Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-08-05

boiling the victim 20 death. This was
imposed during the reign OF bluff Kiug
Hal, without benefit OF clergy, upon
prisoners Those condemned 10 this
mode of punishment were subjected TO
the process in boiling water, oil, molten
lead and sulphur Another mode OF de-
priving human being of life Is that Of
blowing the condemned from a cannon,
q subject that has been made painfully
realistic by Verestchagin's great pic
sure. On the authority of DR.. Calkins
there is 20 interval for suffering,
as no sooner has the perlpheral
sensation reached the central organ
than the same is dissipated 10 the four
winds Of heaven. This scientific state
ment must be taken with the grain OF
salt that allows for the agony OF the
victim while undergoing the process
which precedes the dissipation OF his
central perceptivs organ. Burning is
one Of the lowest, and, 20 the average
mind. the most dreadful forms OF lOOs-
ing the human soul from its enyirOns.
The ancient Romans, the Jews, the
Britons. and other nations have made
use Of 10 In their scheme Of capital pun
ishment. The BritOuS threw their vic
tins, many in number, into wicker
cages made in the form Of some well
known idol The wood was heaped be-
meath and around 10 and the fire lighted.
As the flames rolled upward and min
gled their roar with the impOte1t
groans or the victims, the likeness TO
the god was lost. but 20 him was ac-
credited the vengeance imposed on the
sufferers.
Another horrible method OF intlicting
the death penalty was by burying alive.
Not satisfied with interring the con-
demned, some barbGrOus tribes buried
10 the hips or shoulders, packing the
earth firmly in, and left their victim
helpless 70 meet lingering death OF ex-
pOsure and starvation.
CrucifctiOn, which the story OF Christ
has carried over the round world, is
form Of punishment so repellant 10
modern ideas that IL is almost an
argument for those who deny the d.
vinity Of the Savior who suffered.
Yet DR.. Lyman Abbott has presented
this practice as 10 existed at the
time OF Christ in his brilliant aud inter
esting description. "Oi all the cruel
punishments OF s barbarous age. IL
possessed q bad prominence Of cruelty
in an age when fashionable audiences
crowded the vast smphitheater 20 ap-
plaud the fearful horrors OF gl2diatorial
combats, and fair women gave the
death signal and Toasted their sanguiu-
airy ewes on the eobing life Of the de-
feated. II was in this age that Cicero
called crucihXiOn a punishment most
inhuman and shocking, aud wrote Of Ia
that it should be removed from the
eyes ami ears aud the thought OF
men. Too horrible for a Roman
citizen, no freeman might be
subjected 10 t. IL was reserved, with
rare exceptions, for slaves aud foreign
ers. Upon this gentle cruelty tue Jew
looked with special horror. The cross,
like the eagle, was a sign OF degrade
tlon. Its infections by the Romans
was a badge eff Israeps servitude. The
ancient law Of Moses fixed a peculiar
curse TO it, To cruelty even corpse
was 10 submit is TO the preatest posSi-
bic iudignity. Thus the agony OF pain
was intensified by the agony OF pecu-
liar shame.
"The physical agony Of the cross was
that of a lingering death. The victims