Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-05-27
THE DREAD OF THE GALLoWs.
Experience of Missouri Judge With
Men Condemned to Death.

Mon Condemned to Death.
Gordon G. Ramey, says news let
ter, who is in jail in Lancaster, Mo.
charged with the deliberate murder OF
his twenty-year-old wife, Norah, be-
cause Of jealousy, said to his attorneys
when they asked him whether he
would rather hang or go to the pen
itentiary for life:
"Just as you people says to me it's
a stand-off."
The district Judge, N. M. Shelton
lives at Macon. 1t will be his duty to
pass sentence upon Ramey. When the
remark quoted reached Judge Shelton
he said:
That's what he says now, but wait
Men don't want to die-except in nov
els. There the hero can afford to be
Indifferent to danger because he knows
that If the right sort Of author has hold
Of him he will get through somehow
and live happy ever after.
But ordinary humankind wants to
live as long as the blood Of life and
health flows. There are no two sides
to the subject. While a spark Of intel
ligence exists in saint or sinner life is
the dearest thing there Is. 1t Is the
law Of natures God.
II don't know this young man, but
I'll wager lot he doesn't repeat that
remark to me when the time comes
I've seen too many such cases.
II was a member Of the Missouri
senate in 1889. The capitol buildings
and penitentiary are at Jefferson City
A Baptist preached, Bald Knobber
named Simmons, had been sentenced
to death for murder. He was regard
ed as courageous to the point Of reck-
lessness.
"At the last moment the government
commuted the sentence to imprison-
ment for life. saw the old man as
he was dressed in the penitentiary'
His face glowed with pleasure.
Some one asked him how he felt
He responded with a quotation he had
doubtless used many a time In the
days before he went to the bad.
"'Glory to God! feel just like I'd
been born again!'
Life had come back to him and 1t
was overpoweringly sweet. He had
nothing to look forward to but grim,
incessant toll, under hard master,
through all the years to come. But he
would live, and he was profoundly
grateful therefore.
when I was the representative of
my county at Jefferson City, saw two
other men right after their death SEN
tences had been computed to life i'm
prisonment by Gov. Marmaduke.
They had been convicted Of an atroci-
Gus murder in Henry county.
"They came to the penitentiary with
faces beaming like those Of men 60
ing to the wedding altar. They shook
hands with everybody they met,
laughed, cried and acted deliriously
happy.
Recently I had the disagreeable
duty Of sentencing ]. M. Robertson, Of
Adair county to the gallows. Before
his conviction he boldly proclaimed his
preference for death to a term in the
penitentiary.
when the jury took him at his
word and fixed his punishment at
death, his nerve failed. He begged his
lawyers to abandon the appeal and to
implore the governor for a commu-
tation to life in the state penitentiary.
1.-The man is, apparently, a physical
wreck, and 1t looks as If life would
have little attraction for him, even II
he gained his liberty. Yet with all the
strength of his mind he wants to live.
These are not peculiar instances.
it is simply the longing of normal
mind. 1t Is not cowardice to dread
death on the gallows.
Men who have regulations for
marked bravery in personal encounters
will become absolutely terror strick-
en- at the thought Of such an end
Those who flaunt their indifference to
IL will change when the shadow gets
closer. God evidently intended that
expiation at the laws hands should be
q terror, and such I believe 1t will ever
be. Cursed is every one that hangeth
OH a tree.'"