The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1888-06-08
ELECTRIC EXECUTION.
The Relative Merits OF the Rope
and the Electric Button,

cedent, and there is IN extreme prob.
ability, supported by q mass of evil
dence from persons who have been
rendered unconscious, but not killed,
by lightning, that the action OF cleo.
tricity when the shock is strcng out
runs the speed OF the transmission of
sensation. Unconsciousness arrives
before pain can be perceived, and tho
stricken man reports, ii he survives,
that he felt nothing. 1t is an otSensc
against the instructive sense OF Justice
to reserve such n privilege for the ex.
ceptionally wi.kod, to give to u mur
derer like Palmer II fate which an EN-
peror Frederick Ill. might desire in
vain; and such otfenses always bear
civil fruit, though not always Of
the anticipated kind. In This
case, for instance, the result
which one would at first
sight expect may not rise, but anoth.
er, nearly as bad. aud much more
likely to escape attention. Intending
murderers, it is usually said, may feel
that q menance has been withdrawn
and that they are more free to s!ay;
and in countries where mur,lerers are
usually disbelievers and where suicide
is more often contemplated than with
us, that, We conceive, would be the
inevitable result. With certain class
OF criminal, the educated poisoner and
the cultivated murderer for gain, that
Will be the result, among ourselves,
also, the deterrent effect Of hanging
consisting party in the disgrace at
tached for ages to that method OF en-.
ecution. We confess, however, to a
doubt whether among the ordinary
criminals OF a population like that OF
New York, death by electricity will be
less deterrent than death by the rope.
The unerring certainty OF The method
and its appalling suddcnnesg, the alb
sence OF that lingering hope that the
rope may break. and so there may
come reprievr, and the horror-ii We
may alfront some readers by the
su.gestion-oi suffering the very pen
atty which. in the Imagination of the
ignorant Though all ages, has come
most directly from God, may breed IL
fear as deep as the fear of the rope or
even deeper than il. Nothing nppalls
like lightning, and death by lightning
may appall a brute il,sensible to the
horror OF an ordinary execution. Ii
SO, as the majority OF murders are
committed by calous brutrs, the new
mode OF execution may prove more
deterrent than th" old, and we must
look elsewhere tor the consequences
which, nevertheless, we wehnIiinstnctive.
ly expect.
May not the consequence OF intlict-
ing painless death for crime, u conse-
quence slow to arrive and ut first I'M
perceived, be Il deh,l"nins OF the natu-
raj and most beneficial horror of
iniiicting death too readily? The new
phIlanthropists will smile ut us and
say the dislike to The penalty ofdeath
Is increasing everywhere; but if they
were accessible to argument we could
'''e''' i.n'"'S WI 'tou'''iilS tbiI
conclusion: The tendency ?.y .%yaalrdoss
preaching against it increases, and il
il lasts the dislike Of capital punish
ment for adequate reason cannot long
survive. The dislike exists for this
one moment out of all thcaee Christian
ages as wellas Pasan:but though man.
kind is not wise. it IS too absrrdly H.
logical, considered by itself, to
keep it's place long in the thoughts
of men. 1t involves, under
the theory now, for example,
rampant in Italy. this p,epost erous
assertion, that white there is no
sacrrdness IN human life as SUCH
while it is noble to shoot an ignorant
conscript who under the compulsion
OF discipline invades your country.
and l'lstitable to shoot the soldier
who will not invade another country
when he is ordered, there is u s;lcro-
sanctity in life ii only it is criminal
and noxious. The mutinee must be
spared, it Is u duty to slaughter out
an invading regiment which may sIay
and burn, but wicked to slaughter tho
miscreant who has burned or slain.
There can be no future for an idea so
essentially silly as that and when it
passes away there may come with the
reaction from it an undue hardening
OF the general heart. The impulse OF
The day is to he ovcrsof, but the ten.
dency OF thought. which will oullast
the impulse OF the day, is toward ad,
anIantme hardness. toward. that is,
the scientific view of things the view
which suggests that death is not only
he most deterrent of all punishmenls
for crime, but The one least cmhar-
rtsslng to the innocent community,
and most certain to prevent the
hereditary descent OF criminal in
stincts. Ii there is no knowledge save
scientific knowledge, Plato WIS right
when he sentenced all mis-
shapen babies, and it would be hard
to answer Mr.. Cottor MoriSon's ter.
rible suggestions us to the prevention
OF any accumulation OF criminal pro-
clivties. The worla will harden as it
grows scientific, harden toward all M
pediments TO the material happiness
which it seeks for mankind, harden,
toward criminals. for example, as
Irish tenants have hardercnd toward
"lnnd grabbrrs" "-thinl- OF their
"symapathetic Tenderness" s"-and our
children may see generation wiling.
"in the interest OF the deepest wei! are
oi the whole community" to pour
out death in buckets On what scien-
titc principle, for instance, should the
irreclaiiuable criminal or the pauper
lunatic tax the community for years
to support his roxiousness, The
doctrine oi euthuna-in for criminals
will he preached indeed, is preached
in some uuartrrsuruadv- and it may
yet find acceptance IN those new So
ricties where he only ideal that really
prevails is the ideal OF comfort on this
earth and for all men. Ii such a gen.
Grafton arises, or ii the hearts OF men
approximate toward the hearts that
n generation would possess, it would
he found that with the practice OF
killing only by coarse and painful
methods, revolving even to those who,
like ourselves, deem capital punish
men, Indispensable, a great restraint
on killing had disappeared.
TO slay paintessly, without fuss,
~ithou; hloOdshed without distiuure-
ment OF the human frame. would seem
so very easy, and comparatively, so
little shocking. There are very few
men, however brutal, who would not
sooner order q hundred men to be
!usilli ided out oi sight than Il hundred
men to he separately hanged before
them; and execution by electricity,
involving. as it does, no pun, is far
loss brutaI even than fu1Sil tlinp