The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-02-03
THE TEXAS HORROR.

| hioited By the organic fundamental Law
OF every state in the Union. including the
state Of Texas. where on Wednesday last
the people OF Paris deliberately tortured be-
| fore death and finally burned q. the stake
negro who had ravished and murdered
| child Of 4 years OF age. Paris is in the vi
| cinity of Texarkana, where 5000 people
| burned negro a. the stake about year
/ ago. The negro was burned for fifty MIN
| utes With red hot irons from head 10 foot.
| After burning his feet and legs hot
/ irons We're rolled up and down Smiths
stomach, hack and arms Then the eyes
/ we're burned out, and irons thrust down
/ his throat. Then he vas burned TO death.
/ Our dispatches were in error in one par
/ ticular, for they said:
Never bslore since the day. Of the Spanish in
! QUESTION Ess there been such terrible punish.
Inent dealt cut 70 any nan.
This is mistake; the Spanish inquisi-
ton never tortured in the fifteenth
century any man as cruelty as the Chris
tian people of Paris, Tex, tortured this
wretch in the last decade OF the nineteenth
century. There is nothing in the annals
"a ANS@A w Si&-S@A IAAiOpS
matches this Texas horror. Pagan Rome
crucfed criminals; Christian Rome,
| France and Spain burned men at the
stake, buried them alive, broke them on
the wheel, boiled them in oil, put them
10 the rack, the boot. the thumbscrew; but
outside of the fortunes inflicted Oh the
famous regicides, Ravaillac and Gerard.
ers3 Lin
Louis the Fifteenth of France, there is
nothing IN the history Of pagan or Chris
ttan Europe that equals in barbarity the
Texas horror.
There is modern precedent, however, for
the Texas theory and practice Of indicting
death by slow torture. A good many years
ago party of Apache Indians captured
an emigrant tram and they heated the
king bolts OF the wagons redhot and tor
tured the poor, helpless men and women
10 death exactly as the Texas avengers
tortured the negro. Perhaps the white
Christian savages of Texas are indebted to
the red savages of Arizona for this refine
ment of torture.
There are other presidents. In China
under their legal code crimes of excep-
| tional enorrnity are punished by sIicing
the convict TO death. The execu,ioner
with his sword, slowly slices the desh off
the body of the condemned, taxing care to
proIong his agonies as much as possible.
He slices the desh first from the calves of
the legs. then from the thighs, then from
the hips, then from the breast, the back,
| the arms. the shoulders, the cheeks, he
cuts of the fingers and toes, he cuts Oft the
nose, the lips. the ears, the eyelids. Our
Texas friends never heard Of this Chinese
torture or they would have doubtless in
hicted it on the wretch they burned on
Wednesday last; We recite the details with
a sense of humiliation that our ingenious
American Christian civilization should
have proved itself inferior TO the Mongo-
lian in its brilliant aptitude for the inven-
ton Of excruc!ating modes OF torture.
| However. 1t is not too late; Texas can
slice the next negro miscreant that her
people doom TO death. There is no place
in ali Christen dom save certain states of
| the old slave South where such spectacle
as the Texas horror OF Wednesday could
! have possibly taken place with the
approval and deliberate cooperation
! OF 10000 persons who profess to
! be inhabitants OF Christian land
and 10 belong TO the ranks of civilization
/ If not 10 the followers OF Christ. Under
| the Apache Indian code such horrors have
| been inflicted: under the Mongolian code
1 equal if not worse tortures have been in
49, / 2 & ~ 4
/ the annals of pagan Europe as far back
| as the battle Of Marathon cannot match
| this Texas horror; to equal il We must
/ 90 back 10 the annals of Oriental cruelty,
I under Cleopatra IN ancient Egypt; under
| Cambyses in ancient Persia: under Ham
! Hear III that most cruel of ancient states,
! Carthage
The dreadful thing about this awful
/ business IS not the torture of the negro
! miscreant who was horribly done to death,
! out the terrible stupidity which prompted
| the fr ghtiul act OF vengeance Here arr
! Io.0o0 people who make a local holiday;
an object lesson for school children of this
horrible affair; make barbecue feast Of
/ brutality under the seemingly sincere con
1 NlNbAtii h&s1b ttAE ~ AtAi sB4a.tLiOA Oh =
/ cruel and unusual punishm ent for a cruel
and unusual crime Was not only deed OF
| exemplary vengeance, but "a moral
| reform" measure. sure deterrent
| 10 black eviI-1oers OF this sort ana
| an admirable training school in
the art Of civic government for the
| growing generation Of white children.
| The proyocat1on TO popular rage was
great, but as an object lesson Of vengeance
| ANA exceptionally cruel punishment, this
| Texas horror IS absolutely worthless as
deterrent influence, whi!e as e demoraliz-
! ing lesson in sickening. insane baroarity
II Will hear bitter fruit. The wisdom Of
Christeniom has not in every free coun-
| ~ forbidden in the fundamental law the
atjction OF "crue! ana unusual punish
| mentS" Tor crime, because this Christian
.sdom is deeply concerned about the
mere individual sUfleCings OF the CON
iemned. bu; the Christian wisdom tina,
/ rules free states has learned Nv experience
| shat excessive legal severity defeats it,
/ purpose and. worse than this. demoral.ze,
as public,
II the best brains Of ChriStendom sin
cerely believed that society vas surer o.