Bridgend & Neath Chronicle, and County of Glamorgan Advertiser. — 1894-03-23 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

EXECUTION HORROR.  The Pretoria Press, the English morning paper published in the Boer capital, reports an execution scene in which no fewer than six culprits (coloured men) were hanged together. The men bad been convicted of being " implicated" in an atrocious murder which recently horrified the Transvaal. In prison they were very low-spirited, and the Press says that even the spiritual consolation administered by the Rev. Kenyana, a coloured clergyman of the town, failed to have any effect in resigning the doomed men to their fate. None of the prisoners had much rest during thenight preceding the execution, and when at six o'clock on the Saturday morning they marched, in two batches of three each, to the scaffold, their evident exhaustion and weariness was ample evidence of the fact. Scheepers was the hangman. Just before the appointed hour he entered the condemned cell with a view to pinioning the prisoners. One of the condemned, a man named Charlie, who has all along vigoreusly protested his innocence, assailed the executioner with appeals, "You ire going to kill me to fill your pocket with money," he said; 'but God sees you." And this latter exclamation he repeated over and over again. Seheepere, with a promptitude born of experience, secured three of the men, one of whom was Charlie, with straps, and the melancholy procession to the scaffold started. In the prison yard meanwhile a large muster had assembled. Fifty native constables lined the path to the enclosure in which the scaffold is built. About 150 morbidly-inclined persons, as well as Pressmen, officials, and police, were waiting, and when the prisoners appeared with their escort the whole preceded to the scaffold. The culprits ascended the steps of the grim structure without apparent emotion; but once there, and placed on the "drop," they seemed to realise their awful position, and their aspect of calm despair was pitiable. The hangman haring secured his prisoners in the usual manner, was about to adjust the white cap upon Charlie, when that individual, turning round, exclaimed in Dutch: "Oh, thanks, thanks!" Then, in English : "God can see you doing this. He will send you to hell for this!" The hangman adjusted the caps and was about to turn the lever when the man Charlie seemed to stagger and fell off the drop. Scheepers, evidently much perturbed, lifted the recumbent culprit on to the drop, but the man refused to, or was unable to stand, and finally the hangman left him in a kneeling position. Then he suddenly turned the lever, and the unfortunate trio sank out of sight. The rope attached to the neck of the man Charlie continued to vibrate for three minutes; the steadiness of the ot hers seemed to indicate that death had been instantaneous. After the lapse of about 15 minutes the district meilcal officerexamined the bodies and pronounced life ext inct. The three corpses were then cut down, and provision made for the other three. These were marched to the scaffold and executed in the same manner, the only difference being that there was no unt,,ward incident. Six executions at once is an unprecedented incident in the history of Pretoria. The nearest approac:i to that number was the execution, eoniethree years ',TO, of four men who were hanged at the same time. A feature of the present execution was the eagerness with which tickets were sought. Opinions were widely expressed that at least three of the prisoners should have been reprieved, and that Charlie, who died protesting his innocence of actual complicity in the murder, should have been shown mercy.  Tee young woman in the Halifax works, says a London correspondent, are certainly not pretty, but they seem to have a fine flow of spirits. I am told that they have a remarkable fine taste in dress. A lady in Halifax having occasica to enter a milliner's shop had her attention attrao;ed by a beautiful and very expensive French bonrot, and invired the price; she was told it was sold. "Oh, I had no idea of buying such an expet sive bonnet:. said the lady. Upen which the millirer said, "It is a jointstock bonnet—that is, it belongs to three factory girls. who wear it by tune on Sundav,- New Garden Seeds  1894_