Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-05-12
CARLYLE HARRIS.

ris displayed Indifference and it's read
ing did not noticeably affect him. Rev.
John c. S. Wells, the prison chaplain,
went in to see Harris at 8 o'clock and
remained for an hour. After he came
out DR.. Irvine went in and found Har-
ris showing nervousness, but otherwise
all right. He said afterward that
Harris did not ask for morphine or any
other stimulant. His only request
was for two oranges. They were
taken in to him. Harris was shaved
and had his hair cut at 1920. He then
put on a new suit of clothes furnished
by the State.
The final test of the apparatus was
made at 11:4O o'clock. A board on
which were run twenty-four incan-
descent lights was placed across the
arms of the chair and the current was
turned on full head, showing a voltage
of 1,7OO.
Not since the first electrocution at
Sing Sing, when four men-Slocum,
Smiler, Jugiro and Wood-were put to
death with the experimental apparatus
then in use, has there been such an
interest displayed here.
Throngs of people gathered on the
w
the prison, and though they could not
hope to catch a glimpse of Harris or
see the implement of death they gazed
with morbid curiosity at the building
from which the doomed will not
emerge until soul and body are parted.
The crowds began assem- bling early
and they were larger and of a more
intelligent class of people than is
usually drawn to this SPOT
The fact that Harris is the first man
wit any pretensions to culture, re-
finement and intelligence who has
taken his place in the electric chair is
appreciated. Public interest in the
cases of the thirteen men who have
met their fate at the touch of the mys-
ferrous agent employed by this State
has been confined to the method of
the killing, as to whether it was quick
and painless or slow and torturesome.
The cleo rocutions which have pre-
coded the one to-day were the going to
death of the brutes who had killed
fellow beings, and about whose guilt
there was no doubt and in whose cases
there was little to arouse sympathy.
At o'clock Undertaken Kipp drove
to the prison and placed the body in a
highly polished oak casket. The un-
dertaker refused to disclose the plans
for the disposition Of the body.
The silver plate upon the cover of
the casket contained this inscription:
Carlyle w. Harris, murdered May 8,
1893, aged % years, months, Is days.
1--WE would not if we had known"
There was a very impressive scene at
the Amber house in the afternoon when
Mrs. Harris saw the reporters. The re-
markable woman stood calm and pas
sive facing them with dry eyes. Her
voice was firm as she declared her boy
innocent.
Story o the Crime.
Carlyle Harris. the New York wife
murderer, who dies to-day, has prob
ably attracted more attention than
any other criminal for months.
The desperate fight for her boys
life made by his mother and the equal
ly desperate fight for his conviction
made by the murdered girls mother
has intensified the dramatic interest of
the trial to wonderful degree. This
erect, handsome man of "a years has
Glen Falls, n. Y, of fine
family, he lived with his mother
in Brooklyn after she separ-
ated from his father. Mrs Harris
was poor and Carlyle passed through
the stages of book-agent, clerk and
actor before he took up the study of
medicine at 10. In 1889 they went to
Ocean Grove, n. j., to live and there
he met Mary Helen Potts, the muir
dered girl. She was pretty and he took
q fancy to her. Pretty girls were a
weakness of his and his reputation In
that direction was unsavory. The
girls mother refused to sanction their !
engagement, as while in Ocean Grove |
Harris ran a gambling house and sa-
loon. After the return to New York |
Harris and Miss Potts were secretly |
married and in . little while he began |
10 neglect her. She was in delicate !
condition and an operation was per-
formed to conceal her condition. liter
she had informed friend of