HANGING SCENE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 16 December 1927, Page 5

HANGING SCENE.

IN LONDON THEATRE. INDIG NATION EX PRESSED. (Received Friday, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, Thursday. The ex-hangman Ellis is the centre of considerable public indignation. The Actors’ Association communicated with the Lord Chamberlain, saying that the whole thing is an absolute disgrace to everybody remotely concerned and against the canons of artistic and public taste. The Lord Chamberlain to-day requested the manager to appear to-mor-row in connection with the scene. The management says it fails to understand what the fuss is about. The hanging is quite decent ,and everybody enjoys it. Mr P. Snowden (Labour M.P.) says it is an outrage against public decency. Mr Ponsouby (Labour M.P.) declares that it is absolute degradation. Colonel Wedgwood (Labour M.P.) says that it is perfectly disgusting. Sir Harry Brittain (Conservative M.P.) considers that it is a scandal and imagines even Grandguiguol would draw the line there. Ellis complains that he must earn his living, as the Government has not granted him a pension. He cannot see what it is all about. In the meantime, if the show is not slopped, .a theatre seven times the size will be wanted to accommodate the clamorous crowds. (A previous cable stated: —The professional hangman, John Ellis, who retired in 1924 because his nerve gave way after hanging Mrs Thompson, appeared at the Grand Theatre at Gravesend in the melodrama, ‘‘The Life and Adventures of Charles Peace.” He had to execute Peace, which he did in full view of an enthusiastically excited audience, with the promptness and expedition resulting from long practice. In an interview, Ellis said that he was more nervous than in a real execution. He had carried out 203' executions, for which he had received £lO each, plus travelling and other expenses. He was not pensioned, so he had to cam a living the best way offering. He added: “This stage execution went beautifully-")