The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1904-07-16

iu"k IN the County Jail Yard as
monday-Sherlff Saucier PERSONAL,
Sarried Out the Execution-v Victim,
Neck Was Broken and Death Instsu
toneous-Executlon Private,
Az ZIG o'clock Monday afternoon
July II, 1904, Sylvestre Pierre. colored
was hung by the neck until dead for N,
cold-blooded murder last November d
John Marshall, . young,colored man, 8
this city. q 4, - !, =
Converted to The Methodist faith, pier.
re was baptised and received into tha,
church Sunday of last week, and, with
Kew ". L. Marshall, pastor at thi,
place, spent most OF the forenoon IN
prayer, and listened with marked. atten-
tion to the reading of the Bible. He
had been Catholic, or rather professed
to be one-all his life, and when spiritual
assistance was suggested, he chose that
ne adopt the Methodist belief. How
ever, it is said, he afterwards expressed
himself as wishing to see a priest, but
this was when the end was near.
Fully resigned,
HE LEFT HIS CELL
telling the inmates of the prison good
bye, and with lighted cigarette in his
mouth walked outinto the Jail yard within
the enclosure that was limited by a o.
foot board fence, where the scaffold, an
awful looking structure, had been erect
ed. Both hands securely bound behind
his back with a piece of thin tar rope,
he proceeded as calm and resolute of
meeting his fate as any man within whose
bosom beats human heart.
ASCENDING THE scAFFoLD,
after taking the first look he had seen of
the structure since it was built, he hesi-
lated for the fraction of second, d slight
was noticeable, and like a mad
man, with terror stricken face, he hur-
ried and plunged upward the min eteen
steps with a firm gait, and, reaching the
Top unaided but accompanied, he was
directed to stand over the trap doors,
which he obeyed. 4
The expression he bore was one that
never will be forgotten by the private
audience it confronted below. The face
Dallid, the features were drawn and the
expression one of sorrow and fear COM
oined that stamped itself indellibly upon
5he witnesses of the gruesome tragedy
hat was about to be enacted. A picture
of anguish was this facel Who will for
get itp Who can? Was man ever more
subdued, more terror-stricken? Could
5he mind have lived longer one hundred
years than the few moments it did while
under the shadow of the gall
lows?
HAD NOTHING TO SAY.
Asked If he had anything to say, he
"No" Then his spiritual
adviser came forward and suggested that
ne again pronounce his peace with God
and mankind, as he had done prior to
eaying the cell below. This being done,
jhe black cap, made with black lining
was adjusted by one of the
deputies, then the rope was quickly ad-
iusted with the moose located so to fit
behind his left ear, where it was held in
position, and during which time one of
the deputies was continually laying
hands about his shoulders to direct the
mind and avoid the supreme suspense,
when
SHERIFF j. Z. SAUCER,
personally cut with one whack Of a sharp
hatchet the rope that held the trap doors,
and Sylvestre Pierre darted through the
opening of the scaffold with sudden
ness that broke his neck, causing in
slant death. The drop was nine feet, and
as the body left its footing, the deputy
held his hand on the moose behind the
ear, keeping it In position as far down
the drop he could.
Reaching the end Of the rope and the
neck breaking, the body fell to full
stretch where it remained motionless for
two or three minutes. There was not the
least perceptible sound Of groan or cry,
and not movement OF the body until
later when the contraction of the nerves
began to take place. These movements
we're spasmodic and Of short duration.
A GRUEsoME SIGHT.
at the end OF rope, the
body OF a man at full length. the sight
was now a gruesome one, und the spec
tators to the number of fifty-two, were
not strong to view and contemplate the
tragedy.
DR.. ]. @. Fountain, county health Of
ficer of Pennington, and DR.. A. O.John-
ston, of Picayune, we're officially pres-
ent, and pronounced the body finally
dead at 2.34.05, when it was lowered and
the coffin brought in from without the
enclosur and placed under the gallows.
The = >, with cap and rope still in
sdeposited in the coffin, after
ahead and neck were cleared
'ng been broken, the head
side to side at the least
Ike rag. On the neck, be-
Il ear, was large ugly mark,
b, j blue, the mouth drawn to the
left ), and while the eyes were ciosedl
the lids we're blue and pertruded above
their natural position.
The prisoner was executed N the
4. Id II. nxll d