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Show L DEATH A WAITING CZ0L60Sl. l The method to be employed in the legal execution of Assassin Czolgosz is thoroughly in keeping with the progress prog-ress of the centuries. He is to die by I the latest and most approved form of ' ! capital punishment, electrocution. , While' the manner of his taking off , is, i i perhaps, a minor incident compared with the major fact that he is to pay j the penalty of his life for his crime, it 1 i is a commentary on the advancement I ; i'f ti.e world that an assassin guilty ' I of the most heinous offense is to be . executed, not as in the old days by a '. more barbarous and painful death than y that meted out to other murderers, but 7 in the most humane method approved j by the laws of the state in which he i was convicted. Time was when the as- ( i .vassin of a ruler was dragged to pieces ! by four horses attached to his four J ' limbs and driven in opposite direc- J 'i, tions. In some of the Oriental countries j ' to this day the most cruel and revolting tortures are reserved for those who even attempt the life of a potentate, or are suspected of complicity in plots against him. Hoiling in oil, drawing and quHrtering are among the least ter-? ter-? rible of these punishments, while the : Joppping off of single members from ' t , the living body until death relieves the victim is a common punishment for notable crimes. i In China to this day criminals sus- ! - pectrd of plots against the emperor or f l other hii'h officials are placed in a bamboo cage and kept constantly f i awake by their guards until death f i from fatigue ensues. They are prodded ; with shaii instruments on the least sign of sleep, and their sufferings are ; I impossible to describe after three or . four days of this torture. But Ozol- gosz. who would have met a fate as j , 1 terrible as any of these had he com- 7 "4 ' milted a like crime in an Oriental country, or even in many European countries, is to meet death in the form . j ! declared to be most humane and prac- tically painless by medical men. A cur- t V rent of electricity is to be shot through s his body, paralyzing the heart action instantly and causing death in a frac- . tion of a second. In the familiar phrase of the street, "he will never know what struck him" after the elec-s elec-s trician concealed in an inner room i moves the fatal switch which will send I 2.000 or more volts of the mysterious I current through his body. KESTLT OF L.OXC1 AGITATION". More than ten years the agitation looking to the abolition of hanging was begun in Xew York slate. After several magazine and newspaper articles had been published expressing- the opinions opin-ions of eminent physicians and criminologists crimi-nologists on every phase of the subject, sub-ject, a commission was appointed by the legislature to make an exhaustive ' inquiry into the subject. This investi gation dragged along for several years. I during which time the matter was 1 thoroughly exploited in the newspapers and at last a favorable report was sub-i sub-i minted recommending that electricity . be substituted as a death agent for the (( time-honored rope's end, which had . been used in most English-speaking t countries for hundreds of years. A bill I was passed in 18HT, and it was ordered J- , In the law that all executions should j take place in the state penitentiaries. ' j Electrocution chambers were construct- ed at Sing Sing and Auburn, equipped f with the "death chair" which super- seded the old gpUows, wires which I took the place of mj 'etric switchboard which performs the functions func-tions of the old "trap." Several executions have taken place under the new conditions and with results re-sults which more than verified all the claims of the physicians. Autopsies were held on the bodies of the first criminals executed in order that the surgeons and officials might learn exactly ex-actly what effect the tremendous current cur-rent had upon the tissues and organs of the body and discover in that way whether death was instantaneous. It was found that the blood was coagulated coagu-lated and other indications went to prove that electrocution was a certain, instantaneous and practically painless form of death. This is what awaits the assassin who murdered President McKinley and plunged the nation into grief. Under the law he has an inter-I inter-I val of twenty-one days" between the date of his sentence and his execution in order that any legal stays or proceedings pro-ceedings may be brought by his attorneys at-torneys before the higher courts, but in the present case, of course, nothing of this kind will be attempted, j The condemned man will be led by I guards into the death chamber in the I Auburn penitentiary. Aear the wall at one end of the room is an oak chair, constructed, something after the manner man-ner of an 'easy chair, with broad wooden arms. It rests upon a rubber matting, which insulates it completely. Attached to the back of the chair is an adjustable board, against which Czolgosz Czol-gosz will rest his back, and this board is equipped with a sliding rod. to which is attached the "death mask," a si rap which can be fastened around the head at the forehead. On the inner side of this strap are, two small sponges, which press upon the temples and which are connected by wires with the rod in the back of the chair. This rod carries the electricty, conducted to it by heavy wires from the wall. There are straps fastened to the back of the chair to pass around the upper arms of the condemned man and hold the arms securely against the chair, other straps on the arms of the chair itself binding the forearms down and pre venting the least struggle. Anotner stout strap or belt attached to the back of the chair passes across the abdomen of the prisoner and binds him securely to the seat. His ankles are also strapped to the foot rest at the bottom of the chair. When all is in readiness two small electrodes fitted with moist sponges like those pressing against the forehead are placed against the bare calf of each leg, the trousers being either slit for the purpose or turned up as far as the knee. When these electrodes are fastened fas-tened into place the body of Czolgosz will form part of a circuit from the wires at his head to those at his legs, and any current entering the upper wires must pass from the electrodes at his forehead through his body to the electrodes attached to his legs, and thus back to the dynamo. METHOD IS SIMPLE. The execution itself, these details being attended to, is exceedingly simple. sim-ple. Upon the wall of the death chamber" cham-ber" is a large switch board and a number num-ber of gauges which register the number num-ber of volts of current passing over the wires. One of the officials selected for the purpose, either the sheriff or some other officer legally charged with the execution, pulls down a handle on a switch, which completes the circuit, and in a fiftieth of a second about I 2.200 volts of the deadly electricty leaps through the body of the murderer and passes on through the wires. In that fraction of time it is all over. He is dead as certainly as though a guillotine guillo-tine had descended upon his neck. The current is usually allowed to remain at that intensity for about ten seconds, when it is reduced to 1.800 volts. After several seconds, in order to make assurance as-surance doubly sure, the current is again increased to upward of 2.000 volts and then cut off. The execution is over in less than a minute, the penalty demanded de-manded by the law has been paid. This method of execution has met with so much favor from criminologists, criminolo-gists, physicians and humanitarians that it has been adopted by several other states, notably Massachusetts and Ohio. It is an improvement in hanging from several standpoints, being swift, sure and painless, and the removal of the body within a minute after the current is turned on is a great advance from the old method, where a i man was allowed to hang for from ten to fifteen minutes slowly dying, while a jury of doctors counted "his failing pulse beats and finally pronounced him dead. There are no pulse beats in the electric chair execution. The move-is move-is practically simultaneous with the stoppage of the heart, the obliteration of all sense and feeling and immediate death. |