Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-10-30
FRANCES 1IEADSMAN.
A CHAT WITH THE MAN Wit
 WORKS THE GUlLLOTINE.

Fatal Knite-A Method Superior to Hanging or Electricity.
 Few people have ever seen the public exc cutioner of France, and it is no easy matter to find him, for the police refuse to give his address, and his name is carefully omitted from the directory. The dreaded Monsieur de Paris" as he is called by the lower classes, is, however, M. Deibler, and he rents a flat on the second floor in a squalid little street, half an hours walk away from the Roquette prison. This man, who conducts the cere- monies in which the guillotine plays the most important part, is very quiet person, of retiring disposition, who dreads notoriety, and avoids contact with his neighbors as much as possible There is nothing ln the headSman's appearance nor in his home to denote his ghastly office.
 After difficulty your correspondent secured the address of NJ. Deibler, and found that the headsman was not indisposed to tell the details of his unenviable profession. He could not, howe> CT, be induced to exhibit, even privately, the guillotine, which he re- ferred to as ''the machine" He said: THE TERRIBLE "MACHINE.n 1.-The machine is ready mounted for use, and I may be summoned off at any moment I usually get twenty-four hours notice in Paris, and more than double that time for the departments, but 1 must hold myself con- stantly in readiness to start off at a moments notice. As rule, have to spend at La Roquette the whole night preceding an exc cution. A great deal has to be done in a very short time. Soon as the two black vans ar rive-one containing the woods of justice and the other destined to convey the body of the culprit to Ivry cemetery-I have to su- perintend the installation of the machine iol {ol- Iof
 of the knife and of the apparatus itself is an intricate job. There must be no hitch at the last moment. The instrument is invariably placed on i've stones just outside the central door of the Roquette prison. I accepted the post l now hold on the resignation of M. Heindrich, whose valet had been for several years. Until my appointment I was a tailor by trade, and many Q workingman in the Roquette quarter where live has had his clothes mended by me. But, you see, have | risen in the world. From mender of old 1 clothes on my own hook have got to be Q | first class cutter in the government establish ment," and M Deibler smiled at his rather ghastly joke.
 While 1 am fixing the machine" con- tinued the headsman, "the Abbe Faure arrives. The Abbe Faure enters La Ro- quette and gives spiritual comfort to the doomed man. After being left alone with the chaplain for short time the culprit is handed over to my assistant, who brings him from his cell down the stone stairway which leads to the depot-the prisoners last station on earth before reaching the machine where he is seated on wooden stool, and his toilet begins This doesn't take much time, for his hair and beard were clipped on enter 1 ing tho prison,
 THE FATAL KNIFE.
 | ''The man is pinioned, his shirt stripped of its collar, and he then goes forth to his death by the central door, when he is strapped to 1 the fatal plank, which, toppling over brings | his neck into the half circular portion of q ring that I secure before springing the knife. | Soon as l touch a button in one of the up- right posts the knife falls and the head is re- | ceived in tin vessel containing sawdust. The body is unstrapped, put into 0 coffin, with the culprit's head between his legs, and the remains are then driven off to Ivry ceme- tery, where they are buried"
 "Does life endure any time after the head | is severedF'
 'No think not" the executioner replied, rehectively. 'sThe great loss Of blood pro- duces synoope. Besides"-
 Here M. Deibler went out of the room and brought in a large black leather box, which l he placed on the table. On raising the lid there appeared the bright steel knife of obhque shape which is fixed to the cross beam of the guillotine at each execution, and which NJ. Deibler carefully watches over and cleans at home. He took it out of it's soft red lining the other afternoon, stroked it with his hand as if to brush the dust off it's highly polished surface, and, turning it over, said:
 'There; look at the back of this knife. It is heavily weighted, you see to make it fall swiftly and with tremendous force when I touch the spring Now, this is the reason why l think that all consciousness departs from the brain of a man after the fall of the head At the same instant that the neck is severed by the blade, the weghty portion strikes so fearful blow on the occiput that the cheek is often bruised from the fall of the head into the tin vessel containing the saw dust. Yet the head is only raised a few inches above the tin vessel which receives it. Such a blow is, in my opinion, sufficient to drive out any ray of memory, reflection or real sensibility that may finger, after the decapi- tation, in the brain of the most obdurate, bull headed criminal,n
 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
 "Are you in favor of capital punishment"
 "Such question should not be put to me. My business is to carry out the sentence of the law, without inquiring whether the law is right or wrong Custom has not hard ened me to such an extent that am unable to distinguish, however, between one crimi- nal and another. feel the responsibility of shedding the blood of q fellow creature as acutely now as did the first time, when the Paris journalists said had lost my head as we'll as the man had executed. I feel that responsibility especially in cases with prison CTS like Moreau, the herbalist of Saint Denis, who protested, in quite a different manner from avowed criminals, even at tho foot of the guillotine, that he died innocent,
 ''Nor do wish to enter into the question of the respective merits of hanging, garrot-
 ing or beheading. Whether some more sci
 entic method of giving death will replace
 the guillotine I cannot say. I think not.
 Electricity has been suggested, and poison
 ing by means of prussic acid. The guillotine
 does its work thoroughly, for when the head
 is once severed there is no means of sticking
 it on again, while recovery from poison or
 electricity is not impossible with the aid of
 tho cxecutioner, who might be induced to
 moderate the dose for consideration. The
 guillotine permits collision between the
 administrator of the law and the friends of