Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-04-05
Heroic Deaths by Hanging.


Almost every daily newspaper in its
Saturdays issue has long accounts OF
the hangings which occurred the day
before in various parts of the. country.
There is a great deal of samene's in
these accounts. They generally com
mence with the demeanOr of the culpr't
the 'snight before Larry was stretched. /"
He smokes a cigar and cOnverses with
his keepers until about midnight, and
then he sleeps sOundly till five a. M
Then he rises, and soon after eats
hearty breakfast, whose contents are
described. Then his spiritual adviser
appears on the scene. By and by the
procession is formed, and the order IN
which they move to the scaffold is given
with as much minuteneSs as if it were
parade in honor of some great dignita-
rY. The shudder of the prisoner as he
first catches sight of the rope is care
fully noted, and whether or not he as
cends the deadly scaffOld with a
''springy STEP" When once up, he
looks over the crowd, the moose is ad-
justed, the black cap is pulled over his
face, and at ''precisely" such an hour,
plus or minus so many minutes, the
rope is cut and be is ''launched into
eternity Then follows an account as
to his struggles, how many and what
kind of cOntOrtions he made, the state
of his pulse, when pronounced dead land
whether the neck was broken or he died
from strangulatIOn. Then comes
''dash," and the crime for which the
man died is carefully gone all over from
the very beginning, making the third
time which it has been presented to the
. public; once when the news first came
of the crime, twice when the details of
the trial were published, and three times
when the precious facts are all snugly
summarized after the hanging. Some
newspapers are even more enterprising
than this; they manage to ''ring inn
fourth account, which is made up from
the evidence before the Coroner.
There is not the slightest doubt in the
mind of any intelligent man who has
given the subject any thought. that this
publicity is of the most damaging char
acter. 1t makes hero of an assassin;
the " coughs who read-when they
can read-in the journals these long &C
counts of the trial of one of their class,
are envious of the notoriety which he is
enjoying; the influence on them, in
place of being deterrent, has an oppO-
pite effect. 1t is a we'll known fact to
classes a study those who are criminals
by heredity have, as rule, no such
quality as fear; hence. in their case,
the publicity given to the doings and
sayings of their fellows who are about
to be hanged produces in them an envy
which leads more or less to a desire to
enjoy all this themselves. 1t is GER
tain that it does not in the smallest de-
gree induce them to take steps to avoid
the same end.
If the death of the criminal should be
surrounded by mystery; that is, if
there were no parade about it, no OPP
pOrtunity to admire his ''nerve'' as he
ascends the gaIlows with a {" springv
step,'' the result would be beneficial.
If men about to commit murder could
be well assured that they would not be
made heroes of, that all their actions,
their eating, their sleeping, their say
ings, their nerve, their last words, and
all these, would not be recorded i'll the
newspapers, they would lose many of
their inducements to court the risk of
the halter. When q man is convicted
of murder he should be forgotten by
the public, as if he were a miscreant too
wicked to be held in the recollection of
good people. When he is sent to his
cell, under sentence of death, he should
be regarded as dead, and as such should
be enveloped in q mental quicklime,
and Obliterated from the worlds mem
Dry Chicago NeacS.