The national forum., 1910-10-01
CAPITAL PENALTY
Some Curious Methods of Exc
cutting Criminals.
MOROCCO USES THE LASH.
Flogeing to Death Is Still In Vogue
Among the Moors--Stransulation Is
Employed In Austria, and Spain
Clings to the Garrote. ,....

.
Among the Moors--Stransulation ls
Employed In Austria, and Spain
Clings to the Garrote. ....s
There are many curious methods of
inficting capital punishment in the
various countries Of the old world.
some of them tinged with the cruelty
of the dark ages.
Morocco Is perhaps the most mediae-
val country In existence. Flogging to
death Is still In vogue. 1t is not so
very long ago that Mulai Haid had
the Shereef Kittain executed in this
horrible fashion.
The ameer of Afghanistan has Pc
culiar methods of making the punish
ment fit the crime A baker, for sell.
ing short weight, was roasted In his
own oven. and man who had started
scare that the Russians were ad.
vancing on Kabu was placed on a
stool fastened on top of a tall pole
and kept there on sentry 60 till he died
of sleeplessness and exhaustion.
Political crimes are not uncommon
In Persia and the revolutionists, when
caught, are dealt with summarily.
-Four conspirators who were recently
caught in the act of throwing a bomb
in the crowded bazar ut Teheran were
hanged and quartered in the same
fashion that prevailed in England up
to the seventeenth century. The re-
mains of the wretched men were hung
at the city gates as horrible warning
An Austrian officer convicted Of poi
soning his superior officers In the at
tempt to win promotion was sentenced
to be strangled.
Austria is the only country which
employs this particular method Of ex.
ecution, but Spain's garrote is very
similar. The original method of gar
roting was, in fact, nothing but stran-
Cling. The criminal was seated on a
chair fixed TO post, a loop Of rope
was placed encircling his neck and
the post. and by means of stick or
cudgel tSpanish 'garrote") inserted be-
tween the post and the condemned
mans neck the cord was frightened
until stranguation ensued.
The modern garrote consists of q
brass collar containing sharp pointed
screw. The eXecutioner turns the
screw, and its point penetrates the
spinal marrow, causing instant death.
Every civilized country does its best
nowadays TO make the dreadful task
Of execution as rapid and painless as
possible Hanging as at present per-
formed is very different matter from
what it used to be in England.
Till nearly the end of the eighteenth
century the condemned man was made
to stand in cart with a rope around
his neck, and the cart was then driven
away from under him. In 1893 parlia-
ment abolished this practice as being
too barbarous. and platform was
substituted for the cart. In 1874 this
method was improved by proportioning
the length Of the drop to the weight of
the body.
The state Of New York inaugurated
the electric chair many years ago. but
its only advantage over hanging Is
that the man who switches on the cur
rent is out Of sight Of the death cham
Der and so escapes the grewsome title
Of public executioner.
Formerly all criminals in England
died by the ak, and undoubtedly the
ak In the hands of Il skillful heads
man was as merciful an instrument of
death as any which exist today. In
Prussia decapitation by the ak is still
the recognized method of execution,
but the rest Of Germany follows the
example of France and uses the guillo.
tine.
Execution had almost become obso-
lete in France until public sentiment
was so aroused by the ever increasing
number of brutal murders that in Jan
uary, 1909, "the widow as the French
term the instrument. was dragged out
Of its retirement and four miscreants
were publicly executed at Bethune, in
the north of France.
The guillotine was invented by
doctor named Guillotin more than
century ago, but it is not true that the
inventor fell n victim to his own de-
vice. He died quietly in his bed. The
guillotlne consists of two upright posts
grooved on the inside. An immensely
heavy and sharp steel blade is fixed to
slide in these grooves and the eXecu-
toner has nothing to do but pull a
rope, when the blade drops and decap-
itates the victim instantly.
There are few countries where
capital punishment has been abolished,
notably Switzerland. In Italy also
there have been no executions for civil
offenses for many years past. st. Lou
is Post Dispatch ..