Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-08-02
KEMMLER'S FATE.
The Day of His Doom Rapidly
Approaching.
he WILL HAVE A NOVEL EMINENOE

The First Man i'm the World to Die by
Legal stroke of Liehtning-Possibiiit
That 1t May Be a Horrible Scene, and
Mighty Little Prospect of Further Post
ponement-Hfs Long Fight Against
Suffering Justice and Bearing in the
Face of Death.
AUBURN, n. ", Aug. 2. William
Kemmler, the first criminal in the world
to suffer the legal punishment of death by
electricity, will be killed at the state pris-
on here, probably on Tuesday, at an hour
which is likely to be fixed either just be-
fore sunrise or just after sunset. Kemm-
Ter will be taken out of his stone cage and
into dimly lighted room, where he Will
see nothing but big oak chair, with
straps and buckles on it, and something
over ascore of men around looking intent
ly at the chair and at him.
May Burn and Sizsie.
Within less time than it takes to tell
Kemmler will be tightly bound in the
chair, and there, while the people in the
room hold their breath, a current of cleo
tricity, 1000 volts strong, will rush
through the mans body, stiffening it
with one great shudder. 1t will be hor-
rid scene. Kemmler has been thinking all
about it for fourteen months Perhaps
the body will burn and siZzle, too; no one
can tell. Then the body will be I'M
strapped, and just as quickly as they can
the surgeons will get at it with their
| knives and saws.
His Desperate Struggle for Life.
1t has been such hard struggle to exc
cute the sentence of the law upon Kemm-
Ter that some people yet believe he will
cheat the executioner There is talk now
| that an effort will be made to obtain a
Communication of sentence on the ground
that he has already suffered thousand
| deaths in the delays attendant upon his
execution. 1t is probable that such an eff
| fort may be made, but there is no likeli-
hood of Reminders sentence being COM
muted. Whatever delays there were
| about his execution were caused by the
struggle that he or his friends made for
his life.
| No Stone Was Left Unturned.
No murderer in the country ever had
| such fight made for him as has Kemm-
Ter. His case has gone through all the in
| termediate steps up to the court of ap-
| pesls twice Then at the last moment he
was dramatically rescued from death by
''the people of the United States" in the
shape of the habsas corpus of the United
States supreme court. Then even the leg
islature of the state was asked to inter.
vene in the shape of an act abolish ing
capital punishment; but everything
failed.
One Chance in the Dynamo.
The only imaginable pretext might bt
the fact frequently referred to that tn,
electrical dynamo which will kill kemm
Ter was obtained by fraud from the West
inghouse company by Harold p. Brown
The dynamo to be used was not purchased
directly from the Westinghouse people
but through a third party, and probably
the Westinghouse people would not have
sold it knowingly for its real purpose
The company might, therefore, have ar
action against somebody for fraud Coco
lawyers say, however, no judge would in
terfere by injunction to prevent the use o
the dynamo, as the company has ampl,
remedy at law for whatever damages i
may have sustained.
Durston breads His Duty.
There is no doubt that Warden Durstor
| nouiu OhAg 70 wv kihl " nave Inc GOuTl'
take from him the duty of killing Kemm
Ter, but Warden Durston would not b,
glad if this duty was removed by Kemm
ler's suicide There is little doubt now
that Kemmler is in such condition o
mind and body that he would com
NIT suicide If he could, and TIL
strict watch that has been KEEP
upon him for so long is now kept NOR
vigilantly than ever Up to within ,
month Kemmier was well and strong il
every way and seemed to have no fear o
death. The tremendous conceit and stu
pidity which stood him in such good steat
at the time last set for has execution hav,
now nearly faded away. kemmler is still
mentally dull but he is awakened to TIN
fear of death now, and be was not be
fore.
Mighty Good Man to Kill.
The crime that Kemmler committed
was as fiendish a one as could be i'm
agined. he hacked his wife into a hal
dozen pieces. He is an ugly, cowardl
savage and dull minded brute 1t is tru
that his long confinement has re
i, fined and softened him some
what as in the case Of al
CONDEMNED murders and it is..also true tina
the feeling his crime at first aroused i,
softened into natural pity and sympathy
for a fellow creature who after long
stubborn fight, has now lost his last hope
and sees death drawing near to him, slow
ly, but with memorable certainty
4 naa Hall