NERVE ON THE GALLOWS

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 244, 15 October 1903, Page 3

NERVE ON THE GALLOWS

THE HANGMAN RESIGNS HIS

POST.

CONVICT EXECUTES HIMSELF.

Some time ago (says the Washington Evening Star) a Russian criminal was executed in St. Petersburg. He had during the last two years murdered twelve persons, the last one being a priest. The law did not show this monster any meroy, but speedily condemned him to death.

Stebljanski was the name of this wholesale murderer, and he hoped to the last for clemency. When the death warrant was read and the keeper informed him that he had but six hours to live, he raged and swore to revenge himself in the most terrible manner. After being left alone in the cell the first thing he did was to break his lamp, and, procuring some matches, he set fire to the oil. In a moment the flames broke through the window, and the entire building was for a time threatened with destruction. Fortunately, the fire was discovered in time and got under control before much damage $had been done, but in the meantime a terrible struggle ensued between the keepers and the criminal, who had fortified himself with an iron bar taken from his bedstead. The first man to enter the cell was knocked senseless, and it was only after being almost suffocated with smoke that the prisoner was finally overpowered. Next morning the cxc oution took place. The condemned man ascended the scaffold with much bravado, made a thorough examination of the same, and finally declared the rope was too short.

" I cannot get my head in the loop," he said, " and, though it will cause me some inconvenience to wait, I will smoke a cigarette while you are having it attended to."

He ligted a cigarette, and, turning to the executioner, made a speech, pointing out the detestable in his profession, and as a condemned criminal in Rusbia has certain rights, no one dared to interrupt him.

The executioner, who was really a tender-hearted man, became visibly affected by the moralising words of the murderer, and, turning to the crowd assembled before the scaffold, declared that his conscience did not allow him to proceed or to take a fellow man's life, and he then and there resigned his position and departed amid the shouts of the assemblage.

This caused great confusion among the representatives of the law, for where could they in a hurry get another executioner? The question was, however, solved by the condemned man, who declared that he would execute himself as soon as he got through smoking. He started an interesting conversation with the priest during the five minutes or so which he had left, and recommended that he read Count Tolstoi's latest book, which contains striking remarks about the relation of capital punishment to the teachings of Christianity. He then threw a kiss to a pretty girl among the spectators, stuck h|s head in the loop, and kicked away the trap beneath his feet.