Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-12-01
FORT SMITHS SCAFFOLD.
NINETY-FIyE EXECUTIONS IN TWEEN
TY-FIVE YEARS.
1t Is Never Taken Down-Desperadoes
Train Robbers and other bad
Men" Invariably Weaken
ut the GalIOws.

From the New York Herald.
The most famous instrument of death on
this continent is located at Forth Smith,
Ark. The next, in point of grewsome in
terest, is situated less than zoo miles dis
tant from il, at Tahlequah. in the Chero-
kee nation, I. T. The Fort Smith scaffold
is notorious because of its long and horri-
BILE death record. The Tahlequah scaffold
is simply unique, because, when not in use,
it is a playground for the sneriff's chill
dren, and birds make their nests and rear
their young on the very beam from which
hangs the eXecutioner's rope.
The penitentiary at TahIequah, the cap
ital, of the Cherokee nation, its buildings,
inclosure, prisoners. penal system, in fact
everything connected with IL, is the an
tithesis of the conception which people out
side the Territory have generally formed
of what a penal institution should be. The
penitentiary proper is an old-fashioned,
square, two-story house of gray sandstone,
with double bars at each of its large,
square windows. 1t stands near the south
east corner of a patch of ground an acre
in extent, which is surrounded on four
sides by a rough, dilapidated board fence,
ten feet in height.
great woodpile in the center of the
prison yard is, next TO the tail scaffold in
the northwest corner, the most conspicu-
Gus feature of the place. On this woodpile
prisoners and guards fraternize in a IA
miliar sort of way, though the guards new
er for a moment relax their vigilance or
a firm grip on their ugly. brown Winches-
ters. In addition to the guards at the priS-
oners' elbows, there is a heavy armed pa
troll, mounted on a sort of shelf running
along the inside of the fence at a distance
Of three feet from its top. All of the Off
ctals guards and prisoners are Indians of
full or mixed blood.
The carelessness of the guards Is partly
assumed. The slightest suspicious move
ment on the part OF the prisoner intent on
escape would attract to himself a shower
of Winchester bullets. knowledge of this
fact has a deterrent effect on the prison.
ers. though young Jim Cook did escape
about eighteen months ago. and succeeded
in eluding his pursuers for several days.
The scaffold is a permanent fixture. con-
structed of rough lumber. with a view to
withstanding the elements. The drop is
merely a rough door set in the floor, and
hinged so that when bolt Is drawn un-
derneath Il falls downward, and the con-
demned falls with it.
The strangest thing about this scaffold
to one unfamiliar with the peculiar penal
system of this part of the Indian Territory
is the fact that the children of the sheriff
play around and beneath it. while birds
build their nests in bird box, fashioned
by one of the prisoners. nailed on one OF
the supports. A colony of feathered songs
the sloping roof Of this grim instrument
of death.
The scaffold at Fort Smith holds the
worlds record for executions by hanging
Ninety-five times in d quarter of a century
has ITS great beam trembied under the
heavy fall of a human body shooting down
TO death.
This scaffoId is a weather-beaten, giant
tfmbered structure, surrounded by fence
eighteen feet high. 1t faces to the north,
with its rear planted against the grey
stone walls which inclosed the old reserva-
ton away back in the days when the war
whoop of the Indians made the shores Of
the Arkansas echo with vibrant horror. 1t
is protected by a roof that slants down to
and rests upon the top of this wall.
One ghastly pecul&rity about the Fort
Smith scaffoId IS that the demand for its
services by the criminal court has been so
continuous that it has never been taken
down. Another peculiarly is that it is SO
constructed that If necessary six men
could be executed at once without unduly
taxing its capacity The trap door through
which the condemned Is dropped to death
is double. with four foot opening extend
ing the full width of the scaffOId. The
mechanism OF ropes and weights is oper-
ated by lever from the platform, and the
executioner at the last moment stands
with one hand on the condemned mans
arm and the other or the lever. The fall
cases the neck is instantly broken.
NIne-tenths of all the murderers who
have stepped upon its double trap TO meet
their fare have plunged into the unknown
with lies on their lips. Old George Male
dan. whose hand ushered lightweight men
into eternity from the Fort Smith sCaffold.
declared that ne never hung an innocent
man The ore fact above all others that
impressed itself upon his stoicaI mind was
that, though indisputably guilty, all, with
rare exceptions declared with their last
breath their innocence of the crime for
which they died.
Another thing" once said Maledan to
me, is that every one of the eighty-eight
weakened. Some OF them had 10 be car
ried to the scahold. Charlie Finch, a ne
gro. was brave enough till he got TO the
foot of the scaffold. Before leaving the
prison he tried TO escape and fought the
keepers. but he collapsed at the last min
ute"
There has never been any but the fim-
siest basis for the many remarkable sto-
ries sent out from Fort Smith in former
years concerning the scaffold scenes The
men who have met a just fate on this
scahOld have been for the most part the
worst product OF our border civilization
criminals by heredity. murderers by train
ing. the desperadoes. stage robbers and
cIItthroatS who in the last half century
have invariably been cast up Ike black.