The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-07-15
THE GutCtOTINE.
Hissory of the Instrument That Has
Claimed It's Thousands.

One OF the most widely disseminated
OF popular errors is that DIR. Guillotin
invented the grim machine which still
bears his name. The real inventor of
TINS sinister contrivance was DIR. Louis,
weli-known medical man, and perma-
nent secretary of the Partisan School
OF Medicine or Academic de Medicine.
Inc teachings of Beccaria, endorsed
as they were by Voltaire and other
humanitarian writer's of the eighteenth
century, had at last awakened in the
minds OF the people feeling of revul-
sion against the prevalent barbarous
methods of putting criminals to death.
Louis ANI. remembered with horror
the understandable torments to which the
wretched Damiens had been subjected
for an attumpt on the life of his prede-
cessor, ami early in his own reign mani
tested a desire to effect complete
reformation of the prison system
throughout his dominions. In 1888 he
wrote a letter to his brother-in-law,
Joseph H., on this subject, and on
many occasions manifested keen in
terest in everything connected with a
and condemned persons The queen,
too, had placed herself at the head of
society of ladies who devoted some of
their leisure to the visitation of prisons,
and the subject of their reformation
had become fashionably popular.
In l7ss DIR. Louis, well-known pro-
fessor of pathology, modelled his APP
| paratus on the manaja, a rougher sort
| Of guillotins, which had been used in
Italy for centuries On March :, 1892,
this gentleman read paper on his in
vention before select assembly of
members of parliament, and exhibited a
small model of it, made for him by NJ
Schmidt, the famous manufacturer of
musical instruments, who was so liber-
ally pa tronized by Marie Antoinette,
for whom he constructed several of his
most elaborate spinnets and harpsi-
| chords. Little did he imagine that he
had exhibited the model for an instru-
ment which, within two years, would
destroy both his illustrious patroness
| and her husband. On March IS a reso-
luton was passed by the national as
sem bly, recommending the immediate
introduction of the machine in question
in all prisons throug hout the country.
Me invention was first called the
Louison, after its real inventor DIR.
Guillotin, who continued his crusade
| against the rack, the wheel, the rope
and the stake all of which had only
recently been abolish ed, and several of
which, notably the W heel were still in
use in the sout hern provinces-con-
stantly spoke with such enthusiasm Of
DIR. Louis appa ratus that the people
ended by giving his name to it, and he
was presently credited with having in
vented an instrument which he had
only introduced to public attention. On
April 25, 1903, the gu illotine was pub
licly used for the first time, and be-
headed a bandit named Pelisscr This
was in the Place de Greve, where some
twenty years previo usly Damiens had
been tormented for days in precisely the
same way as Ravaillac had been for the
assassination of Henry w.
During four months after the execu-
ton the machine which was eventually
to achieve such sinister celebrity was
disused. In August it was transferred
| to the Place du Carrousel, and a few
weeks later it was alternately stationed
in the Place de Greve, the center of
what is now called the Place de la Con-
| corde. and in the Place du Trone 1t
was in the Place de la Concorde that
| Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Nine
| Elizabeth, and some eight thousand
| other victims fell beneath the identical
blade which, by curious irony of fate,
| is now to be see n in the Chamber of
| Horrors at Nine. Tussa ud's. As it 10
| impossible now to scertain the exact
number of the Wet inns of the Massacre
of St Bartholomew, 50 it is impossible
to give correct es innate of the num-
Der of persons who were put to death
by the guillotine in France between
| August 10. 1872, and the 9th "Thermi-
| dor" 1894, but it was certainly not I'M
| der 40 900. Lamartinc and Theirs gave
| the number as under q, 900; but they do
not seem to have been acquainted with
| the evidence which has been discovered
| during the last few years of the facts Of
the '.Comite du Salut Public" in the
small towns and villages where roughly
CONSTRUCTED RuliiDLlHcS were erected,
ard performed their awful work with
appalling regularity. Under the en-
| pire and restoration the guillotine was
permanently stationed in the Place de
Cireve. and executed annually between
thirty and forty persons. During the
reign OF Louis Philippe the guillotine
was transferred to the Barriere st.
Jacques and under the second empire
to the Place de la Roquette, where it
remains. During the Commune the old
guillotine was burned by the people,
and the present instrument is quite
new. samson, who was the public exc
cItioner throu ghout the Reign of Ter
ror, sold the original guillotine to Cur
| thus for 81 900, and he in his turn dis
| posed of it for a larger sum to his
niece, Nine. Tussaud. DIR. Guillotin.
who died in 1914, theoretically but
vainly protested against the use of his
name in connection with this disagree
able subject-another evidence. If one
were wanted, of the great difficulty
there Is of correcting a popular error.
Needless to say that the legend that
DR.. Guillotin was among the victims of
his friends ingenious and merciful in
strument of destruction is wholly
lapOcryphal. He died at good old age,