San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-08-02

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more popular.
Then followed the contest for achange
Of method of infiicting the death pen
atty, and after persistent effort the cleo
trio method was adopted 1t was never
believed that such bill could pass, and
when il was found that it had passed
both houses the electric companies be-
gan to make fight against it. Govern
or Hill was flooded with kilograms and
requests TO veto it, but he answered
them all by announcing his approval Of
the bill as soon as it reached him.
Senator Hill, while he was governor,
became mixC up in the Kemmler exc
cution, the fist one under the new law.
That contest is still very well remem-
bered, having been carried to the su-
preme court of the United States and
fought from the very first. The electric
companies made the fight, not that they
had any interest in the poor wretch
Kemmler, but they did not want it es-
tablished by judicial execution that
their electric currents were deadly. But
it was of no avail Governor Hill was
besieged by friends employed by the
companies to have the man pardoned or
his sentence commuted. His warmest
friends were engaged as attorneys to
present the case to him, but be was not
to be moved. 1t was declared to him
that the electric currents would not kill
The governor would not believe it, He
finally sent a trusted friend to talk to
Thomas A. Edison and learn his honest
opinion as to the effect of the electric
current The great inventor said that
he did not want electricity used for exc
cution purposes, but he would answer
honestly. OF course it would kill if the
current was strong enough, and there
was not the least difficulty in making
the current strong enough.
After all the courts and every other
possible avenue for escaping the test
had been tried there arose another diff
Guilty The warden of the Jail could not
purchase dynamos to generate the cleo
tricity. None of the electric companies
would sell them. Every dynamo was
held by the companies. Like many other
electric appliances, the title always
remained in the possession of the COM
panies, and the users paid rental or
royalty. They would not lease or sell
dynamo for an electric execution. But
here again Governor Hill was shrewd
enough to see that the law which he
had worked SO hard to have enacted
should not be defeated in any such man
ner. Several electric dynamos were pur-
chased for some South American firm
and shipped down 10 South America
and bought by the state of New York
and shipped back. They were more ex-
pensive that way, but the state had to
have them, and Governor Hill was not
the man to give up. There was some diff
fculty in getting an operator who was
shllful man to properly handle the cleo
trio machinery, but finally one was
found
Then began pressure upon Governor
Hill for admission to the execution.
From his past experience he was aware
that the electric companies would make
every effort to have men inside who
would try to make such a report of
the affair as might turn public senti-
ment against the method of execution.
One prominent editor of New York, who
had been standing by the electric COM
panies with great yigor and had used
all the power of his paper to defeat the
law and to assist the electric companies
in preventing execution by such means,
wrote personal letter to Governor Hill
asking the privilege of having reporter
present. Governor Hill denied this re-
quest The law provided that certain
number of persons should be present,
and the governor allowed a man from
each of the press associations to be there
1t is probable that the New York sena-
tor in all his experience with newspaper
men has met with but that one instance
of a member of the profession disap-
pointing him. One of the men got sick
at the execution, and his report was not
in favor of the new method of execution.
Since then there seems to be a general
acquiescence in the new form of death
penalty, and even the electric compa-
MES have become reconciled to the use
of electricity as a means of killing muir
derers. They are now found willing to
supply the state with the best improved
dynamos for generating electricity and
to put in the different prisons requiring
them all the electric machinery neces-
sary for a first class electrocution.
As some one has previously remarked,
nothing succeeds like success, even if it
is in dealing with such CHASTITY thing
as death for the greatest crime.
Ex-speaker Reeds First Speech.
Ex-Speaker Reed tells an interesting
story about his first speech in congress
81 had served few months in the
house" said Mr.. Reed, land had been