New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-07-06
THE DEATH CHAIR IS READY.
AN EXECUTION AT SING SING EXPECTED
TO-DAY
FOUR MEN WILL DIE THERE BEFORE THE WEEK
CLOSES, AND THEY MAY ALL END THEIR
LIVES BEFORE SUNSET TONIGHT

CLOSES, AND THEY MAY ALL END THEIR
LIVES BEFORE SUNSET TONIGHT.
! When the day opened at Sing Sing yesterday
morning 1t meant the BEGINNING of the week within
which the four murderers in prison here are
! condemned to die in the electric chair. 1t has
been only after long and bitter fight in the
courts in which all the ingenuity Of dozen or
more lawyers has been employed, that the law
at last is to take its course. The fight since the
time of the first conviction under the new eXecu-
ton law has beeh one long series of stays of
execution, writs of habeas corpus, and appllca-
tions to United States Judges under provision
of the statutes which makes null and void all
proceedings under Judgment obtained in State
court pending argument for a writ of habeas
corpus in the United States courts
The four men who are to die have given up all
hope of a much longer lease on life. They appear
neither to expect to wish that their lives shall
he longer continued. Yesterday was probably the
last day on earth that at least one, and perhaps
all four, of the men will spend. Warden Brown
is desrous of getting off from his hands as quickly
as possible duty which for him to perform will
be no pleasant one Neither does he care longer
to continue the misery of the condemned Grim
inals
1t is not known at what hour the first
execution will take place, nor who will he the
first TO occupy the death.chair. On these points,
as upon all others connected with the execution,
the warden has preserved q studied silence. Yet
from all indications it is altogether probable that
not long after daylight this morning the verdict
of the court in at least one instance will have
been carried out 1t will depend mainly on how
! the warden and the witnesses stand the first exc
cution, well as upon the manner in which the
apparatus works, whether or not more than one of
| 49, ole ic dol IN
same day. If the apparatus works well and the
witnesses and attendants can undergo the strain,
two, and perhaps the four men, will be dead by
sundown to-day The machinery Of death is i'll
| complete working order. A test of il was made
yesterday and there was neither hitch nor break
The condemned men did not seem to be greatly
disturbed yesterday by the thought that perhaps
they might witness only one more day break.
| They spent the day in the usual manner, reading,
smoking and occasionally in saying their prayers.
Horace A. Smief, 5he Salvation Army man, seems
to he the most affected, and at times he prayed
fervently. James j. Slocum, the baseball player,
seemed to be entirely composed, and he less fire.
ouently than Smcr indulged in prayer. Joseph
Wood, the coored boy, sat thoughtfully on his cot
most of the time his dark face giving appearance
fear. The least concerned, to all outward ap-
pearances, was Jugiro, the Japanese. He lay on
his back most of the day smoking cigarettes. 1t
| is the general impression that he will he the first
! to receive the bolt as he is big and powerful
fellow. weighing nearly 200 pounds. The experts
| think that if the execution with him is sue
cess, the others cannot fail to be so, too.
With the exception of Mr.. Connaughton the
principal keeper of the prison, the only visitor TO
the men Yesterday was the Rev. Father Lynch,
the assistant to the Rev. Father CredOn He
| went down TO the men IN the afternoon. lie re-
maincd with them for a few minutes only, ami
when he came upstairs after his visit he said that
all four were cheerful and resigned. Yesterday
the men were watched by Keepers Dembecker and
Kirsch and last night the death watch consisted
Of Keepers Partridge and Baxter. The guards
around the prison were doubled last night
and all visitors to the prison were
excluded No more visitors will be admitted
to the prison until after the executions are over.
Professor Louis II. Laudy, of Columbia College,
and Dr. AlphQnso d. Rockwell, who is both an
electrical and therapeutical expert, are said to
be among the scientists who will witness the
executions DR.. Macdonald was at Poughkeepse
all Yesterday, but he is expected at Sing Sing
Oh an early morning train Most of those from
this city who are TO see the executions reached
! Sing Sing early this morning The IL o'clock
train from this city last night made special
stop there for them.
Robert D.
night to have gone to Sing Sing with stay Of
execution, granted by Judge LacOmbe. At mid
| nirht it had not been served on the warden.
| Two men who reached Sing Sing about IL
! o'clock hurried to the prison and were at once
| nc litted by the warden They would not dis
clos. their names, but it was understood that they
were experts who intended to make an eXamlna-
| ton Of the machinery. Word was received by
the warden at q late hour that people in this
| city would claim Smiler's body.
The cells in which the condemned men have
| been living since they went to Sing Sing under
sentence of death are in the south prison yard,
and with the death chamber are grouped together
| much after the fashion of the negro cabins on
| the old plantations. The cells are one-story
affairs. which have been strung together as rap
| idly as men have been condemned to death
There are two rows of cells, the windows of one
tier opening in front of the high east wall of the
yard and those of the other tier facing the western
wall The doors of the cells face each other, but
n larre screen has been erected that the con-
dcmned men cannot look across the wide CSrfidor
! into the cells opposite. They can hear
however, the clicking of the bolts of one anotherS
quarters as the guards turn the keys i'll the
locks to open the doors Oi one of the rooms
Thus the condemned men will know when the
guards have taken OF their number away, but
until his turn comes to die, no one OF them Will
know who has gone In these corridors the
guards. who have held their long watch on the
prisoners pace up and down or stop TO chat with
one Of the men as the case may be. AT various
times in the day the men have been taken out
for short walk in the path in front of the cells
At such times the screens placed before the
occupied cells, SO the men do not
see one another. This is the life that
tbcv have been living for many months. At
Sinq Sing there has been no disgusting exhibit
ton of a woman spending hours with the con-
de.aned men, as there was in the case of kemm-
lar AT Auburn last August. The only woman, out
side of the Sisters Of CLARITY, who he's been to
the cells of the murderers is Mrs Smier, the wife
Of the salvation Army man, VINO killed woman
because she would not live with HIM. She comes
every day, bringing in her arms young baby to
visit her husband, who was willing to desert her