St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-12-10
GALLOwS GO UP.
Hayward Hears the Awful Sound
of the Hammers.

Oh the hammers.
Although in anything but good
humor yesterday afternoon, Hay
ward seemed to be thoroughly con-
tented last night, and in the very
best of spirits. He said he was
thoroughly resigned to his fate, and
would die like a man. The new suit
of clothes in which he is to meet
death also seemed to please his fancy
and he laughed and chatted with
any one who cared to talk with him.
claims to have married, and about
religion and a hundred kindred other
subjects. Yet his talk was not of that
rambling, imaginative nature which
has characterized it in the past. AS
he said himself, his mind seemed to
be clearer than for some time past.
If he had never before given up
hope, the sounds of the hammers yes
terday as the gallows were being put
together must have been a death
knell to Hayward. Before o'clock
a small army of men, under the di-
rection of Carpenter S. G. Cutter,
began to carry the pieces of the scat
where they have been stored, to the
big room in the north wing of the
Jail, where the execution is to take
place. Capt. Lon Wheeler, the eff
cient and active turnkey. had been
entrusted by Jailor West with the
,iroo
erection of the scaffold. Under his
supervision the steam had been
turned on the big, bare chamber,
with it's two grim iron cages at Ell
ther end, and Laurence Moten, a
colored boy who is serving time in
the Jail, was put to work cleaning
up the place, which is ordinarily used
as kind of a store room.
AT 9 o'clock the various pieces of
the scaffold were being hurried
through the Jail office and through
the narrow passageway into the
hangman's room. The trap, floor and
heavy timbers of the scaffold were
carried into the room. The two main
posts, 10x12 inches by is feet long,
were so long that it was with the
greatest difficulty that they were
pushed through the narrow passage
way. Piece after piece of dirty red
timber was carried in, and last of all
came the heavy stairway, which will
be the last ascent Harry Hayward
will ever climb. 1t was the first part
of the scaffold that was raised, and
Immediately afterward the carpen-
ters began saving and arranging
timbers to be used in raising the
scaffold.
1t was a solemn scene, and the car
penters themselves worked grave
faced and quiet.
The work on the scaffold progress
ed rapidly after it was commenced,
and last night it was practically COM
pleted. 1t stands against the unused
cage on the Fourth street side of the
lofty execution chamber, which is a
dreary enough place, with its cold
stone wall, towering up fifty feet.
With it's towering main posts, eight
cen feet high, and its somber red
paint, the gloomy instrument of
death has an air of silent warning
and dreadful foreboding which cause
sensitive persons to leave the cham
Der of death after one glance. Such
has been the effect on many of the
curious people who called at the Jail
to examine the engine of death which
will huri Harry Hayward into the
next world.
The platform is ska feet and is sup
ported by. four posts eight feet ten
inches in height and six inches square
Corbels, 10X12 inches, held in place by
short Axe braces, supported from the
posts with their upper surfaces flush
with the tops of the posts in turn sup
port nine joists on which the plat
form Is laid. The platform is thus a
little more than eight feet eleven inch
es above the floor of the room. The
end joists are 3XS, and the inside ones
2xS. The heavy 10x10 main posts,
eighteen feet high, which support the
1Ox12 inches, are placed at
either end of the structure somewhat
nearer the front than the back As
they rise from the floor their tops are
platform. A groved place in the mid |
die of the cross-beam marks the place |
where the fatal rope will hang. This |
Is directly over the opening in the |
front part of the platform in which the |
trap will swing. This opening, of |
course, is Of the size Of the trap. three |
feet six inches square. The trap works |
On hinges, not at the back, but on the |
right side as one faces the scaffold.
The trap opening is cut in from the |
front Of the platform.
The lever which controls the trap is
placed almost directly back of it's CEN
.er, close to the rear of the platform.
By moving, 1t withdraws the two little
pieces which support the side of the
rap opposite the hinges and the trap
alls.
The drop will be a little more than
even feet and after the rope was put
n position, test was made with a
ack filled with some heavy material,
o the weight Of 200 pounds, which is
bout what Hayward weighs.
Shortly after the tests had been COM
leted County Commissioner Conroy,
yith several other gentlemen, was ad-
nitted to see Harry, and remained
nth him for some time. Commission
r Conroy said that he had never be-
ore seen Harry in such jovial humor
fe was entertaining for the first time,
Though a dozen different subjects
vere discussed. OF his fate and last
ay on earth he talked frankly, as stat
d above, of his willingness to die,
nd his determination to die a man.
lie asked his visitors their opinion of
eligion, and said he had concluded
e did not want any of it at all. He
ad concluded that no matter how
ian lived all went to the same place
hen they died. AS long as there was
Conffnued ON Third Pnre