The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, August 13, 1890, Page 2

Bianca te Set) ORR bei alin He NEW LEGAL DEATH. Murderer William Kemmler Kill- ed With Electricity in New York’s Auburn Prison This Morning. The First Shock of a Thousand Volts Fails to Kill, And the Current is Again Applied. Auburn, N. Y., Aug. 6.—With a short, sharp shock—painless, so far as the world will ever know—the soul of William Kemmler was sepa- rated from his body at 6:40 o'clock this morning. ‘A cap adjusted to the head of a man bound in a strange looking chair, a lever quickly swung around the arc of a semi-circle, a quick con- yulsion, a sudden revival of muscu- lar action, another turn of the lever, & pause, a room filled with sickening fumes of burning flesh—and the twenty-seven witnesses of the first electricide in history know that the death of Tillie Ziegler had been avenged inlaw and the crime of William Kemmler expiated, so far as human hands could force its expia- tion. KEMMLER'S WONDERFUL COMPOSURE. At 6:38 the door at the right of the execution chamber opened and Warden Durston’s figure appeared in the doorway. Behind him walk- ed a spruce-looking, broad-should- dered little man, wearing a full beard with carefully arranged hair cluster- ing about his forehead. He was dressed in a suit of new clothing—a ‘sack coat and vest of dark grey ma- terial, trousers of a mixed yellow pattern, and a white shirt, whose polished front was exposed directly below a little bow of lawn of a black and‘white checked pattern. This was William Kemmler, who was about to undergo the sertence of death. Behind him walked Dr. W. E. Houghton and Chaplain Yates. There were no prayers in the death room. Kemmler was by far the coolest man in the party. He did not look about the room with any special de- gree of interest. He hesitated as the door closed behind him and carefully locked by an attendant on the other side, as if he did not know exactly what to do. “Give me a chair, will you?” said the warden. Someone quickly handed him a wooden chair which he placed in front and a little to the right of the execution chair, facing the little cir- cle of men. Kemmler sat down composedly, looked about him and then looked up and down, without and evidence of fear, or of especial interest in the event. His face was not stolid, it was not indifferent. He looked, if anything, as if he were rather pleased at being the center of interest. Warden Durston stood at the left of the chair, with his hand on the back of it, and, almost at the mo- ment that Kemmler took his seat, he began to speak in short, quick periods. “Now, gentlemen,” said he, “this is William Kemmler. I have warned him that he has got}to die, and if he has anything to say he will say it.” As the warden finished, Kemmler looked up and said in a high-keyed voice, without any hesitancy and as if he had prepared himself with the speech: “Well, I wish every one good luck in this world, I think I am going to a good place, and the papers has been saying a lot of stuff that ain’t so. That is all I have to tell.” THE TERRIBLE CURRENT APPLIED. In almost immediate response, and as the stop watches in the hands of some of the witnesses registered 6:314 the electric current was turn- ed on. There was a sudden convulsion of the frame in the chair. A spasm went over it from head to foot, con- fined by the straps and springs that held it firmly so that no limb or oth- er part of the body stirred more than a small fraction of aninch from its resting place. The twitching that the muscles of the face underwent gave to it for a moment, an expression of pain. But No cryzescaped from the lips, which were free to move at will; no sound came forth to suggest that conscious- ‘ness lasted more than an infinite | fraction of a second—beyond the caltalation of the human mind. | The body remained in this rigid {I position for seventeen seconds. The |jury and the witnesses, who had re- | mained seated up to this moment, came hurriedly forward and sur- ‘rounded the chair. There was no jmovement of the body beyond the | first convulsion. | Itwas not a pretty sight—this | man in his shirt sleeves, bound hand foot body and even head, with a framework pressing down on the top of his skull, still with the stillness of death. Dr. McDonald held a stop watch in his hand and as the seconds flew by he noted their passage. Dr. Spitzka, too, looked at the stop watch and as the seventeenth second expired he cried out. “Stop.” “Stop” cried other voices about. The warden turned to the door way and called out “stop” to the man at the lever. A quick move- ment of the arm and the electric current was turned off. There was a relaxation of the form in the chair —a slight relaxation—but the straps held it so firmly that there was not a quarter of an inch variation in the position of any part of the frame. “HE'S DEAD.” SAID THE DOCTORS. The little group around the chair grew business-like. “He's dead,” said Dr. Spitzka, calmly. “Oh, he’s dead,” re-echoed Dr. McDonald, with firm confidence. The rest of the witnesses nodded their acquies- cence. There was no question in the mind of anyone but that the stiff upright object in front of them was lifeless. This was the program this tne inevitable effect. The next question was, what was to be done with the body?” Dr. Spitzka stepped forward and called attention to the appearance of the nose, which he said had an undoubted post mortem color. No one disputed this. Dr. Spitzka turn- ed around in a business-like way and pointing to the harness, said: “Oh, undo that. Now the body can be taken to the hospital.” The warden replied that he could not let any of the witnesses go until he had their certificates. All of this conversation took but aminute. Dr. Batch was bending over the body looking at the expos- ed skin. Suddenly he cried out sharply: ‘“‘Dr. McDonald, see that rupture.” . Ina moment Drs. Spitzka and McDonald had bent over and were looking at what Dr. Batch was pointing, at a little red spot on the hand that rested on the right arm of the chair. The index finger of the hand had curved backward as the flexor muscles contracted and had scraped a small hole in the skin at the base of the thumb on the back of the hand. There was nothing strange in this alone, but what was strange was that the little rupture was. dropping blood “THE MAN IS NOT DEAD!” “Turn the current on instantly. This man is not dead!” cried Dx. Spitzka. Faces grew white and forms fell back from the chair. Warden Durston sprang to the doorway and cried, “Turn on the current. But the current could not be turn- edon. When the signal to stop had come the operators had pressed the little button which gave the sig- nal to the engineer to stop the dy- namo. The dynamo was almost at a standstill and the volt metre reg- istered an — imperceptible cur- rent. The operator sprang to the but- ton and gave a sharp, quick signal. There was a rapid response, but, quick as it was, it was not quick enough to anticipate the signs of what may or may not have been the return of consciousness. As the group of horror-stricken witnessea stood helplessly by, all eyes fixed on the chair, Kemmler’s lips began to drip spittle and in a moment more his chest moved and from his mouth came a heavy sound quickening and increasing with ev- ery respiration—if respiration it was. There was no voice but that of the warden calling to the operator to turn on the current and the wheez- ing sound, half groan, which forced itself past the tightly closed lips, and which sounded through the still chamber with ghastly distinction. Some of the witnesses turned away from the sight. One of them | lay down faint and sick. | It takes a long, long time to. tell} the story. It seemed a long time’ reaching a climax. In reality they were but sevety-three seconds in the | interval which elapsed between the moment when the first sound issued from Kemmler’s lips and that when the response to the signal came from the dynamo room. It came with the same suddenness that had marked the first shock which passed through- out Kemmler’s body. The sound which had _ horrified the listeners about the chair was cut of sharply as the body once more became rigid. The slimy ooze still dropped from his mouth and ran slowly in three lines down the beard and on the gray vest. There were twitchings of the body as the electricians in the next room threw the current on and off. THE SECOND TRIAL SURE. There was to be no mistake this time about the killing. The dynamo was ruu up to its highest: speed and | F. Williams of Atchison county. in! Big Back Pay. Atchison, Kas., Aug. 6--Th omas | 1861, enlisted as a second lieuten- ant ina Kansas cavalry regiment! and served during the war. He re-| S&S ceived a wound at the battle of Wil-| g a few years | ac- son’s Creek, which, in caused total disability and on count of which he draws a pension} of $72 a month. By some over=| sight, however, he was not musterd | out until about a year ago. Last fall he put in claim for services dur- ing the entire time from date of enlistment to the date of discharge and there being no law covering his case he succeeded through friends in Congress in getting a special act passed in his behalf. This afernoon he received information. from the Treasurery Department that a draft for $36,503 would be forwarded in a few days. It May Not Become a Law Washington, D.C. Aug. 6.—The prospects for the passage of the force bill are not so bright as they again and again the full current of 2,000 volts was sent through the body in the chair. How long it was kept in action no one knows. To the excited croup of men about the chair it seemed a intermidable life. For the men who stood in front of the volt meter in the adjoining room and thre the switch lever over, backward and forward, time had no measurement. Dr. Daniel, who look- ed at his watch excitedly and who thought he had an approximate idea of the time at least, said that it was 44 minutes in all. The warden’s as- sistant, who stood over the dynamo, said at the second signal the machin- ery was run 3} minutes altogether. It wi:! never be known with any de- gree {acuracy what the space of time was. No one was anxious to give the signal to siup. All dreaded the re- sponsibility of offering to the man a chance to revive or to give again at least, those appearances of return- ing animation which-so startled and sickened the witnessesa few minutes before. THE BODY BEGINS TO BURN. As the anxicus group stood silent- ly watching the body, suddenly there arose from it a white vapor, bearing with ita pugent and sick- ening oder. The body was burning. Again there were cries to stop the current, and again the warden sprang to the door aud gave the quick or- der to his assistants. The current stopped, and again there was the relaxation of the body. No doubt, this time, that the current had done its work—if not well, at least com- pletely. Dr. Fell, who stood at the side of the correspondent to the Associated Press, turned and said: “Well, there isno doubt about one thing. The man never suffered one iota of pain.” After consultation the other phy- sicians expressed the same belief. It was some mitigation of the horrors of the situation to believe this. There was some consolation in the thought that those heavy hoarse sounds were not the evidences of suffering. HOLDING AN AUTOPSY. The autopsy was begun an 9 o'clock. It was in charge of Dr. Jenkins of New York, who handled the knife, Dr. Daniel, Dr. McDonald and Dr. Spitzka. Dr. Fell prepar- ed the blood drawn from the body for examination under the micro- scope. It was found, when the body was spread out on the table, that a severe rigor mortis had set in. There was little relaxation, and it was with difficulty that the corpse was straightened out. The Same Old Bill. Washington, Aug. 7.—The sen- atecommittee on privileges and elect- ions began a special meeting at noon to day, to consider the elections bill. There was a full attendance. One of the minority says that, save in the matter of change of express- ion chiefly in the way of reducing its length, the bill, as it passed the house, is the one proposed by the majority. The principal of the bill and its practical workings are not disturbed, he says. The committee voted by a strict party division to report the bill to the senate. A woman always stands on the porch to see the hackman roll her trunk up the front step. She thinks that is bossing the job. were. Senator Teller’s declaration in the Senate yesterday that he was not in favor of changing the rules in order that action upon any bill should be hastened has been a thun- der-clap to the Republican leaders. Senator Teller isa member of the commttee on privileges and elect- ions, the committe before which the election bill is now pending. Sena- tor Fry another momber of the committee, said, after hearing Tele lers statement, that he was afraid it would be impossible to pass a bill without first changing the rules. It does not seem now as if this could be done, as Teller’s frank dec- laration will have the effect of strengthening the recalcitrant Re- publicans in their opposition: Three Men Horribly Burned. Norwood, Ohio; Aug. 7.—A con- tractor had been granted the privi- lege of drawing water from O. Buddemeyer’s well. Tuesday even- ing, the fact that it was sixty feet deep and contained forty-five feet of water was scouted. Michael Kuenzel was nut willing to accept the statement that the well was so deep. He opened the trap door over the well’s mouth. Lighting a match, he dropped it toward the water, but it went out. “I Smell gas,” remarked Mr. Kuenzel. He did, but he foolishly twisted a news paper and cent it after the burnt match. In an instant there was’an explosion. Kuenzel and two other men who were standing on the plat- form, were blown into the air. All were horribly burned aud it ig doubtful if any of them recovers. If when the workingman comes home each Saturday night with his wages of $12 50, his tweek’s service, the agent of the government should step up to him and collect 50 cents as his share toward paying the pres- eut great pension donations how long does anyone suppose the pres- ent pension payment would be con- tinued? The injustice of such im- mense appropriations would then be brought home so directly to the people that in less than a month’s time there would be a revolt agairst them all over the country. These ap- propriations are tolerated now, not because our people are so insanely patriotic that they are willing to squander their money in this way but because there is not one man in a thousand who appreciates what the tax is that is imposed upon him, because it is imposed in an indirect manner.—Joplin Herald. On what seems to be good author- ity, it is announced that president Harrison has paid $10,000 for his seaside cottage. The Republic is glad to make this announcement, and hopes to be able, in a few days, to report the recording of the $10,- 000 deed and the cancellation of the $1 one. The new deed is not need- ed to perfect the tittle, but is nec- essary to preserve appearances.— St. Louis Republic. Supt. Young Re-Elected. Nevada, Mo., Aug. 5.—Dr. R. E. | Young was re-elected Superinten- | dant of the Insane Asylum No. 3. | by the board of managers last eve- jning for a term of three years. There are now three hundred pa- tients in the asylum and accomoda- tions for taking care of 400 more. Castoria is Dr. Samuel Pitcher’s prescription for Infants and Children. It contains neither Opium, Morphine nor other Narcotic substance. It is a harmless substitute for Paregoric, Drops, Soothing Syrups, and Castor Oil, It is Pleasant. Its guarantee is thirty years’ use by Millions of Mothers. 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