The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1909-11-25

the Dispatch remarks:
CDR Elliott had violated of the laws of
God by attempting suicide. Had he been hanged,
he would have gone to his death without an OPP
portunity of asking forgiveness for heinous SIM
1--WE gather from the Heralds editorial that it
would not object to law permitting an officer
surreptitiously injecting an opiate into the arm
of condemned man and making him lnsenslple
to the approaching execution. few swallows OF
some strong brandy would perhaps put a man in
such condition that he would not much care
whether he be hanged or not Laughing gas
would send him to the gallows smiling and hap
py. Any of these means would rob the gaIloWs
of it's horror; but to employ them would be to
endorse Ingersol and to deny that God lives and
reigns'
The Dispatch takes queer view for this
century The extinction of life was what we
supposed the Law aimed at, not making the
method thereof as bad as possible. On the
theory of the Dispatch, why should the con-
demned be fed? By refusing food, he could
be made much wea ker and more apt to be ter
rorized and isn't brandy or whisky invaria-
bly, given? In fact, the brutality of hanging
is SO atrOcious that it is consideration for their
own feelings of sympathy, rather than desire
to help the condemned, which leads officers to
do all in their power to make the victim face
his fate stoically. Hanging is one of the rel
les of the dark ages, anyhow, which must 60.
While capital punishment may not be abol-
ished, the method of carrying out executions
has been steadily tending to things less brutal
and brutalizing. The exemplary "public
hanging" went, because the spectacle was de-
moralizing instead Of salutary, and the Au-
gusta Herazd'8 heart seems in the right place;
but suicide is always to be combatted, and life
saved, for what is despair one day may be
changed to complete relief or happiness to-
morrow, so that it is the duty of officers and
physicians to restore the patient, not that he
may be "brutally put to DEATH, but that, as in
the present instance, he may live to thank
them for preventing his doing an irreparabIe
wrong to himself and those who love him.
The Oklahoma land fraud cases are, at last.
to be heard, after various demurrers and
strenuous efforts to quash these
TRIAL OF proceedings. Governor Charles
HASKELL n Haskell and five other Okla
Romans will have to stand trial
for alleged conspiracies and practice of fraud
on the government in reference to those In
dian lands.
A mass meeting was held by large number
OF Chicago negroes who called upon the gov
ernor Of the State to avenge the
COT IT, IN lynching of James, the black
ILLINOIS. brute, who was put to death by
women at Cairo, Illinois, about
two weeks ago. Meantime the citizens of
Cairo intend to commemorate their week of
riot by monument on the spot where Annie
Pelley was attacked, which is also the spot
where the negro James was burned by the
mob, the idea being to provide permanent
warning that crimes of the character of which
the girl was victim will not be tolerated
That IS going some for a Northern State
and shows plainly how the antagonism be-
tween the races spreads, constantly augmented
and stimulated by the crimes of the negroes