WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 152, 21 March 1924, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

They have had another little fight in Dublin just to make the old place seem like home. Of six million children who nave left school in Britain since the war only a quarter have found work.—The problem of what to do with them will be gradually solved as they become, eligible for the old-age pension. It is recorded this morning that Mr. John Ellis, the retiring British hangman, is so sensitive that he is _ un^’ le to wring the necks ef his fowls. Pi siblv in referring to Mr. Ellis T.D.Houffit to use “Esquire” instead M plain “Mr.” Many of the hangmen of the past have been most insistent on the matter of correct address ever since the Heralds’ College granted a coat of arms to Gregory Brandon in December, 1616, and gave him rank w'ith the gentry. It seems that. Sir William Segar,garter King at Arms at the time was ignorant of Mi . nian don’s occupation,' and learned aHer it was too late that his client was common hangman to the City ot London Mr. Jack Ketch in his day was very particular about being addressed an esquire, and it may have been their oversight .in this respect that caused him to give several of his di tinguished customers such an exceed ingly bail time on the scaffold. Several of England’s hangmen and executioners have been of a notably kindly and gentle disposition. Marwood, in f act ’ 5 e fc S" . ’ nn bench in Lincolnshire and .ook up hanging as a trade purely on humanitarian grounds He was the inventor nF thA “long drop, and it ''as alter studying executions from his tenderest rears onwards that he eventually formed a strong opiniqn that culpnts should not be choked todeath He ar«nied that if -the weight of the pel son to be hanged was ascertained » simple calculation would S . £ « act length of rope needed for a tan that would dislocate the cervical ver ebrae and cause histantaneous death. The authorities were at length induced to listen to the theory, and it' nrouddav indeed in the hie of the Horn lastle cobbler when m 18 <1 lie wasi oftered a live subject for demonstration in Lincoln Gaol? A great many perur>n« including the famous Charles Peace subsequently Jpassed throng Mr Marwood’s hands, and no complaints were ever made by any after undergoing his system of treatment.

Not all hangmen and executioners had this same happy freedom from complaint as to their workmanship. Mr. Ketch, to whom I have referred, provides a case m point. Mr. Ketch’s pay for am operation on the commonalty at Tyburn was Wjriper head, with IJd. extra for the rope When he was required to get out his axe for service on a nobleman a tee of from £7 to £lO, according to rank, was payable by the patient the money in all cases having to be found strictly in advance. Mr. Ketch was not immediately successful in dealing with Lord Bussell in 1683, and it was.alleged by the bystanders that that nobleman, the ancestor of the Dukes <d Bedford, turned his head after the first stroke and angrily exclaimed: “You dog, did I give you ten guennies to use me so unhandsomely I Mr. Ketch denied that Lord Russell spoke in this manner, and declared in his memoirs that his client “did not dispose himself for receiving the fatal blow in such a position as was sutable/’ and that “I was interrupted in taking my aime.”

Two years later that tactless young gentleman, the Duke of Monmouth, when his turn came, delivered a long address to the multitude, and referred to Mr. Ketch’s treatment of Lord Russell. This was too much for Mr. Ketch, who, after three ineffectual blows, threw down the axe saying, “I capi’t do it!” and was for going home. It was only when threatened by the sheriff with arrest that be persevered with another two strokes, and finally completed the business with his pocket knife. —This incident points to extreme unwisdom of indulging in preliminary back-chat with tho hangman

Harmman’s pav had gone up by the time Calcraft took up the position a century- ago. This famous practitioner, like his successor Alarwood, started life as cobbler, and possibly . felt that in either 'occupation he was always tlujre at' the last. After being nightwatchman at a brewery, and butler in a gentleman’s household, an acquired taste for liquor seems to have led to his appearair.ee as a street hawker. AVhilo in this line of business he was fortunate enough to meet Air. I 1 oxton, the hangman, and was engaged to flog criminals at Newgate at a salary of Ills, a week. On Air. Foxton’s retirement, Calcraft’s efforts in the promotion of moral reform were rewarded by his being made hangman. His pay was a guinea a week, and a guinea for every hanging with half-a crown a-piece thrown in for every person he flogged. The reprieve of condemned criminals by the Crown was naturally a serious affair for Air. Chicraft, however lightly it mav have been regarded by Alinisters. He was also given a small allowance for cats and birch reds, and had tlie right to private practice, and hanged as opportunity offered throughout the country on the basis of £lO a. time and travelling expenses. Air. Calcraft made Jiis last public appearance by hanging Aliebael Barrett in 1868. Air. Barrett’s humanitarian principles had led him to attempt to blow up Clerkonwel.l Prison with a view to letting the prisoners out, and his was the last public execution in England

It is recorded that i.n 1682 Jack Ketch successfully struck for higher wages, and T.D.H. has hoard rumours that Air. Tom Long, who officiated for so many years in New Zealand, was known to put up the price for his services at the last moment. Richard Brandon, who executed Lord Strafford, Archbishop Land, and many other notabilities in the days when somebody’s head used to go off before breakfast every morning in England, is said to have received £3O in halfcrowns for his services in dispatching King Charles I, and in addition went through the Royal pockets for what he could find, the only object of value being an orange stuffed full of cloves, which Brandon raffled for jOs.—possibly to some American tourists of the period. However, this is a very grisly subject, and it is time we were getting back to something cheerful and entertaining like the oil scandals, tho 3 ale of Ireland, or the British unemployed. “Look at the moon, Philip!” said his mother, directing Philip’s attention to the crescent moon. Tnree-year-old Philip looked nt it in silence for a moment, then asked: “But Aluipniie, why is the moon only half buttoned into the sky?” ON BYDAL WATER. O’er the lake’s end strikes the sun AVhita, flame.lcss tire: some i -m,, Thrilling the mist, a splendour nr Out of the world's heart. lx?t there be Thoughts and atonements and desires, Proud limbs and undelibcr.ite tongue,’ AATiere now we move witn mortal oars among Immortal dews and fires. t—John D-int-.wate*