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Show LEARNING TO BE HANGMAN Tho New Incumbent Has Grewsomo Rehearsals of His Unenviable Unen-viable Profession. tevcral executions took plnco recently recent-ly nt Pcntonvlllo prison on tho scaffold scaf-fold which has been tho scene of tho final exit of numerous notorious criminals, crim-inals, relates London Mall. Tho executioner wns Alec Taylor, tho newly nppolntod common hangman, nnd the subjects "hanged" In set form wcro lay figures of cloth and sand. It Is, of course, essential that tho official that has to carry out tho last dread sentence of tho law should first thoroughly lenrn tho technique of hts grewBome profession to liiBiiro that when the time comes all tho operations opera-tions will hnppen decently nnd In order. or-der. Therefore each new hangman Immediately nfter his appointment goes through n realistic courso ot (raining. In pursuance ot this policy, Taylor, under tho guldanco of experienced ex-perienced prison officials who havo assisted as-sisted at many executions, Is now serving serv-ing his apprenticeship. Severn! sandbags shaped to represent repre-sent men of different weights wero supplied for Taylor's practice. Ho was Instructed that men of varying builds should be given certain prescribed drops" to effect Instantaneous death. Then a sandbag 'mado to tho rough semblance nnd weight of a man was placed on the scaffold flap. Taylor was told the weight, the nooso wan properly adjusted, tho requisite drop nrrnnged for nnd tho lover pulled. This experiment wns performed ngaln and again with differently weighted bags. Tho other part of tho hangman's training, tho pinioning of n condemned con-demned prisoner, wns even moro realistic. real-istic. For tho time being Btnlwnrt wnrdcrs posed ns condemned murderers. murder-ers. Taylor, practicing on them, was shown tho quickest nnd most effective wny of securing tho hnnds and feet |