Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-08-04
EASEMENT CALM AS
HE PAYS PENALTY ON
GALLONS AS TRAITOR
Great ThOng at Prison Gates
JeerS and. .GrOanS as Death
Sentence for High Treason
Is Executed
lBy Associated Press.l

was hanged at o'clock this morning
i in Pentonvilie Jail for nigh treason. lie
was convicted of conspiring to cause an
| armed revolt in Ireland and with having
sought German aid to that end.
| Two hours before the execution
| crowd of men. women and children gath
cred before the prison gates. Twenty
minutes before Easement mounted the
scaffOld the great prison bell commenced
| TO toll. The sound was greeted with
| cheers from the crowd, mingled with
| some groans. At 3 o'clock the crowd
had swollen to such proportions that it
/ extended for two blocks from the prison
front. At one minute after 9 o'clock a
single stroke of the big bell announced
that the trap had been sprung. 1t was
the signal for a hooking, jeering yell
| from the crowd which suddenly died
away into dead silence.
Easement met his death With calm
courage, according to eyewitnesses.
Early in the morning two priests of the
Roman Catholic church administered the
/ last rites in the cell of the condemned
man and shortly afterward a little pro-
cessiOn headed by the clergymen with
| Easement following, a warden on either
side. proceeded to the execution shed,
only five yards away. The priests recit-
ed the litany of the dying, Easement re-
/ spending in low tones:
LORD nave mercy on my SOUL
According to one of those present,
| Easements last words were: Il die for
my country.
BARBER Is EXECUTIONER.
As the party reached the shed where
+, the gallows was erected the special exc
cutioner, a nair dresser named Ellis
! approached Easement and quickly pin
| toned him. The two chaplains, the un-
dertaker OF London and the under
! sheriff of Middlesex then took up their
positions in front of the scaffold. Case
ment mounted the gallows steps firmly
and commended his spirit to God as he
stepped on the trap. A moment later the
lever was pulled.
Imr- ediately after the trap was sprung
the prison engineer and physician de-
/ scended into the pit where, after the APP
plication of the usual tests, Easement
/ was pronounced dead at nine minutes
/ after 9. According to the custom in the
/ case Of prisoners hanged for crimes SIM
liar to that of Easement his body will
/ be buried in quick lime in the prison
/ yard. but probably no decision to
the burial will be made until after the
inquest.
An affecting incident took place out
side the prison wall as the execution was
I in progress. At the back of the prison a
I little distance from the jeering crowd
thirty Irish men and women. When the
dull clang of the prison bell announced
/ that the doomed man had paid the last
penalty this little group fell on their
/ knees and with bowed heads remained
| for some moments silently praying for
the repose of the soul of their dead fell
/ low-cOuntryman.
/ Immediately after the execution three
notices were posted on the prison door.
f. The first. signed by the under-sheriff of
/ London, the governor of the prison. and
I Father Jane McCarrell, Easements
confessor. read: Judgment of death was
/ this day executed on Roger Easement in
his majesty's prison of Pentonville in
/ our presence" similar notice was
/ signed by the \under-sheriff of Middlesex
/ county. The third bore the name of p.
r. Mander, the prison surgeon, who GER
1 titled that he had examined the body
and found Easement dead.
/ Ellis. the executioner. arrived in the
I prison early last evening and immediate
i ly made his preparations. lie examined
the trap door in the execution shed and
tested it thoroughly with a bag exact
IL the same weight as Easement. Ellis
remained in the prison all night.
/ EASEMENT UNCONCERNED.
/ Easement showed not the slightest
concern over mis- fate. He ate we'll and
i chatted freely and cheerily with two
warders in his condemned cell. After =
Il hearty late supper he Invested himself
for the last time of his convict clothes
Il and went to bed. He was notified that
he would be allowed to wear his own
| civilian clothes for the execution,
4 though would not be permitted to wear
I collar.
All the members of Easements family
were Protestants and he was brought up
4 in that faith, but became z convert to
, Roman Catholicism within the last few
weeks. On June % he was registered a
member of the Roman Catholic church
! and since that time Fathers McCarrell
and Carey, of Edin Grove church. near
the prison, have been ministering to
, him. He received his first and only
; communion at o'clock this morning
when he assisted at mass in his cell.
One of his attendants said that his over
; towering love for God and ireland was
most striking. According to his attend
ant the last words of the condemned
man. apart from his prayers were: 81
: die for my country Father McCarrell
: said that he found Easement to be a
J beautiful character and that he never
2 instructed any one i'm his religion who
showed himself quicker or more prom
ising learner.
All hopes of an eleventh-hour Teprieve
: were dashed to earth yesterday with the
. . statement of Lord Robert Cecil, parlia-
mentary undeT-secretary of foreign af-
fairs. that no government doing its duty
could interfere with the sentence. Sup
plementing this were the dramatic dis
closures by Lord Newton in the house
of lords that the Germans recently shot
two Irish prisoners who refused to Join
D Easements Irish legion.
The morning papers mostly deal in the
briefest and most matter of fact way
with the execution of Easement The only
editorial reference is in the Daily News
I which says:
I'VE cannot but rcaffirm our convic-
tiOn that the government exhibited grave
z unwisdom in exacting the death penalty
4 No evil results could have followed a
= communication Of the sentence. The hang
ing gives the disaffected section of Ire
: land another martyr. embitters feeling
r throughout the island. alienates a large
E and important body of American opinion
CONTINUED on Page 6, Col. 81