News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-03-21
TERRIBLE TORTURES.
HORRORS WITNESSED BY AT
AMERICAN TRAVELLER.
One Criminal Slowly Hanged-An-
other Eaten to Death by Ants
Others Decapitated and Chartered.


west of Jefferson avenue, man who has
seen the death penalty foI crime inhict-
ed by as great a number of methods as
any man in the United States. He is J.
H. Luykanse, who was in the public ser
vice for over twenty years, retiring from
active duty in 1885. Mr.. Luykanse was
in the Danish Navy for about ten years,
and during that time had most varied
experience. He reluctantly consented
TO talk about some of the things he had
seen, the subject being brought up by a
preliminary discussion of the probable
solution of the capital punishment prob
lem by the employment of electricity as
provided by law in New York. He said
he had never seen man garroted or
gIIill0siHed, but had seen many men
hanged, and vividly remembered one
execution he witnessed i'll the East In
dias. The vessel on which he was serv-
ing was off the Malabar voast, and hear
ing there was to be an execution for
murder, several of the officers went to
see it. The criminal had murdered
child, the son of a rich native, in a
most brutal manner. The child, accord
ing to custom, wore heavy silver anklets,
and these excited the cupidity of the
man, who killed the boy by dashing his
brains out against a tree, swinging the
little fellow by the feet as one beats the
dust from an old garment or foot-mat.
The tribunal by which he was tried de-
creed that the punishment should be
made to fit the crime, and accordingly
he was ordered slowly hanged. This
sentence was literally complied with,
the fellow being hanged by the neck in
such a manner that it took him nearly
an hour to die, during all of which time
the struggles and contortions of his body
were most horrible to behold.
In contrast with this lingering misery,
long drawn out, was another execution
by decapitation, witnessed by the mar
rator near Homburg. The victim, n
notorious scoundrel who had added the
cap-sheaf to a career of crime by murder
ing an officer, was ordered to have his
head cut off. AT the appointed time the
victim took his seat in O chair properly
prepared. 1t was in a yard to which
quite crowd of officials and others were
admitted. The executioner, powerful
man, took his position just behind and
a little to the left of the chair, after the
victim was seated, precal1tion being
taken that he should not be seen by the
man whose life he WAS about to take.
He held short, very heavy and very
broad sword or knife, the hilt grasped
by his right hand, the blade resting in
the hollow of his barred left arm. The
victim was smoking a pipe, which he
pulled vigorously while the prelimi-
naries were being arranged. At a signal
from the officer in charge the headsman
10 or ho al
his sword with both hands let it swing
down by his side. The victim, during
all this time, sat bolt upright, his IN
bound eyes gazing steadily in front of
him. The movement of the executioner
was heard by him, and he said in clear
voice, 'fMacht Schwindt" Churry up),
his pipe dropping from his mouth when
he opened it to speak. Almost before
the words We're finished the glistening
blade was whirled around the the execu-
toners head, and the same motion talk
ing lateral direction with swish, sent
the keen steel through the neck close to
the shoulders with precision of aim
that was faultless, and the severed head
rolled on the ground. A fountain of
blood spurted three feet into the air and
the deed was done.
Some of the most remarkable execu-
tions ever witnessed by the narrator
took place i'll Canton, China, or, rather,
outside the walls of the city. At the
time referred to Europeans were not
allowed to reside in the city proper, but
there was an outer or suburban city,
composed largely of foreigners. In this
suter city was an open space, or COM
mon, devoted to the punishment of
criminals. On one occasion n China
man who had committed a crime pun
ishable by death was brought into this
open space to be quartered. After the
oreliminaries, which were brief and ex-
peditiously arranged, the prisoner was
legs spread quite wide apart, both arms
extended on a level with the shoulders,
md held by a man on each side of him.
The chief officer stood directly in front,
md when the prisoner was properly
posed gave signal to the headsman,
who stood few feet away holding a
sword about two and half feet long.
ihe blade slightly crnved-a cross be-
tween q ship cutlass and scimetar. AT
she signal he stepped forward, and with
4 sidewise blow struck off the victim s
head, and then, with lightning like
rapidity, swung the blate aloft again
and brought it down squarely in the
centre of the spot from which the head
had been severed, with such force as to
almost completely split the body, which
was still held in an erect position by the
men grasping the extended arms. The
Two halves fell apart, and at the same
instant two assistant executioners step
ped forward, and with swords similar tc
the one described severed these two
halves at the thighs. '"This," said fhe
narrator, twas probably one of the
most bloody death scenes ever witness
ed"
Another ceelingly horrible execu
ton was the burial of man near M
ant-hill. This was also at Canton. Tho
fellows crime was of a political charac
ter. A hole was dug near an ant-hilI,
and he was placed in it standing erect
The earth was packed closely and firmly
around him, so that his chin was iust
above the surface. His mouth was ther
forced open and fastened SO with {
piece of iron. The next step was tC
completely paint his face and entire
head with some sweet stuff about the
consistency of New Orleans molasses il
cold weather, the inside of the moutl
being filed, and swat being run wei
down his throat. Then n trail of the
stuff was laid leading to the ant-hill
Almost before this was finished the ant
! found it, and in a minute there wer,
thousands of the big rcd ants, some o
them a fourth of an inch in length, anC
even larger, following the trail. They
soon swarmed over his head and face
into his eyes, ears and nose, and down
his throat. The suf1erings of the fellow
must have been horrible in the extreme
but he was alive three days later whel
! visited, and n week afterward the ant
were still at him.
Another method of torture witnessed
in the same locality was this: The victim
was securely bound in an upright atti
| tude to q strong post, with his heaC
/ fastened IN a glare of the blazing sun
| Then his eyelids were cut off dexterous
| ly, so as to leave the eyes intact Lin,
was then smeared over the face, and Ii,
| was left to die by inches.
Another execution witnessed wasmor,
| unique than horrible. The Danisl
man -of-war, on which the narrator wa
at the time, was cruising for pirates il
the Straits of Malacca, with masked
portfolios, but with guns loaded will
chain-shot and ready for action. 4
Malay vessel was sighted. There was
| little chase, and few chain-shots strip
ped the pir,,te ship of its rigging. Thel
came the boarding and fierce hand to
hand conflict, ending in the complet
discontinue of the pirates. The shil
was burned, and the mail -: .wNr return