St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-17
HAWAIIAN OUTRACES
FIENDISH METHODS USED ON
THE SUSPECTS.
STRUNG UP BY THE THUMBS
To Compel Them to Confess
Whatever Their TOrtur-
ers Demanded.

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, Feb. 49,
The Call prints the following from
Honolulu: The success of the gov
ernment of Hawaii in conducting its
treason cases was due to the incrim-
mating evidence given by Capt. Will
lam Davies, of the steamer Waiman-
alo. The manner in which the sworn
statement was wrung from Davies is
interesting as showing the peculiar
process at present existing in the Ha-
waiian Islands. Davies and his mate,
Knudson, were arrested on the morn
ing of Jan. 6. Knudson made a con-
fession telling what little he knew.
Davies, who is an American citizen,
refused any information, and while
protesting his innocence, demanded an
interview with the United States min
lister. This was refused. Davies was
then taken into the prison yard, where
he was shown two ring-bolts in the
wall above his head. The uniformed
inquisitor of the government then
gave the captain to understand that
if a complete confession was not
Forthcoming he would be strung up
by the thumbs. Davies did not finch,
but determined that if the American
minister should not come the consul
general should be informed that he
was an American citizen and wished
to see him. His protest was in vain.
His legs were bound below the knees
and his thumbs were lashed with
whip-cord to the bolts. A cord was
placed below him so that the unfortu-.
nate mans toes just touched it. Da-.
vies was stripped to the waist, while
Marshal Hitchcock, Attorney General
Smith and Surgeon Cooper with
stenographer, awaited the statement
which they believed would be forth
coming. They were mistaken. Davies
would not weaken. Sweat ooZed from
every pore. The strong man in his
agony begged a drop of water to cool
the thirst that consumed him. The
tendons of the victims limbs stood
out like strands of rope; blood vessels
knotted on his arms and legs, swell
ing as if ready to burst with congested
blood, restrained in it's course by his
abnormal position. His tormentors
urged him to implicate all known to
be politically opposed to their meth
DDS, but without avail. Davies re-
fused to surrender the secret he had
sworn to protect.
At last, when it was apparent by his
respiration that it would be impossible
to hold out longer, nature succumbed,
and Davies, cursing the fiends who
were torturing him. tainted. DR.. Coop
er used salts of ammonia TO revive the
captain, who had passed into the pain
less realms of Inconsistencies. AS
soon as he revived two negro convicts
suspended him again by the thumbs.
This inhuman operation was begun al
noon, and it was o'clock in the even
ing before Davies, more dead than
alive, made the statement that respited
him from the inhuman barbarity of his
prosecutors Another case of torture
was brought to light in military in
quiry. A young native, who was
known to be intimate with Carl Wide
mann, was handcuffed at the wrists.
Then with a refinement of cruelty
which would shock the Persian satrap,
he was placed in a tank of ice-cold
water. He was kept there until circu-
lation of the blood in his extremities
had almost ceased, and DR. Cooper,
who appears in the unenviable light
of an arch inquisitor declared that ac-
ton of the heart was almost suspend-
ed. The chief of police, Marshal
Hitchcock, had the young Kanaka
taken from the tank, and after being
restored from his condition of semi
consciousness the torture was admin
istered again. Flesh and blood could
stand such inhumanity no longer and
the much-neededl confession was given.