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Show A STRANGE SENTENCE. Punishment For Murder That Was " More Cruel Than Death. In 1801 a man died In tbe I'utskllls who had been condemned by one of the strangest seutcuiei on n-ionl. nalpb Sutherland was txtm In 1701 ntid llred In n stouo house near Lood. He was n man of violent temper nml morose mo-rose disposition, shunned by his m-ls'i-hors and generally itl'illked. Not lit-Iiir lit-Iiir nh!c to get nn American servant. he Imported a Scotchwoman, iiiul. according ac-cording to the usages of the times, virtually vir-tually held her In bondage until her passage money had been refunded. Unable to endure any longer tbe raging temper of her master, tho girl ran nwny. immediately upon discovering discov-ering her absence the man set off In an augry eliase upon his horse and soon overtook her. The poor woman nover reached tbe house alive, and Sutherland was Indicted and arrested on the charge of murder. At the trial he tried to proo that his horse had taken fright, run away, pitched him out of the saddle and dashed the girl to death upon tho rocks, hut the Jury did not nceept the defense, and Sutherland was sentenced to die upon the scaffold. Then came, the plea' of the Insufficiency Insuffi-ciency of circumstantial evidence nnd the efforts of Influential rclathes. These bo worked upon the court that the Judge delayed tho sentence ot death until the prisoner should bo nluety-nlne .enrs old. It was ordered that the culprit Ehould be released on his own recognizance recog-nizance and that, pending the final execution ex-ecution of his sentence, ho should keen a liangnmn's noose about his neck and' show himself before the Judges of Catsklll once a year to prove that be wore his budge of Infamy nnd kept bis crime In mind. It was a more' cruet decision than tho sentence of Immediate Im-mediate death would have been, but It was uo doubt in harmony with the spirit of tho times. Thus Ralph Sutherland Jived. He always al-ways lived alone. Ho seldom spoke. Bis rough, Imperious manner bad gone. Years followed years. At each session of tho court the broken man came before the bar of Justice and silently si-lently showed the noose that circled his neck. N At last his nlncty-ulnth year came, the time when tho court had ordered that tho utmost penalty ot tbe law should be executed. For tbe last time the man tottered before the judge's bench, but new judges had arisen In the land, new laws had been made,1 old crimes had been forgotten or forgiven. and, thero was nono who wquld accuse him or execute sentence. Indeed, tho awful restriction that bad bound his life so Intimately to tho expiation of his crime was now legally removed. But the spirit of self puulshmcnt continued, and when Sutherland, after ho had passed his hundredth year, was discovered dead, alouo In his houso, his throat was found to be' encircled by the rope which had been placed there nearly three-quarters of n century before. |
