The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-04-18
AWFUL RELIC OF BARBAR|sM.
ELECTRIC CHAIR SHOULD TAKE
PLACE OF HANGMAN'S ROPE
Morbid Emotions Aroused by the
n Fearful Capital Punishment--Liauor
in the DRY" and Wet" Towns.
What q Fayetteville Citizen Says.
Story OF a Remarkable Bladen
- Slave.

EOT he A6SScutSIs
On the 9Th day OF April my calling
in life required that | go trough the.
ordeal of witnessing the execution OF
Walter Partridge, negro, inside the,
Jail Of Cumberland county. In the
past twenty years | ave seen hung IN
said county one white man, Joe How
ard, and five negroes, Richard Lee,
Tom Gee, William Mcneil, Louis
Council and Walter Partridge, the first
four having been executed in public,
and the last two IN what the law calls
private.
This certainly somewhat extensive
experience, has Impressed my mind with
the conviction that the private execu-
ton is far preferable to the other,
though there is still for room great
Improvement The exaction of the sn-
preme penalty OF the law, within the
walls Of the prison of the felon dimin-
ishes, but does not eliminate the ugly
feature of morbid curiosity, and this,
and as unintelligent craving for the
sensational and an abnormal love ct
eXcitepent, are d~isOrderly, pernicious,
even dangerous emotions of the undis-
ciplined mind. A hanging out in The
Open, with a tacit invitation to the
whole world to cape and stare, gives
free rein to these emotions, even among
the more intelligent better class, with
the impressive solemnity of the parade
OF the condemned from his cell to the
scafold, and generally, in large towns
where companies of the state national
guard are stationed, with an imposing
escort of sOldierY.
This morbid curiosity expresses Itself
with extraordinary force. At the exc
cutiOn of Walter Partridge, with the
exception of the high sheriff and his
officers, the county physician, the cor
Oner, e~X-corOner, the officiating clergy
man, one or two members of the bar,
and the representatives of the press,
the great majority, if not all, OF hose
admitted by ticket were present from
forbid curiosity if that did not carry
rkhem there, | am at a loss to know.
what did. Some of these crowded
around Deputy Sheriff Monaghan,
even before the practically dead man
had been cut down, asking for pieces,
of The rope as souvenirs of this awful
vindication of the majesty of the law
But there are several terrible fea-,
lures inseperable from an execution,
inside the Jail, with it's necessarily
limited space. In the case which
we are now discussing the negro net
his death on the third floor of the
building, not thirty feet away from the
POST distant of his fellow prisoners
xSnd not five feet away from one or.
two of them. And these Door wretches
confined like wild beasts in their steel
cages, were chained to the spot, wit,
nesses perforce OF all the preparations
details and elimination of this traga1I
dy Of the cutting off of human life
But everything about the fatal rope
is hideous and brutal. 1t nooses it's
victim, as a beast is lassoed on the
plains; it trusses him like a hog got
ready for slaughter; sometimes it slips
and slides, and then it spins himl
around in mid-air, like a horrible tee-I
totum in a dance of death-gurglingI
and spluttering, and gasping in the
last agonized breath. Away with the
rope! Relegate it to the bloody crimi7
nal vengeance Of Judge Lynch!
The time should speedily come wflanI
in every state of the union executions
will be in the electrical chair, that
fixed in a room Of the prison or Jail
separate wholly from any other part of
the structure, and the witnesses con-
fined absolutely TO the sheer required
ments of the u n solemn eXect17
ton of the law. The chair and the ac
c~Ompanying electrical machinery and
appliances are OF course always IN perl
feet order, for that wonderful agent OF
science will exert it's fearful power and
perform it's work under no awkwardl
clumsy hand, and with no slipshodI
mechanism. In the case OF counties
Ryhere there are no electric plants the
Jaw might provide for the execution OF
the criminals in the nearest town FUR
nished with electricity; or, if it should
prove cheaper ana preferable, all exc
cutions might take place in the state
penitentiary. Death in the chair Isl
speedy, certain, and is doubtless the
most merciful form of capital punish
menJ.
= \ s. s. 81 " *
The Charlotte correspondent Of the
Richmond Times-Dispatch, under tate
of April 4th has the following:
The report of the police department
shows that during them onth of MarcnI
the nine druggists of the city who nan
die liquor filled 2,544 physicians's pre-
scriptions for it. This amount equals,
the combined number of prescriptions
filed during January and February
beginning with April, three additi0nall
drug stores will handle liquor"
Let us figure a little on this state
ment. The inference is reasonable that
tbroo o16ifi0no1 6r11o CfOrnC vii CCIIt
proportionately with the first nine, ad-
ding one-third 10 the quantity; maxi
ing the whole twelve drug stores Til
1892 prescriptions every month. The
inference also is reasonable that the
prescriptions will average n pint
each, and a little calculation will show
that the one dozen Charlotte drug
stores will sell nearly II barrels per-
month or about LA barrels of intox7
icants during the year.. This pretty