Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-09-04
DEATH BY THE GARRoTE.
Capital Punishment in Cuba, Where
the Executioner Loves His Art.

the Executioner Loves His Art.
Cuba retains from the long Spanish
occupation the garrote as the instru-
ment Of capital punishment. A very
neat and quick acting affair is the
garrotte in the Carcel in Havana,
that prison building which occupies
the choicest site in the whole city. The
Carcel looks out to the ocean at the
harbor mouth and after the Moro
and Cabanas is the most prominent
old structure Of the city.
They keep the garrote in a dark
square, it appears, on the ground floor
Of the Carcel. Alongside the execu-
tion room is a cell where the execu-
toner lives.
He is a red haired Cuban, a politi-
cal prisoner who is there for life. 1t
isn't popular job, that Of being exc
cutioner, and because Of the lively
passions Of the Cubans perhaps it's
just as well that the executioner is
permanently detained within four SOL
Id stone walls.
The incumbent Of the job takes a
workman's pride in a smoothly opera
ting piece Of mechanism. Apparently
it never occurs to him that there is
anything tragic or melodramatic in an
execution.
Without qualms he sees stumbling,
unwilling, cringing human being drag
ged rather than conducted into that
dismal room. Seemingly he never is
touched with the thought that what
is a man when he enters the room
never will step alive out Of 1t. Far
from any feeling Of emotion, he slides
the mechanism back and fourth to
show how beautifully 1t works, and
then with a malicious grin invites
who will to sit down in the chair and
try it.
The garrote is a thing that no man
Of nervous temperament should look
at. Once seen it never can be forgot
ten. Just to think of it months after
ward brings up choking sensation
which makes one long to tear away
his color and breathe the free air as
deeply as he can.
It rests upon a raised platform, an
ordinary straight backed chair with
thin iron clasps on the elbows and
legs Of the chair. These are for the
arms and ankles Of the condemned
criminal.
At the top of the back of the chair
is a band of iron, one end Of which
swings out so as to admit Of a neck
being inserted. This band snaps
around in place and all is ready.
twirl of a crank In back and as the
band crushes the neck back pin
pierces the medulla oblongata.
The executioner explains all this
with a bright smile. 1t is nothing
new to him.
He tells as a great joke how one
time one of those vaudeville perform
ers who free themselves from hand
cuffs and chains, came to the Carcel to
look over the garrote with an idea OF
making a wager that he could free
himself Of it. The executioner work.
ed the pin a couple of times and the
wizard declined to try the machine.
The garrote man laughs uproar-
iously as he tells this. That's his idea
Of a joke.
The executioner's fee is SIT. The
executioner expends this generally for
tobacco and other creature comforts.
One time he stood out for money in
advance. What earthly hurry there
might be for a man who has all his
time to spend in Jail to get his money
in advance, the average person cannot
we'll see, but he said II he didn't get
his money he'd refuse to do the job.
Eventually he got it.
This exeucutioner too has Ideas on
the subject of comparative capital
punishment. He thinks that the gar
rote is the best Of all-more effective
and more humane than the electric
chair and hanging and infinitely bet
ter than the guillotine and the axe.
See for yourself" he says twirling
the crank could anything be bet
:er?"
And as expert opinion, perhaps 1t
deserves respect.