Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-10-13
CAPITAL PENALTY
Some Curious Methods of Exc
cutting Criminals.
MOROCCO USES THE LASH.

FIogging to Death 10 Still In Vogue
Among the Moors-Straneuiation |,
Employed In Austria, and Spain
Cings to tho Garrote.
There are many curious methods OF
inflicting capital punishment i'll the
various countries Of the old world
some Of them tinged with the cruelty
Of the dark ages.
Morocco IL perhaps the most mcdine
val country in existence. Flogging tn
death is still In vogue. 1t Is not 81,
very long ago that Mulai Hafid had
the Shereef kittuin executed III this
horrible fashion.
The umcer Of Afghunistun has pc
culiar methods OF making the punish,
ment tit the crime. A baker. for sell
Ing short weight. was roasted In his
Il scare that the Russians were ad-
vancing on Kubul WAS placed on u
stool fastened on top OF 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 summary
-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 az horrible warning.
An Austrian officer convicted Of pol
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 SPANS garrote is very
similar The original method of gar
roting was, in fact, nothing but stran-
Cling. The criminal was seated on q
chair fixed to a post. a loop Of rope
was placed encircling his neck and
the post. and by means Of a stick or
cudgeI (Spanlsh "garrote') inserted be-
tween the post and the condemned
mans neck the cord was frightened
until strangulation ensued
The modern garrotc consists of a
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 it's 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
hts neck, and the cart was then driven
away from under him. In 1888 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
TX in the hands Of a 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
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
ERIN the instrument, was dragged out
# its retirement and four miscreants
we're publicly executed at Bethune. in
he north Of France
The guillotine was invented by
loctor named Guillotin more than a
CENTURY ago. but 1t is not true that the
inventor fell victim to his own de-
ice. He died quietly in his bed. The
'uillotine consists Of two upright posts
'rooved on the inside. An Immensely
eavy and sharp steel blade is fixed to
Tide in these grooves, and the execu-
Toner has nothing to do but pull
ope. when the blade drops and decap-
tates the victim instantly. I