Sunday Washington globe., 1902-05-04

/ sloWAg UP anu uOWu
Van Stavern sprang up like an aroused
animal threw his cards down and walked
over to the bars.
How do / spend my timer Mostly on
my knees. saying my prayers from morning
till night he said, wrenching at the bars
nervously.
What else is there for a fellow in my FIX
to do7 You see nothing else will do me
any good No, I'm not religious Yes.
am now, of course, but only lately. In the
morning, as soon as l wake fall on my
knees. do; the priest i'll tell you that
We all have to die. Oh, of course every
body says that. But other people don't
have to die the death that I'm going to die
It's horrible death for a man like me
Why, Pm bunch of muscles could lift
ton, it seems to me.
"Of course l eat lot when I can get il.
Everybody does that And Pm terrible
hungry sometimes But it isn't true that
I'm spending my last days in eatin good
things.
Il like plain food, and plenty of it, It's
this way: ] have to have something to
think about. There's my religion, of course,
and there's the cards, and after that there's
nothing to hinder man from getting all
he can to eat.
That little restaurant over there - do
they call that much of a restaurant?
couldn't eat my head off over there if
tried. won't say what like best to eat
don't know-anything. Pm terribly hun
cry sometimes. tell you that
Yes, I'm here for killing my wife I
shot her three times. was crazy drunk.
We had not been living together for quite
some time. She went home to her fathers.
Why, once I didn't see that woman for
three years. Three years, and that's a fact.
Well, saw a woman coming along the
street l said to boy, Is that Mrs. Van
StaveruF Yes, it's Mrs. Van Stavern, said
he. Then I shot her. And when she fell
shot her twice more"
you had something against your wife?"
Why, Lord mel Nobody ever had any
thing against that woman. loved that
woman. Drunk just crazy drunk. If
they'd "a locked me up before I shot her,
why, l never would have done it. It's not
my fault. I'm not bad man."
Van Stavern turned and slouched away
from the grating. his huge frame rolling as
he walked, his suspeuders falling loosely off
his collarless shirt.
He shufied the pack of cards a moment,
looked uneasily from side to side
Seems to me it's getting about dinner
time" he said to man sprawled out on
the corridor floor.
In Camden, where Van Stsvern had lived
all his life, the talk is mainly on the strange
mania that drove him to spend the last days
Of his life in feasting inordinately
Wan Stavern surely got ali he wanted for
once" they say, with mingled accents of
curiosity and awe, as stories are retold of
the huge platters of roast beef and plum
pudding that the condemned man ate for
his dinner"
The GLOBE is forced to fatty contradict
this keepers experience or statement. It
is possible that men awaiting execution in
county iails excite wonder in the keepers
by requiring something to eat other than
the Jail fare. The Jail fare. as a rule.
is that quantity Of coarse food which is abb
solutely necessary to keep life in the
prisoner while torturing him with the pangs
of hunger. In many years experience we
have never discovered a single prisoner of
the tens Of thousands who reach the peni-
tentiary from the iails where they we're con-
fined who did not fervently thank God that
they reached the peniteutary before they
were starved to death This is due to the
fact that county sheriffs make their fattest
perquisites from feeding the prisoners. The
state or county allows the sheriff so much
per diem for the board and washing of the
prisoner. The sheriff addresses himself to
the problem of how he can feed the prisoner
and make zoo per cent profit The result is
that the prisoner, while in Jail is, if friend
less in a state Of suspended animation,
through actual lack of sufficient nourish-
ment to keep body and soul together.
Now when the condemned culprit is to
be executed at the jail, as is the case in
great many of the states. instead of in the
states prison or penitentary, he, imme-
diately after sentence of death is pro-
uounced and the date fixed for his taking
Off requests and secures sufficient food to
relieve the pangs of hunger and prevent
the torture which he had heretofore suffered
under the ordinary Jail regime. This he is
allowed, as it is not the policy of the law 10
add torture to the death penalty, and hence
the superior feed (that is sufficient plain
victuals) given the condemned over the un-
convicted or short term prisoners.
In states like Ohio for instance, where
men under the death sentence are confined
in the peniteutiary until the date set for
their execution their appetites excite no
comment whatever. Prisoners In the peni-
tentiary who work must be fed and while
the viands are not in quality such as are
served up at the New Willard or the Hotel
Lawrence they are sufficient in quantity,
and the pangs of hunger rarely assail the
convict.
As clerk of the subsistence department
and the kitchen of the Ohio prison we have
had some experience in catering to the ap-
petites of men awaiting execution
and We have never known a case
such as the keeper describes nor ever heard
of what he calls the death appetite"
Under Governors Campbell, Mckinley and
Bushnell we provided "the last supper" for
more than a score Of executed felons, both
white and colored, and in not a single in
stance did the unfortunate wretch who was
to die after midnight and before sunrise ex-
press desire for or ask anything out Of the
ordinary daily bill Of fare. The runner"
or convict who attends~on the prisoners
awaiting execution and carries them thei
food from the kitchen Is the envied Of his
fellows because there is always sufficient Of
the good things supplied the condemned
- L aNar an nall