The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-07
Walter Partridge Hung at
Fayetteville Yesterday
"A SILENT STRUGGLE E
Dying, the Doomed Man Gets a Partial
Footing On a Steam Pipe in the
Jail From Which He Has TO
Be Torn AwaY---DaY Be.
fore the End.
BY r. l.. GRAY.


Partridge. the young negro who crim-
inally assaulted Mrs. Lille Hales near
Hope Mills on February first. was
hanged in the jail here today in the
presence of some fifty or sixty wit
nesses.
Although the doctors agreed after
the body had been taken from the
gallows, that the neck had either
been broken or dislocated. it was evil
dent that death resulted from strangu-
lation.
Sheriff Marsh sprang the trap ct
eight minutes after ten; and life was
pronounced extinct at ten-twenty-
eight.
The scenes in the first few moments
after the body of the negro dropped
were most narrowing and not few
Of the amateur witnesses were deeply
affected.
Partridge made the orthodox con-
fession and farewell address to the
crowd, and beyond the incident of the
feet of the condemned man catching
in the pipes running along the sides
of the cell, there was nothing of
specially dramatic interest about the
execution.
The hour for the hanging was ten
O'Clock At that hour a hundred or
so people had gathered outside the
pallisade of the Jail, gazing with
staring eyes at the grated windows of
the third story where it was known
the condemned man was confined.
There was no disorder. 1t was merely
the typical crowd of people whom q
gallows attracts. In the jail Par
fridge surrounded by the deputies and
the few who had been admitted before
the half-hundred visitors, maintained
the same cool and unconcerned atti-
tude which has distinguished him
during his last days. From the streets
below negro boys and Elen took off
their hats and waved them at the
building.
Hello, Walter!" they shouted and
Partridge, released for a few moments
from his cell, looked at them greediIy
from the window. In the crowd be-
low was an Old negro woman, recall
ing Raleigh's Aunt Betsy of the
Market Horse" in an old calico polk
bonnet, who announced that she was
the grandmother of the prisoner Ac-
cordtng to this distinction the crowd
stood back and the old darkey gazed
her fill at the top windows which
shielded the man about to die from
the view of the curious crowd.
Previously to this Partridge had
prayed with Rev. Hall, to whom he
mad made his confession, had eaten
the usual hearty breakfast" of the
condemned which was topped with u
bottle of ginger ale by special request,
and when L visited the Jail was en-
gagged in admiring his photograph
which had been taken the preceding
evening. Partridge was pathetically
interested in his Photographic pre-
Ac n " inn
Gated, he had taken a consuming
pride in sitting before the photOg-
rapher. Fifteen minutes before his
hanging today, he fingered the photo
graph with hands reluctant to let it
go and gave to the sheriff list of
his relatives and friends to whom he
wished copies sent.
The crowd having been admitted
the people swarmed in the narrow
confines of the upper story of the JAIL
The gallows, arranged over the stair
case, with the iron trap on a level with
the top of the row of steel cages was
in the line of vision of several pris-
onerS, two of whom occupied the cell
almost underneath it. From q, hook
above the trap depended the rope and
as the deputies busted themselves in
waxing the rope and tying the knot
the operation was watched by those
confined In the jail as Well as the spec
tators who crowded the corridors and
climbed upon the roof of the cells for
a better view. While the preliminaries
were being arranged, the two negroes
in the cell adjacent to the gallows
commenced to cry. begging to be taken
TO another cell, which was done.
Partridge. however, loose in the cor
ridor, stood leaning against the graf
ing, looking with fascinated eyes at
the preparations for his death.
Finally he was lead out hauled up
the step-ladder to the level of the trap
and stood q mute figure in his new
clothes before the crowd that had
come to see him die. Among the big
men who surrounded him, the prisoner
gave even more than ordinarily the
impression of being a boy-a young
criminal caught in the meshes of a
strange moose. At first he was abashed.
There was no fear in his face, apDar-
emily no realization of the moments
that were to succeed. Before the star
ing people. he was merely ashamed;
as it were, stricken with stage fright.
He hesitated, some one prompted him.
He cleared his throat:
81 did all they said l did, this is
my full confession; 1 hope to meet
you all in heaven"
Rev Mr. Hall had prayed before
this fervently, his black ringed eyes
and the deep burrows in his face show
ing the strain that he was under for
the alien man of alien race who had
called on him in his extremity: