Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-04-24

JAMES BERRY
Late Executioner for Great Britain.
He is aman OF forty, we'll built and
not fat. He now wears red mutton
chop whiskers instead OF the stuoby
beard on which so many unfortunate
members Of his species looked their
last. His voice is agreeable, but he
treats the Queens English with much
cruelty, steadily dropping his his. The
lecture is printed below.
MR. JAMES BEERY's LECTURE.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The posi-
ton In which / appear this evening re-
quires some explanation. because /
think this is the first time 10 English
history that a man who has occupied
the very important position OF public
executiouer has ventured TO address
himself to his countrymen and country
women upon the question as TO the
abolition Of capital punishment.
For eight years and during the hold
ing OF ONCE of three Secretaries. OF
State for the Home Department / have
carried out executions in almost every
Jail throughout the length and breadth
Of Great Britain. The office is not one
which many would care TO hold. and II
is not necessary here 90 go into the
reasons which led me in the first In
stance to seek the appointment. The
fact remains that have acted as exc
cutioner for that period, and that now,
without knowing how shall be able TO
maintain my wife and family in the
future, l have voluntarily resigned the
Office l held.
HANGING NOT A DETERMINE INFLUENCE.
This action en- my part is not the re-
suit Of sudden resolve, but the conse-
quence Of growing conviction that the
policy of hanging is bad one; that 1t
is not such punishment for murder as
an enlightened Christian country ought
to carry out; that it has no lettering
influence on the commission of crime,
even that of murder, and that the new
instructions which have been circulated
through all the jails deprive the execu-
toner OF his personal independence and
actual responsibility, while it lays him
open to the reproach of consequences
resulting from the action OF another
THE MOST MERcIFUL MODE OF DEATH.
That hanging is the most merciful
mode of death | am confident. This
has been the English method from time
immemoria. At the present moment
hanging is practiced in Great Britain;
until very recently throughout the
United States; In Switzerland; in Hol-
land, and in Hungary. In Germany be-
heading is practiced; in France the
Guillotine is used; in Spain those SEN
fenced to death are garotted; in Sweden
they are decapitated; in Belgium, how
ever, the King has never been induced
to sign a death warrant: the King OF
Denmark is equally reluctant; and so
have been the rulers OF Roumania. Yet
there has not followed in these countries
any serious outbreaks OF crime.
Now, why cannot the death penalty be
abolished in England and another meth
cd OF punishment be substituted? This
Is a serious consideration, to which the
attention of the best minds In this
country has been directed. To this end
the Howard Association has labored for
twenty-five years, and they have Gre
ated a public feeling upon the question
which hope is ripe for action. pro-
pose, therefore, first of all to give you
particulars from my own experience
and then lay before you the arguments
which / think should have weight in
arriving at the conclusion that the PEN
atty If death should be erased from
the Statutes book Of this Christian land.
ANYHOW, an Executioner should above
all things be a humane man; quick TO
act, strong TO perform and of great
nerve power. A bungler would inflict
torture upon the doomed victim; a weak
man would be liable to the same fault;
a slow man would prolong unnecessarily
the agony OF dying, and nervous man
could not be trusted TO carry out the
work which devolves upon him. Why
should not the eXecntioner be humane
man9 He is man like other men,
with fsmily claims to meet and probably
with one sick in the family unto death,
whose life is s perpetual sacrifice OF suf-
iering.
ne HAS OBLIGATED on 1s3 OCCASIONS.
have oficiated upon one hundred
and eighty-three occasions, and no pris-
on governor has ever charged me with
cruelty to the convict, either BY being in
an unfit condition to do my work or by
bungling in the performance OF the
task.
A SCENE THAT HAUNTs BIN.
Could those who are most loud in in
Sisting upon the death penalty being
inflicted only witness the last mo-
ments Of the condemned, as / have,
they would. l think, desire change in
the law. In May, 1854, Lincolnshire
woman was executed at the new Jail;
Lincoln, for poisoning Der husband.
TO the last she Solemnly declared that
she had not done so, and as she was led
to the scaffold by two female warders
her screams were fearful, can hardly
bear to recall that scene. Her fright
and fear were 50 acute that the crowd