Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-25

oAA Il " 'eAAA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ L
tim to walk out in soodpty1e. asked ttif
guardian about It, and he told me:
stimuIant 6nersa.
I'VE don't wait for them to ask for It.
The priest-the condemned, mans best
friend-keeps him In tobacco and playing
cards during the painful waitings between
the death sentence and its execution and 1,
is he who has charge Of the bottle in the
last moments. The last man had-the one
who was mistaken in his calculations
drank a full goblet Of rum while dressing:
between his lips and lighted. The priest.
who had already confessed him. talked to
him about his mother and brother, and ex-
horted him to repentance.
II have nothing o"repent Of he an
swered. and I have no pardon to ask of
any one on earth. I have killed and now /
am being killed. We are square. But he
added. I would like another goblet Of rum
II human justice permits It.
He was already beginning to feel good.
During the clipping Of his hair and the cut
ting Of his shirt collar he drank another
goblet Of rum. It so buoyed him I'D that he
say-to the guillotine, called out goodbye
to his friends In the crowd, took a last Duff
or his cigarette and gave UP the ghost in
good style. l remember only one who re-
raud. The Able Faure offered to him a
goblet of mixed cognac and chartreuse
Take this, my friend he said; 1t will give
you force No, thanks. replied Eyraud;
don't want 1t. 1t will make me III
The knowledge that the guilIotine Is the
most merciful of all instruments of death
gives little comfort to the victims. II they
have enough alcohol In them they often
stagger stupidity, upheld by the aids, the
short distance between the prison and the
guillottne, just outside in the public square.
When they stand beside it, however, they
come to" with terrible shock. They
nearly always struggle. The aids seize them
by main force, stand them UP against the
swinging board, tie them to it and then
lower them with the board to horizontal
position. with the head under the big knife
This swinging board is like a seesaw. Fixed
In the middle, 1t stands upright After the
victim is tied to it, standing up, q simple
tilt swings it to the horizontal position. so
that there is no climbing up and stretching
out on a table. as was the case with the
early guillotine.
No After-COnsciousness
Every one who has seen an execution is
certain that the victim never knows what
struck him. None Of the many experiments
made with heads Immediately after sever
ance have succeeded in discovering the
slightest sign Of consciousness. Victims
have agreed to wink their right eye for
has ever winked
How could 1t be otherwise?" remarked
my well-informed prison guardian. II have
heard the prison doctor explain it. The
shook to the brain given by the falling
knife produces immediate coma Then, be-
fore the brain in the cutoff head could
even theoretically recover. 1t has lost all its
blood. so that no mental action can set up
again. 1
The victim being tilted to the horizontal
position. finds himself looking through what
In low French slang is called the little
WINDOW The neck reposes in a half cir
Gle or about Its diameter, cut in a station
airy board between the two standards OF the
guillotine When the fellow is got into place
another similar board with a corresponding
half circle cut in 1t, is slid down between
the standards, to form a kind Of wooden
collar, holding the head firmly. This is
the little window" Looking down, the
victim sees the wooden box with a kind Of
dashboard at the 'front.' that is to receive
his head and the squirting blood Regularly
there Is great deal Of blood. 1t spurts
Able Faure, in his book however. men
lions two cases in which there was none
or the notorious Prado he Gays, cateeori-
caily: NOT one squirt Of blood" OF the
blood came out of theobody"'- as
IL In explanation, "Phttrisjs had paraIvzed
him some time before The Able Faure.
IT ID true was no Psychologist, and his book
reflections; yet he could hardly have made
mistake Of observation In SO obvious a
matter. 4 30
The great diagonal blade. heavily weight
ed with lead, has drop OF fifteen feet. 1t
slices OF the head like shipping q piece of
paper with the scissors There are a few
convulsive movements OF the body-''purely
renex, the doctors saYEapd the victim is
as head as julius eaesar one Is assured.
Nothing Is more unsatisfactory than at
tendance on one of the celebrated suilIo-
timing scenes Of Paris. Unless one can OBJ
tain admission to the inner circle-some-
thing reserved to distinguished visitors, like
the Russian grand dukes. British prime
ministers and a few newspaper men-one
can see nothing but the top of the suillo-
tine. far off, with the bowling. cursing
crowd, sandwiched between lines of police
and soldiers. It Is early in the morning,
In the dull dawn. There comes a sudden
silence. which tells that the prisoner is be-
ing walked out. Then dull thud is heard
and the crowd bowls again
In smaller places when there is an execu-
ton dramatic scenes often take place. What
happened at Oran, in Algiers, the other
day Is being used by the enemies Of pub
nc executions as an argument against their
morality. There had been a feud between
a rich native family and the family Of
some French co!onists. One Of the Moors
assassinated one of the whites. At the
moment his head fell under the guilIotine
the murdered mans brother led his little
nine-year-old son close to the fallen dead,
and. pointing to it. said: Look we'll on the
head OF your enemy. You are avenged"
One OF the latest victims Of the guillotine
in Paris, the young wretch Peuignitz. made
a scandalous sensation by crying out to
his brother criminals in the crowd his last
supreme advice. the fruits Of his too Lately
acquired wisdom: Never make confess
sion." The police had entrapped him into
making confession. otherwise he might
easily have been acquitted. Indeed. there
are 90 many arguments against public ex-
ecutions that 1t is probable the last has
been seen in Paris A project Of law Is now
before the chamber OF deputies to make
executions private. With It's passing the
terrible, century-long. scandalous spectacle
OF the death machine in France will end.
STERLING HELLO.
A City Man in the Country.