The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-11
HANGING IN OLD ENGLAND.
Formalities Accompanyingthe Perform
ance of the Executioner's Work.
The Doctor Who Visits Condemned Men-Cal-
craft, Marwood aud Their Successors
How Criminals Behave on the GalloWs
London Letter in New York sun.

Billion Place, City Road. Bradford, Yorkshire.
1t is a boot end shoe store. His appearance will
not strike you; his size will not stop you. His
intellect is unbuoyant. He must be about thir-
ty. He looks kindly. He cumulates two char
acters; private one The is the ordinary boot
and shoe salesmanl and public one. He is the
hangman. His name is James Berry
When Marwood died Berry competed for the
succession with some 1850 others. The lot was
strange and motley. The sheriffs were per-
picked. Soon, however, Binns, Berry and Tay-
lor became first favorites, and a hot contest
came off, which eventuated in the ephemeral
triumph of Binns, who briefly drank himself
out of i t. Binns was a navy. An unaccount-
able particular is that Berry, like Marwood, and
Marwood, like Calcraft, came from the same
meek calling of which st. Crispin is the revered
patron
When an execution is to take place at Newgate,
the hangman is written to by the prison officials
and becomes, from Saturday to Monday-the day
on which the terrible act is habitually per-
formed-the guest of her Majesty. 1--WE don't
like to be uncertain as to his coming" says Mr..
Morgan, the surgeon of the JAIL land we must
make it sure that he is fit"
The day saw Mr.. Morgan at Old Bailey was
a busy one. The house was as stirring as a bee
hive. The ''males' waiting room," reserved for
male witnesses, crowded with peasants,
clerks, artisans, citizens of all classes and SOL
diers. Two Coldstream guards were lying on
the benches, and slept soundly through the
noise They were the comrades of Thomas
Cooper who had been killed in an ARRAY be-
tween laborers and soldiers at knightsbridge,
and whose slayers were OF their trial.
'Can see Mr.. Morgan?" asked an usher,
Not this moment, sir" was the reply. "The
Doctor had gone to the cell of the cook, Patrick,
who had just been sentenced to death"
waited The doctor was not long in coming
He ia young prepossessing and able. asked if
he had always to go Immediately to the prisoners
who have been condemned to die.
II have always" he replied, ITO be ready to
attend the prisoners of that class as as they
leave the dock, and generally see them at that
time"
Then the doctor kindly told me replying to
further questions of mine) that he had to visit
such prisoners daily, and could order for them
by applying to the governor, all food and drink
required to keep them in good health He could
not allow them to smoke could the governor
either Such a permission is only to
be granted by the Home Secretary,
who has to see good cause to give
1t. The physician is in the cell before the hang
man enters it to pinion the convict He assists
at the execution. but can, under no reason or
pretense, interfere with the work Of the hang
man, even should he believe that matters are
not satisfactory. The sheriffs alone have the
right Should the doctor, however learn be-
forehand, which hardly ever occurs. the fall the
executioner intends to give, and should he find
fault with it. he may tell the sheriff who will or
will not act according to his advice. In ninety
nine cases out OF one hundred the hangman is
left alone. The haDgman provides the cord, set
ties the fall, and altogether fixes everything
The bangman is common, ignorant man.
Marwood was a most stupid fellow. Binns
worse, and Berry is not his equal Everything,
however, points to the necessity of employing
really competent person, for great deal depends
on the selection Of the cord, the way in which it
is placed around tine neck the extent of the drop,
and the general way the operation is conducted.
butler Lee, three times hung by rope which
three times broke and that of Robert Goodall,
who got such disproportionate fall that hardly
had he dropped before the rope whipped UP to
the very BEAM, having left at the bottom on one
side his body and on the other his head
The rope must be elastic as we'll as strong.
The slip-knot must be exactly placed under the
left jaw. The fall must be proportionate to the
weight of the body, fourteen-stoner needing
hardly half the fall of seven one. A three-foot
fall is generally allowed in this country Nothing
is more uncertain and unequal than the swift
ness of death among criminals executed here.
DIR. Glbson, most amabe, kind, remember
ing man, who preceded DR.. Morgan at Newgate,
and who has witnessed at least two scores of ex
ecutions tells me that never did a fellow die as
quickly as Muller, the German who murdered
Mr.. Briggs in a railway carriage. He never
moved after his fall, and became immediately as
still as Ii ne, had been swung couple of hours
before. Not with the Australian Herbert
who had shot his sister-inlaw, in Finsbury Park,
for repelling his wicked proposals DR.. Gibson
distinctly felt his pulse fourteen minutes after
the execution Quite lately DR.. Morgan had a
similar case. English doctors, however, do not
attach much Importance to this action of the
pulse and the post-morteln vibration of certain
muscles, which they consider as merely automat-
lc. Is it not sol If the constitution of the suf-
ferer goes far to explain the various phenomena
which follow death by hanging, the way it is
done has also much to answer for.
The superiority of the guillotine is that almost
every one might work it, putting aside, of
course the question of inclination The same
what he thought of the guillotine.
He replied that it was, no doubt, a most ex-
peditious means of destroying life, but that the
shedding of blood strongly repealed the people of
this country.
asked him if he approved of the methods
recently suggested to do away with convicts'
lives by inhalation by electricity. He re-
piled: s'You must take care. when you weigh
their value, not to lose sight of the moral ques-
tion Undoubtedly, capital punishment does not
rest on an idea of vengeance; but if you take
away from it all the salutary terror it contains
to-day, it will soon cease to possess the deterrent
effect it is intended to exercise on the criminal
classes. | find" he added that, though death
by hanging is not perfect, yet it has something
to say for itself. Thus, it unites in one two of
the surest ways of ending life-the breaking of
the neck and strangulation-each acting concur
rently, each relieving the other. curious
feature of the hanging process" he observed,
by the way, sis the supreme effort most con-
victs make just as they drop to gather their
breath
asked what was the first and princi pal char
acteristic of this DEATH
THE lungs Immediately become boodIess and
ashy,' said he and he added: Years ago the
body OF the convict was used for autopsy. 1t was
at the ugly time of the resurrectionists and
grave-robbers. Since then the practice has
ceased 1t necessarily involved painful, nay
a particularly shocking step-the demand, for
dssecting, of the body of person still alive; a
special order having to be applied for in each
case, before the execution. in order to reach the