Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-29
TESTING THE DYNAMO
That Will Send the Fatal Bolt
Through Murderer Wood,
AS 1T DID THROUGH KEMMLER.
Second Electrical Execution Booked for
Tuesday or Wednesday.
VISITORS BARRED FROM SING SING

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO TIE oIsPArcHi
NEW YORK, November 28.-Sing Sing
was closed to-day, and none but the regular
employees were admitted. This was the first
of the many precautions that are to be taken
to keep all news concerning the killing by
electricity of murderer Joseph Wood from
the public. The prison will remain closed
until after Wood has been shocked to death.
That will probably be on Tuesday or
Wednesday next. The second precaution
taken to keep the people from knowing
what they have right as citizens to know
is the issue of general order to the keepers
and to all other employees in the prison, to
the effect that if any one of them is caught
giving information to any one it will be
considered good cause for dismissal.
The reason for secretiveness regarding
even the mechanical preparation for Woods
death is that Warden Brush's lawyer, an
Albany man, has advised him that two
thirds of the object of passing the law was
to keep the facts concerning executions of
death sentences from the public. The
Warden has prepared the list OF persons he
is going to invite to the execution, and he
has got it under double lock and key.
WHO WILL BE THERE.
The names of five men who will attend
the execution are known. They are DR..
Carlos. Mcdonald, DIR. Alphonse Rock
well, DIR. Rockwell, of Albany, Prot.
Loudly and Father Creeden, the priest who
visits Wood. Who the other witnesses
will be will probably not be known until
they get to Sing Sing, a little while before
the execution. All the invitations would
probably have been issued to-day had it not
been for the escape OF prisoner in the early
morning hours. This kept the Warden
busy all day. He will probably invite
nearly all of them tomorrow. The law re-
quires that all shall be invited at least three
DAYS before the execution, so that even if
all the invitations are issued to-day the ex-
ecution cannot possibly take place before
Tuesday.
The hour has not yet been set, but it will
| doubtless occur in the early morning, before
| the other prisoners in the Jail are out of
their cells. Although the execution build
ing is separate from the prison, things are
so arranged that the witnesses may reach it
without being seen by any one outside, or
even from the prison wall.
TESTING THE DYNAMO AND WIRES.
There was a lot more tinkering with the
| dynamo and wires to-day, but no moro
the north end of the prison and the execu-
tion house is at the south end. The wires
| that carry the death current are strung over
| the top of the buildings and down through
| the side OF the execution room about IL or Is
| etfrom the ground. They are made taut by
| a woodenlhorse on the roof of the execution
room, as they are fixed there in plenty of
ways in which they might be fouled; or it
would not be impossible for one of the wires
| from a telegraph line that runs along the
railroad to break and get crossed with them.
A little defective insulation would then
send the death current along the line of the
Hudson River Railroad and might kill a
| lot of telegraph operators instead of Wood.
| The tests that were made to-day were of
| minor importance. The chair in which
| Wood is to sit is not in place yet, but every
thing else is ready and it will not take Is
minutes to get it in place and connected With
| the wires.
| DIFFERENT FROM KEMMLER'S CHAIR.
1t differs, it is said, from the chair in
| which Kemmler sat, IN that the occupant
will be in more of reclining posture than
| a sitting one. The body, it is said, will be
almost straight. There will be only little
bend at the knee. 1t came out to-day that
| Wood is not the homeless and friendless
man that it has been supposed he was. He
| has parents and friends living in Virginia.
An official spoke to him to-day about his
| past lite, and Wood cried as he told OF his
parents. He said that none of his friends
| knew of the trouble he was in, and he did
| not want them to until after he was dead.
He still spends nearly all his time pray
ing. Sometimes he prays aloud, and his
keepers are quoted as saying that his de-
votion has made great impression on his
three companions, who are to succeed him in
| the fatal chair. He often reads Testament,
which Father Creeden gave him. The spot
where Wood will be buried has been selected.
1t is in the prison burying ground on the
hill, halt mile from the jail. A sufficient
amount of quick lime will be put in the
grave to consume the body soon.
CABLE LETTERS from all the European