The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-03-01

permit capital offenders TO select the
manner by which they would meet death
and be allowed to infiict the penalty
upon themselves. This custom also OBJ
tanned in Greece, aud when Socrates was
condemned to death for spreading dis
belief in the national religion he chose
to die by drinking hemlOck.
One OF the most cruel and unusual of
punishments was that which the Romans
in the latter days of the Republic melted
out to those who murdered either of their
parents. Luke Gwen Pike, NJ. A,
author of the "History Of Crime IN Eng
land" in referring to this punishment,
says:
mot in the amphitheatre, not at the
stake, not on the cross was the parricide
to perish. A sack was to be his wind
ing sheet; in that he was to be sewn up
alive and yenomous serpents with him.
He was to be thrown into the sea, if the
sea was near at hand, aud if not, into a
river, SO that the heavens might be hid
den from him while still alive. and the
earth deny him grave when dead"
Often, however, in addition to the
vipers, there were dog, monkey and
a rooster sewed up in the sack with the
victim, who was naked. The sack was
usually of leather
The Oriental nations have always been
remarkable for the ingenious cruelty of
their death punlshments, although 1t is
doubtful whether they have been more
cruel than the self-styled highly civil
lied nations of the West. Death has
come from slow strangulation from a
rope, as was in vogue in China, for in
stance, and at the same time from the
use of boiling oil, which was poured on
the joints after they were dislocated; by
mechanical means, as in France and
Germany from faying, or stripping the
skin of the body, as was formerly done
IL England, and from pressure between
planks, on the upper of which great
weights were placed, as was also in vogue
IN England at one tine. Every. .Hethod
human ingenuity 1deTise-ha bednffesl
sorted TO at one time or other in ancient
or medi eval days, and among nations
protesting to be civilized. to administer
torture and death. 1t is true that
japanese offenders have been executed
by the slow passage of a spear upward
Though their entrails, and that Chinese
criminals have been gradually beheaded
with bamboo saw, but at the same
time that most barbarous form of infict-
ing the death penalty, tine boiling in a
cauldron, was a European invention. To
lntiict death by this means sulphur, oil
and lead separately were sometimes
used. Water, however, was the agent
generally employed Boiling to death
was first inflicted by statute in Eng
land in 1881, during the reign of King
Henry VIII. The first person to suffer
This penalty in tkat country was John
RoOse, cook to the Bishop of Rochester,
who poisoned seventeen persons, two of
whom died. The poison was admin stored
N porridge. The statute declared that
prisoners should be boiled 10 death with |
out having any advantage of his
,lergy." Future Offenses of this kind, |
he law stated, should be deemed equiv |
llent to high treason in enormitv. The |
tatute was repealed not long afterward,
1ut not until several other persons met
Heath IN the cauldron. Though prac.
iced in England, it is believed, however,
hat this horror was of Italian origin.
Death by the serpents' bite was com
non form of administering capital pun
shment in the Oriental countries in
.ncient days. and, it is said, the system
las by no means become obsolete vet.
instances are on record in which offend
rs were bound naked in iungles in which
ipers were numerous, and left to suffer
lingering and terrible death from the
eptiles' fangs. Men and women, and
ometimes children, were thrown into
averns infested by venomous snakes to
meet death in its most frightful form in
he darkness among the bones of hun
reds of persons whose lives had gone
ut in the same place and by the same
means. Many British prisoners, it was
old, were subjected to like treatment by
he Sepoys during the mutiny about
hirty years ago. Even at the present
ime, it is said, malefactors in some
ARTS of India are thrown into LARGE
ages filled with serpents. Travellers in
'ersia tell stories about similar crueities
eing inflicted on criminals in the
wilder and more barbarous portions of
hat country. All this may be true, vet
is also true the same form CT punish
lent was once on q time common in
,orway, and that for years France.
,ngland and Spain were ablaze with the
res that Onsumed people at the stake.
Persons suspected of being witches
owever, were the most frequent sub.
scts for this form of punishment. Pone
innocent VIII issued a bull against
IN 1884. Within the neyt
undred years thousands of these peonIe
-ere burned alive Over 500 of them
ERE burned in Geneva in about one
'urth of the year 1918. In the Diocese
Como 1900 were executed in this way
1924. About 10, 600 met death by
lis method in Lorraine in the fifteen
ears ending with 1895. In Wurtzburp.
etween Ii<7 and 1929, 127 were burned ]
i've, In nearly every part of Europe
hlch was at all civilized, numerous
eaths by fire for witchcraft occurred in
lie fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth {
INJURIES. Those which took place in I
ermauy alone are estimated at upward {
100, 900. The deaths by this method &
Id for this cause in England also were
ell up in the thousands. In Massa- s
lusetts and Pennsylvania the death s
,nalty for this ofTense usually took the !
e form of hanging.-San Francisco l
iroaicle t