Evening star., 1923-08-26
CHINESE SLAYERS
WILL DIE BY GAS
State to Try New Execution
Method While Six Witnesses
Look On.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
CARSON CITY, New, August 25.-
Six faces pressed against the out
side of a big plate glass window will
watch HughIe Sing and Gee Jon.
Chinese tong murderers. die when
the state of Nevada carries out it's
first execution by lethal gas, the state
supreme court having ruled this week
that this method Of putting crimi-
nails to death is not cruel or in
human.
Plans for building the death cham
ber--a tiny concrete hut, resembling
somewhat an Eskimo igloo-are go
ing forward at the state penitentiary
here, il was learned today. although
the date of the execution has not
ba,n set, pending decision by the
United States Supreme Court on an
appeal from the ruling of the state
court.
There will be nothing striking
about the hut except the wide glass
window which will frame the final
picture of the six witnesses the law
specifies, which the orientals will
carry with them into the Beyond.
Bound to Chairs.
The two Chinese will be bound
tightly to two chairs, the only fur
nlIurt Ill lle dlIllSHl clallDeT, 10
prevent their bodies from falling to
the floor when consciousness leaves
them The prison warden or his
deputy will lift his hand as a signal
for the opening OF a valve. Cyano-
gen, the poison gas, will rush into
the chamber from pipe entering
the room at one corner. Death will
be almost instantaneous, according
to the authorities.
Standing before the window, the
ment, every grmace of the laws two
victims as they eXpiate their crime
IN the newest and strangest manner
OF execution yet devised. Upon their
testimony probably will depend
whether death by lethal gas will be
continued in use in Nevada, possibly
To be taken up by other states. or
whether it will be discarded as cruel
and inhuman, as claimed by attor-
neys for the condemned tong men.
a few minutes after life has left
the two bodies. to all appearances, a
physician will enter the death cham
Der, wearing a gas mask. similar to
one used to repel the deadly fumes
in the late war. After a swift, but
careful examination of the two bodies,
he will either call for more gas or
he will declare that the law of the
state has been fully satisfied.
Interested in Legal Fight.
one OF tle cnnuonneu Te2llZeS IullN
the fate that is in store for him If
tho last appeal fails, even though
the other may not. He is Hughie
Sing, an American educated Chinese
boy, barely twenty years old. Hughie
apparently is more interested in the
legal battle that is being waged to
save his life and that of his COM
panion than he is in the manner he
Is to ,iie.
"One way is about as bad as an
other" was Hughes laconic comment
when asked what he thought about
Gee Jon has nothing to say on
the subject. He is thirty years old
and has a reputation as killer in
San Francisco's Chinatown. Perhaps
he himself has administered death
in novel form and it matters not to
him either.
y stroll about the streets of Car
son City today found opinion sharply
ing capital punishment. Some upheld
the legislature, which provided for
it, as being humane. Others said
they were not so sure. The doubt
full ones advocated giving the con-
demned a sleeping potion before they
were taken into the death chamber,
Notwithstanding statements OF ex-
perts that the lethal gas would arouse
them from any slumber short of
death itself
There were others who expressed
emphatic opposition to execution by
gas as being cruel and unusual"
Either hanging or electrocution
would be more humane. they insisted.
If Nevada must have some other
method then why not follow the ex-
ample of her neighboring state Of
Utah, they argued, which gives the
condemned the option of death by
hanging or shooting.
So far as known here only one man
executed in Utah under the optional
law has ever elected to be hanged
and the explanation he gave for pre-
ferring TO die in this manner, it Is
said. was that the state had no gal
lows and he wanted to put it to as
much trouble as possible. The gal
lows was provided, however, and he
was hanged.