Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-04-19
PORTO RICAN METHOD OF EXECU.
TON DEFENDED.
BY ONE WHO KNOWS
Said to be More Humane Than Hang
ing, Electrocuting or Shooting
Nevertheless the Administrator
is Considerably Troubled Over the
Recent Ponce Affair.

hNc iutu WtIt SdlIUJeu III IOuce, FOR
10 Rico, in accordance with the sem
tence of the judge who tried them,
and there is now arising from various
parts of the country a howl of protest
against this alleged 'repulsive and
brutal" method of inaicting the death
penalty.
The authorities at Washington are
already getting faint hearted over this
execution, and fear the affair will tell
against the administration. The war
department officials are busy explain
ing that they were in no sense re-
sponsible for the "repulsive" methods
adopted, and that 1t was due to the
continuance in effect of the old Span
ish laws which provided for the ex-
ecution by the garrote in all criminal
cases.
OF the people who have protested to
the war department against this
method of infiicting the death PEN
atty, probably not 'one has ever seen
man die in the screw chair. They
have, in all likelihood, nothing upon
which to. base comparison between
the garrote and the other methods of
execution.
while not pretending to be an
authority upon modes of inficting the
death penalty" says a gentleman IA
miliar with insular affairs, 81 have
seen death dealt out legally in many
forms. have witnessed hangings,
eloctrocutions, military executions
with the rifle, a lynching or two, a
court-martial killing with the machete,
and seven garrotings. OF these the
garrote was certainly the preferable
method of inflicting death. With the
possible exception of the guillotine, 1t
is absolutely the quickest and most
painless method of inflicting death. 1t
lacks, however, the really repulsive
features of the guillotine, and should
therefore stand first among legal ex-
ecutions.
The only Objectionable feat con-
nected with killing with the garrote
is that the executioner is necessarily
present In full view during the exc
cution, but, inasmuch as this method
of sending the criminal out of life Is
likely only to be practced In our
Spanish possessions this need occasion
no feeling OF false sympathy In this
country the sentiment against an ex-
ecutioner Is so strong that in hsngings
he is protected from publicity by all
possible safeguards. He is hidden
away in curtained cell, and pulls
the string that drops the trap without
ever in any fashion being identified
with the affair. In electrocutions the
electrician remains concealed in his
cabinet, although his identity is not
so well hidden. The guillotine expert
must necessarily perform In public.
and this is also true of the horse
skinner Of certain Teutonic countries
where the sword is swung against the
neck of the condemned man.
No vast amount of sympathy need
be wasted in considering the feelings
of the exeeutioner in any of our Span
lsh possessions. He is invariably a
condemned man, who is reprieved dur
ing the time he consents to act as ex-
ecutioner. He Is prisoner, and his
only hope of continuance OF life Is
his retention of the position. He is
usually low and degraded creature
without any undue sensitlveness, and
takes a certain pleasure In his work.
In Havana / saw Valentin, the big.
black Mango, twist the lever that gave
surcease Of sorrow to seven different
men, and In each case the work was
perfectly done. Death was instantane-
Gus, and there was no motion what
ever after the first thrust OF the screw.
The garrote chair Is a big solid af-
fair into which the condemned man Is
strapped as in the electrocution chair.
Feet and hands are bound with cords
and an iron collar draws the neck of
the victim close against the back of
the chair. In this position the back
Of the neck Is pressed against an aper-
ture containing fat-pointed screw
that can be thrust forward by turning
long handled lever that projects like
the top OF monster corkscrew behind
the chair This screw Is so arranged
tnat when the lever Is twisted the fat
point shoots out for an inch and a
half, fracturing the spinal column
just at the base OF the brain. In fact
the first cervieal yertebra is separated
from the skull just at the point of
Juncture, and death is as nearly in
stantaneous as IL Is possible to make
IT, VI the seven men have seen ex-
ecuted, not one showed the slightest
sign OF life after the executloner had
swung on the lever. There was no
trace OF muscular reflex action and no
symptom OF pulse or heart beat a mo-
ment after Valentin had done his
work. The victims were turned on
with neatness and dispatch that was
really admirable
"Garroting must be COMPARED, II II il
to be condemned, as a method OF ex-
ecution, with hanging, which is the
legal method in vogue in most OF the
states Of the union 1t Is far the
quicker and more humane manner Of
inhicting the death penalty. az hang
I