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Show AN .EI1IAL FLIGHT. The Canadian Murderer Birchall is Helped Up the Stairway by the Avenging Aveng-ing Hangman. HE IS SAME TO THE VESY LAST 'And Goes to Meet the Maker With a Ess from the Sympathetic and Effusive Ef-fusive Wetherell. Woodstock, Ont., Nov. 14. At 8:29 o'clock this morning Reginald Birchall was . launched into eternity for the murder of his fellow countryman, F. C. Benwell. He partook sparingly of breakfast at 0 o'clock and then began to prepare for the final ordeal- He put on a white flannel shirt with coat and vest, but asked the turnkey to see that this was replaced after the execution ; by an ordinary white shirt with a starched collar and lie. He would not wear a starched collar at the execution, he said, because it might interfere with placing the rope around his neck. At 6:30 and from then on the crowd began to collect in front of the jail, chiefly newspaper men from all over Canada and the United States. At 7:30 o'clock the doors were all opened, and the crowd were admitted and passed through to the yard, in which the scaffold scaf-fold was erected. About fifty were admitted. ad-mitted. The executioner appeared on the scene at twenty-five minutes before e,ight and with the rope in hand began ifi put things in order. The scaffold was made of three pieces of timber, each six inches square, two uprights sunk in the ground aftd the third timber tim-ber crossed over the top. The rope ran over a pulley in the cross beam and a canister weight of 350 pounds of iron was attached to the opposite end of the noose and held up by a cord to a staple. The cutting of this cord releases the weight which falls and ierks the condemned unward the head of the doomed man and adjusted ad-justed the noose about his neck. Birchall had declared that he would say nothing at the scaffold and the witnesses wit-nesses did not expect he would. His silence seemed to be an intensity of his purpose to be silence concentrated an hundred times and he did not say a word after leaving his cell except it might have been to mutter a word to Weethani or Wade when he bid them good-bye with a kiss. At 8:27 o'clock, six minutes after the procession started from the corridor, the words, "Deliver us from evil," gave the signal, and a quick pull on the small rope by the executioner, who stood behind the law's victim, released the immense weight. It dropped with the rapidity of thought, and sank six or eight inches in the ground by the force of its its own weight Birchall had been placed close to oue of the uprights, up-rights, and the jerk of the noose drew the body first obliquely, then up. The body was jerked up right in the air about live feet, and fell until within two feet of the ground. Convulsions commenced a half minute later, but were not at all violent, more resembling heavy breathing, with a slight twitching of the hands and legs. At 8:30 o'clock the convulsions ceased, aad at 8:35 o'clock Dr. Chamberlain declared life to be extinct. He said his neck was broken. Mrs. Birchell remained in the cell with her husband until one this morning, morn-ing, when she was led away weeping. Birchell slept but little, but hs demeanor de-meanor during the night remained unchanged. un-changed. He had an impression that some one would publish a bogus confession con-fession with him, so he prepared the following as his final statement: Woodstock JAU- Nov. 10. If aflMr my death there shall appear in the preas or In any other manner whatsoever any confession t iat I had any hand In the murder of V. O. Beuwell, or any personal knowledge of said murder w-th intent or malice aforethought, or any personal connection with the murder oa the llth of February or other days, or any knowledKe that any such murder was likely to be committed or any statement further t'ian any that I miv have made public previous to this date. 1 hand this statement to the cire of George Ferry of Woodstock. Ontario, that he may know that any confessions, or partial confessions, confes-sions, are entirely fictitious and In no way ever written by me. nor neither emanated ema-nated from me in any manner whatsoever to any pers n. and the whole fictitious and without with-out a word of truth. This likewise applies to my story In the Mall, In which I have made no such confession or partial confession; this holds good throughout. Signed: REG, BURCHELL. The post mortem showed that death was caused by strangulation. The body will be buried in the jail yard. four feet. At 8:15 o'clock llie hangman having completed his preparations outside , came in dressed in a long black prince Albert coat and removed the night guard, Midgley. He had a hard look about the mouth , but a telltale raoistness about his eyes and climbed the stairs and stood on the gallery beside Birchall's corridor door. There the old soldier stood gloomy sorrowful sor-rowful until the sad procession passed Out and down the spiral steps. At 8:23 o'clock the doctor and executioner execu-tioner was beckoned to go up. He had been walking around the rotunda, and ; in his hands were the Straps with which' to tie Birchell's arms and waiting for the signal. He put behind his back and partly under the skirt of his coat the russet colored straps, and went up stairs. Only a .. minute or two he took to strap the prisoner's pris-oner's arms behind his back aud then the awful march to death began at 8:25 o'clock. First came rural Dean Wade, in his surplice, and reading the church of England service for the dead. Behind him came Dr. Chamberlain followed by A. D. Stewart and Deputy Sheriff Perry. The prisoner came next.deathly pale but resolute, his jaws locked with the fixity of death, his step steady, bis jet Hack hair and moustache made the pallor of his face like marble. He was dressed in dark colored tweed clothes, white ilannel shirt, with a black bow at the collar, and light patent leather shoes. He looked so young and there was such aa expression of Immovable resolution and undauntod courage, that the men who saw him and know him worthy of death in the eye of tho law, forgot he had shot a friend in the back in a lonely swamp. The faces of half the men there were as white almost al-most as that of the doomed man. At the foot of the spiral stair the procession formed," and his friend Weetham walked on one side of him with Day Guard George . Perry on the other. Jailor Cameron followed them and after him the hangman, hang-man, the ap;ed sheriff, who was lupported to the door of the "jorridor, overlooking tho west yard .'he march was slow along the corridor nd out into the yard. Weetbara walked close and held one hand in both of his with all the assurance of friends in a heart clasp. The principal actors in the tragedy stopped with their charge fifteen feet from the gallows and the solemn tones of the Anglican service thrilled everyone there with a , horror that hardly let them realize the tremendous importance of that in which they were taking part. They felt an overpowering pity for the black-haired, black-haired, white-faced young man standing stand-ing on tho threshold of eter- , nity. Ilis eyes had not a trace of the brutality that lightened his imprisonment. As he stood listening . to the low toned priest, his eyes were fixed on the blue sky over to the north, there was not a haunted look nor was there any fear in his eyes, but ( a fixed purpose that seemed to con-sumo con-sumo his reasoji. It is not possible to imagine the ex- firession of his face. He was living a ife time in that hour and there was no ' one there but would have spared the strain of bis terrible ordeal. It was not despair but he had strung his whole being be-ing up to die game. At the words "Dust to dust" in the service Birchell stepped firmly forward and took his place under the scaffold with his face to the south and turned up slight. He took Weetham's hand in his, and the friends kissed each other under the gallows. The executioner then put the straps around the prisoner's legs, just above the knees, when the clergyman took Birchall's hand and kissed it. The witnesses were sure the end was near, snd the suspense was terrible. While it was terrible on the witnesses, wit-nesses, no human knowledge can say how terrible it was to the man standing alone there on the green sward. As the Bricst entered upon the Lord's prayer ie executioner put the black cap over |