St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-21
ELECTRICAL EXECUTIONS.
Experiences, Ancient and Modern
With Criminals in France.

Experiences, Ancient and Modern,
With Criminals in France.
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-
lions that M. Beauquesne, the governor,
and the Able Faure, the chaplain of the
ROQuette Jail, are opposed to such an in
novation. 1t is to the Roquette that
variably transferred after their con-
demnation by jury sitting in the Seine
assiZe court, and none are more COM
petent than the governor and the
chaplain to pronounce an opinion
on the subject, except, perhaps,
Monsieur de Paris" as the chief ex-
ecutioner is called, and even then his
views might be regarded as based, in a
certain measure, on motives of a per-
sOnal character-for the man who has
gone about the country chopping off
heads with his guillotine could scarcely
be expected to deliver thoroughly i'm
partial opinion. Were he to express a
preference for the electric system, he
might lay himself open to the reproach
that he was not quite as skillful as he
ought to be. The Able Faure, who for
the past five years-with one single ex-
ceptiOn, that of Schumacher, who as a
Protestant received ghostly counsel and
QdUipn from q rs n biC rniIOI0n-
has accompanied to the scaffold all the
criminals executed on the square in
front of the Roquette, expresses the ut
most horror at the idea of such change.
The worthy eccleslastlc says that he has
the utmost sympathy for all scientific
inventions, but he refuses to believe
that French legislators will be so cruel
as to protract, by preparations which re-
Quire certain amount of time, the Suf-
terings of even murdererS.
The Able Faure has attended during
their last moments upwards of sixteen
criminals, and he says that scarcely two
seconds 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 OH
the ground. He remarks Indignantly
| that he never can admit that men, how
CVOl. oCUooCu UiiOy may UO3 OuSue w W
placed like common animals in glass
apparatus and struck dead with an cleo
trio spark. This is opposed to every
principle Of humanity. The chaplain OF
the Roquette is, after every execution,
in the habit Of writing notes of the
CHASTITY scene which he has just wit
nessed and he declares that not once
during the whole of his experience has
the condemned man offered the slight
estresistance. This he attributes, in a
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 although he was gen
orally 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 to save his body
from dissection at the School of medi-
cine. Of Geomay, the murderer of Nine.
Roux-Couloumy. he wrote that he had
died like soldier, Breton and a
Christian. A few minutes before he
was executed he asked the able to con-
vey his last farewell to his old mother.
The Able Faure says that at the Ro-
quette everything is done to render the
last moments of criminals as easy as
possible. and, like M. Beauquesne, he
is positive that far from being merci-
full innovation, the system OF executing
prisoners through the medium of cleo
tricity would really subject them to a
decided increase of moral torture.