The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-05
FACE TO FACE WITH DEATH
Kemmler Will Be Executed Before
Tomorrow's Sun Rises.
Special to the Jersey citu Nelos.

AUBURN, N. Y, August 5, 1e90-There
is no doubt entertained here now that
when the sun rises tomorrow morning
and the monotonous routine of prison
life begins, the execution of William
Kemmler will be over and his body, or
rather what the doctors have left Of it
after the autopsy, will lie in
trench in some obscure corner of
the prison yard rapidly being destroyed
by the quicklime in which the law COM
mands that it shall be buried. Every
thing is now ready for the execution and
it is believed that it will take pla ce in the
early hours of tomorrow morning, say
about two or three O'Clock; that the
baby will be Immediately transferred
from the fatal chair to the dissecting ta-
BILE, that the post mortem, performed by
DIR. Jenkins, under the immediate super
vision of Drs. Spitzka and Macdonald, will
be made by the light of the incandescent
burners on the switchboard, which are
used to measure the power of the current;
that in the meantime, If the interment is
in the prison yard, the grave will be dug.
There is difficulty about the execu-
tion room which has been the subject
of a good deal of study, though as
as has been said in these dispatches,
adjoins Kemmler's cell. and the
heat in it is something terrific. With
twenty-seven men in it tonight and with
the electric lights on the switchboard
and the gas burners in full blast it can
be imagined what sort Of torture cham
ber it will be.
There are two windows in it, but liEe
the window to Kemmler's anteroom, are
small and are on level with the ground
of the prison yard.
Warden Durston late last evening visit
ed the Osborne House, where the news
paper colony is quartered, and made
ing public the names of fifteen of the
gentlemen whom he had invited to be
present at the electrocution.
They were Deputy Coroner William T.
Jenkins, of New York, DR.. Carlos +. Mac
Donald, the State Commissioner in Luz
macy ,and formerly in charge of the asylum
for insane criminals here; DR.. e. G.
Spitzka, the great New York specialist,
who will perform the autopsy upon
Kemmler; Robert Dunlap, the New York
halter and cable news man: DIR. A. p.
Southwick, of Buffalo. known as
..the father of electrocution;,"
Or. George c. Eel, OF Buffaie; Tracy q.
was the referee in the appeal OF Kemm-
Ter on constitutional grounds, and be-
fore whom appeared as witnesses all the
great electrical experts of America, as
well as some of the greatest legal lights of
New York; DR. Samuel B. Ward, DR.. w.
j. Nellis and DR.. Lewis Balch, secretary
of the State Baard of Health, of Albany;
ex-Coroner Charles Fowler and DR.. Q. NJ.
Daniels, of Buffalo; DR.. Henry A. Argue, 20
Corning, protege of General Lathrop,
superintendent of State Prisons; job n
r. Stanchheld ex- Mayor of Elmira, ex-
District Attorney of Chemung county
and ex-law partner of David B. Hill !;
also ex-pitcher of the Auburn Baseball
Club of 1877, and ex-senator D. II. Nc
Millen, who introduced the Electrocution
bill at Albany, as prepared by Commits
sioners appointed for the purpose.
Besides these, invitations have been
sent as directed by law to Justice Henry
A. Childs, District Attorney George f.
Quimby and Sheriff Oliver A. Jenkens,
DR.. G. F. Mcdonald and Robert
Dunlap arrived on the seven o'clock train
from New York this morning
G. +. Davis, the New York electrician,
who was sent down here in April last by
Harold P. Brown as his substitute, ar
rived this morning also and is now at
work upon the death dealing machinery
in the prison.
Kemmler ate a hearty breakfast this
morning. and his appetite is such as to
refute the many sensational rumors con-
cerning his health which have appeared
lately. His body may escape the igno-
minous grave prescribed by law. He has a
brother in Philadelphia, and there is u
nephew in Ohio, and there are rumors
that both of these have commicated with
body. The law gives it to them if they
rla inn