Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1889-04-03
: DEATH ~ eLecTRlclrY.
Why It Il TO BE Preferred 20 Exscutions BY
Hanging.

ing that condemned criminals shall be
put to death by electricity storm Of
opposition threatens, and all sorts of
objections are urged, some of them i'm
peaching the eonstitutionality of the
! statute. Complaint is made that the
sheriff can not carry out the law, be-
cause he Is not an expert electrician,
and that those who are engaged in
electrical pursuits will not make the
proper machinery for the occasion;
that the plans suggested are faulty,
inasmuch as they contemplate causing
death by applying the electrical cur
rent to the brain instead of the heart,
and that the fortunes of the condemned
by the new method will be so horrible
that, by comparison, slow strangula-
ton by rope is ecstacy.
Those who projected this reform
probably anticipated just such oppo-
sition. Even in an enlightened and
progressive country like our own, it is
impossible to rid the public of a bar
barous and unsightly custom, about
which clings the cobwebs of ages,
without mourning prejudice. ignorance
NAAO
gers in every community long after it
has ceased to be O live and potential
factor. There may be difficulties to
overcome in enforcing the law In
dealing with a matter like electricity,
about which there is much to learn,
the lawmakers may not have gone in
to details as deliberately as would have
been prudent, but that there should be
such uncomfortable obstacles as is pre-
tended seems preposterous.
The sheriff need not be an expert in
the first place. Hangmen in America
are never experts, and yet they per-
form their duties as acceptably as their
brethren across the water. A button
will serve the purpose of spring, and
can be manipulated as easily. The
numerous electrical companies in New
York will provide all the parapher-
MALTA If offered sufficient inducements.
The felon is not executed for his own
pleasure or convenience, but to deter
others from committing crime, and the
object of the law will be accomplished
all the same, whether the current
passes through his brain or his heart.
AS to the tortures, they are purely
illusory. No one who has died by
electricity has returned to give an nc
count of his sufferings and certainly
during the brief space intervening
between contact with the current and
dissolution the victim has not been
able to give much satisfactory data on
the subject Those who have recov-
cred from an electric shock, like those
who have been resuscitated after being
in the water or being hanged, say that
the process Of coming to is infinitely
more painful than that of dying.
But every large city in the world
has had numerous illustrations of death
by electricity. A workman climbs a
pole and absontly touches q wire.
Down he drops as dead as q door-nail,
without even the fraction of moment
to think OF torture. In the same way
citizen drifts against wire left care
lessly hanging near the sidewalk, and
lies on the pavement mass of mani
mate clay. He may or may not have
tried to shrek, but if he did it proves
nothing except his amazement at the
blow which hurled him into eternity.
Such momentary pain can scarcely be
compared with the writings of one
who is hanged. If the New York Off
cials are cornered they can use the
electric light wires One of the latter
can be conducted into the felon's cell,
and If they are as efficient in the cases
OF condemned murderers as when they
tackle innocent and unsuspecting vic
Tins on the sidewalks the felons will
scarcely have time to write out their
sensations for the newspapers. --Balti-
more American.
"A woman at Bath, Me-, pol1tely
told peddler who called that she did
not want any Of his wares. The man
used rather harsh language and tried
to go into the house. This was rather
too much for the woman, who is light
weight, but solid full Of grit. She seiz-
ed him by the shoulder and sent him
end over end, his hat flying one way
and hia Tanlk apnfbor Tho,, el,r .,.,I>