The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-03
CALIFORNIA FIG SYRUP co.
SCENE ON THE GU1LLoTINE.
A WOman's Account of "a Paris Exc
cutiOn.

From the Independence Beige.
In these rushing times we might take
for our motto, Something New. Always
Something New!' Consequently, 1 imag-
inc that the impressions of a woman at
the foot of the gullotne would not be
commonplace. have just been present at
the last performance in the Place de la
Roquette, where NJ. de Paris, and has as
sistants officiated in the name of so-called
justice. The horrible spectacle haunts and
racks the mind and tends rather to re-
inforce the partisans of the abolition of
capital punishment. The horror of the
punishment imposed renders a guilty man
almost worthy of pity. The sight of a HUI
man being, dragged like a beast to the
slaughter house, up even to the sinister
See-saW, is terrible. l know many people
may be astonished that anybody could be
moved 10 pity for the ferocious brute Car
rara, who transformed his mushroom es-
adjustment into a crematory and had no
mercy for the unfortunate young man,
Lamrra, whom he threw into the fire
after having murdered him for the pur-
pose of robbery. I know all that, and 1
do not dispute the fact that the Italian
was a monster, but that is no reason why
we should not be Disguised at the spec.
tacle which was presented TO our eyes
and which l win now endeavor to de
scribe with the impartiality of a simple
spectator, without resentment or preiu-
dice, but with a heart that revolts against
a scene that has neither the grandeur
nor the majesty OF a punishment inflicted,
but rather exhibits the cowardice and
baseness of a vengeance, which hides it.
self from the light of day.
The execution was fixed for o'clock
in the mornig, but from the hour of mid
night the neighborhood of the Grande-
Roquette was swarming with an undulat-
ing and hooking crowd Jailbirds, muir
derers, 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 it's
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 setting
up of that horrible machine which, accord
ing TO the legend, Cagliostro showed in a
glass of clear water to the terrified Marie
Antoinette. In the yellow and spectral
light of the gas jet that fickered in the
wind these preparations were hideous to
witness. Almost on a level with the ground
stands the scaffold, with it's two arms in
the air, brandishing the sparkling knife
And l, a woman, in the presence of these
preparations could not help thinking of
the family of the wretch whose head was
soon to fall into the basket. 1 thought
of his little children, who were at that
moment sleeping soundly somewhere, and
of his wife, equally guilty with him, and
who, as it were, pushed her husband into
the arms of the eXecutioner as a last
resort TO save herself. What renorse will
be hers when they tell her abruptly, Car
rara has suffered his punishment; you are
a widowr
But the day was dawning and the lamps
were going out. At the windows and even
on the roofs numbers of spectators were
gathered as If to witness some carnival
The sight was heartrending. Mounted gen.
darmes and soldiers gradually came out
of the darkness, and one might be in
clined to rail at such a display of force
at the execution of a wretch paralyzed
by fear, who in few moments would APP
pear upon the scene tied hand and foot
There was some little commotion among
the crowd when people began 10 point at
thin, old man, who hobbled about with the
gestures of a dancing jack to see if the
knife in the brass runners was in good
working order. This was Diebler, the eX-
ecutioner, a ghost with white beard, who
adjusted the instrument with the indiffer-
ence of a grocer weighing his goods Sud
denly there was profound silence; the rain
was over heads We're uncovered and mo-
tonless; breathless and almost in agony
the crowd followed with staring eyes the
movement of the doors of the prison
which at last opened wide. A suppressed
"Ah!" came from many contracted chests,
while with pale faces all gazed upon the
assassin, whose crime the mountebanks of
the fairs popularized. He was simply
frightful to look at. bowed down as he was
with fright He did not look like a human
being lie looked like a beast. His in
telligence 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 mo-
ment 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 decapi-
tated trunk. the ignomnious washing at
the nearby fountain, and the cutters roll
ing to the sewer a purple-colored mud, in
order TO be able TO conpre bend all the