Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-08-21

The recent break In the Sault Ste Marie
canal serves as a reminder that there are
in this country public works simply deserv-
ing of government aid. No one questions
that this waterway is of great Importance
to commerce and an appropriate object OF
paternal care. It's the only means of COM
munication between Lakes Huron and
Superior, it's location being at the rapids
in the ST. Mary's river which at this par
ticular point have fall of 20 feet In a
mile Fifty vessels passed through
the lock last month The work so COM
pletely fits the definition of a national
waterway that the demand for new and
larger lock has JUSTIFIED the Senate in pro-
yiding for its construction in a separate
bill that is now pending in the House. In
view of the past generosity of Congress
In this case there is no cause for fear that
the canal will remain unprovided for.
A STORY is told of young New Yorker
WHO hired whole hotel in London for the
purpose of giving dinner to another New
Yorker. The guests included at least one
Judge of the Supreme Court of New York
and the ladies who did the dancing were
hired from the music halls. The orgie
that followed rs described as slngularly
disreputable and disgraceful. These are
the things that bring Americans into dis
repute abroad. They are ostentatiously
vulgar. They are at once recklessly ex-
travagant and barbarously commonplace.
They only unite what is low with what is
costly. But what is worst about them Is
the fact that they are accepted In Europe
as typical of America. There is only one
remedy for this sort of thing. These men
must be taught at home that they cannot
disgrace their country abroad with I'M
punity. An American who hires Lon
don tavern to exhibit his country as lot
of drunken blackguards should be made to
feel the disapprobation of every worthy
American and his guests ought to share in
his disgrace.
The three gentlemen composing the
commission appointed by the Legislature
of the state of New York in 1886, to inves-
tigate and report on the most humane and
practical method Of carrying into effect the
death sentence, certainly failed In their
mission if the execution of Kemmler can
De taken as a criterion of what may be ex-
sected in the future. After weeks of ex-
perimenting on animals by scientific ex-
perts who were satisfied that death would
result instantaneously and painlessly by
the electric shock, the execution took place.
Shocking, indeed. So shocking that spec
tators laid themselves down on the floor
sick and faint. Either the machinery or
the scientists, or both, were at fault for
instead of producing instant death, three
applications of the electric current were
necessary. and between them the unhappy
wretch sitting there bound to his chair,
showed signs of life if not of returning
consciousness. And when the end of the
frightful scene did come, it came with
smoke ana the S1ckenlnS smell OF cnarreu
human flesh, as the body was literally
roasted No such horrible scene has ever
been witnessed at an execution whether by
hanging or otherwise. The commission
restricted its inquiries to the employment
of electricity, prussic acid or other poison
the gu1llotine and the garrotte. Any Of
the three discarded agents would have
been preferable to the one employed. 1t i:
safe to predict that the execution Of
Kemmler will mark the first and last cleo
trocution as means of inAicting capita
punishment.