The Elbert County tribune., 1916-12-22
The maiden wns the ancestor of ~

The maiden wns the ancestor of tba
guillotine. The inventor of the latter
whose name has become immortaI
was a mere plagiarist. Every salient
feature of his machine was embodied
in the maiden. This admirable con-
trivance was introduced in Scotland
by the regent Morton, who encouraged
labor-saving devices of every kind.
Morton, who was the most unpopular
man in his kingdom, had the satisfac-
ton of being beheaded by the machine
he so greatly admired.
The maiden consisted of two up
rights with grooves down the inside.
In these grooves there slid a heavy
ak, weighted with lead. There was a
cross-bar four feet from the ground,
and upon this the patient laid his head
at the direction of the executioner.
Then another crOssbar descended
upon his head and held 1T down. Ev-
erything being in readiness for the op-
Grafton, the executioner requested the
patient to look pleasant, please, pulled
q cord, and the ak descended. There
never was any botched work with this
machine, as often happened when the
headsman swung an ak by hand. The
maiden was largely used in the agrl-
cultural districts, where the stealing
of live stock was popular diversion.
When the thieves were convicted and
brought to execution, a touch of po-
etic justice made their end seem more
pleasant. If the condemned hid stol-
en- a horse, the cord which released
the ak was pulled by that animal; If
COW or a sheep, COW or a sheep
sent him into eternity.
1t was upon this ghastly machine
that Alexander Balfour was looking
when the sun went down, and there
was despair In his face when he
turned away from the window-and
confronted his sister Jennie. She had
her finger on her lips, warning him to
be silent. She whispered that she had
come to save him. They were much
of q size, and in little while Alexan-
der was wearing his sisters dress and
bonnet, and she was blushing in his
unaccustomed raiment. The Burleigh
pull was of no avail in Alexander's
emergency, but it seems probable
that the Burleigh money was not so
futile. For everything moved like
creased clockwork. The sister re-
mained in the dungeon, and the broth
er walked out of the prison, turnkeys
and jailors paying no attention to him
whatever. In a bosky dell not far
away he found fleet horse, all sad
died and bridled, with money and
weapons convenient to his hand. So
he sped away, and gained a foreign
shore.
Even at this distance of time one
must sympathize with the unfortunate
executioner when he arrived on the
knoll next morning and found there
was nobody to execute. He had looked
forward to this affair as the crowning
achievement of his career. Perhaps
he figured on taking the lecture plat
form or making tour of the Chau-
tauquas, and all his hopes were shat
tered at one blow. So he had to take
his little old maiden away and maybe
he used 1t for slicing turnips for the
cows.
Lord Burleigh and the various dukes
and lairds and other great relatives
of the escaped murderer never wear
led of working for pardon for Alex
ander, and when Queen Anne came
to the throne she was induced to ex-
tend clemency to him, and he returned
to his ancestral halls and lived there
in opulence and honor for so years.
His story is familiar tale throughout
Scotland, but nobody seems to know
what became of poor widowed Anne
Robertson Syme.