The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-03-22
FACzNG DEATH BRAYE1K.
An Oid-rImer Makes Some Observations
About the Execution Of Murderers.

an OAu-Vimer Makes Some Observations
About the Execution Of Murderers.
There's something phenomenal about
the fortitude with which most men ap
proach the scaffold, said an old timer to
one Of the TArTLERs day or two ago. 81
have seen every execution that has taken
place in this State within the last ten years.
and only two or three of the men I have
seen Die an lgr ominious death showed signs
os rear or oHered resistance in the march to
doom. Kenkowski, who was hanged in the
Jail yard on the hill for the murder of Nina
Muller, was dragged down the Jail stairs
and out to the engine Of death shouting
I'm honnle innocentE at every step he was
forced to take; and Graves. the little old
crank who killed Eddie Soden. the boy
lamp-hghter, In Newark, had to be pulled
across the jail corridor, blubbering like an
overgrown boy III terror of whipping; and
Huntre, the Quaker who killed Armstrong
IN Camden for the insurance upon his life.
fought the Sheriffs who had him in tow
like tiger, but all the rest of the persons
have seen led to the gallows marched
bravely and deeorously to their terrible
doom. Mechella, the lustful brute who
killed Marshal Stevenson in Hudson street.
chewed cigar butt on the final march and
spit 1t out only when the black cap was
drawn down over his face Even after the
rope parted over his head when he had
been hung and he fell prone to the stone
pavement of the Jail yard, he showed no
signs of fear.
No hangee me, Sheriff !, he pleaded.
from beneath the black cap, but there was
no tremor IN his voice, and at the word he
stood boldly up beneath the rope again and
coolly awaited his second jerk into eternity.
The story OF one hanging is the story of all,
| as tar as the demeanor of 1.-THE prisoners
| goes. Their faces are blanched. and show
SIGNS of great nervous tension, but their
gait is, as rule, unfaltering. They APP
| proach the scaffold with eyes cast to the
tioor-their attendants usually caution
them against looking at the pallows-and
when they stand beneath the rope they
ADJUST their feet within the chalk marks on
the hoor and await the final spring with
apparent compoSure. [ should swoon.
it seems to me, while the clamp overhead
was being fastened to the moose dangling
around my neck, but they don't. have
learned from one of the executions I saw
that even the women can stand the terrible
ordeal bravely. l have seen only one wo
man hanged, and shall never look at the
execution of another; but Mrs. Meier.
hoetfer, who was accused of assisting 9
tramp whom she harbored, to kill her hus
band on the West Orange mountains. walk
ed to her doom with the air of a Marie
Antolnette. She was queenly in the dig
nifty of her bearing. Her step was as un.
faltering as it might have been on prone
made. There was no tremulousness in hel
limbs, and the pallor of her face was th.
only indication of excitement about her
Whether it was because [ had serious
doubts of her guilt, or because she was ,
woman, her execution unstrung me, and
for week afterwards my day thoughts and
night dreams were tinctured by the sight
"The comparative indifference of th,
victims is due, probably" the reporte
suggested, ''to drugs with which they ar,
flled?"
SIN some measure, that is true" was tn
answer. 'sThe luckless prisoners are givel
stimulants that brace their nervous system
and impair their self-conseiousness. The,
are fed well, too A full stomach helps /,
make man brave. The priests. too. b
their ministrations, fill their minds witt
rosy pictures of the life beyond the gray,
and Undue them with spirit of exsltatio,
that makes them measureably unmindfu
of mundane ills. But at the same time
seems to me to require world of drawer
to be able to meet so horrible doom
with the perfect composure that most O
them display