Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-11-07
HEREDITARY HANGMEN.
Hetc the Post Of Eneouttsner TN France
Descended From Father to Ssn--Il,e Tor
ture of Criminals In Old Times.
italian Times. T.
The common s1ecutioner,


Italian Tines. !:
The common sIecutioner,
Whose heart the accustomed sight of death
makes hard,
Falls net the ak upon the humbled neck,
But first begs pardsn.-Shakespeare.
In the middle of the eighteenth century,
a large handsome house surrounded BY
gardens, in what is now the Faubourg Pois-
sonniere, was inhabited by Jean Baptiste
Samson, the executioner of the CITY of
Paris. He was the third OF his name who
had filed the same post; his grandfather,
! Charles Samson de LongvaI, whose
ancestors had borne the Gross and
| fought against Saxon and Saracen under
William the Conque:or and Robert Cuts
| card. having exchanged his knightly sword
for the headman's axe, for love of fair
| maiden, daughter to the executioner at
Dieppe, who had annexed this hard condi
ton to his consent TO the marriage. After
some years passed at Dieppe, as assistant
to his father-ln-law, Samson was trans
ferred to Paris, and his son, Inheriting
probably some of the instincts of his ma
ternal ancestry, adopted the family pro-
fession as matter 0 fcourse. On the death
of this latter, his widow, with some diff
Guilty, obtained his post FOR her seven-year-
old son, who was formally installed there
in, and required to sanction
by his presence the execu-
tons performed by a substitute.
This Jean Baptiste Samson had in his
turn seven sons, who all followed the
same calling in different cities of the king
dom. 1t was at the occasional meeting
of these brothers in their fathers house
that the custom first arose of distinguish
ing them by the name of the city in which
they officiated, n. de Paris, M. de Sois-
son, III. de Rheims, etc.
The sixth In decent from Charles Samson
de LoHgval, the recreant knight, held Of
fee in Paris as late az the year 1847, when
being dismissed, he devoted his leisure to
the compilation of, the memoirs of his
family. In this task he was aided by notes
and journals left by different members of
the family, notably by those of Charles
Henri Samson, his grandfather, whose hand
had guided the axe during the reign of
terror.
These members Of an accursed race seem
to have been honest men, discharging their
revolving duties without unnecessary cruel-
ty, and often showing kindness and sonsid-
GRAFTON toward their victims. Some of them.
however, seem to have taken pride and
almost pleasure in the discharge of their
functions. Charles Henri, when young
man, was summoned before the parliament
of Paris, at the instance Of a noble lady.
who, in the ignorance of his occupation,
had accidently dined in his company at an
inn. Discovering later who her companion
was, she demanded that be should be com
PEELED to ask her pardon with a rope
around his neck. Samson on
this location defended himself
in an eloquent speech, laying
claim to high official rank on the ground
of being the most important member of the
parliament, and maintaining that, as he
only carried out the orders of that body,
an equal share of honor or odium should
be attached to him and them. He also
demanded that nobility should in future be
attached to his Office. His arguments be-
ing somewhat difficult to answer, the case
was indefinitely adjourned, thus leaving
the victory on the side Of the executioner.
Thirteen years later, in 1889, We find this
same Charles Henri Samson making good
his claim for political rights before the
national assembly, gaining an action for
libel against some journalists who had
written contemptuously of his Office.
The writer of the memoirs, Henri
Samson, who apparently considers himself
the victim of fate in being constrained by
bis father to follow the family calling, full
~ admits its revolving nature, and consid-