The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-10-31
The Conduct Of Men Under Sentence Of
Death.

In his novel of eugene Aram" Bul
wer Lytton makes the murderer
Houseman. tremble under the shadow
of his crime, and pictures him as afrait
to be out when lightning is playing
overhead condition which he says
makes the stoutest criminal quake. He
shows that villain later on confessine
his sin in low, choked and faltering
tones. As for Aram himself, Bulwel
makes him say that he never gave, in
token of love and friendship, to any hui
man being the right hand with which
he dealt murderous blow. In the
course OF his careful work the autho.
quotes Wakefield on the Punishment
of Death" as his authority for the belief
that "One little month of that suspense.
when it involves death. is sufficient to
fix plowed lines and burrows in the face
of a convict of five-andtwenty; suf-
ficient to dash the brown hair with gray,
and to bleach the gray to white"
Nearly every English novelist who
has treated of murder has INDUCED the
fancy or echoed the belief that murder
ers are haunted by their crimes and
torn by remorse. The sleepless nights
of murderers, their blanched faces,
whitened hair, their muttered comics
sions during sleep, or frequent starts
from slumber, accompanied by shrieks
Of fright or agony, are as familiar TO
novel-readers as is the idea that lover
can not properly engage himself in
marriage except he does so with q long
and beautiful speech to the object of his
alteration. The pulpit has even lent
wings to the same idea.
10 these statements bear comparison
with the facts? Are murderers slaves TO
the torments ascribed to them? Phoebe
Paulin's murderer has not been driven
to surrender himself and end the torture
| ne is said to suffer. The Nathan, Rose
Amber. Hayden, Maybee. Cunning
ham. Mary Rogers, and scoreS-yes,
hundreds of other murders committed
in or near New York are to-day uncon-
| fessed. Who can reconcile the fanciful
| remorse of Houseman with the jaunty
| air of the real murderer Chastine Cox,
| and his repeated assertion: ''Dat was
the first 'sault an battery ever COM
mitted?" How can the justification of
Petro Balbo, ''She bit my finger to the
bone, and in my agony seized the dag
ger and killed her, be quoted in veriii-
cation of the behavior of Aram, who
never allowed his blood-stained right
hand to touch the palm of a friend?
Three murde:ers under sentence OF
death now await the gibbet in the Ray
mond Street Jail, Brooklyn. One is
George Mills, who slew in a bit of rage
the wife he now says he truly loved, be-
cause she would not send out for more
beer. The second is Giuseppe Guid;ci,
who deliberately. after premed.tat on
slaughtered a fellow-workman for a
fancied grievance. The third is Alex
ander jefferson, the Crow Hill assassin
who stood outside a shanty where his
friends were assembled and fired into
the party again and again, until he had
killed two and wounded two.
.'Do they wake up at night and
shriek?" the reporter inquired of War
den Julian.
NO." said the warden, in loud and
derisive monosyllable.
lis their hair turning winter"
"No''-in the same manner.
ado they dread the darkness? Do they
say they are sorry? Do they admit that
they have done anything for which they
should suffer?'
Nothing of the sort" said the war
den, and he looked at his questioner
as if the reporter was poet or a callow
boy.
s.But they are very miserable, of
course" continued the reporter, ..know-
ing rs they do that their end is close at
hand and will be comprised in a fright
full manner"
why" said the warden. in amaze
ment, 1--WE have to stop the Italian
from singing, he's SO happy. He sings
so loud and SO much we have to stop
him. But otherwise the three murder
ers are the best prisoners we have; the
quietest, most orderly and best"
"Have they any appetite? Can they
eat?''
"Lord bless you! you ought to see.
them. OF course, murderers always eat
hearty"
"Look here" said the official, 81
never knew any man 10 suffer such
things as you suppose these people do
that is, any except my own father. He
had a narrow escape from death in
burning building. and his hair turned
gray right afterward, but never knew
such thing in my official experience.
81 never knew q man under sentence
of death to experience what you de-
SCRIBE" he went on. 81 never knew
one TO feel remorse. They eat well.
feel well, and are usually in excellent
spirits. Such things as their hair turn
ing white, seeing the bodies of their
victims in the dark, getting thin. and
so on. never knew a case of. They
are sometimes little nervous just after
the excitement of their trial and sem.
tence. but it soon wears off," /.
"You may 60 al through my prison, =,
said Warden John Green, of Crow Hill
Pepitentiary, ''and you will not find .
prisoner who thinks it right and just
that he should be confined. Each one
knows he is guilty, but each one knows,
that the guilt must be proven, and so
he argues to himself that if his lawyers
had understood how to manage the case
and put it just right, and the Judge and
jury had only seen it in the same light.
he would have got off. The question of