River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-01-24
NERvED TO DEATH.
The Cause Which Enables so Many Grin
iuaIs TO Die ss6iame."

The Cause Which Enables so Many Grim
inals 10 Die ''Game."
There has Just died in Paris veneer
able ecclesiastic named Able Crozes.
whose long career of useful beneficence
was passed amid surroundings which
to most men would have been extreme
~ painful. if not absolutely repulsive.
The deceased able was chaplain to the
prison of La Roquette, and from 1865
TO 1892 il 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 scatfold no fewer than fifty-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 little too much
commiseration for the atrocious des-
perados who received his ministra-
tions. and that he was moved even TO
use his influence to obtain reprieye
for the exceptionally bloodthirsty
young man Troppman. who salts
fed his craving for slaughter by
the massacre of an entire fami-
". The Able Crozes Occu-
pied very humble apartment in
a house close to the Jail, and his room
was adorned with all kinds of sordid
articles presented to him as souvenirs
by tho 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. it was he who supplied the con-
demued with stimulauts Just before
their execution. While praying with
the mdlefactors he gave them a small
glass of ''mele-cassis, which our Paris
correspondent describes as "blacl1
current cordial. dashed with brandy"
The publication of such petty detail
is not without its use, inasmuch as il
serves to illustrate fact with which
it is highly expedient that not only the
community at large, but the criminal
classes in particular, should be made
fully cOnversant-that nine-tenths of
the statements made as to murderers
dying game" are so much arrant nom
sense. In almost every case when
criminal is led to execution, whether
it be by the guillotine or by
the gallOws, it is found absolute
ly necessary to administer some
kind of alcoholic stimulant to the
trembling wretch. and in olden times,
when the condemned prisoner was al
lowed 10 drink as much as ever he
liked on the morning Of execution, il
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 a parting nip to a criminal,
but. on reelection. the "aumOnier' may
appear TO be the most suitable person
by whom 50 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 ex-
pect kindness and sympathy. aud il
may be with a feeling of gratitude.
which for a moment partially softens
his deprayed heart, that the male
factor accepts dram from his con-
lessor. The like refreshment 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 desperation. London
fT-oy-.,vo,,b