The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-12
TALES OF FRENCH GUILLoTINE.
Some of Its Famous Vfctims-Caste
OF the ExecutiOners.

Some of Its Famous Victims-Caste
OF the Executioners.
PARIS, Nov. 5.-France is to have a
new official eXecutioner before the be-
ginning of the year. The present Mon
sieur de Paris, Louis Deibler. is sixty
nine years old and has been in harness
for thirty-fve years. The job is worth
81 200 year and perquisites, and upon
retirement there is an annuity Of 5000
In these days the legal beheading of
a man doesn't happen often; the crime
must be very atrocious to bring the
penalty, because the French laws are
wondrously lenient in matters con-
corning the spilling of blood. The
records Of all the trial courts of France
for the last six years-that is, since
the application of the much discussed
Beranger law-show that when a man
commits murder his chances of being
guillotined for it are about one in
eighteen. If the murder is committed
in hot blood he rarely gets more than
five or six years in prison, and If it be
premeditated he stands three chances
of deportation to one of execution.
For that reason when the sentence of
death is pronounced the French news
papers print the fact in fat, black
type, indicating its rarity.
M. de Paris is the sole eXecutioner
for continental France and there is an
executioner for Algeria and Tunis.
Until 1871 there was one for each
province, named after the chief cities
M. De RenneS, NJ. de Tousouse etc.
Charles Henry Samson was the first
executioner of Paris holding office
from the time the guillotine was
adopted in 1892 until 1920, when he was
succeeded by his son, who had the job
until 1910. He in turn was succeeded
by one Roch, who was in office until
the accession of Deibler. The latter
grew up in the trade His father was
provincial executioner before him.
and as soon as the son was over his
military service he was made an as
sistant. At the present time he is a
man of some influence and much re-
spected in his neighborhood He is not
a pretty man to look at, but he is said
to be exceedingly urbane He has had
two wives, both daughters of eXecu-
TONERS. Intermarriage is a character
istic of the craft; which is, perhaps
self-eXplanatOry. The four assistants
Of NJ. Deibler are all sons of former
eXecutioners, and each has married
the daughter of an eXecutiOner. 1t is
d little caste all by itself.
There is but one guillotine in France
and it is Iugged around from place
to place as it is needed. It is a very
ugly looking machine, and cost $4,000.
M. de Paris receives, in addition to his
salary, $4,000 a year for taking care
of it and keeping it in business-like
condition. 1t does not look unlike an
old-fashioned Franklin printing press.
The two uprights in which the knife
runs are little over ten feet high, and
the greatest width of the platform is
about four feet. The knife itself is
wedge shape, eighteen inches wide, and
weighs 140 pounds, with the weight
which SurmOunts it, In an execution
it falls about four feet in two-thirds of
a second.
The machine was first set up in the
Place de CarrOuSel for the execution
of political prisoners. but was removed
by the Commune to the Place de la
Concorde, where it stood at a point
twenty-five feet north of the present
obelisk. There, from January, 1893,
until August, 1894, over $500 persons
were beheaded, including Louis XVI,
Charlotte Corday, Marie Antoinette,
Nine. Roland, Philippe Egalite, Dan
ton, DesmOulins, the sisters of Louis
XVI, and RObeSpierre and his brother.
1t was then removed to the Place de
la Nation. where 1890 more persons
were beheaded in one month. About
fifty feet from the entrance there are
five oblong stones inlaid in the pave
ment, over which the guillOtine is
erected; the center stone is the one
upon which the basket is placed to re-
ceive the head as it falls under the
knife.
The agitation for the adjustment
of capital punishment in France is not
carried on with the vigor that marked
the palmy days Of Victor Hugo and his
associates, but observing men say that
the Discrimination of French judges to
inflict the death penalty is becoming
yearly more marked, and that, while
the existing law may not be soon
changed, it will gradually fall into a
desuetude that will be the equivalent
of abolition, considering the great lati-
tude permitted the magistrates in its