The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1911-11-25

sWd9Sus DuI so lmpeFcSpQDiy that he
might have been shifting his weight
from one foot to the other. When the
deputy wardens fell in on either side
Of him he bowed his head a mo-
ment.
Il am ready, gentlemen" he said
simply, and the death march was be-
gun.
Affected bp Prayer.
Just before Superintendent Wood
and his men appeared, Rev. DIR. Fix
knelt in prayer with the condemned
man. He prayed for divine forgive
ness for him.
The father today is broken
man, as the result of his sons
crime, although he clung to the last
to the belief that his son was inno-
cent.
No member of the Beattie family
was present at the execution, nor at
the penitentiary when the death
march was begun Preparations for
the reception of Douglas Beattie,
brother of the doomed man, had been
made at the superintendent's office,
but Douglas did not appear. The fail
ure of any member of the family to
be present was welcomed by the
prison authorities, for they feared
their charge might break down at the
last moment.
In torrential downpour of rain, the
twelve witnesses to the execution
toledo through the murky dawn up
.the hill from which the penitentiary
looks down upon the city. They were
quickly marshalled and conducted sin
gle file, through gates of steel bars
to the chamber where Beattie was to
offer his atonement. There was no
conversation,
Chamber in Readiness.
Within the chamber all was IN
readiness. The chair, a solid struc-
ture of oak, would ordinarily have ap-
peared like the chairs seen in scores
of libraries throughout the land In
the somberly bare chamber, however,
the chair was naught but sinister.
Straps dangled from its arms and
PrINhy anu G4lihin6 bACGI NifA1i4B 4B6 dHpFbtI7
ed in the light of the electrics like
tentacles outstretched to Gasp vic
tim
The witnesses We're seated, SIX
abreast, in an angle of the room They
shuffled their feet 'uneasily, and when
one leaned forward to speak to an
other his action was received with
frowns Major Wood, with two deputy
wardens, addressed the witnesses, 60
ing through some small formalities de-
manded by the law. Then, with his
two men trooping behind, he passed
out into the building where Beattie
awaited the summons in his cell ad-
joining.
Voice of Doom.
In the death chamber the voice Of
the warden could be plainly heard,
reading to the doomed man the final
summons. The warden's voice droned
on, it seemed to the witnesses, inter-
minably. In reality, the compliance
with the law occupied only a brief
moment. Then, with Beattie between
them, thA deputy wardens began their
progress coward the chair only a few
feet away.
When the procession, followed by
Superintendent Wood, started, a sig
nal was given, which plunged the
death chamber into blackness, save
for a single light, Immediately over
the chair. This was SO hooded that
it outlined the chair in circle Of
blazing radiance so intense that the
remainder of the room seemed in ut
ter darkness. The witnesses scarce
could see each other. The prisoner
saw nothing but the chair
There was no delay in preparing for
the end. Beattie took his place, the
prison surgeon and the electricians
adjusted the straps, a half~dozen
clamps We're quickly thrown into place
and snapped. The cap, resembling a
leather football head harness, was ad-
justed, and the men stepped back.
Executed in One Minute.
The warden raised his hand. In
stantIy Beattie's body stiffened with
such violence that the straps creaked
with the strain, the clamps ratified as
though they were castanets in the
hands of death, and then that which
once had been Henry Clay Beattie, Jr.,
relaxed.
II was just 728 a. m. when the
shock was applied. One minute later
he was dead
The surgeon had gone forward, and,
with a stethoscope, had listened for
another faint beating Of the heart that
less than so seconds before had lived.
He stepped back.
He is dead"
The witnesses filed out. One or two
were ghastly pale, as thep stepped
into the early morning light.
Witnesses Unknown.
Carriages we're waiting for the wit
nesses, and they were driven rapidly
away. The identity Of but few was
known.
4 ~. 1.r..f eo~ra a1;4soa bad hanr