SHOCKING SCENE AT AN EXECUTION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXI, Issue 1032, 29 January 1889, Page 3

SHOCKING SCENE AT AN EXECUTION.

(Australian Star, January Bth.) Louisa Collins was removed to a cell adjoining the place of execution about eight o'clock this morning. She walked firmly and steadily across the court yards which led to the little yard where executions take place. Canon Rich joined her as'she was on the way over, and remained with her up to the last moment. He also saw her at a late hour last night, and she was then, and up to the moment of her death, perfectly resigned to meet her fate. It was a few minutes past nine when we who were present—some dozen in all, the Sheriff, a few officers of the gaol, and five representatives of the Press —heard the solemn tone of Canon Rich in the adjoining corridor reciting the burial service. Dr O'Connor, the visiting surgeon, and Dr Brewnless, who had been nominated to attend under the circumstances that the condemned was a woman, were the medical men. She is supported by two female warders to the gallows threshold ; she has been already pinioned, and has submitted to it calmly and resignedly. There she is taken in hand by the hangman and his assistant. Canon Rich is the first to step on to the platform, behind him the one to be executed. She shuffles a little in her gait, but goes forward with a drooped head, and hands lying listlessly at her side. She does not even clutch the dark prison garb in which she is attired. Well may she start ever so slightly as she turns towards the scaffold and sees before her the appalling instrument of death. In two steps she is on the trap, the Rev. Canon Rich reading a portion of the solemn and beautiful service of the Anglican Church for the burial of the dead. The words of grand promise, " I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall h® live," have reached her. She has already expressed a hope for the life to come, and confessed her sins to her Maker. She hears the last words the priest pronounces, he steps back from the drop ; an attendant adjusts the white cap ; the hangman slips the noose over her head, pulling it sharply to her neck ; the attendant pulls down the cap beneath it: Her face is invisible. She falters a little, but bears, up. It is an. awful moment. The blurred eyes of the spectators scarce look for the detail. The hangman signals to his assistant to pull the trigger or lever which sets the bolt free. What is this delay ? The assistant tugs and pushes. The wretched woman stands on the drop, not trembling, but weak. She staggers slightly. How dreadful to see a human being in such a position, supported by the common hangman. Pah ! it is sickening. Can't they let that bolt go ? No, it has stuck. A hammer is sent for, and, providentially, is at hand. One blow, two, three,'and still it does not move. A minute has passed. A shower of blows, and then it gives, and the trap falls. Oh ! what a ghastly spectacle. The noose, already tightened by the hangman, an extra pull or two during the delay, almost choked the woman on the drop, and now when the body reaches the end of the drop, and the jerk comes which hurlsher into eternity, the cord tightens, and tsars open her throat. A great gout of blood spouts out, but thank God she is dead. There is no doubt about that. Not a movement of any kind ; the hands turn.bluish, but there is no quiver of the muscles ; nothing to indicate pain or suffering. But there, at the end of a hideous cord, dangles a mutilated corpse, all that remains of her, who was a woman, a wife, a mother —but a murderess—and now—aye, God rest even her soul—the law is satisfied, she is dead.