St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-08
A DIsAGREEABLE DUTY.
The Warden Took Little Part in
the Killing.

SING SING, n. Y, July 27.-While the
doctors were looking over the straps,
Warden Brown stood aside, a mere on
hooker. The law required him to be
present, but he regretted the necessity,
and only carried out the letter of the
law by hardly more than lending his
presence to the occasion.
AS the doctors finished their quick
inspection of the straps they nodded to
DIR. Mcdonald. 1t was he who, in con-
cert with DIR. SpitZka, had agreed upon
the time which the current should pass
through Kemmler's body. He stood
just behind the chair, a stop watch in
one hand, white handkerchief in the
other. The handkerchief tell from his
hand and tiuttered to the ground. Three
feet away from him stood Electrician
Davis, with his hand on the
switch bar. The falling of the handker-
chief was the signal for the shifting of
the switch bar which threw the whole
strength of the electric current into the
circuit passing through the execution
chamber. The turning on of this cur
rent was the signal for the unknown
executlOner believed to be convicU
within the closet. He stood with his
right hand on the switch bar waiting for
the signal.
Almost simultaneously with the turn
ing of the current into the execution
eloset-hardly second intervened-th
eXecutioner shifted the switch. In an
instant the body in the chair stiffened
against the straps perfectly rigid.
Every muscle was firmly set as though
some awful effort to escape from the
bands that held it tight, made them like
springs of tempered steel. The straps
strained with the peculiar sound of
stretching leather. Their edges pressed
deep into the yielding flesh of the face,
and gripped the clothing tightly. The
expression OF the face was lost under
the broad bands drawn across the eyes,
nose and chin, but the skin exposed to
view turned purple red. The specta-
tors drew about the chair, standing OH
the rubber mats for safety, and the ply
sicians compared notes on the physical
phenomena presented.
DR.. GMcDonald fixed his eyes on the
stop watch in his hand and watched it
ticket off minute fractions of seconds.
When it marked twenty seconds he
nodded TO Electrician Davis, who stood
with his hands still on the switch wait
ing for the signal. 1t had been decided
that to wait for the executioner in the
closet to respond to signal to
stop would mean a loss OF time
which would make the duration
OF the current uncertain and destroy
some of the scientific value of the ex-
pertinent. So the electrical apparatus
had been so constructed that when the
current was turned or the chair circuit
il could be thrown out of both the chair
and the executioner's closet by the
operation of Electrician Davis lever.
So, when DR.. Mcdonald nodded to
the electrician he threw the
sYitch-bar across the board and
the current ceased to flow through
the apparatus of death. The
effect on the body of Slocum was almost
great muscular activity it suddenly
subsidized in hollow-chested collapse.
Instead of straining against the straps,
it hung against them limp and un-
steady.
A moment of uncertainty followed.
Would the dead man appear to revive
as Kemmler had done? Would his
chest heave and his lips give forth
the sound of breathing? The ex-
perts at Auburn had said that the
current turned OH Kemmler was too
weak-that it had been turned off too
soon. Through this body a steady
current OF l,OUU VOLTS Twice the
strength of the average current that
passed through Kemmler's body-had
been running. 1t had been on for
twenty seconds = five seconds longer
than the current in the Kemmler case.
Would the man move or would he give
the sickening suggestions of return
ing life that had Mortified the
spectators at Auburn? The seconds
passed slowly-how many of them is
not known-but in less than minutes
space there came between the lips of
the pallid face hanging in the death
harness rush of air which whistled
between the half clenched teeth, and
ended in half sigh, half groan.
Only once did the lungs seem to con-
tract. Quickly as DR.. Mcdonald could
raise his hand to give the signal the
electrician threw the switch, the cur
rent rushed through the death circuit
and the body in the chair stiffened again