The Portland daily press., 1896-08-22
NEWGATE HANGINGS.
Home Of the Curious Features That
Go With Them.

The scaffoid Has Comfortable Accomrno-
dations For Six Men at a Time-Eow 1t
LIS That There Is Always q Newspaper
Man Present at the Kangings.
Hanging, said the philosopher. is the
worst use to which you can put a man
Those who have known certain grades of
mankind in many countries may doubt the
truth of this, with the other pbilosonher
who, when put ashore on an unknown
land, knew he had arrived in q civilized
country because he saw some one hanging
from gibbet. Be that as it NAV. the
murderer in England, once he is caught.
has very short road to travel and q sharp
drop at the end of it. He cannot buy him
self Immunity il he is rich, and there is
no such delay as is common In the state of
New York, for instance, where man has
been known to spend comfortable years be-
tween the time he was sentenced and ex-
ecuted. The trial Of London murderer
usually occupies one whole day, and that
ENDS 1t There is no appeal except to the
nome secretary, who very rarely interferes
and about three weeks from the time the
Judge puts on the black cap the murderer
drops into the brick cell underneath the
scaffold in Newgate
1t Is curious thing that hanging at
Newgate always collects great crowd.
the refuse of the population who stand for
hours merely to see a black flag run I'D to
the top OF the pole. There is no question
at all that the public at large seem to have
very vivid interest in hangings. The
evening newspapers of London, when they
wish to brag about their circulation, give
a certified detail of what is known as
changing editions" The circulation of
the cent evening papers in London dou-
bles and trebles and quadruples when o
hanging is on
Technically the press is not allowed to
send reporter to any hanging that takes
place in Newgate jail. Most of the sheriffs
IN England refuse TO allow reporters to IT.
tend any of the hangings under IL If
charge, and thus the accounts given in the
papers might be looked upon as fictitious
were it not known that newspaper in
England incurs the risk of heavy penalties
If 1t prints false news. Indeed, if even a
newsboy cries false news in shouting for
his paper, he is promptly fined or put in
Jail if customer complains. 1t may,
therefore, be wondered why the papers of
London dare to print an account of hang
ing when every one knows that no news
paper man is allowed to be present at the
execution.
happened to be intimately acquainted
with man, recently dead, who was pres
emit at every hanging that has taken place
in Newgate for 90 years, and he was
member of the staff of one of the leading
Icy IT,,
be divided into two classes, unofficial and
official Nothing happens as long as
thing is not officially known, which serves
to explain the joke in "Pinafore" where
Captain Corooran tells Sir Joseph Porter
that if he officially informs Josephine Of
his affections for her there will be no fur
ther difficulty.
The sheriff of London has no official
knowledge that newspaper man is pres
ent during an execution-in fact, he has
official knowledge that no newspaper man
is at the hanging. This particular news
paper man OF whom I speak was made a
deputy sheriff for the sole purpose of going
in officially as deputy sheriff and unofi-
cially as a newspaper man. His account
of the execution was invariably duplicated
on thin paper known as "flimsy'' and
don and to the news agencies.
I suppose that if somebody had taken it
upon himself officially to inform the sheriff
that some unofficial newspaper man was
in the habit of being present at executions
the sheriff would have been much aston
ished and would have officially informed
the newspaper man that he must betake
himself elsewhere.
The ecaffO16 a 10 6o oo,,, ,1o
accommodation for the hanging of six men
at one time, and 1 don't know that its ca
pabilities have ever been put to full test,
but the other week they hanged three with
one jerk of the lever. Hanging is done in
the early morning. And what strikes me as
the most grewsone thing about the func-
ton is that the moment the lever is pulled
and the men dropped into eternity the
sheriff, deputy sheriffs and other officials
at once descend from the sca1fold and eat
first class, splendidly cooked breakfast
which at that moment is ready for them in
the jail. My deputy sheriff newspaper
friend informed me that he rarely enjoyed
q breakfast like the hanging breakfast, be-
cause on these mornings he had to get up
early and journey in a cab in the dim light
and keen air from his suburban home to
the place of execution. After breakfast is
over the bodies are taken down, an in
quest is held, and they are flung into a
vault and covered at once with quicklime.
sit is such stuffy DEATH" said Yum
Yum, referring to being buried alive.
Official hanging may be called cut and
dried death, for everything in Newgate
moves with the regularity of clockwork.
One of the disagreeable features connected
with an execution to the principal victim
thereof, to which it seems to me I should
object very strongly, is the tolling of the
bell, which adds an unnecessary touch of
cruelty to the whole proceeding. The big
bell OF St. Sepulchre's church, near New
gate, begins to toll before the wretched vic
tim is even pinioned, and the sound of its
measured beat must be extremely disquiet-
ing. St. Sepulchre' church, with it's grim
and suggestive name, is the nearest sacred
edifice to the ancient prison, and an ex-
traordinary person named Robert Dove in
1905 left 1880 to the church on the condi-
ton that whenever man was hanged the
bell should be tolled. Indeed Robert went
farther than this. He ARRANGED that the