamentalists in
opposition to hanging, we still hold out
as an advocate Of hemp and trap-door
for the suppression of murderers.