The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1883-12-07

WHOLE NO. 1872,

to stand In every French town and village.
They were generally composed of pillars Of
stone, joined at the summit by wooden trav-
erses, to which the bodies of nalefactors
hung until they had crumbled to dust. That
of Montfaucon, which is so famous In histo-
ry, stood on an eminence by the high road
leading to Germany. II consisted of mass
Of masonry composed of 10 or II layers of
| rough stones and formed an Enclosure Of 40
by 25 or 80 feet. At the upper part was a
the centre Of the inclosure was a deep pit,
where, pell nell, the skeletons were thrown.
Crows, carrion and buzzards few about and
fed upon the corpses, and the stencil was
horrible. As many as 80 were sometimes
hanged at once. Sometimes the remains
hung In wicker baskets or iron caskets.
Those Of Pierre Des Essarts hung three
years before they were delivered to his fam
lily for Christian burial. The victim rode in
cart to the gibbet, and when the cart ar
rived at the foot, the executioner ascended
the ladder backward, drawing up the culprit
by means of ropes, and on arriving at the
top he quickly fastened two ropes, the size
of the little finger, each having a slip-knot,
around his neck, to the arm of the gibbet,
and by jerk of the knee he turned the cul.
prt off the ladder. He still held in his hand
small rope called get, used to pull the
victim of the ladder. He then placed his
feet on the hands OF the condemned, and
suspendlng himself by his hands to the gib-
bet, he finished his victim by repeated jerks,
which completed strangulation.
FLoGGING
was administered in two ways-first In pris-
OIL by the hands of the jailor, and second in
public. In the latter case the criminal was
stripped to the waist, and at each cross road
he received a certain number of blows over
his shoulders and back with a cane or knot
ted rope. The latter was composed of sew
eral ropes attached to handle, and a. inter-
walls of few inches on the ropes were knots
which were armed with iron prongs.
THE PILLoRy
was the punishment adopted to make erimi-
nails infamous. 1t consisted of q scaffold or
covered shed, and was provided with chains
and iron collar. In Paris the pillory used
to consist of . round stone tower 90 feet
high, which stood in the market place. The
tower had large openings in It's thick walls,
and a horizontal wheel was provided which
could be turned on pivot. The wheel was
filled with holes large enough to admit of
the head Of the prisoner, who on passing and
repassing before the crowd could be seen by
all, and was subject to their hootings, howls
and blackguardisms.
Besides these punishments, soldiers were
punished with arquebusade, the Jews by the
pain of the cross. Some criminals were
fayed alive, and some put into sack and
drowned by immersion. Counterfeiters
were sometimes hurled into kettles of boil
ing oil or water, and others were branded by
passing a red.hot brazier before the eyes of
the criminal until the scorching heat blinded
them. Thus 1t will be seen that the punish
ments of the nineteenth century, compared
with those which our an ,estors endured, are
mere child's play. Torture which figured
SO prominently as means of punishment in
the middle ages, is now virtually done away
with. Death by the gallows is rarely pro-
longed over three-quarters of a minute. In
fact, in punishment, as in everything else,
civilization and fine sentiment have COM
bined to make death for the malefactor as
painless as possible.