The San Francisco call., 1898-01-06

to-day he was preparing himself for the final moment. Rev. Rader and Prison Chaplain Drahms called on the condemned man early in the afternoon and offered religious consolation. To them Durrant earnestly asserted his innocence of the crime he is doomed to die for. After a brief prayer Durrant asked them both to be with him on the scaffold. To that they assented and as they went away they promised to call and be with him most of to-day.
 When they left Rev. Father Lagan went to the death chamber and bid the
 murderer farewell. The reverend
 father and the prisoner have become
 close friends since Durrant came to San Quentin and the leave taking was not without tears.
 Later in the day the father of the doomed man called and tor a seccnd tiue he was compelled to talk to his son with the bars and the heavy screen separating them. The senior Durrant told his son of the refusal of
 the District Court to grant any fur ther delay in the punishment for the murders of Emmanuel Church and the news took ali hope from the condemned man. The father told him that the Governor might interfere, but the pris- oner said he had little to look for in that direction, and when his father went away he said he would be brave to the last and die on the scaffold in | nOCent of the crimes attributed to him.
 Later in the evening Durrant's guards
 sent word from the death chamber that l the condemned man was fast losing the composure that has characterized him i since his arrest, and they predicted | that the murderer would break down | completely before the supreme moment. l ftarn nf-ClC -fo cd La 1 death cell W ith him last night, and an other watched him through the heavy bars in the room in which he is con- | fined, waiting to be led to his death. | The prison physician has been caution | ed to be within call at all hours of the
 day or night at moments warning, in case the doomed man may attempt to
 take his life to cheat the gallows.
 No move of the murderer is unheed- ! ed, and the prison officials are taking
 no chances to let the murderer escape | the death penalty. After the elder
 Durrant came from the death chamber 1 he called on the Warden and requested
 that after the body of his son was cut down after the law had been satisfied l it be immediately placed in a coffin
 without the black cap being removed ! from it's face and the casket closed. 1 He said he requested 1t so that the 1 features of his dead son could not be 1 gazed upon by those who witnessed | the execution. He asked that the body be given into his care as soon as possible after the execution, and that no inquest or post-mortem examina- ton be held. He also requested that the Warden take the rope with which his son was hanged and burn it. as he or the mother of the condemned mur- derer did not want it to be cut up and pieces of it distributed about the coun- try as mementoes of the event The Warden granted the requests and promised that they would be fully car ried out.
 After the Warden had given his con- l>sent to the requests MT. Durrant' in- formed the Warden that he had de-
 cided not to witness the execution of his son. He said he had taken that
 resolve on the advice of Rev. pr. Rader, who he said would be at the
 side of the condemned man on the
 gaIlows. To-day the death machine
 was placed in readiness, and the room
 where the gallows stands was prepared
 for those who will witness the execu-
 tion. Warden Hale all day was in con- stant communication with the Attor-
 ney- General, and if any stay of execu- tion is granted the Warden will only recognize a communication from that official.