Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-02-21
a CRUEL PUNISHMENT.
The Introduction and Abolition of t
Penalty of the Wheel.

| The Introduction and Abolition of the
| Penalty of the Wheel.
The wheel symbolized not the sun
only, but also the lightning. 1t was
used as a means of kindling a fire by
turning it rapidly about on an axle
In the island of Null. till the introduce
| ton of lucifer matches, this method of
kindIing fire was customary. Con-
sidering the sacredness of the symbol
of the wheel, it is rendered most prob
able that victims to the sun were Of
fered by entwining their limbs about
the nine spokes and then erecting the
| wheel on a long pole, so as to expose
the victims face to the sky. We find
this method of execution of criminals
in Europe, and it is probably, like
hanging, survival of sacri-
flee to the sun. The Romans knew
of fastening criminal round the
tire of a wheel and then rolling
it. This was the iniigare in Gurus of
Livy, but among the German nations
the other was the form of execution.
Gallonius, in his book on martyrdoms
of the saints, gives several plates rep
resenting the tortures of the wheel,
and in his text quotes his authorities.
In the first man bound to a wheel is
rolled down a hill; in the next we have
the man bound to the wheel, with
limbs twisted in and out from the
spokes, set up in the sun; in the third
martyr bound about wheel is
turned over flames, and another over
Ao Nd
did sometimes employ the mode of
twining the limbs among the spokes
and exposing to a lingering death In the
sun is almost certain. In one of the
doubtful epistles of Phalaris it is par
ticularized, but it was not common,
and those acts of the martyrs which
mention it are also not genuine.
1t is, however, spoken of by
Gregory Of Tours in the sixth century.
In 1910 the Parliament of Toulouse
ordered the execution of a robber cap
tain by the Wheel and Francis l., in
1885, decreed death on the wheel to all
highwaymen. In 1926, Frederic, Count
of Isenburg, the murderer of Engel-
| bert, Bishop of Cologne. was thus exc
fore he was affixed to the wheel. This
was a modification, concession to
humanity. that came in with Chris
tianity. Originally the victims were
allowed to linger for many days on
their wheels, bound in the most tor
turing contortions, and deprived of
| food and water. But even when their
limbs were broken they lived for
many hours. A still further conces-
sion to humanity came in the seven
| teenth century, when the crimi-
nails were beaten on the chest and neck
with an iron bar. But this concession
was not general, and in the sentence of
| the Judges, order was given whether
the execution was to take place from
below" or from above" If from be-
low, that signified that the extremities
were to be struck with the bar, and
only the final blow to be dealt on the
breast. Curtius, French writer of
the sixteenth century, describes the
penalty of the wheel. at is a mode
of death more like that of the cross
than of the gallows. In the first place
the limbs are bound to four cross
beams, then are broken with an iron
bar; after that the shattered body is
taken off the cross and fastened to a
wheel. which is set upright, so that,
still living and feeling. still writhing,
the victim may die slowly in the full
glare of the sun, lying on his back, face
upward" The last case of the use of
the wheel in Germany was about 1910.
l-Gentleman's Magazine.
Large. prominent, and luminous eyes
indicate language, power, and verbal