THE LAST HOURS OF A FRENCH CRIMINAL.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume V, Issue 527, 26 July 1897, Page 4

THE LAST HOURS OF A FRENCH CRIMINAL.

The guillotine \. ill shortly bo a rt-lic of Iha past, an 1 Air Tighe Hopkins has taken the opportunity to work up the early history of this method of execution. The main facts of this he has embodied, together with much oi interest concerning the treatment of condemned persons, in an article in the March number of Pearson’s Magazine. He gives a realistic description of an execution in Palis. Tho last scene of all, lie writes, though it is a public execution, is no longer a feast for the ghouls. Justice is done swiftly, and tho crowd see little more than the preparations in the grey morning h nr.;. The preparations, however, are sul’.ic-ii ntly enticing to draw to the Place de la Roquette the riff-raff of Pans, the frequenters of the night-houses, of the Boulevards, the women of the t iwu, end some foreign amuteurs of tho scaffold who, like George Selwyu, would “go anywhere to see iin execution. It is aft* r midnight that the rush begins : lie mJfeM is rais'd, and for hours the throng e ntinms to increase in numbers and variety. All night there is f ,-iling and drinking in the public lions s around, and, as it used to be in the Old Hailey, windows commanding a view of the scene are hired at any price. A swarm of pressmen wait through the night just outride the prison gate. At this tune the victim himself is probably unaware that his last hour is at hand. When day has dawned, two cart? come out from a street aiij lining the prison, bearing the disjointed pieces of the guillotine. Th headman’s five brawny assistants lone of whom is his son and pr liable successor) set up the machine. and the knife falls three or four times to test the spring. Then the guard arrives; and when the citv police, tho Gardes do la Republique, and the mounted gendarmes are marshalled, the crowd behind can sec only the top of the guillotine. A place within the cordon is reserved for the press. 'J ho geuiiis-in-chicf of the ceremony do. - r.ot appear until the doors of tin prison are thrown open. He is within, preparing the victim, and coaxing him, when the toilet is finished, to take a cigarette and a little glass of rum. There is no such tiling a a “ las* dying speech ” from the guillotine. Even if the man were not too dazed to speak, time would not be allowed him. Thero is time only for the last in.ni.stration? of the Church, which ai, almost always rejected. The in.int the criminal is secured on the bascule, M. Deibler touches the spring, and all is over.