Carson City daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1907-1930, 1909-09-23
EXIT AN INDIAN

Tomorrow at II o'clock a Indian boy will pay the death penalty
hanging. and as he passes the gate of death, where many have passed
before the thoughts that surge through his brain IS he takes the final
drop. becomes a matter of interesting speculation.
He was a boy not much rel II years of age and his crime was
the killing OF two prospectors in cold blood. whose bodies he LEI oil
the desert in Esmerada county.
The only motive disclosed that of robbery and he saot his vic
time through the back from ambush, for the purpose of possessing him-
self OF u better weapon than he already IA
When arrested he did not seen to realize the enormity of his crime
and it is supposed that he will go o ais final accounting with the stole
ism characteristic of his race.
While he killed his victims a an Indian, with the inbred customs
of generations behind him, he may have imagined that he had the right
Il follow and stalk his human quarry as his foremhers tracked the wild
beasts of the desert and slew them for their flesh and hides.
But he was tried by white e and granted all the rights and le-
gal protection that a white man is granted when he battles 'fr ms
life in the courts of justice. He had able counse! and lis case was
fought with all the technicahties and exceptions to evdenc that char
acterizes similar trials anywhere in the state.
A jury found hin guilty n his attorneys appealed the cas- o he
ion and sustained the findings and the sentence of the lower court.
The governor as Appealed TO- and every known resort to h laws
At the appointed hour prison subordinate will place the black
slip wei ais neck. 1t will be a tense moment TO the spectacle M
every heart in that audience will peeat faster, and those present will hear
the suppressed breathing OF the other spectators.
At that moment the Ia will ave shaken hands as a las farewell
to the guards. thu prayer OF his spiritual adviser will nave died away,
and the preparations for the final act o the hideous drama will be o
plete. when three guards hetire behind a wall where three cords o
nected with weights arr ready to be severed.
The wardens raised hand signals tn mn TO ut tn cords.
are dummies and the third hberates the weight that snaps back tn plat
form irom under the murderers et. The form OF a shoots down
ward six feet. bound hand and foot with many straps strong enough
to bind a lion.
It sraighens out and then gy rates, and if the neck is 10 broken
'' o'"'' ''SS
agony will go on o several minutes before tn yes OF men who will
remember 1t in their dreams for weeks to come.
While the execution is on. the other convicts will feel it in the
air" and their cells restlessly and at the hour count the heeting
pulse of time.
The physicians will count the ebbing pulse OF the dying IA in Il
cod professional way
They will come slower and fainter and when the last physician takes
his hand away and clicks the lid o. his watch you will know df you are
there nat II is all over.
The warden will announce to III Witnesses hat the Ia is dead
and the spectator will file nj, each watching how his neighbor looks
and trying % be unconcerned himself
Not many who zee this "a die will ask fol- tickets to thu neN
execution.
The law will have been indicated and the savase will AVE lied
by he yhte mans law.
The Indian had 10 teachings oil Christianity which pointed nut tn trail
which led Il the wrong or the right. Generations of avag instinct
were planted in his mine from childhood. and he Ia z to his doom with
but a vague idea OF what lie a hanged for, and he may att he present
time imagine in his W untutored mind that he is HI victim of injns-
tie by the application OF a law of which he ignorant and had n
hand IL the making.
But Il accurately diagnose his thoughts Il he feels them today Oh
will tomorrow at te moment the platform fails rom ndo his mis-
guided feet, II might as well try to determine what the inhabitants
Of Mars are thinking Of provided there re II there.
Summing IL all II II is merely-EMt an Indian.