Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-07


body at $40 o'clock Wednesday morn.
ing. A cup adjusted to the head of a
man bound captive in a strange-looking
chair a lever quickly swung around the
arc of semi-circle, quick convulsion,
sudden revival of muscular action,
another turn of the lever, n pause, q
room filled with sickening fumes and
twenty-seven witnesses of the first cleo
tricide in history knew that the death
of Tillie Ziegler had been avenged i'll
law and the crime of William Kemmlcr
expiated SO far as human hands could
force its expiation.
The effort to surround the affair with
halo Of mystery, such as the law CON
templated, was not altogether success
full. The outer world did not know the
exact hour which had been fixed for the
event, but it knew the time approxi-
mately, and the little assemblage of
loiterers at the gate of the prison before
dawn was good evidence that the inter
est in the event was keen and general.
Besides these curiosity seekers an ac-
tive, anxious corps of newspaper re-
porters gathered in the broad road in
front of the prison ground and waited
for the signal that should tell them that
the execution was over.
The witnesses of the execution had
gathered in response to the call of
Warden DurstOn at 6 O'clock n m. The
law named twentyseven Us the number
of those who should witness the execu-
tion as assistants or in some official
capacity.
OF these District Attorney Quinby
and the sheriff Of Erie county, the
county in which Kemmler was convict
ed, were two. The prisoner had been
allowed the privilege of selecting two
spiritual advisers, and he chose the
chaplain of the prison, Mr.. Yates, and
DR.. Hcughton. of the First Methodist
church. his constant companion in his
affiiction since the light of religion first
dawned Gpon him.
The law further named rs persons to
be invited to the execution by the
bench of the state, two doctors, two
persons. These with the warden and
himself and six assistants make uo the
list of twenty-seven.
AT o'clock a. m. there was rapping
at the room doors and Ia general awaken
ing through the hotels of Auburn.
Warden Durston had left quiet
call" for his witnesses, and they were
ordered to report at the prison at 6
o'clock.
Rev. DR.. Houghton and Chaplain
Yates had been admitted and taken to
Kemmler's cell. The condemned man
was awake and talking to his keeper.
In an inner room DR.. Mcdonald and DIR.
Daniel went over the instruments and
the paraphernalia for the autopsy. In
his dining room Warden Durston hal
spread luncheon, and convict prison
ers, in white caps and aprons, served
coffee and sandwiches to the hungry
assemblage.
Outside.
Outside the prison there was n con-
stantly augmenting crowd. Across the
street was group of newspaper cor
respondents, two of them perched ON u
platform twenty feet from the ground
in constant communication with New
Y ork city by telephone.
The program of the autopsy was left
until the last minute in doubt
The prisoner Kemmler was supposed
to be in ignorance of the time fixed un-
til the warden should summon him from
his cell to enter the execution chamber.
The little murderer was not entirely ig-
norant, but he felt that the penalty
would be inflicted on Tuesday or
Wednesday mornings.
The Death Chair.
The fatal chair stood at one end of the
little square room. lighted from a point
several feet from the floor by two Win
dows looking ont directly upon the road
Oh ,n a,
hustle of Auburn's commercial life
seen the gray dawn whose light the
murderer had not known for more than
month of close confinement.
1t was not very formidable object
this chair of death. 1t was built like n
rough reclining chair, without cushions
or springs to make the embrace more
comfortable. Small difference To the
man who was to sit in it whether its sur
face was padded or bare. At the sides
and on the arms of the chair were
straps of heavy leather with huckle4
capable of holding prostrate the most
energetic Above the head of the chair
hung rubber cup containing a sponge
The wire by which it was suspended
passed through wooden figure 4.
clampel to the back OF chair. ani
made adjustable to any height above it.
At the lower part Of the hack of the
chair was another cup and sponge. The
wire from these cups ran to the two
poles of the dynamo. whose wire-wound
arms were kept whiglny at rapid speed
through most of the night.
In the cell, only few feet away,
where Keinmler had spent s5 many
months in captivity, thc condemned