Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-08

pal or national authorities to inflict the
last, sternest punishment upon those who
have been so unfortunate as to step be-
You'd the pale is by necessity a lonely and
unhappy one. Then, again, in view of
the constant vacillation to which all
countries are subject, the post of the
public executioner is a very dangerous
one. The most famous guillotiner of the
French Revolution was gleefully escorted
to the block by tens of thousands of the
very mobs who had applauded his fend-
ish exhibitions, while in "Anne of Geier-
stein" Scott sets forth most graphically
the manner in which all rabbles waith the
chance to turn the. tables on the wielder
of the ak.
Diebler, like Marat, started life with
far different ideas in his head Marat, it
will be remembered was in his younger
days an ardent opponent of capital pun
shment Diebler was raised to shine at
the bar, but had private literary asplra-
tons. He therefore neglected his law
studies and his practice. His father, Who
had lived in the hope of see ng him a
great lawyer, died bro~kenhearted at hrs
lack of interest. The son, unaccustomed
to look out for himself, fell into poverty
and became a Wanderer. He trudged
over France from the Pyrenees to the
sea, careless of the future and hopeless
of subsistence. Finally he fell in with a
friend who was at that time the prin-
cipal assistant to the public executioner
in Brittany. He offered Diebler the sec
ond place, and the latter, in desperation,
accepted. From that time until his re-
signing, a few days ago, he was actively
Engaged in cutting off the heads of male
factors under the law of France.
From the beginning of his public career
nj. Diebler prospered. He otticiated with
more or less success at
The first criminal he helped to dispatch
was Ratteau, a Judge OF the CRIMINAL
Court, very strange to say, a legal lumi-
nary who suffered the extreme penalty
for the murder of a woman. Ratteau
perceived that Diebler was a new man,
and he said to the trembling novice who
was busy preparing the Wretched man for
| the guillotine: "This is also my first ap-
p~earance, but I should be ashamed to be
as nervous as you are After assisting
at all the executions occurring within
tina province for two years he was sent
to Algiers in 1862, where he found con-
slant work, for the colony was not then
as peaceful as it is now. No sooner was
the machine unbolted in one place thar
it was put up in some other town. Batch
es of five, six n even ten persons at q
time We're sent to the scaffold.
His first notable work as chief operator
was the beheading of Lantz the famous
parricide, who kept Judges, lawyers, the
public and juries guessing for over two
years as to his condition of mind. He
baf1led medical men as well. To the yer!
end he feigned to be a lunatic, hopins
that the President would have mercy anC
commute the death penalty to a life sen
tence. But as he reached the Scaffold n
turned towar Diebler and said: Listen
Monsieur de Paris, 1 am not insane. Nov
the last chance is gone I don't want t
leave a possible remorse to the Jurors
who sent me here. Will o tell then
that 1 was not mad when I murdered m.
father, and / am not mad now" C.
Diebler always disliked executing {
woman. No woman died thus during
Carnot's reign, none under Casimir Per
Ter, and none under the late Presiden
Faure. The rule Of pardoning them il
obtaining. Neither is he in favor o
capital punishment at all. Indeed, he il
convinced that future generations viii
regard us as cruel barbarians for having
in our mi civilization not only ap