Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-26

part in praying, reading, smoking a pipo
and talking with his death watch. When
not engaged in prayer he was talking Of
his past life. of his wife. the love for
whom was one of the redeeming traits in
the mans life but not once of his crime or
Of the woman he suddenly sent INTO eter-
nifty. The murderer was plainly under a
terrible strain, and. seeing that he could
not sleep, the death watch encouraged him
to talk.
Made His VIII.
During the night Guard Smith wrote his
will, In which the unfortunate man directed
that 1. c. Gibbs should have his box of
carpenter tools. and his wife his rings and
all else, the residue consisting of his
string of beads. a crucif1x and a few trifilng
trinkets. The guard also wrote letter for
him to his wife, who lies sick at home. In
his letter Beam bade his wife an affection
ate farewell, telling her that he was per-
fectly resigned to die. and assuring her
that he would die travely and at peace with
the world: confident of forgiveness.
Father Dolac was with him until o'clock
last evening" having been praying with him
for two hours, ard this. morning Father
McAtee called about 7:30 and administered
the holy communion. Beam seemed 10 de-
rive much comfort from the visit Of the
clergyman, and, assured him that he would
quietly walk to the scaffold and would have
nothing to say. Father Dolan soon return
ed to the Jail. and the clergymen remained
with their charge until the end.
Larger Crowd.
Beam ate q. hearty breakfast, and from
then until he was told that his hour had
come. he gave himself up to spiritual mat.
tiers. Meantime. quite a large crowd had
gathered in front of the jail. and about Il
o'clock those having Invitations were ad-
mitted to the rotunda. The number invited
to witness the execution today was larger
than that present at the execution OF
Travers-the grand iurv again being pres
increase her N
tators was due to the pressure brought to
bear upon the warden by court officials.
orderly one, and the forty or fifty police
men present under Lleuts. Kelley and Nc
Cathran had little, If anything. to do.
At I:15 the jury Of twelve men. mostly
newspaper reporters. selected by Warden
Leonard to witness and certify to the exc
cution of Beam. took their places on two
long benches at the foot Of the scaffold.
The warden entered Beams cell at fifteen
minutes later to read the death warrant to
him and to lead him to the gallows. ana
two minutes later the warden. closely fol-
lowed by Fathers McAtee and Dollar. read
ing tho service for the dying, took up the
march for the scaffold. AS the death war
rant was read to him, Guard Waters pin
toned Beams arms behind him at the ell
and Guard Woodward. the wretched man
walked slowly across the rotunda and
down the northeast corridor of the prison
to the scaffold.
The Drop Falls.
The priests constantly read the service
for the dying and they slowly marched
to and up the steps of the gallows Beam, In
a perfectly audible tone, made his re-
sponses. He was very pale and while he
was bravely bearing the terrible ordeal 1t
was plainly evident that the effort was a
supreme one and that the strain was rap
idly telling upon him. He was quickly
placed upon the drop. and as the guards :
bound his legs, he glanced about him, as
If taking a mental photograph of the whole
scene. He was gradually growing more
and more worked up, and his voice grad
ually rose as he made his responses 10 the
words of the priests. So high rose his
voice that Father Dolan whispered to him
to lower it and that all was well.
The black cap was quickly adjusted after
the rope and it's great knot had been fas-
tened back of the mans left ear, and.
with the black cap hiding the world from
his eyes. Beam eagerly bent forwlrd his
McAtee held to his lips, three times
Then, as the doomed man was repeating
the supplication, "Oh, Lord Jesus nave
mercy upon me; into Thy hands l oiter my
life for my SINS" Warden Leonard pulled
out his handkerchief and waved signal
to the unknown executioner For second
or two the signal was apparently NOT seen,
but as the warden waved 1t second time
and smoke to the executioner. the drop fell,
and Beam plunged down about six feet at
preci isely 1856 exactly the moment TraV-
ers dropped into eternity last Friday.
AS the man reached the end Of the rope
he was jerked up several inches, and then
the body slowly revolved once or twice.
The breaking of the neck prevented any
movement but one or two slight convulsive
movements of the knees and shoulders,
and then the body hung practically mo-
tionless, except that 1t swayed 10 and fro
slightly Five minutes later the body was
lowered a few feet, that the physicians
might examine it. Ten minutes after the
drop fell the nulsa was haatins- at tho raf<