The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-21
UNDER THE KNIFE.
Impressions of n Woman Mt the
Foot of the GuillOtine.
(From the Independence Beige,

Foot of the Gufllotine
From the Independence Belge.)
! In these rushing times we might take
Tor our motto Something New. Always
| Something Newt" consequently, ina CINE
that the impressions of a woman at the
foot of the guillotine would not be COM
monplace. | have just been present at
the last performance in the Place de la
Roquette, where M de Paris and his
assistants off1ciated in the name of So
called justice. The horrible spectacle
haunt5 and racks the mind and tends
rather to re-enforce the partisans of the
abolition of capital punishment. The hor-
ror of the punishment imposed renders
guilty man almost worthy of pity. The
| sight of a human being. dragged like a
| beast 20 the slaughter house, M even
| to the sinister seesaw, is terrible. l
| know how many people may be astonished
| that anybody could be moved to pity for
| the ferocious brute, Carrara, who trans
| formed his mushroom esta blishment into
crematory and had no mercy for the
unfortunate young man, Lamarra, whom
he threw into the fire after having muir
dered him for the purpose of robbery. l
| know all that, and l do not dispute the
fact that the Italian was monster, but
that is no reason why we should not be
Disguised at the spectacle which was pre-
scented to our eyes, and which l will
now endeavor to describe with the i'm
Partially of a simple spectator. without
resentment or prejudice. but with a heart
that revolts against a scene that has
neither the grandeur nor the majesty of
a punishment inflicted, but rather
hibits the cowardice and baseness of a
vengeance which hides itself from the
light of day.
The execution was fixed for O'Clock
in the morning, but from the hour of mid
night the neighboihood of the Grande-
Roquette was swarming with an undu-
iating and mocking crowd. Jailbirds,
murderers. footpads, and women of the
streets assembled there to see, as they
said, 1.-The Italian animal shortened.
Journalists were admitted into the mar
row space so often described with its
five sinister stones and its legendary gas
| jet which is never lighted except on the
! evening before an execution.
There in the rain we watched the set
| ting up of that horrible machine, which,
! according to the legend Cagliostro show
| ed in Il glass of clear water TO the terri
fed Marie Antoinette- In the yellow ana
spectral light of the gas jet that fiickered
in the wind these preparations were MD
eous to witness. Almost on level with
the ground stands the -scaffold with its
two arms in the air brandishing the spark
ling knife. And | woman, in the pres
ence of these preparations, could not help
thinking of the family of the wretch
I whose head was soon 10 fan INTO the
basket | thought of his little children
/ who were at that moment sleeping SOUND
ly somewhere, and of the wife, equally
guilty with him. and who, aus it We're,
pushed her husband into the arms of the
executioner as a last resort to save her
self What remorse will be hers when
they tell her abruptly. 'Carrara has SUI
fued his punishment; you are WIDOW!
But the day was dawnins and the lamps
were going out. At the windows ana
even on the roofs numbers OF spectators
we're gathered as II 10 witness some
carnival. The sight was hearIrending.
Mounted gendarmes and soldiers grad
ua'ly came out of the darkness, and one
might be inclined to rail al such dls-
play of force al the execution of a wretch
paralyzed by fear. who in few moments
would appear upon the scene tied mana
and foot.
There was some little commoton among
the crowd when people began TO point at
thin old man who hobbled about with
the gestures of a dancing jack 10 see IL
the knife in the brass runners was III
good working order. This was Deloler
the executioner. a ghost with white
! beard who adjusted the instrument with
! the Indifference of a grocer Weighing ms
| goods. Suddenly there was profound ST.
! lHnce. the ram was DNtA 4ANtAAS "NAN 49,
| covered and mOtionless; GREATNESS ana
almost i'm agony the crowd followed with
! staring eyes the movement of the doors
/ of the prison. which at last opened wide
! A suppressed AM" came from many
contracted chests, while with pale faces
all gazed upon the assassin. whose crime
the mountebanks of the fairs popular
lied He was simply frightful to look at.
bowed down as he was with terror. lie
| did not look like a human being. He
! looked like a beast. His intelligence was
| already dead and his heart had lost all
feeling. The instinct of the animal still
remained The sight was dreadfully sad
What followed beggars description. The
! executioner and his aids seemed no longer
to be men employed to carry out the ends
of justice; they looked like butchers.
| They seized the condemned man, some
by the ears. some by the legs. while
others held down the center of the body
and kept holding up TO the very moment
when. with a sudden rumble. the knife
fell the head rebounded into the basket,
and the abomination was at an end,
But one should be present and see the
pavements covered with blood, the CORY
knife. the blood squirting from the decap-
itated trunk, the ignominious washing
at the nearby fountain, and the cutters
rolling TO the sewer purple-colored mud
in order to be able to comprehend all
the horrors of an execution in Paris