The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-11

selected for the purpose, either the
sheriff or some other officer legally
charged with the execution, pulls down
a handle on a switch, which completes
the circuit, and in a fiftieth Of sec
ond about 1900 volts of the deadly
electricity leaps through the body of
the murderer and passes on through
the wires. In that fraction of time it
is all over. He is dead as certainly
as though a gullotine had descended
upon his neck. The current is usually
allowed to remain at that intensity for
about ten seconds. when it is reduced
TO 1880 volts. After several seconds,
in order to make assurance doubtly
sure, the current is again increased to
upward of 1000 volts and then cut off.
The execution is over in less than
minute, the penalty demanded by the
law has been paid
This method of execution has met
with so much favor from criminolo-
gists, physicians and humanitarians
that it has been adopted by several
other states. notably Massachusetts
and Ohio. 1t is an improvement in
hanging from several standpoints, be-
| ing swift, sure and painless, and the
| removal of the body within minute
| after the current is turned on is a great
! advance from the old method, where a
| man was allowed to hang for from ten
| to fifteen minutes slowly dying, while
jury of doctors counted his failing
pulse beats and finally pronounced him
! dead. There are no pulse beats in the
electric-chair execution. fhe move
ment of the handle on the switch
board is practically simultaneous with
the stoppage of the heart. the obliter-
alton of all sense and feeling and i'm
mediate death.
Since the imposition of sentence
Czolgosz has lost the nerve which car
ried him through the ordeal of the
trial and has collapsed almost COM
pietely. The chances are that by the
time the day of his execution arrives
he will have to be dragged or carried
TO the chair. His collapse occurred on
his arrival at Auburn penitentiary at
3 o'clock on the morning after his SEN
| tence was pronounced in Buffalo. Up
to that time he had carried himself
marvelously well. He stood the trying
| test in the court room and even the
imposition of sentence without Wis
lble weakening and marched back to
his cell almost as jauntily as though
he had been acquitted.
But the people of Auburn had heard
that he was to arrive that morning
and mob Of about 300 had assem- bled
at the station. When the train pulled
IN there was an outcry from the mob
for the prisoners blood. AS he was
| hustled from the train to the prison
hsts struck ut him and hands
reached over the officers should
ers to seize him. Immediately
ne collapsed and became panic strick-
en-. Falling upon the floor of his cell.
he screamed with fear and agony and
begged the officers not to give him
up to the mob. That seemed to be his
greatest fear-that he would be lynch
ed, AS the days passed he grew a bit
quleter, but it is apparent to his
guards that he has lost his nerve, and
they fear he will make pitiable spec
tacle of himself when the time comes
for his last march on earth-that from
MS cell to the death chamber.
An arrant coward, the chances are
that he will be paralyzed with fear
when he views the apparatus prepared
| for his death-the grisly chair. the
head piece and the straps. 1t is, in
deed, spectacle which might make
the most clustering braggart quail
and in the case of a pitiful coward like
the man who murdered the President
| the effect will probably be distressing
in the extreme to the sheriff and other
officials charged with his legal execu-
ton. But they have little pity for him.
Indeed, at the start before his trial
the sheriff discovered that the guards
stationed outside his cell were prac-
tlclng mild form of torture by keep
ing him awake at night. They man.
aged to make noises which startled him
every time he went to sleep; they talk
ed or sung or whistled and gloried in
the fact that their endeavors were
driving sleep from the brain of the
murderer mild form of the Chinese
torture which keeps criminals awake
until they die. But as soon as the
sheriff heard of this he put a stop on
it, largely because he did not want
Czolgosz to appear in court thin.
drawn and haggard as though he had
been prosecuted in the jail In the
eyes of the law he was still innocent
until he had been proven guilty, and
orders were issued to feed him well
and let him have plenty of sleep. The
result was that when he came into
court he was fat and sleek after his
two weeks of rest and good food and
looked much better than he did when
he was arrested.
May Make Trouble at Execution.
But since his sentence he has changed
his demeanor. Realizing that his cllm-
sy efforts to feign insanity were de-
celVlng no one, he dropped them after
the trial and conducted himself in a
quiet, orderly way, as though he were
quite resigned to his fate and wanted
only to have 1t hurried along and get
it over with. But the incident at An
burn, when the mob clamored for his
blood, worked a complete change in
him and seemed to take away what
ever spirit or bravado he had I'D to that
time. He has been a trembling. whim-
pering wretch ever since and the
chances are that he will be led to his
execution shrieking with terror or
practically unconscious from fear.
But in that event the redeemine fea-
ture is that the spectacle will not last
long. AT a hanging when a prisoner
falnts or struggles there is always a
painful scene, as it is necessary to
have him on his feet in order to place
the moose around his neck. With the
electrocution chair this trouble is oh
waited. The most weak need and
trembling of condemned men can be
placed In the chair and bound in the
usual way without the slightest mus
cular aid on their own part. The cur
rent can be flashed through them and
the crime has been expiated.
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