Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-05-07
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Rr FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.
quartered.


The use of the rack. or of wild horses
to tear victims limb from limb; the
"scavenger's daughter" which compress
ed a human, being into a ball; tearing
the flesh with hot pincers; f1ogginS VIZ:
the CATO -nine-tails; breaking on the
wheel; stoning, torturing with hot lead
and boiling oil; placing victim in the pill
lory or stocks. or on a duclxing STOOL
and all sorts of mutiliation were approx
ed forms Of punishment. A Roman gen.
eral, captured from the Cartha ginians,
was put i'm a cask into which spikes were
driven from all sides. King John en-
eased clergyman, who had offended him,
in garment Of lead. where he died.
Millions upon millions OF human be-
ings have been legally killed, und me-
in wars. Under Henry VIII. 1900 thieves
we're hanged in England, while 100000
people are said to have been executed
there between the accession of William
Of Orange and the death of George III.
Some Of the best blood in the world has
been shed upon the scaffold. King Louis
/ XVI Marie Antoinette, Joan of Arc, Ma
dame Roland, Charles I. Mary Queen of
Scots. Sir Walter Raleigh. the wives OF
Henry VIII. Charlotte Corday, and 9TH
! ers too numerous TO mention, heroes gem
erals statesmen, scientists and church.
men have forfeited their lives under form
Of law.
In recent generations few women have
suffered the death penalty. During the
nineteenth century only three were hang
ed in England. Only two women are said
to have been electrocuted, one being Mrs.
Mary Farmer, who recently paid the pen-
, atty of her crime in New York. A Mrs.
Rogers was hanged in Vermont several
years ago. There is a negro living in Mis-
sissippi who is legally dead. He was
| hanged for a certain number of minutes,
as the law then provided, but failed to
die, as the law did not contemplate. Since
! then the law has been amended.
The executioner is in a class by him
| self In continental Europe he general
Iy belongs to a family Of executioners
4 and generally is proud of it. Although
his profession has fallen into cimpara-
tive disuse in some countries, he may not
be in disrepute. In England the heads
1 man for generations was named Gregory.
Later a long series of Jack Ketches held
the job 1t is a singular fact that many
I English hangmen have turned murderers
= and been executed on their own gallows.
! In the United States there is no execu-
toner, recognized as such, unless IL be the
state electrician of New York. In Francs
the executioner draws a good salary and
is known unofficially as Monsieur de
Paris" For nearly two centuries the
place was filled by the Samson family,
curiously enough all men of refinement
and intellect. One of these during the
reign of terror made the uneoualed record
of sixty-two executions in forty-flve min
utes.
Without capital punishment life i'm
| nrisonuoent would he melted out to seri-
Gus offenders. Then penal colonies would
be in demand, such as France main
tains in DEVILS island and Guiana Great
Britain in the Andaman and Nicobar Is
lands: Italy in the Lipari isles; Germany
in Oceanica and Africa; and Russia in
! Siberia.-CCopyright. 1909, by Frederic j.
Haskin.)