San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-02-16
TORTURING FOR SECRETS.
THE HAWAIIAN OFFICIALS WIRING
CONFESSIONS BY TORTURE
THAT WOULD SHAME
THE INQUISITI0N.
Some Recitals of Fiendish Cruelty
That Make thu Blood Boil
With Indignation Against
The Perpetrators.


Call prints the following from
Honolulu:
The success of the government OF
Hawaii in conducting its treason
cases was due to the discriminating
evidence given by Captain William
Davis, of the steamer WeimanOla.
The manner in which the sworn
statement was wrung from Davis
is interesting, as showing the pc
culiar process at present existing
in the Hawaiian islands. Davis and
mate, Hudson, were arrested on
the morning of January 9TH. Klud-
son made a confession telling what
little he knew. Davis, who is an
American citizen, refused any in
formation, and while protesting
his innocence, demanded an inter-
view with the United States min
lister. This was refused. Davis
was then taken into the prison
yard, where he was shown two ring
bolts in the wall above his head.
The uniformed inquisitors 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.
Davis did not finch, but deter
mined that il the American minis
ter could not come the consul gen.
eral should be informed that he
was an American citizen and
wished to see him. His protests
were in vain. His legs were bound
below the knees and his thumbs
were dashed with a whipcord to
the bolt. Davis was stripped to the
waist, while Hitchcock, Attorney
General Smith and Surgeon Cooper
with a stenographer awaited the
statement, which they believed
would be forthcoming. They were
mistaken. Davis did not weaken.
Sweat oozed from every pore. The
strong man in his agony begged
for drop Of water to cool the thirst
that consumed him. The tendons
of the victims limbs stood out like
strands OF rope. Blood vessels in
his arms and hands were swelling
as If ready to burst with the strain.
His tormenters urged him to i'm
plicate all who had been politically
opposed to their methods, without
avail. Davis refused to surrender
the secret he had sworn to protect.
At last when it was apparent by
his respiration that it would be i'm
possible to hold out longer, nature
succumbed and Davis, cursing the
fiends who were torturing him,
tainted.
DR.. Cooper used salts Of ammonia
to revive the Captain, who had
passed into the painless realms of
unconsciousness. AS soon as he
revived two negro convicts sus-
pended him again by the thumbs.
This inhuman operation was be-
gun at noon, and it was 6 o'clock
in the evening before Davis, more
dead than alive, made the state
ment that respited him from the
inhuman barbarity Of his persecu-
tors.
Another case of torture was
brought 10 light in the military
inquiry. A young native who was
known to be intimate with Carl
Weidemann was handcuffed at the
wrists. Then with a refinement of
cruelty which would shock a Per-
sian satrap, he was placed in
tank OF ice cold water. He was
kept there until circulation Of the
blood in his extremities had al
most ceased and DR.. Cooper, who
appears in the unenviable light Of
an arch-inquisitor, declared that
action of the heart was almost sus-
pended. The chief OF police, Mar
shall Hitchcock, had the young
Kanaka taken from the tank and
after being restored, the torture
was again administered. Flesh
and blood could stand such inhu-
manity no longer and the much
needed confession was given.