Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-02-07
Terrific TOrtures.

further in modern times than the DAYS
of Francis l., is thus described: The
victim was first tied on his back to two
joists, forming st. Andrews cross,
each of his limbs being stretched out
Two places were followed 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 break
ing each limb in two places. To the
eight blows required for this the execu-
toner generally added two or three on
the chest, which were called the COUP
de grace, and which ended this horri-
BILE torture. After death the broken
body was placed on wheel which re-
volved on pivot. Sometimes the VIC
tim was strangled first, in which case it
was called garroting. The nobility of
Spain are thus executed. The criminal
sits on chair, his neck in an iron col
lar, and his head against beam. The
executioner turns screw and the spi-
nal column is disloca.ed, and death is
speedy.
Torture by fire was horrible and was
managed by the eSecutioners with a
devilishness and ma Lightly that was as
comprehensive as it was pointed. The
victim to be burned was dressed in a
shirt smeareds with sulphur, having
been stripped of all his other cloths. A
stake was driven into the spot where the
burning was to take place and alternate
layers of straw and wood were piled up
to about the height of a man. There
was narrow opening leading to the
stake, to which the victim was led. and
then 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 burn
ing began. The bodies of those who
died natural death were burned, and
if, after persons burial his guilt was
proved, his bones were disinterred and
carried to the stake for burning. Fire
was the punishment in in cases of hersey
or blasphemy.
Flogging was administered in two
ways-first in prison by the hands of
the jailer and second in public. In the
latter case the criminal was stripped
to the waist and at each cross road he
received certain number of blows over
his shoulders and back with a cane or
knotted rope. The latter was composed
of several ropes attached TO a handle,
and at intervals of few inches on the
ropes were knots which were armed
with iron prongs.
The pillory was the punishment adopt
ed to make criminals Infamous. 1t con-
sisted of scaffold or covered shed, and
was provided with chains and iron col
lars. In Paris the pillory used to con-
sjst of round stone tower sixty feet
high, which stood in the market place.
The tower had large openings in its
thick walls, and horizontal wheel was
provided which could be turned on a
pivot. The wheel was filed with holes
large enough to admit the head of the
prisoner, who, on passing and re-pass-
ing before the crowd could be seen by
all and was subject to their hootings,
bowls and black-guardism. Besides
these punishments soldiers were pun
ished with arquebusade, the Jews by
the pain of the cross. Some criminals
were flayed alive and some put into a
sack and drowned by immersion.
Counterfeiters were sometimes hurled
in kettles of boiling oil or water, and
others were branded by passing a red
hot brazier before the eyes of the GRIM
inal until the scorching heat blinded
them. Thus it will be seen that the
punishments of the nineteenth century
compared with those that our ancestors
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 prolonged over
three-quarters of minute. In fact. in
punishment as in everything else, civil
cation and refined sentiment have
combined to make death for the male
factor as painless as possible Cincipa-
7l1ti E1l0aliTer