The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-11-28
PUNISHMENTS OF THE PAST.
TERRIBLE ToRTUnEs INFLICTED IN
FORMER TIMES,
How CrimihaIs were Burned, Guar
tered, Gihbeted, spiked, Dismenl-
bcred, FlOgged and PiilOried.

what they were in the middle ages when
there were, according to the learned
writer on criminal cases, Josse Damhon-
dere, thirteen different ways In which the
executioner could infict punishment.
They were fire, the sword, mechanical
force, quartering, the wheel, the fork, the
gibbet, drawing spiking, cutting off the
ears, dismembered, aogging, or beating
and the pillory.
Torture by fire was horrible, and was
managed by the executioners with ma
lignity that was as comprehensive as 1t
was pointed. The victim to be burned
was dressed in a shirt smeared with sui
phur, having been stripped of all his
other clothes A stake was driven into
the spot where the burning was to take
place, and alternate layers of straw piled
up to about the height of a man. There
was narrow opening leading to the
stake, to which the victim was led, and
this passageway was filled up with
straw, so that the victim, securely bound
to the stake by chains, was completely
surrounded by the combustibles. The
living were not always burned to death,
but frequently the party was first
strangled, and at other times large iron
pike or bar was so arranged as to fall
upon and kill him before the burning
began. The bodies of those who died a
natural death were burned, and it, after
q PERSONS burial, his guilt was proved,
his bones were disinterred and carried to
the stake for burning. Fire was the pun
lshment in cases of heresy or blasphemy
Death by decapitation used to be per-
formed by either a two handed sword or
an AK. The victim was allowed to
choose whether he would have his eyes
blindfolded or not, and the skill of the
executioner was usually so great that the
head came off at a single blow Not al
ways, however, for there are instances
where the bungling body-chopper
whacked away eleven times at the head
of the unfortunate victim. The party
sometimes knelt, placing his head on the
block, and at other times knelt in an up
right position.
The executioner was not always held
in the odium that attaches to the Mar
woods, Jack Ketches and Calcrafts of
modern times. In France, Italy and
Spain a certain amount of odium at
tached to them, but in Germany success
fully carrying out a number Of sentences
was rewarded by titles and the privi-
leges of nobility. In Franconia the last
councillor to get married was execu-
tioner. In France he possessed certain
privileges, such as right to have all the
grain he could take hold of and hold in
his hand, beside the right to collect toll
on foreign traders and boats arriving
with fish.
Quartering was probably the most hor-
rible death penalty ever concocted blythe
fiendish ingenuity of the Judges. 1t is
of very ancient origin, though in modern
times has been only inflicted on regi-
cides, who are looked upon as commit
ting the worst of crimes. AS sort of
salad for this punishment the victim un-
derwent preliminary tortures, such as
having his right hand cut off and the
mutilated stump burnt in pot of sui
phur. Then again his arms, thighs or
breast were lacerated with red-hot
pincers and hot oil, pitch or molten lead
poured into the wounds. After these
preliminaries rope was attached to each
limb of the criminal, one being bound
around each leg from the foot to the
knee, and around each arm from
the wrist to the elbow. These ropes
were then attached to four bars, TO each
of which a stout horse was harnessed.
The horses first gave short jerks, and
when the unfortunate man shouted in
agony, feeling his limbs dislocated with
out being broken, the four horses were
all of sudden whipped up and urged in
different directions II the tendons,
muscles and ligaments still resisted the
power Of the horses the eXecutioner cut
the joints with hatchet This per-
Torrance sometimes lasted several hours
and when the limbs were all pulled apart
they were collected and placed near the
trunk and burned. Sometimes the SEN
tence read that the limbs should be rent
to the four quarters of the kingdom, in
which case each was separately labeled
and dispatched.
The torture of the wheel, which does
not date back further in modern times
than the days of Francis l., is thus de-
scTibed: The victim was first tied on
his back to two joists, forming a St.
Andrews cross, each of his limbs being
stretched out. Two places were hol-
lowed out under each limb about a foot
apart in order that the joints alone might
touch the wood. The executioner then
dealt a heavy blow over each hollow
with a square iron bar about two inches
broad and rounded at the handle, thus
breaking each limb in two places. To
the eight blows required for this the ex-
ecutioner generally added two or three
on the chest, which were called coups
de grace, and which ended this horrible
torture. After death the broken body
was placed on a wheel which revolved
on a pivot. Sometimes the victim was
strangled first, in which case it was called
garroting. The nobility of Spain are
thus executed The criminal sits on a
chair, his neck in an iron collar and his
head against beam. The executioner
turns screw, and the spinal column is
dislocated, and death is speedy.
The modern gallows is by no manner
of means the ancient gibbet Down to
the French revolution gibbets used to