Rock Island daily Argus., 1888-12-14
DEATH PENALTIES.
MODES OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
EMPl.OYED IN OLDEN TIMES.

EMPLOYED IN OLDEN TIMES.
oning and CruciAxion Before Christ.
Tied In n Sack with serpents-Boiled in
Dccapitation.
The term capital punishment n meaning a
ital operation upon that most vital part OF
10 human frame, the head, is now no mis-
omer, but the time was when the death
enalty was by no means directed at the
cad alone. Death by stoning was, in all |
reliability, the earliest method of Furnishing |
rlmes, the Jews and other oriental nations |
elng especially given to this form Of su- !
RENE penalty. From the extremely CON-
'rehensive code OF capital offenses which ap-
'eared In the Mosaic code, it is to 10 con-
iuded that death by stoning was a very
ommon occurrence, and that the young
men of the congregation 10 whom was in
rus'ed the duties Of executioner, must have
lecome quite expert in their office. Il is
luite possible, however, that personal retail
ltlon antedated punishment by the commu-
nity, and that the eye for eve, tooth for
tooth and life for life doctrine was vigorously
carried cut For the instantaneous dispstch
OF an offender the Jews used the sword. but
stoning continued to be the set form Of cap
ital punishment up to the time of the Chris
tlan era. Then crucifxion took its place, a
form of death penalty borrowed from the
Latin conquerors
according to tradition, however, the As
sErlans were the inventors of this particu-
.sriy unpleasant form of being kept in sus-
h'7'sses and it is a woman, Semiramis, who
has the doubtful honor of being the first to
employ it. The ordinary method Of iufict-
ing 1t was by mailing the victim to a cross,
wnere he was left until dead Occasionally,
however, cheerful innovation was intro
dnced by setting the cross on fire before the
victims death, or by letting wild beasts de-
your MN IN his defenseless position Both
the torch and the jaws Of the wild beasts
tangs were really merciful reliefs, for cases
are on record in which the victim fingered
II agony for eighteen and twenty days
Death by crucifxion was inflicted on women
rs we'll Gus on men, and such unspeakable
atrocities were practiced under the guise of
just punishment that the cross was abolished
by Constantine the Great about A. D. 3l5s
DIFFERENT ROMAN METHODS.
Though the Romans were greatly given to
crueifying, it can scarcely be said that they
had any one national form of capital punish
ment. They acted largely after the mikadois
plan OF letting the punishment fit the crime.
Christians were burned, torn to pieces BY
beasts, drowned in quagmires and rivers and
viviseeted. Political offenders, on the other
hand, were thrown from the Tarpeian rock.
This was lofty and precipitous promontory
on one side OF the Capitoline hill. Runaway
slaves when recaptured were turned adrift
into the deserts or woods overrun by wild
animals, or else bound to rock and left te
starve- 1t was customary for while in
Rome to permit capital offenders to select
the manner by which they would meet death
and be allowed to inflict the penalty upon
themselves This custom also obtained il
Greece, and when Socrates was condemned
to death for spreading disbelief in the ma
tional religion he chose to die by drinking
hemlock
One OF the most cruel and unusual of pun
ishments was that which the Romans in the
latter days Of the republic meted out t.
those who murdered either of their pa
rents. Luke Owen Pike, NJ A, author O,
the History of Crime in England in refer
ring to this punishment, says:
Not in the amphitheatre, not at the stake
not on the cross was the parricide to perish
A sack was to be his winding sheet; in thai
he was TO be sewn up alive and venomous ser
pents With him. He was to be thrown int
the sea, ii the sea was near at hand, and i
not, into river, 50 that the heavens nigh
be hidden from him while still alive, and th.
earth deny him grave when deadn
Often, however, in addition 10 the yipers
there were dog, monkey and a rooster
sewed up in the sack with the victim, who
was naked. The sack was usually of leather
The oriental nations have always been re
narkabe for the ingenious cruelty of theil
death punishments, although it is doubtful
whether they have been more cruel than tn,
self styled highly civilized nations of th,
west. Death has come from slow strangula
ton from Il rope as was in vogue in China
for instance, and at the same time from tn,
use Of boiling oil, which was poured on th,
joints after they were dislocated; by mechan
ical means, as in France and Germany, from
iaying or stripping the skin off the body, a
was formerly done in England, and from
pressure between plauks, on the upper o
which great weights were placed, as was ais.
in vogue in England at one time.
CRUELTY AIDED BY INGENUITY.
Every method which human cruelty coul,
prompt and human ingenuity devise ha
been resorted to at one time or other il an
cient or medieval days, and among nation
processing to be civilized, 10 administer tor
ture and death. It Is true that Japanese OF
Tenders have been executed by the slow pa:
sage Of aspear upward through their entrail:
and that the Chinese criminals have bee
gradually beheaded with a bamboo saw, bu
at the same time that most barbarous forr
Of infilctlng the death penalty, the boiling
caldrOn, was a European invention.
DecaWtatloa ceased in England in ia
but it is still performed in France and SON
OF the German states, in the first country b
the guiIlotlne and in the second by the swort
the instrument employed in England havin
been the broad ak. Decapitation with IL
sword is also capital punishment in Chin
The two handed sword was in use
France before the gujllotine was iutr
duced, while for great crimes the victi
was broken on the wheel 1t appears
have come first into use in Germany, vine
it was employed as early as the TEN
century. Francis l, about 1870, introduo,
it into France 1t was employed for a tin
also in England. The prisoner designed +
death By tais method was bound to al
strument rudely resembling wheel, his ls
and arms being separated as far as possit
and tached TO crossbars corresponding
spokes. As the wheel re7olved the limbs of I
victim were fractured By heavy blows frr
a heavy iron rod delivered below the kns
and el6ows Sometimes the rod was held
position mechanically, the limbs OF {
prisoner as he whirled on the wheel, coni
in contact with it. Usually, however, t
rod was held in the hands of an execution,
who administered the blows as rapidly as
could WELD it. In France the torture Of Il
mode Of punishment was lessened in ma
cases by heavy blows being dealt on the he
and chest OF the victim, so as TO shorten Ii
These blows were called coups de grace
strokes Of Mercy. San Francisco Chronic
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