Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-08
KEMMLER's ELECTRIC EXECUTION.

ERIE Dispatch: The execution was sue
cess from legal point of view. Death was uu-
doubtedly painless, IL not instantaneous.
CLEVELAND Plain Dealer: The first execu-
tion by electricity cannot be called success
1t was demonstrated beyond question that
death was not instantaneous.
CLEVELAND Leader: The fact seems to be
clear that the method employed in putting
Kemmler to death is less painful and uncer-
tain than hanging and much quicker in its
operation.
CHICAGO MdH: Sentiments mercy has at
last been put into effect and Kemmler is dead.
The sufferings of the man are partially made
known through the dispatches. horrible
death-one to cry out for the ak, or the rope.
or the file of soldiers. Sentiment stands con-
victed rot of evil purpose but of blunder.
SYRACUSE Herald: If the apparatus was in
fault, the failure to produce death instantly is
one that can be remedied. Moreover, was the
mode of death, even il terrible in appearance
as it occurred. to be compared for an instant to
the torture of the victim of a pungling hang
man? 1t will not do to condemn the new
method In an instant. Let it be fairly tried.
PHILADELPHIA Times: Making all allow
ance for error, exaggeration or sensationalism,
IL is impossible to draw any other concl usion
from the dispatches from Auburn than that
electricity, as a swift, painless and humane
mode of putting a man to death, is a failure.
Kemmler was killed, unquestionably. But
hanging is a refined and gentle mode Of death
compared with this horrible process.
PHILADELPHIA Public Ledger: Kemmler
died in less time after the first application of
the current than he would have died if he had
been hanged; he was more certainly uncon-
scious from the first moment of the applica-
tion Of the current than hanged man is when
when he falls to the end Of q rope; he, there
fore, suffered less. and he was no more dis
figured than hanged men very often are.
NEW YORK Euening World: The subtle fires
which roasted Lineman Feeks have at last
broiled the wretched Kemmler to extinction.
The acrid, sickening stencil of burning flesh
smites the nostrils OF the lookers-on. A thin
gray smoke curls about the rigid head. Yes;
the current has won. This is unconditional
surrender. The smoking tenement tells Of the
eyicted soul. Kemmler is deadi It was a
ghastly revolving torture.
NEW YORK Evening Star: At last the world
knows what judicial execution by electricity IS
The first experiment is sufficiently horrible. OF
course, the failure of the attempt to kill instan-
taneously in this case does not prove that
man cannot be iustantaneously killed by elee-
tricity. Il proves no more than that in this case
somebody Numbered. So hangmen have blum
dered. But the public judgment will probably
be unanimous that further electrical expert
ments in this direction ought not to be made
on human subjects.
PHILADELPHIA Times: If Kemmler could
have been first hanged and afterward electro
cuted," and could have been so far raised from
the dead on each occasion as to be able to de-
scribe his sensations during the process of kill
ing, we should have something tangible on
which to base an opinion of the comparative
ease of dissolution by strangulation or shock.
But as Kemmler cannot testify. the better plan
is to await the autopsy and the inevitable dis
cussion Of the doctors and scientists. There
does not seem to be any doubt that Kemmler
was effectually killed. All else is speculation.
NEW YORK Telegram: The first execu-
tion of capital sentence by electricity took
place this morning at Auburn-the first not
only in New York, but In the world. 1t was
failure. Not that Kemmler is not dead; but
that the method is shown to be cruel one.
There we're two attempts before the victim of
the laws vengeance was dead. The first at
tempt being failure, the execution was fail
ure, the method is q failure