The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-09-12
THE YOUNG REPORTERS
FIRST HANGING STORY

ngurlng, Oh COURSE, lIVih WIG hS"S
paper standpoint-han gings with all
the attributes for darned good yarn,
pep, punch, cracking good lead and all
that sort of stuff. And, naturally, the
first was the best,
was cub, raw cub, with this
ties on my chin and holes in my socks.
I'd been in the game almost a year,
and I'd learned to write story with
out putting all the capitals and pune
tuation in the first paragraph. Some
way or other, the telegraph editor got
a nutty streak, on. He decided that
If he'd put me straight up against the
gaff, out on my own hook-marooned
on a newspaper island, as it were-l
might do something worthwhile. He
knew more about it than | did. Plain
" and frankly, l was scared to death.
It was in 1907 or around there.
Down at the Jefferson City Penlten-
tary in Missouria, three men,
Vaughan, Ryan and Raymond, were
to be dropped through the same trap
because, year or so before, they
had playfully blown out the gates OF
the penitentiary with dynamite, stolen
a switch engine and gone through
town toward the free and open prairie
cutting up in way no convict should
cut. 1t was distinctively against the
peace and dignity of the state, and in
retaliation the Hon. State had de-
clared an embargo on their wind sup
ply. And the telegraph editor had
Knocked me cold by assigning me to
the story, with instructions to write
until / fell over.
The party was to be pulled off at
9 o'clock a. M Being a cub, had
no more sense than to arrive at the
penitentiary in Jefferson City, hav-
ing come down from Kansas City on
the night train, at a o'clock in the
morning, demand, as a representative
of the Kansas City Star, the right to
be with the three men until they drop
ped-and get away with it. Into the
dear old death cell went and the
hanging party became four instead
of three.
And for five hours l lived with
them. felt their terror, took what
messages they had to send to those
who stayed behind, heard their tlemb-
ling remarks, accepted them as friends
and was accepted as friend by them.
When the last moment came, l, the
frizzly chined cub, marched to the
scaffold, side by side with them
there to see a great natural amphl-
theater, filled with thousands of peo-
pie, and out in a little open open
space-Three caskets!
| dropped drought the trap with
those men At least, might as well.
/ had been with them until felt
their every emotion-until / could
imagine every horror-laden, steel
clawed bit of agony that clutched
their hearts. Someone took a pic
ture of that hanging. 1t showed every
man with his hat off and head bow
ed-every one except a person with
hat slanted over one eye, taking notes
as fast as the pencil could move.
You've guessed it. / was the bird.
Then hazy three hours. was in
a telegraph office, pounding a mill
but you couldn't have proved it by
me. By and by, | sensed the fact
that people were looking over my
shoulder l glanced up to see the
older correspondents apologizing for
taking a look now and then l
didn't get mad. Didn't have enough
sense to. And it was not until a
congratulatory message came from
the paper, that l realized that had
pulled regular one, and that I'd writ
ten the yarn the telegraph editor
thought I'd write. As I've said, he
knew more about it than l. l wasn't
even really enjoying shave in those
days.
After that, hangings got to lie
something Of bore. The next four
were negroes, one party being duet.
1t didn't amount to much, except that,
Just as the moose was fastened, one
of them asked for drink of water.
Forget it," said the deputy sheriff,
you won't be needing it in minute .
The next, that of "Slim" Brooks, a
negro, was really an enjoyable affair.
Slim pulled some good jokes on the
way to the scaffold, waved that part
of his hand which wasn't strapped,
and seemed to have good deal of
FUN out of it. / never heard how he
liked the climax of the entertainment
On the way down from the gallows
room, stopped to ask another con-
demned negro how he was feeling.
He cursed me. l became peeved.
81 asked you civil question. says
| heatedly you'll be talking diff
ferently month from now when l
do your hanging"
A month later l was there, but I'd
forgotten all about that conversation.
The negro colled me to the bars.
"By golly," he chuckled, just as
pleasantly as though it were lawn
party, ''you all done tole de truf,
didn't you? l never fouh l was goin'
t. git hanged. honest didn't. But
ouasS I is" And he sure was,