The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-21
ABOUT HANGING KANSAS:

tage. He is shut out from one fountai
/ at which his Missouri co-laborer freel
drinks. He may merrily sharpen hi
pencil and take a front seat at the core
! ner's inquest; he may fully enjoy TIL
: murdererS society and conversation
t while awaiting trial; he is at liberty t.
make the most of the trial, down to anC
Including the land may God have mere,
on your, SOUL with which the judg
ends the sentence and the case, bu
there the Kansas news gatherer's laria
comes to sudden end. For him Their,
is no more interest in that particula
; man-slayer; there are no visits to b,
paid to the condemned man. while h
remains a subject of prayers and boquet:
in ''murderers' row." and there is nc
fatal day" to be looked for and joyfully
written up. The Kansas press mar
never has chance to write how the
murderer slept soundly during his las
night on earth; how he rose early anC
ate breakfast composed of warm bis
cult, ham and eggs, coffee and apple
sauce; how the clergyman arrived or
time and hymn was sung, ''in which
the CONDEMNED Joined in strong voice.
how the march to the scaffeld began,
and the march being concluded, the con
demned "ascended with firm step the
fatal LADDER" how the nervy and neatly
dressed murderer lin whose pocket was
found the bloody jack-knife with which
he had cut his victims throat stated IN
a clear voice that he was entirely limo
cent of the offence with which he was
charged and for which he was now tc
die; but he forgave all who had had
any hand in his conviction, especially as
their action was only to result in trans
ferring him to brighter realm above,
where there were no sheriffs or judges;
how the trap was sprung; the doomed
man fell with a dull thud" and swung
| slowly rOnnd and round.
| From the recording of these ancient
and oft repeated, yet always interesting,
| details, the Kansas ''purveyOr Of lntelli-
gence" is shut out like the Peri who at
the gate of Eden stood disconsolate.
He hears the judge sentence men to all
this, but knows, as does the judge and
prisoner at the bar, who grinS as he
stands up to receive the sentence, that it
will never be carried out; that nobody is
going to be hung by the neck until he is
dead.
There seems to have been q very
strong sentiment in favor of capital pun
ishment by sentence of law in Kansas.
Many people believe that no one has
ever been regularly hanged in the state,
but this is an error. There have been
several legal hangings at which all the
formalities observed in the Oldest and
most cultivated communities have car
ried out. The now venerable Marsh
Murdoch got a job Of reporting one of
these events many years ago at Bur
lingame, then the seat of justice of Usage
county, the finished effort of Marsh
and the sheriff appearing in the
old Missouri Democrat now the
Globe-Democrat There was GER
tainly a regular hanging once at
Seneca, and perhaps in all half a dozen
other county seats have been similarly
honored. Yet the practice of furnishing
murderers in the old English manner
never obtained that hold on the affec-
people which obtains in the older states
of the Union. But Kansas may be said
to have always been sentimental state,
and consequently an inconsistent one,
for it is notorious that where people are
too tender-hearted to hang malefactors
with the condition of a long time for
preparation, during which they may be
the idols of the feminine portion of the
population; supplied with all the lux
uries Of life to supplement the necessar
les as furnished by an indulgent jailor,
who invariably becomes much attached
to his condemned charge and always adj
dresses him by his given name, there is
no scruple against dragging man to the |
nearest tree and swinging him up like a
Il.
1t is curious instance of inconsistency |
that Kansas, where the old pen
atty against murder was feebly !
enforced, and capital punishment
finally abolished by an evasive
statute, framed by party named Whit
ney who Was afterwards, greatly to his |
surprise and regret, shot full of holes in |
Chicago, that Kansas, we say, has been |
the scene of more lynchiLg than any
body has the industry to catalogue. AS |
the groves were Gods first temples, Sc
they seem in Kansas to have been |
Justices first sacrificial affairs. During |
the partisan excitement, commonly |
known as "border troubles the Rev. !
Mr.. Montgomery of the Soul Sleeper |
denomination was accustomed to send |
parties to test the truthfulness Of his |
view on future state, principally, it |
would seem, because they We're found |
on the wrong side OF the Missouri line, |
and because some verse in the Old Tesla |
ment seemed to suggest the execution. |
Every large town in Kansas IN its earlier |
and later years has witnessed the eXecu- |
ton of Judge Lynch'S DEGREES; notably !
Atchison, Leavenworth. Topeka. Fort |
Scott and Lawrence. The year 1870 was
in Kansas history by the |
hanging Of five ruffianS on one tree in |
Neosho county: the killing of another !
outlaw by ''cltizens generally In Geary, |
then Davis county, and the popular
hanging of six men in Butler county. |
1t Is believed this record has never been
broken IN any year since.
It may be reasoned that in such stir
ring scenes as these the Kansas scribe
may find compensation for the loss or
absence OF the regular thing" But
are usually impromptu affairs,
entirely informal and gotten up without
the preliminary of leaving word al the
newspaper offices or sending compli
mentarleS to the press, and even should
the faithful journalist, hearing Of the
exercises. start for the scene of action he
confronted by the front entrance OF a
arge gun and be told in brief but suf
icient phrase to ''go back" Ia any
event there is in the case of popular as
with Judicial executions no
for the careful and finished
literary work expected by the public in
he case of a triumph by often baffled
1ut occasionally satisfied justice.
1t would be gratifying 10 hold out to
he Kansas journalist some hope of a
brighter day when he may stand on an
quality with his Missouri colleague, but