Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-09-02
And Great Increase in Piracy in
Chinese Waters May be
Looked For.
Mans Inhumanity to Man Seen
in Medieval Modes Of En-
ecuting Criminals.
Now Decapitation by the Guillo-
tine RObs Death Of Many
Of Its TerrOrS.

1t is said that The guillotine has re
Gently been introduced by the French
! into their colony of Tonquin. Our
nei"hbors, rs all the world is aware.
have had, and still have, plenty of work
! to do i'll the way of DISCRIMINATING pi
| racy i'll that vast and Yet unremumera-
! tive possession. And the method by
which they endeayor to eNterminate the
| pirate when they catch him, which. as
Il rule, they do not is that of decapita-
| ton. That ceremony has hitherto been
| performed in the primitive and rather
! barbarOuS native way.
| The culprit. being placed in a conven-
| lent position, used to light a cigarette
and wait for the eXecutioner to take Il
| shot at his neck with u big sword.
| Sometimes the headsman aimed
straight and sometimes he did not. and
a feeling has long existed among gentle
men of the piratical profession that an
| execution thus executed was distinctly
| IN unpleasant process for the patient
: Consequently the introduction of the
wood of justice" has by no means pro-
| duced the effect which the French au-
| thoritieS desired and expected. Instead
! Of being impressed with the horror Of
! this mode Of execution. the natives of
Tonquin are said to be highly delighted
with it. In fact. they regard the gull
| lotine as Il most ingenious article de
, Paris. and they have already witnessed
one execution With every demonstr;l-
! ton Of enthusiasm.
Dying, they say. is made delightfully."-
easy by this admirable invention of the
superior European intelligence. The
i result is that considerable satisfaction
is expressed in piratical circles. and it
| is confidently asserted by the New York
Advertiser that piracy will shortly in
crease very considerably. as nobody in
TOnquin would mind being abbreviated
inStantaneouSly by the guillotine.
Death, i'll short. has lost most of it's
: terror. because the process of dying has
! been rendered so simple
The pleasant legal fiction that all
right is founded on reason has been so
often refuted by appeals to the arbitr;l-
| ment of force that practical philOSo-
| pliers have renowned the hope in the
! definite abolition of war and capital
/ punishment, and directed their atten-
! ton to the undeniable possibility of
! mitigating the horrors of both
Low considerably warfare has been
humaniZed may be inferred from the
established fact that the practice OF
enslaving prisoners taken in battle
| should be considered Il triumph Of
| al.
such captives We're generally slain and
| often eaten.
Nor is hanging. that worst relic of
| barbalism," denounced in the diatribes
Of our American philanthropists Muir
| dererS Dates and traitors were cruel
! fed i'll Syria many years before the be
! ginning of our chronological era. and
! the sentence of the cross was gradrl-
ally extended to other criminals. cS-
pccinlly to ''rebelS.'' Il term admitting
| of rather unexpected definitions. since
/ Alexander the Great nailed llp several
thousand prisoners who hld been
! guilty of no other crime than of defend
ing Il beSieged city with unusual ohsti-
! macy.
| n hundred years after the death of
! IycurgllS the Spartans still rid them
selves OF troublesome citizens by throw
| inc them from the summit cliffs of a
steep precipice. and the Hebrews often
convened mass meetings (by no means
] confined to roWdiesI for the PURPOSE of
stOning Il criminal; but the penal code
Of Athens at the same time was mild
! to strange degree. and. indeed. almost
! unparalleled degree. Narcotic pOiSGns
| (henlock and poppy juice We're sub
| Stituted for mechanical CCntrivances of
! execution, and. moreover. a defendant
had the right to avoid the risk of q
trial by voluntary exile. Once pub
liSh"d the sentence of death was gen
! orally without appeal, but the CON
! demned was mostly granted Il respite
! sufficient to arrange his family affairs,
and his friends were permitted to share
his last moments with entertaining dis
/ courses, or even with convivial assem-
blieS
In The latter respect the medias.val
Germans went L step further and al
lowed a criminal the privilege Of de-
voting the last day Of his life to riotuus
feaStS, ANY amount of meat which the
condemned and two dozen friends can
| consume in day. together with any
quantity of ordinary wine.'' saws the
IlalS Gericht. or Penal Code. of Strass-
| burg. But the medieval methods of
execution We're still exceedingly barbar-
, Ol;S In Bohemia poacherS were often
sentenced to be torn by the hounds Of
the offended game owner: timber
thieves We're thrown into a blaze Kin
died with the bruShwood of the de-
spoiled forests. and in Poland and Rus
Sia unfaithful wives We're occasionally
walled up and left TO starve TO death.
On the Lower Danube highway rob
berS were impaled UP to the time of
Matthias Corvinus. who abolished the
barbarity in 1445, but in Turkey it
seems to have continued a century
longer. and 4 contemporary of Luther
describes a Bosnian brieand Joking and
drinking in articulo morris. with a stake
protruding a foot and a half from his
ribs
All such things. however were trifies
compared with the inhumanities of the
inquiSition. and sentimental worShirers
Of the romantic middle ages should
study the statistics of Lorente. who
computes that from 1913 to the end of
the fifteenth century $4,000 persons
We're consigned to the flames in Spain
and Portugal alone. besides the thou
sands of witches and hereticS burned i'm