Milford chronicle., 1910-10-07

Among the MoorS-Strangulatio Is
Employed In Austria, and Spai'
cIinss to the earrOte.
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 Hafd 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 a man who had started
a scare that the Russians were ad-
vancing on Kabul was placed on a
stool fastened on top of a tall pole
and kept there on sentry go 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 at 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 a horrible warning. |
An Austrian officer convicted of poi |
sOning his superior officers in the at |
tempt to win promotion was sentenced |
to be straneled.
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
chair fixed TO a post, a loop Of rope
was placed encircling his neck and
the post, and by means of a stick or
cudgel Spanish "garrOte'') inserted be-
tween the post and the condemned
mans neck the cord was frightened
until SLIduSuldLlOQ eQSueQ.
The modern garrote consists Of a
brass collar containing a 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 a cart with a rope around
his neck. and the cart was then driven
away from under him. In 1888 parlia-
ment abolished this practice as being
too barbarous. and a platform was
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
It's only advantage over hanging is q
that the man who switches on the cur
rent is out of sight of the death cham
Der and so escapes the grewsome title
IF public eXecutioner.
Formerly all criminals in England
lied by the ak, and undoubtedly the
TX in the hands Of "A skillful heads
nan was as merciful an instrument of
leath as any which exist today In
Prussia decapitation by the ak is still
he recognized method of execution
lut the rest of Germany follows the
Of France and uses the guillo-
inc.
Execution had almost become obso-
etc in France until public sentiment
vas so aroused by the ever increasing
lumber of brutal murders that in Jan
larry. 1909, the widow" as the French
erm the instrument. was dragged out
f its retirement and four miscreantS
we're public: executed at Bethune. in
he north OF france.
The guillotine was invented by q
octor mar = Guillotin more than
entury as out it is not true that the
inventor f. a victim 10 his own de
ice He NJ quietly in his bed. TIL
q. sists of two upright post.
rooved on ne inside. An immensel
eavy and -narp steel blade is fixed 10
lide in these grooves, and the execp-
loner' has nothing to do but pull
ope. when tne blade drops and decap-
ates the victim instantly.
There are a few countries wher-
apital punishment has been abolished
otably Switzerland. In Italy alsc
here have heen no executions for civil
for many years past-St Lou
Post-Dis3atch.