St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-18
HOW CRIMINALS DIE.

Eminent Frenchmen Say Killing
by Electricity Is Barbarous.
London Telegraph.
Those who are in favor of the execu-
ton of murderers condemned to death
by means of electricity, as being the
quickest and least painful method Of
sending them out of the world. have
been led to this conclusion by motives
of humanity which do them the utmost
credit. Strangely enough, however, it
is precisely on humanitarian considera-
tions that M. Beauquesne, the governor,
and the Able Faure, the chaplain of the
Roquette Jail, are opposed to such an
innovation.
1t in to the Roquette that prisoners
sentenced to death are invariably trans
ferred after their condemnation by a
jury sitting in the Seine assize court,
and none are more competent than the
governor and chaplain to pronounce an
opinion Oh the subject. except, perhaps,
monsieur de Paris" as the chief exc
cutioner is called. and even then his
views might be regarded as based. in a
certain measure, on motives OF per-
sonal character--for the man who has
gone about the country chopping off
heads with his guilletine could scarcely
be expected to deliver thoroughly I'M
partial opinion.
Were he to express a preference for
the electric system he might lay him.
self open to the reproach that he was
not quite as sklllful as he ought to be-.
The Able Faure, who for the past five
years-with one single exception. that
of Schumacher, who as Protestant re-
celved ghostly counsel and advice from
paSteur of his religiOn-has accom-
panied to the scaffold all the criminals
executed on the square in front OF the
ROQuette, expresses the utmost horror
at the idea of such a change. The
worthy ecclesiastic says that he has the
utmost sympathy for all scientific in
ventiOns, but he refuses to believe that
| French legislators will be so cruel as to
protract by preparations which require
| certain amount of time the sufferings
| of even murderers.
The Able Faure has attended during
their last moments upward of sixteen
criminals, and he says that two seconds
scarcely elapse from the time when,
after farewell embrace, he gives up
the prisoner to the eXecutiOner to that
at which the head of the murderer rolls
ON the ground. He remarks indignant
| ly that he can never admit that men,
however debased they may be, ought to
| be placed like common animals in a
| an electric spark. This is opposed
to every principle of humanity.
| The chaplain of the Roquette is, after
every execution, in the habit of writ
ing notes of the chastity scene which
| he has Just witnessed, and he declares
that not once during the whole of his
| experience has the condemned man Of
fered the slightest resistance. This he
attributes in great measure to his own
presence on the scaffold, and he says
that if the electric system were intro
duced he would be unable to offer the
prisoner the consolation of religion up
to the last moment.
| OF Prado the able relates that al
though he was generally regarded as a
braZen-faced and hardened ScOundrel
he spoke earnestly with him during his
last minutes, and that his confidence in
him was so great that he begged him tC
save his body from dissection at the
School of Medicine. Of Geomay. the
murderer of Nine. RouX-Couloumy, he
wrote that he had died like a soldier, q
Breton and a Christian. A few minutes
before he was executed he asked the
able to convey his last farewell to his
old mother. The Able Faures says thai
at the Roquette everything is done tx
render the last moments of the crimi
nails as easy as possible, and, like M
Beauquesne, he is positive that, fal
from being a merciful innovation. thu
system of executing criminals through
the medium of electricity would really
subject them to decided increase Of
moral torture.