Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-01-23
aNERvED TO DEATH.
Tire Cause Which Enables 50 Many Crir
tnalS to Die .s(iamO."

Tire Cause Which Enables 80 Many Grim
tnals to Die .'Gamo."
There has Just died in Paris a vener-
able ecclesiastic named Able Crozes,
whose long career Of useful benefcence
was passed amid surroundings which
to most mon would have been extreme
~ painful. If not absolutely repulsive.
The deceased able was chaplain to tho
prison of La Roquette, and from 1868
to 1882 1t had been his doleful duty to
take pastoral charge of all criminals
sentenced to death. During his twenty
two years of Office he had attended to
the scaffold no fewer than tifty-one
murderers, comprising among others
La Pommerals, Avignoin, Troppmann
and Billoir. The sole accusation which
his detractors could urge against the
''aumonier" of La Rouquette was that
he was apt to show a little too much
confederation for tho atrocious des-
peradOs who received his ministra-
tions, and that he was moved even to
use his influence to obtain reprieve
for the exceptionally bloodthirsty
young man Troppman, who salts
fled his craving for slaughter by
the massacre of an entire fa1ni-
~. The Able Crozes occu-
pied very humble apartment in
house close to the Jail, and his room
was adorned with all kinds CT sordid
articles presented to him MS souvenirs
by the assassins who had received the
consultations of religion from his hands
at the supreme moment of their fate.
One of the most curious of the at
tributes OF the excellent priest who has
just passed away remains to be describ-
ed. 1t was he who supplied the con-
Damned with stimulants just before
their execution. While praying with
tho mhefactors he gave them q small
glass of ''mele-cassis," which our Paris
correspondent describes as "black
current cordial, dashed with brandy"
The publication OF such q petty detail
is not without its use, inasmuch as it
serves to illustrate q fact with which
it is highly expedient that not only the
community at large, but the criminal
classes in particular should be mado
fully convcrsant-that -tenths of
the statements made as to murderers
"dying game are 80 much arrant non
sense. In almost every case when a
criminal is led to execution, whether
it be by the guillotine or by
the gallows, it is found absolute
~ necessary to administer some
kind of alcoholic stimuIant to the
trembling wretch. and in oldcn times.
when the condemned prisoner was al
lowed to drink as much as ever he
liked on the morning Of execution, it
was probably the man who was the
most drunk who died unexceptionally
game" 1t may seem at the first
blush somewhat indecorous that a Jail
chaplain should be. above all others,
the functionary intrusted with the task
OF giving parting nip to criminal,
but, on reflection, the ''aumonier" may
appear to be the most suitable person
by whom so delicate a function could
be performed. From the time of his
condemnation the prisoner has been
on terms of affectionate friendship
with his spiritual instructor, at whose
hands he knows that he can safely OK
pect kindness and sympathy, and it
may be with u feeling of gratitude,
which for moment partially softens
his depraved heart, that the male
factor accepts a dram from his con-
fessor. The like refreshmem offered
to him by the executioner or by one of
the prison wardens might be accepted
only with repugnance or rejected in
the disgust Of Experimentation
Telegraph.