The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-04-29

London Executions.
The hangman is common, ignorant
man. Marwood was q stupid fellow.
Binns was worse, and Berry is not his
equal. Everything. however, points to
the necessity Of employing really
competent person, for great deal de-
ponds on the selection of the cord, the
way in which it is placed around the
neck, the extent of the drop, and the
general way the operation is conducted.
This is shown, for instance, by the case
of the butler Leo, three times hung by
rope which three times broke. and
that of Robert Goodall, who got such
disproportionate fall that hardly had he
dropped be ore the rope whipped up to
the very beam, having left at the bot
tom 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 placed
exactly 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 uncer-
tain and more UNEQUAL thar the swift
ness of death among criminal execu-
tions here.
DR.. Gibson, a most amiable, kind,
remembering man, who preceded DIR.
Morgan ut Newgate, and who has wit
messed at least two score of execu-
tions. tells me that he never saw fell
low die as quickly as Miller, the
German who murdered Mr.. Briggs in a
railway carriage. He never moved
after his fall, and became Immediately
as still as if he had been swung a
couple of hours before. Not so with
his sister-in-law in Finsbury Park for
repelling his wicked proposals. DIR.
Gibson distinctly felt mis- pulse four
teen 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-mor-
TEN vibration OF certain muscles,
which they consider as merely auto
matte. Is it not so? If the constitu-
ton of the sufferer 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 1T,
putting aside, of course, the question
of inclination. The same cannot be
said of hanging. i asked DR.. Gibson
what he thought of the guillotine.
II replied that it was, no doubt, a
most expeditions means OF destroying
lie, but that the shedding of blood
- hn of
country.
l Intercepted him on the way Grim
inals generally behaved at the last mo-
ment.
He said: 1T may be that those who
have killed naturally make light of life,
or that they find in expiation the best
means of escaping the torture OF re-
morse; but they mostly conduct them
selves with passiveness. 1t is true that
| remember O convict forgot his
name-who, to avoid his punishment,
threw himself on the fire of his cell.
He was, of course, pulled back at one o
by his warders, but this did not bring
him resignation. He was SO violent on
the scaffold that he had to be tied to a
chair. and even this was not enough for
him. At that time the legs of the con-
victs were not pinioned. When the
floor gave way, by a despe ate efforS he
somehow caught hold of the edge of it
with his feet, which resulted in making
him swing three times forward and
backward, the miserable fellow trying
each time to grasp the sides of the scsf-
fold with his feet. Marwoo1 had to de-
scend ard stop him from below. Never,
on the other hand, have L seen a man
more collected than DIR. Palmer, the
poisoner, when he came up the yard.
OF all murderers, prisoners are the
worst, for they cannot excuse them
selves with the plea of sudden i'm
pulse or provocation. They quietly
plan and premeditate their plan, and
perhaps do it twenty times over. Some
criminals, per contra, are not so bad as
they look. Given the sound prison diet
and air with its moral surroundings. in
stead of their wretched food, their vile
drinks, their unventilated slums, with
their dsorderly announcements. and
they would have lived like you and me"
London letter.