The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-12

inherent people In order TO read their
thoughts-to penetrate their very souls
and consciences-so as to experience all the
sentiments which agitated them. Wiertz
proved to BIS most fitting person for SO
delicate mission.
| ABOUT twenty minutes previous to the ar
rival OF the condemned on the day OF exc
cutlon Wiertz, accompanied by his friend,
Dr.. D, and two witnesses proceeded
to the guillotine, and there, placing them
selves close to tie fatal basket beneath the
| scatfold, but unsuspected by the public.
Mlertz was hypnotized by the doctor.
| While in this condition DR.. D. Obliged
| him to identify himself with the victim,
to follow infinitely all his thoughts, and to
feel and express aloud the sensations affect
ing the criminal just at the moment when
the knife entered his neck. He ordered
him finally, just as the head fell into the
basket, to make an effort to enter that
brain and aDalyze the last thoughts there
| impressed.
The three friends who accompanied the
painter stood there in breathless silence,
anxiously awaiting Developments The
| tread of feet overhead warns them that the
| condemned is being led by the executioner
to the death dealing machine
The culprit ascends the scaffold; another
| instant and the guillotine will have accom-
pllshed it's bloody work.
AAo 0OCtOT WbLCueS w leTEZ ana nOClCe9
that he is extremely perturbed. He Suppll-
oates piteously to be awakened. The an
guish expressing him is tOlerable. But it
is too late; the knife has fallen!
''What do you feels What do you seer
questions the doctor.
The painter. struggling with commissions,
answers, moaning: "a lightningl The
thunderbolt has fallenl o, horror The
head thinks; the head sees
tcs,N h.. Il
but cannot comprehend what has happened.
at looks for Its body. II seems as If the
body must join it. 1t expects the final
blow. 1t awaits death, but death will not
comer
While Wiertz was giving utterance to
these shocking sentences the other wit
nesses who had noticed the head falling
through the bag to the bottom of the bas-
ket, crown downward and bleeding neck
upward, observed that it was looking at
them with mouth widely dlstended and
teeth tightly clinched. The arteries still
pulsated palpably where the knife had sew
cred them and the warm blood spurted out,
scattering the eyes, the face, the hair.
The painter continued his lamentations
''Ahl What hand is this strangling me?
An enormous. merciless hand. o! this
pressure crusheS me. Nothing but big
red cloud do see. Shall | ever Iiberate
myself from this accurssd hand? Let loose
you monster Vainly do / struggle with
both my hands What is this l feel7 An
open wound and my blood flowing. l am
nothing but head rent from the bodyn
1t was only after long suffering that must
have seemed endless that the decapitated
head realized its separation from the badly.
Wiertz had again subsidized into somno-
lence, and DR.. D. continued his interro-
gatories.
'What do you see now? Where are you!"
The painter answered: I fly into open
space like wheel hurled through a fire.
But-am deadl Is all over with me7 o.!
If they would only join my body with my
head again! o, men have mercy! Re-
store my body to me and l shall live again.
still think. still see. yet remember
everything. There are my Judges clad in
dark robes, They utter my sentenced o,
my poor bereaved wife! My wretched, IN
fortunate child You love me 10 longer.
You abandon me. II only you would unite
me with my body / should be with you
again MOI You are insensible to my en-
treaties. But love you still, my poor
darlings. Let me but embrace you. Come,
my little child. No9 You shudder with
fear: o, unfortunate, you are stained with
my blood! When will this CHASTITY racking
endl Endl Is not the criminal doomed to
eternal punishment
While the sleeping artist described these
sensations the bystanders noted TINT the
orbs in the severed head were immensely
dilated and expressed inde3cribable agony
and intense pleading. The bewaiing con-
tinued:
mo, no; such torture cannot last foreverI
God is merciful! Now all belonging to
earth fades from my sight l see afar in
the remote distance a star glistening and
scintillating. o, how restful it must be
therel How relieved feell My entire be-
ing is soothed by the gentle balm Of peace
aud calmness. What a tranquil slumber
shall havel o. what ecstasyw
These we're the last words uttered by the
hypnotic subject. Although still in this
sleep, he failed to answer any further ques-
tioning. DIR. D. az this point examined
the head In the basket, touching its fore
head, its temples, its teeth; all was icy.
The head was dead.
This grewsome experience of the painter
Wiertz, has been reported in all the scien-
tific centers of Germany. MIR. Larelez,
Wiertz's biographer, gives his version OF IL
therein and a collaboration Of q st Peters
burgh paper called Nouosti published an
accurate study Of it.
VIII ever again an emotional subject 30
peculiarly endowed as Wiertz be found to
repeat such an experiment?
1t is not at all likely that there will be
imitators. as it is more painful to suffer
with the subject of the guillotlne than to
look OF "MoDsieur de Parisn when he sepa-
rates a head from the body with the great
est skill.
2oCroNI yuATTnRS WON'T SuAuu