St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-07

10 commit murder IN the state after that
date; hence, first to suffer death under
its provisions.
WAYS OF JUDICIAL KILLING.
All the Methods in Vogue Since
History Began.
AUBURN, N. Y, Aug. 6.-The wretch
who died in Auburn prison to-day was
pioneer. His death lnaugurated a
new method of judicial killing. Since
history began men are known to have
been killed, under the law, by thirty
five methods-that first employed to-day
being the last. The list of Offenses
which were punishable by death has
grown smaller since the time. of Moses,
when thirty-three acts of crime and in
discretion were capital offenSes, and the
ways of melting out death have dimin-
ished until, in substance, executions at
the present day are either by the guillo-
tine, as i'll France, Bavaria, Hanover,
Belgium and SaXony; by the
garrote. as in Spain; by de-
capiation or hanging, as in
Russia; by stranguiation or decapita-
ton. as in China; by beheading. as in
Switzerland and Denmark: by shoot
ing, as in the ordinary cases of military
law and in some portions of Germany
and South America; by decapitati0n,
as in Prussia; and in other countries,
and particularly in the United States,
universally by hanging, that being the
old common law method of execution
Inherited by the colonies from Great
Britain. Time was, away back in the
years when human blood was held liter
ally so cheap that murderer might
buy back his life, as in China, where
dread of death was SO slight and life so
worthless, that there are recorded in
stances in which substitutes were
bought by bonus to their families, to
undergo the penalty of death instead OF
the murderer. In England, down to
1882, HOUSEKEEPING and horse stealing
were capital crimes, and not until so
late as 1861 was the gamut of CAPT
tai crime narrowed to two OffenSeS,
murder and treason In Massachusetts,
in 1850, seventeen offenSes were pun
iShed with death; 140 years later there
were only seven capital offenses of
which were only four of the original
seventeen: and to-day the old state
stands with her fellows in the list of
extreme sins. In the time while MaSSa-
chusetts was killing obstinate children
and persons who swOre, William Penn
was founding the state of PennSylva-
mia. At that time the earth knew of
200 capital Offenses, but Penn cut down
the list when making the laws of the
now Keystone state, to One-murder.
And here are the means employed I'M
der the law since history began, OF kill
ing state criminals.
I. Auto da fe, meaning 'act OF faith,
used at the public executions of persons
condemned to death upon trial and SEN
tence by the Spanish Inquisition. CA
designation rather than mode.)
2. Beating With Clubs.-In very
early times South African tribes, par
tieularly the Hottentots, who had no
written laws-only the laws of usage
put their condemned to death with
clubs, the chief of the kraal or village
striking the first blow, and the popu
lace ending the execution. Greek
slaves also were beaten to death.
8. Beheading. Decapitation. = The
Greeks and Romans cut the heads off
their capital offenders. John Baptist
died thus. Earl Waltheof. beheaded by
William the Conqueror in 1915, was the
first Englishman to die by beheading,
which was deemed the most honorable
way of receiving capital punishment.
The rebel lords of 1745 were the last to
die thus in England. China and Japan
employed this method of capital pun
ishment, and do now. Swords and
axes, as distinguished from the guillo-
tine, were used in olden days.
4. Blowing from COMMONWEALTH thus
came to criminals bound before the
lannon's mouth. or thrust into the bore
and fired out as part of the load.-India.
S. Boiling. The bishop of Ro-
chester. in 1881, was poisoned by his
cook, John Roose, and ROose was
boiled to death. Several executions
took place by boiling under Henry
VIII, water being usually the fluid,
also melted lead and sulphur.
6. Breaking on the Wheel.-Germany
contrived this mode of death away
back in the tenth century. 1t was,
however, only a special form of beating
to death. The prisoner was bound upon
the periphery, or upou the crossbars or
spokes OF wheel, and arms and limbs
were crushed by blows of bludgeons or
iron rods, the vitals being untouched.
Thus death was slow. France and
England also used the wheel in the six
tenth century.
r. Burning.-The faggots of death
first burned in the name of religion,
though civil governments have en-
ployed flames as XecutiOnerS-inStance
the Romans and Jews of ancient times.
The old Britons punished heinouS
crimes by burning the offenders
in wicker baskets. This form of
death was suffered in the colonial times
of this country. Chinese Emperor
Tcheon, instigated by his favorite con-
cubine, adopted brass cylinder upon
which criminals were bound and
roasted by fires within the cylinder.
Self H., Shah OF Persia. stretched vic
Tins upon a slab. bored Vulnerable
holes in their bodies; in the holes
lighted taperS were inserted in fluid oil.
A Gallo ana British method was to
burn criminals in cages of wicker work
in the form of some well-known idol.
8. Burying Alive.-Barbarous tribes
and civilized countries have buried
criminals to the hips or to the neck and
shoulders, then they were beaten to
death or left to Starye.
9. CrucifixiOn.-The exact origin of
the cross is in doubt. Semiramis is cred
tied with its invention. 1t is held also
to have been a gradual growth among
barbarous tribes as cruelty of war.
Nearly all records say its use was very
ancient and very general among almost
all communities but the Jews. Cruel
fixion Was abolished for Christian cOun-
tries by the Emperor Constantine, and
at the present day its use is confined to
the Mohammedans. A punishment
analogous to erucifiXion was once prac-
.iced in the West India islands. The
offender was suspended upon post by
a huge hook inserted under his shoulder
or under his breast-bone.
10. Defamation upon mill
tary offenders, notably mutineers. A
whole regiment might he involved, and
death to all would have been slaughter.
The massacre of a whole regiment might
not be wise on the eve of battle. Every
tenth man was chosen, in a mutinOus
troop, for death upon given occasion.
None knew at the fatal discharge who
was to fall; thus, the entire troop was
kept under terror of death until an en-
fire command Should have declmatpd -