Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-07-10

facC that they naQ gone out 1ndlCaCeQ
that the power used in generating the
electric current was to I've used for the
dynamos attached to the execution ap-
paratus. A few minutes later
The Whirr of the Dynamo
sounded through the still morning air.
It was o'clock and the warden had
risen from his couch and sent one of his
assistants to rap softly on the doors of
the sleeping rooms up stairs to awaken
the witnesses. Some of them had retired
half undressed and they were quickly
down stairs. The two priests and the
prison chaplain had been summoned
more than an hour before and after
drinking a cup of prison coffee had gone
down to the cells of the condemned
men. They had been awake most of
the night. When the warden visited
them they were wide awake and
Evidently Expected the End
to come soon. They knew that Kemm-
Ter had been killed on the second morn
ing, and they did not believeaSsheir time
would be delayed much longer. There
had been no increase of the guard. The
regular watchers, Partridge and Baxter,
had remained with them all night.
Most of the men were awake when
shortly before 4 o'clock the priests and
the chaplain appeared. Chaplain Edg-
erton spoke few words Of comfort to
Jugigo when he told him that the end
was near, but the Jap did not receive
them in grateful spirit, and the chap
lain passed on to Smilers cell, while the
two priests busted themselves respect
lively with Slocum and Wood. The
condemned men took very calmly to
the announcement that the sentence
was
About to Be Executed.
They were dressed when the chaplain
and priests entered. Their clothing was
much alike-a suit of dark diagonal,
white shirt and collar and black tie.
The witnesses gathered in the
prison parlors shortly before the hour
fixed for the first electrocution to take
place. The warden led the way and
the witnesses went in no particular Or
der out of the door of the warden's
house, through short passage, then
with turn to the right through the
door in the prison wall. With another
quick turn to the left they skirted the
wall of the CONDEMNED mems cells,
turned to the right and entered the lit.
tie frame building in which the appa-
ratus of death had been placed. Oppo-
site the entrance of the chamber and
facing it was
The Death Chair.
It was almost of exactly the same pat
tern as the chair in which Kemmler
was executed-a plain wooden chair
with perforated wood seat, the back
having slight incline. Near the top of
the chair back was a rubber cushion for
the prisoners head and neck to rest on.
Above this was figure four" the long
arm of which was clamped with two
chair. In front of the chair extended
a foot rest to which the legs of the pris-
oner were to be bound. This was
the only important particular in which
the chair differed from the Kemmler
chair. Kemmler's legs were separated
and fastened 10 the front legs of the
chair in which he sat. The chair was
placed on a rubber mat to insulate it.
Behind the chair, built against parti-
tion wall which divided the building
into two apartments, was a closet open
ing at the top, about seven feet high.
In this closet was the switchboard which
was to be used In turning the current
into the condemned men. Before the
entrance of the witnesses
o. The Executjoner Had Entered
this closet from the other room and sat
waiting for the signal from the warden
to turn the switch. Who he was is not
known, and will not be known authori-
tatively. It is generally supposed that
the executioner was a convict from the
prison detailed for the duty. On the
right of the witnesses as they entered
was the massive iron door which closed
the passage leading into tbs prison for
the condemned. 1t was almost as mass
i've and impenetratable as the brick
walls about it: and as impervious to
sound. r-r
When the witnesses had ranged them
selves about the room the electrician
touched this button once. The engineer
responded to the signal and started the
dynamos. When the current had been
turned on, the electrician threw the
switch which turned it into the row of
lamps above his head. They burst into
q glow of light that rivalled the day.
light shining through the canvas COW
ering of the windows about the sides of
the improvised execution. room. The
prisoners
). =, Went to the Execution Chair ,.
bravely and met their fate without q
struggle. They offered no resistance,
but rather assisted the keepers when
they were bound down in the chair.
The electrodes were not applied, asin
the Kemmler case, to the top Of the
skull and the base of the spine, but were
bound to the foreheads of the COM
demned men and the cal 0f their