The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1890-08-08
FIRST ELECTROCUTI0N.
William kemmIer Dies from ar
Electric Shock.

Electric Shock.
THE EXECUTION WAS A. BUTCHERY.
The First Shock Failed to Produce Death
and the Current Had To Be Turned ON
Again After Being Once Closed
Scenes and Incidents of One of the
Great Events of the Nineteenth Gen.
tury-The Victims Courage.
AUBURN, n. Y, Aug 6.-With a short,
sharp pshock-painless so far as the world
will ever know the soul of William
Kemmler was separated from his body at
$40 o'clock Wednesday morning. A cup
adjusted to the head of man bound capt
i've in strange looking chair, lever
quickly swung around the arc of semi
circle, a quick convulsion, a sudden reviv-
al of muscular action, another turn of the
ing fumes-and twenty-seven witnesses of
the first electricide in history knew that
the death of Tillie Zeigler had been
avenged in law and the crime of William
Kemmler expiated so far as human hands
could force its expiation. An execution is
always glrastly sight. A lynching bee
has about it an attendant excitement born
of hurried, boisterous action, which lends
an artificial strength to the nerves of par
ticipant and on-lookers alike. But the
slow solemnity of a public execution; the
quiet, formal preparations for a judicial
killing, are depressing enough to weaken
the nerves and undermine the courage of
the bravest. So while Warden Durston
could have found 100 willing substitutes
for any one of the twenty-seven witnesses
which the law had compelled him to call
in, it is safe to say that no one of the
twenty-seven found any hilarious enjoy
ment in the spectacle.
Will Never BE Forgotten.
1t is something to be able to say that
you have witnessed the first electricide;
perhaps that thought repaid many of the
witnesses for the endurance of the silent
horror of the spectacle. But the scene in
that little room, deep-walled within the
Auburn prison, will live in the memorieS
of those who saw it as the fearful de-
scriptions of Zola's fresh-born atrocities
haunt the mind and appeal to the second
sense for months and even years. The ef-
fort to surround the affair with halo Of
mystery, such as the law contemplated,
was not altogether successful. The outer
world did not know the exact hour which
had been fixed for the event, but it knew
the time approximately, and the little as
semblage of loiterers at the gate of the
prison before dawn Wednesday morning
was good evidence that the interest in the
event was keen and general. Besides
these curiosity. seekers, an active, anxious
corps of newspaper reporters gathered in
the broad road in front of the prison
grounds and waited for the signal that
should tell them that the execution was
over.
Every Nerve Strained.
Just across the road in the dimly lighted
freight room of the New York Central
railroad at little tables improvised for the
purpose, sat a long row of telegraph oper-
ators sent'from New York by the Western
Union Telegraph company, watching for
the signs of release on dozen messages
fled for different papers in New York and
elsewhere. The fingers of the operators
hung trembling over the keys. The first
click from the sounder meant to the man
at the other end of the line that the trag.
edy had been enacted. At one end of the
telegraph desk sat the operator of the
United Press while the special representa-
tive of the United Press who had come to
Auburn at the invitation of Warden Dur
ston, sat among the jurymen in the little
prison cell, noting the adjustment of the
straps that bound the prisoner to the cleo
trio chair and all the preparations which
swiftly preceded the last act in the cele-
brated Kemmler case.
KemnIer's Spiritual Advisers.
The witnesses of the execution had
gathered in response to the call of Warden
Durston at o'clock in the morning. The
law named twenty-seven as the number
of those who should witness the execu-
ton, as assistants, or in some official ca
pacity. OF these, District Attorney Quin-
by and the sheriff of Erie county, the
county in which Kemmler was convicted,
were two. The prisoner had been allowed
the privilege of selecting two spiritual ad-
visers and he had chosen the chaplain of
the prison, Mr.. Yates, and DIR. Houghton,
of the First Methodist church, his con-
slant companion in his affiiction since the
light of religion first dawned upon him.
The law further named as persons to be
invited to the execution by the warden,
one judge of the supreme bench of the
state, two doctors, two electrical experts,
and jury of twelve persons. These with
the warden and himself and six assistants
made up the list of twenty-seven.
The Hour Approaches.
At o'clock Wednesday morning there
was a rapping at room doors and gen.
eral awakening through the hotels of
Auburn. Warden Durston had left
quiet "call" for his witnesses, and they
were ordered to report at the prison at 9
O'Clock. An hour before their coming
Rev. DIR. Houghton and Chaplain Yates
appeared at the gate of the prison and
were admitted. After brief consultation
with the warden they were taken down
to Kemmler's cell, where the condemned
man was already awake and talking with
his keeper. The witnesses, as they ar
rived, gathered in the warden's Office In
an inner room Dr. Mcdonald and DIR.
Daniel went over the instruments and the
paraphernalia for the autopsy. They had
been in conference until o'clock prepar-
ing the preliminaries. In his dining room
on the second floor of the prison building.