, 1899-08-03

WM#M&$
RADCLIFFE. CANADA's HANGMAN.
quite right to send a man out of life
expeditiously, il he u be sent out
at all, but the professional visit to the
cells is regarded by the western ed
itors as a refinement of cruelty. The
man knows he is going to die. Then
why allow the executioner to t~ransfix
him with his baleful glare. smoking a
f~ull-lavored briar pipe the while? Why
harrow the unfortunate murderer's
soul while the hangman works out his
little problem in NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
distances and resisting forces? Really.
it's monstrous! Has a murderer no
feelings? Because a man has split an
other mans skull open with an ak. is
1t to say that he has no fine senti-
ments in his bosom? Naturally, the
British Columbia people are indignant.
Some Of them have addressed a me-
mortal to the dominion government
asking them to bid Radcliffe mend his
manners.
Radcliffe's is a queer position. In
Michigan, where there is no capital
punishment, there is no need of a
public hangman. In New York, where
they do the trick with an electric cur
rent. anybody can press the button and
no disgrace attaches. In the south
N west, where l%ynchihg and burning
are popular, an execution is not so
much a matter of co~ld-blooded Justice
as a hot-headed revenge. l venture to
say that no state in the union, what
ever its form of capital punishment.
can point to any man among its citi-
zens and say: There is our public ex-
~ecutioner." But in Canada Radcliffe
is king He has the whole dominion
from coast to coast and from the forty
ninth parallel to the north pole for his
bailiwick- There Is none to dispute
his title. He has the proud record of
never having bungled an execution
since he went into business fifteen
years CO.. All his subjects-Radcliffe
speaks of them like a medical man
have had their necks neatly broken,
n not one of 'em has ever squirmed.
When the rope settles down after the
first thud there is not a quiver-to
which fact l can testify, for / have
seen Radcliffe do the trick half a dozen
times. Radcliffe is an artist in his line
no pun is meant-and il ever the
dear reader has need to be hanged ne
should ask nothing better thai the ten
der mercies OF such IN ey.srt hang
man. Radcliffe. when he Eat home.
lives quietly 1t Parkdale, a beautiful
suburb of Toronto. In the directory
he is catalogued as a wheelwright, and
/ dare say his neXt-door neighbors
have no suspicion of his ghoulish oc-
cupation. He is quite a jolly compan-
ion, who loves his pipe and his glass.
but he is not a roysterer. There is a
hotel just at the west end of the King
Street railway line. which Radcliffe
frequents when he wants a pot of por-
ter or a glass of ha~lf-and-half. Some
of the barroom habitues know who he
is, but the casual customer little sus-
poets the public hangman in the jovial.
fresh-faced, stalwart Yorkshireman
who is so full OF good stories. Rad
cliffe has all the domestic virtues. He
loves his wife and children. and takes
pride in his bit of garden. Perhaps he
appreciates them more because he is SO
seldom at home. Every year he trav-
els many thousands of miles, for
among 1000. 900 Of people there is al
ways a good grist of murderers await
ing his services. The judge, when he
puts on the black cap. must run over
Radcliffe's engagements in his mind
before he passes sentence. 1t would
never dc TO fix a date when Radcliffe
could not be present. Radcliffe Is a
very busy man. Take the last three
months, for example. First there was
a murderer to be dispatched away
down in Nova Scotia; from there he
had to skip to Quebec. where he sent
two people-a man and a woman-into
eternity at one stroke of the lever;
from there he went TO London and saw
Peg-Leg Brown, the negro murderer.
safely out of being: then he went up
to Winnipeg and hanged two Gall
clans, new immigrants of ours, who
had playfully killed a third. and from
there he jumped to British Columbia.
where he did the business for al In
dian and an italian. and encountered
the opprobrium I have mentioned at
the beginning Of my letter.
Radcliffe Is not very well paid for
his CHASTITY duties. He is down on the
secret-service list of the dominion gov
eminent for $500 a year. However,
this is merely a retaining fee. He de-
rives most Of his income from the
pockets Of the sheriffs in whose coun-
ties there happen to be murderers
awaiting execution. Under our law
one OF the sherif's duties is to hang