The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1889-12-05

point OF accuracy: the Oakland Police
Commissioners aro mot 10 susceptfhae.
Against h tender passion they set thsir
fares like % many fiiuts, and are alto
that they were i'm love with the pretsy
laundress themselves. II Nd their action
is ineligible and comn,endable.
There /. q new sect OF prophets just
arisen, who, I'm HAT trade 20 the
predictions with which h country has
been flooded ever since last August. boldly
announce that this h going to he q Wide
open, mild, and withal. "a very agreeable
winter. This In tine programme accord
ing tn the new school: will be q
few lays during tire winter cold enough
To freeze running water; the coolest spell
will occur etween january % and JAN
uary 81. Christmas will he wet and green.
There will be an old-fashioned January
thaw, anothe i'm February. and another
i'm March," This prophecy, va are i'm
formed, is based principally upon the
~looscness of the husk about the ear Of
corn. The prophets who foretold q win
ter OF extraordinary fierccncss and abom
Unable severity reached their conclusions,
So they said, from the excessive thickness
and amazing adlesivcness OF the husk.
The only way out of this ~perplexity and
confusion il for congress- to appoint n
Joint matchmaking bee, at which both sects
of prophets with the aid of a suitable
quantity of hard old cider may possibly
agree upon something.
DIR. Abbot, the secretary of the Massa-
chusetts state board of health, has come
forward with q substitute for hanging and
electrical execution, which he claims II far
superior to either, or to any other method
OF infiicting the death penalty. He pro
poses rboni oxide gas and goes ON to
show that the apparatus for an execution
may he of the simplest and most inexpen-
sive kind. He suggests n tight wooden
box three feet square and seven feet high,
n tightly fitting door, nn aperture for adj
uniting n gas pipe of liberal size for APP
plying n rapid supply of gas under oriin-
AIRY pressure from the street mains,
and u smaller aperture to
allow the expulsion of the air
The advantages claimed for this method
are painlcssncss, rapidity of action, and
The good doctor dwells es-
pecially On the last point, observing that
''the cost of the wooden box would he but
. trifie, and the expense of 75 or 100 feet
OF gas scarcely worth mentioning when
compared with the expensive apparatus
required for an electrical execution" DIR.
Abbott's process, Il strikes us, may still
further be simplined and cheapened by
dispensing with the wooden box as q sup
erfiuity, and placing the condemned man
into his coffin direct, which, IL IL would
work any better hat way, could he set
upon one end while the gas was being
administered. Or, IL il would make no
difference, and as we understand the
chemistry Of the thing il wouldn't, the
gas could he squirted into the coffin after
IL had been lowered into the grave. Under
this arrangement the expense could be
reduced still lower, since the criminal
could Inc made to dig his own grave, To
which as the place of execution he had
been required To carry the coffin and all
the rest OF the business essential to his
taking off. When all is ready the cler-
Ryman prays and the sheriff simulta-
neously turns OIL the hose, and the whole
job is done with all tho refinements Of
neatness and dispatch. Science il fast
asserting itself.