The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-12-26
The next person of whom we hear


woman, a servant, who had poisoned
three families with whom she had
lived. In the chronicle of the Grey
friars, mention is made of man who
was made fast to a chain and let down
into boiling water until he was dead.
The expenses attendant on the par
boiling and hanging of Friar Stone, in
1889 are certainly curious. The ex-
ecution came off at Canterbury, and
the following were the details of the
expenses: "For a ton of timber to
make pair of gallows for to hang
Friar Stone, 2 shillings pence; to a
carpenter for making the gallows and
the dray, l shilling pence; to a
laborer that digged the holes, pence;
expenses setting up the same, shilling;
for load of wood and for horse to
draw him to dungeon. 2 shillings 3
pence; paid two men that sat at the
kettle and parboiled him, shilling; to
three men that carried his quarters to
the gates and set them up, 1 shilling;
for halters, sandwich, cord and screws,
shilling; for woman that secured
the knife, 2 pence; to him that did the
execution, 8 shillings Spence; total, ID
shillings 8 pence.
This punishment was not uncommon
either inEngland or on the continent,
for coming, and the law permitting it
was not repealed until the time of Ed
ward VI, in 1547.
Cases where persons were disem-
boweled were not infrequent, but the
sentence was generally mitigated, and,
q in tha oaca of h,,rpipor q + tho cta Ira
the condemned were first strangled.
Mention is made in an old book of a
man being pressed to death, but no
instance can be given of this dreadful
mode of killing, the very idea of which
is enough to give any one of moder-
ately strong nerves the nightmare for
a week.
1t is claimed that death by drowning
is one of the easiest, but we doubt If
the idea of being sewed up in a sack
and thrown into the water would be
agreeable to anyone, yet such was at one
time the not unmerited doom of parri-
cides; but still more revolving is the idea
of being put under hurdles into bogs
or ferns, which was the fate reserved
for the meaner criminals at one period
Ill WHllO W SlCilCi lidiO-
factors was reserved the infinitely pre-
ferable death of hanging. One of the
agreeable laws of the ancient Burgun-
dians provided that unfaithful wives
should be smothered in mud-a threat
one would suppose capable of putting
an end to all such lawbreaking.
The Anglo-Saxons had all women
who were convicted of stealing drown
ed, and King Richard the Lion-Heart-
ed made that the legal punishment for
any soldier who killed fellow-crusa-
der. Criminals were drowned in Eng
land until the early part of the
seventeenth century, and in Edin-
burgh, Scotland, man was drowned
as late as 1911 ''for the stealing of a
lamb" In ether parts of Scotland
the custom was prevalent until 1885.
1t would seem that as civilization
advances executions are being not only
much less painful, but are, in many
cases, altogether disappearing. Strange
to say, many nobleman of our day be-
longing to old families who still own
the feudal castles of their ancestors
point with kind of pride to the soul
revolving Instruments of torture used
by their hers-instruments that
one would imagine must fill them
with shame for the barbarians who
employed them. But life is a puzzle
at the best. ST. Louis Post-Dispatch.