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The Wingham Times, 1885-09-11, Page 6rk4 A DOUBLE EXECUTION. Two Mardi rers Guillotined at Day') eu Before a karts Crowd. The two notorious oriminals—Gaspard 'who murdered the old Delaunay in the Ru ••d'Angouleme, and Marohandon, who out th 'throat of the Creole lady, whose service h had entered, according to hie custom, fo the purpose of plunder—were guillotine shortly after daybreak. It was expecte that the wretches would be repr•eved, a Gaspard had had an accomplice, and March andon'a friends had made energetic effort to save him from the guillotine. Their ap peals, however, were rejected, and bath th -criminals were handed over to the common ,'executioner, At 1 o'clock in the morning the Place de la Roquette, ou aide the prison of the con- demned, was fullof people, who, as is custom- ary on such occasions, had remained up all night to witness what, in the annals of re- eent sensation, was an exooptional sight, namely, a double execution. The police had considerable difficulty in keeping the crowd of sightseers in their places, and the mount- -ed gendarmes were frequently called into re- quisition to clear the approaches to the places of execution. The usual horseplay, low jokes, and badinage were freely indulged in by the expectant crowd in the roadway, composed as it was of the lowest strata of `tie Parisian rabble. Snatches of obscene Bongs were even sung by some of the villain- ous gamins and vicious girls who pressed through the crowd to obtain a view of a scene which seemed to have no terrors for Ether. 1 MEaHANIOAL ITEMS. >� Bhasker Venayek Raj wade, a Hindoo has been learning the art of glass making in , New Jersey in order to practice it iu Bom- e bay, where he is now establishing a glass e factory. o Most of the private atraotures in Russia ✓ are built of wood, and it is estimated that d the bulk of them burn down every seven or d eight years. There is said to be always s twenty fires, at least, in different parts of - the empire. s "To clean the teeth use a mixture of emery and sweet oil, following it with e plenty of kerosene," This would be queer advice, but as it is taken from a maohinists' magazine, and from a chapter relating to ciroularsaws, we have no doubt it is given in good faith, Tho Liverpool Mercury states that when the telephone was taken to England by the agent of Dr, Bell, the inventor, all the patent rights connected with it were offered to the post office department for £30,000. The offer was declined, but a l.ttle'later these wise officials, who thought £30,000 was to much for the patent for the whole United Kingdom, offered £540.000 fon the exchange established in London alone. And they asked in vain. A railroad journal gives a description of a projected locomotive and track by which a speed of three miles per minute is to be at- tained. A road bed with no curves less than 3,000 feet radius, the grade not to ex- ceed twenty seven feet to the mile, nine feet gauge, metallic ties, two trio of driving wheels twenty-four feet in diameter, are the more radically new features of this pro- posed devourer of time and space. The _Railway Age thinks somebody will have to invent cast iron passengers to ride after such a contrivance. In welding iron, as is well known, the pieces are heated to whiteness. When iron is to be welded to iron this plan answers well, but if iron is to be welded to steel the white heat often destroys the steel. To prevent this—according to a newly invent- ed process—the surface of the metal to be welded is moistened with water, and on thg wet surface there is sprinkled a compound of one pound each of pulverized calcined borax and iron filings, and four ounces pul- verized prnssiat of potash, intimately mix- ed. The two surfaces are then wired and raised to a red heat, or about 6' 0 or 700 de- grees Fah. When subsequently subjected to rolling or hammering, the jaint is com- pleted, while the steel is not sufficiently raised in temperature to be at all injured by the operation. An Amsterdam firm is busy with the erection of a special workshop in which the cutting of the largest diamond of the world, is shortly to be commenced, Tois diamond, which has recently been _found in South Africa, weighs 475 carts, and is said to be greatly superior in color and brilliancy to all the other famous diamonds of the world, the largest of which, the "Grand Mogul," is in the possession of the Shah of Persia, weighing, after being cut, 280 carats ; next in size follows the "Orloff," of 192 carats, which adorns the point of the Emperor of Russia's sceptre ; the English "Kohinoor," originally weighing 116 carats, The " Regent," one of the French crown jewels, weighs 1361 carats. The time spent in cut- ting this last jewel was two years, during which time diamond powder to the value of $4,500 was used. The " Star of the South," which has been cut at Amsterdam, weighs 127 7-16 carats. , At 1 o'clock a moving light was seen ap- proaching It preceded a dark mase scarce- ly discernible through the enveloping dark- ness. This was the car conveying the ter. rible lois de justice, or guillotine, which had once more been removed from its resting place in the vicinity of t're prison. It was 'followed by Deibler and his assistants, and was well guarded by policemen, Turning the corner of the Rue Folie Regnault, the ghastly caravan lumbered heavily into the Place dela Roquette, and stopped before the door of the jail. The guillotine was promptly dismounted and by 2 o'clock everything was ready. Det. Filer, having superintended the preparatory measures, went into the jail with two of his 'mien, and there was then a long spell of wait- ing and expectation, during which the day •dawned on the impatient and chattering rowd that filled the Place de la Roquette. At 4 o'clock the numbers were increased by workmen and others who were obliged to be sap early, and barricades were put up by the police to prevent the people from filling up the approaches to the place of execution. A long narrow basket was now placed near the blo k of the guillotine, and at ten minutes to 5 the huge, heavy and gloomy -doors of the prison swung open amid a dead- ly silence, only broken by the sharp rattling of the gendarmes' s words as they were drawn 'from their scabbards. Gaspard was the first •-mf the felons led to death. Tall and muscu- .1ar, he walked firmly between two priests, 'whose ministrations he had rejeoted until sthe approach of his term. Isis face was pale and his features con- racted convulsively as he neared the guillo- eine. Here he stooped toward the prison 'chaplain, the Abbe Faure, and embraced first the priest and then a crucifix held by the latter in his hand. He was now seized by the executioners, his head was placed in he lunette, and, after an awkward pause, during which Deibler seemed to have lost 'the momentary -control of his instrument, the knife descended, and the headless trunk of the criminal fell away from the bascule. The head was • hen put into the basket. The guillotine wag now washed, and every- thing set in order for the next exenution. After an interval of seventeen minutes, dur- ing which the clamorous crowd seemed to have lost its grotesque gayety, the doors of -of the prison again opened, and Marchandar, looking like a pale boy of 17, tottered feebly oat, supported by the Abbe Faure and the other priest who had assisted Gaspard. The criminal was evidently more dead Aran alive. He still wore the patent leather -boots with pointed toe caps which he had ars when are eated in his country house at cCompiegre, After having convulsively em - e 'braced he priests he was caught sharply by Deibler and thrust into the lunette. The knife again refused to work, and nearly four seconds elapsed before it fell on the crimin. al's neck, When it did so a double jet of blood spurted out for nearly two yards, and sprinkled the adjacent ground. The bodies were then taken, escorted by mounted gend- armes, to the Ivry Cemetery for mock bur_ isle after which they were handed over to the School of Medicine for the usual exper- imental purposes, The timid man, who yet is not a coward, and who has conscience and convictions to inspire his determination, is the man most to be depended on for effective conflict. Printers' Errors in Bibles, The recent revision of the Bible has call- ed attention to Bibles generally, and espe- cially those famous for their curious mis- prints. The earliest is the " Place -makers' Bible," printed at Geneva in 1561, in which the letter 1 was substituted for an a in the seventh beatitude. The " Vinegar Bible " was published at Oxford in 1717, the word vineyard being misprinted vinegar, In the " Wioked Bible," only four copies of which are now in existence, the negative was left out of the seventh commandment, and the printer was fined £3,000 by Archbishop Laud, though it is said to have been com- muted to £300. The" Persecuting Printers' Bible," in which the Psalmist is made to say Printers have persecuted me without a cause," dates from 1702, The "Ears -to -ear Bible" was printed at Oxford early in the present century, the mistake occuring in Matthew xii, 43, and no less than three editions, the latest being 1823, transformed the weed fisher's, in Ezekiel xvii. 10, into Ashes, so that the phrase rea's "fishes shae stand upon it." There was also what was called the "Breeches Bible" (1579), so called because Gen, iii. 7 was rendered, " The eyes of them bothe were opened and they sewed figge-tree leaves together, and made themselves breeohes," "Why, how wonderfully lifelike," said Mr. Derrix, gently caressing a bumble -bee which eposed among the artificial flowers and in. seta of his wife's new bonnet. " If it was garden flower I'd swear it was al—O-r•eat reser-r!'' he suddenly shrieked, inserting a ounded finger in his mouth and dancing round like a whirling dervish. "Why, the lamed thing is alive," r A doctor says we take too many bathe and s keep too clean to be healthy. It Is inferred a khat he had been taking a diagnosis of a live C tramp. A tramp is never sick, never bathes w and is always provided with an appetite as a wo'raoious as a deem sawmill, b MAXINQ•DEATH PAINLESS, The Practice of Euthanasia Discussed by Physicians. The fact that :smoothie were freely used tihroughout the illness of Gen. Grant to se ours Bleep, ease, and freedom from pain, and were asked for by the patient and promised to him openly by his phyeioians, in the event of their being needed, to procure a quiet and painless death, eeema to have been ao ct pted quite as a matter of course by people in general. Only a few years ago, however, the idea of moderating the fear or assuaging the pains of death by the use of narootioa or stimulants would have been horrifying to the great majority of Christian people, This rapid and very marked change of opin- ion, whatever iteoause may be and however moderate the degree of attention bestowed upon it by the public, has been very closely observed by physicians, and in the belief of some of them, as stated to the reporter, will bring about an increased use of sedative drugs for distressed and dying patients. In discussing the matter phyeioians are necessarily drawn to its logical consequences and these may be summed up in the ques- tion, "Have we a right nuder certain cir- cumetanees to cut short our lives ?' In one of the repent articles on the subject by Dr, Amick au abstract is given of the question as formulated by a prominent m, tuber of the Birmingham Speculative Club. The state- ment is interesting, from the fact that it is accepted by many me ical men as being a fair exposition of the argument. The term euthanasia, or "an easy death," in described as intended to convey the following meaning: "That in all cases of hopeless and painful illness it should be the recognized duty of the medical attendant, whenever so desired by the pitient, to administer chloroform, or other anaesthetic, so as to destroy conscious - nese at once, and put the sufferer to a quick and easy , e .th, all needful precautions be- ing adopteu to prevent any possible abuse of such duty, and means being taken to es- tablish beyond the possibility of a doubt that the remedy was applied at the express wish of the patient." In defending the act the writer says : "Cases of this class abound on every hand, and those who have had to witness suffering of this kind, and to stand helplessly by longing to administer to the beloved one, yet unable to bring any real respite or relief, may well be impatient with the easy going spirit that sees in all this misery nothing but "the appointed lot of man," and that op- poses as almost impious every attempt to deal with it effectually. Why should al this suffering be endured? The patient de- sires to die ; his life can no longer be of use to others, and has become an intolerable bur- den to himself. The medical attendant is at the bedside with all the resources of his knowlengo, and could bring immediate and permanent relief. Why should his not doing so be recognized as a sovereign duty?" To the objection that this would violate the sacredness of life the writer says : "Nature knows nothing of any euoh sacred- ness, for there is nothing of which she is so prodigal. And man has shown little sense of the value of human life when hie.paseions or lusts or interests have been thwarted by his brother man, or seem likely to be for- warded by his destruction. A sense of the value of his own individual life man has, in- deed, seldom been deficient in ; and, by a kind of reflex action, this sense has slowly given birth to and always underlies t' -o sense, such as it is, of the value of oth.r ments lives, But in Europe to -day the sacredness of man's life is thrown to the winds the mo- ment national or political passion grows hot. Indeed, it is hard to understand the mean- ing of the word 'sacred' when applied to life, except in so far as it may signify the duty 1 aid on each man of using his life nobly while he has it. The man who is ever ready to face death for others' sake, to nave others from grinding pain, has always been reckon- ed a hero; and what is heroic if done for enotb'er is surely permissible if done for one's The man who could voluntarily give up his life to save another from months Of slow torture would win everybody's good word. Why should he be debarred from taking a like step when the person to be rescued is himself? It is furthermore urged that the sacredness of life is violated by ex- isting medical practice, when in cases of ex- treme and hopeless suffering physicians ad- minister drugs which give present relief at the expense of shortening the patient's life. If it is objected that submission to the will of Providence forbids the shortening of pain by taking life, by the same principle we should submit to the will of Providence, and not seek to escape any pain," Dr, Amick adds: "Some approach death with a calm count., ensnco and a serene mind, others are racked with pain and suffering. For hours, and even days, they writhe and groan between life and death. It is in this class of cases In which it is proposed to give tho hopeless sufferer respite from his agony, and outhan. adia is suggested. A hypodermic injeotton of morphia in such cases would result In general and lasting sloop, and has the Irrt• tation that existed in the body became los send the mind would gradually relax its hold upon the system, and its departure would bo so easy and quiet that a Bp otato would scarcely recognize it was going until it was gone. Euthanasia is r000mmended only in those oases where there is continued _pain and agony; where there is no chance for reeovory and the patient wishes to be freed from his misery." THE LONELY nano. Adventures of the "Alert" among the Hem Daring the three long weeks in which w were beset in ice, time hung heavily on ou hands, although we all had some dail duties to perform. Occasionally we evoul get a shot at a murre or a gull, or, if the ie opened up a little, a shot at a seal. Afto living for some time on salt meat, a delicac like curried gull or seal pie or boiled sea flipped was highly appreciated. For amuse ment and exercise we were obliged to con tent ourselves with pitohiog rope quoits o deok, walking over the ice, or, when a par ticularly largo ion pan was near the ship by a game of 'rounders.' Those who, lik myself, belonged to the great order of land blubbers, would mike vain attempts to imi tate the sailors in climbing about the rigging and to impress the crow with the idea that we were old hands at it. STRANGE ARCTIC SCENES, But in spite of the 000asroual tedium of our monotonous life while imprisoned in the ice there was much to interest one who had never been in Arctic regions before. At times one would be impressed with the supernatural things which the surroundings would give. Everything seems odd and the world upside down and chaos came again, where nothing was to be seen but ice—ice everywhere except where the blank rooks of Resolute Island broke the surface. On the evening of June 21, the longest day of the year, I remained a long time on deck. It was bright clear and cold, the thermometer at S p, m., registering 31 deg. In that region the variation of the maguetic needle is very great, being 55 deg, to the west of true north. Sunset ocoured about 10 p. m: on that evening. It was difficult almost to con- vince myself, knowing the time of the night, that I was not dreaming. And s'rangest of all the sun was setting .east of north by compass, It was a weird, eerie, impressive scene, It almost seemed that the sun had strayed so far from its course that it would wander off into some infinitude of space and never return, Soon after it disappeared behind the ice, as if conquered by obstinate frigidity, the still Arctic twilight shed its pale light about, Clouds, like a funeral pall, hung over the grave of the extinct sun, Solemn, mysterious, gigantic icebergs moved slowly along, carried on by hidden currents which were powerless on the sur- face. The ghostly processian passed in re- view while our little ship lay motionless in icy fetters. Resolution Island, blaok, for- bidding, looked like the evil genius of this strange ensue. Later on the moon rose and filtered pale, flickering rays through the clouds which, mixed with the peculiar Arc- tic glow, made the moot singular and super- natural light I have ever seen, men,—very often more so,—and given a fair opportunity, with E. husband worthy of the name, they aro usually able to do their part towards keeping the wolf from the door and making home pleasant for those who share in its happiness, ENGLISH LEGENDS. sonic of the Early and Iteauttfut Trudi. Moss of the Motherland. ° , The stories which circulate through our ✓ cities, or in a thickly inhabited neighbor - y even in the country, or find their way into newspaper columns, says Home Chimes, ° have always in theee dais, be they never so ✓ strange and startling, a touch of the realistic y and prosiao about them. If a ghost makes 1 his or her appearance it is sure to be arrayed in a coat or dress of the most modern cut, and sitting in a railroad carriage or hansom • n cab ; if a young lady elopes eho does it in the Vol_' coolest, most matter-of-fact manner possible, and never forgets to pack up even her tooth. O brush; the very horrors in the penny dread- fule have something that savor ofcthe com- monplace in this sensationaliem, and gen- ' erally have for their scene of action a scul- lery full of dirty dishes, and enlivened by the melodious dripping of a pump, or a market garden peopled with cabbages and gooseberry bushes, The ease is, however, very different in the region rouud about Exmoor, whither we want to conduct our readers. There fairies still linger among the flowers and ferns in the deep lanes ; there no respectable ghost would think of showing hie nose except arrayed in winding sheet ; there lovers still keep moonlight trysts, and escape the vigilance of two busy parents and maiden aunts by stolen rambles through shadowy woodland paths, where there are none save the birds and the squir- rels, to peep and watch. Here romance has not yet died out beneath the rule of the use- ful. Here fancy and poetry have not, as yet, quite fled from the land before the scream of the steam whistle. In a narrow valley among the hills round about Exmoor, there stands a quaintly built old house, some hundred years ago the home of the most an- ent and respectable yoeman families of the district, where ghosts are well -known by every one within ten miles of it to frequent in the most orthodox manner possible. They rustle up and down the passages in robes of such stiff brocade and whalebone that it is tterly useless for any one to try to repose in their beds between mid -night and dawn ; they tramp about the attice in high -heeled shoes, and refuse to depart, though there is a bookcase hard by filled with the most trashy French novels And the rarestblossoms of German skepticisms ; they dance in the large kitchen till the stone floor rings again, and the whole house is filled with weird, mysterious harmony, that seems to come from a fiddle, playing no one knows where, the merriest strains, yet strains that with all their airy mirth, were never play ed by any barrel -organ today, There was a beautiful legendary custom in the west country in regard to Easter Sun- day. Early on Easter morning long before dawn, the skies of Dunkery, some fifty years ago, were covered with 3 oung men who seemed to come from every quarter of the compass, and to be pressing up toward the beacon, as the highest point of the hill is called. The belief was that any unmarried young man who could see the sun rise from the top of Dunkery that Easter day would be blessed with a run of 'good luck in his love, in the workship, or on his farm for the rest of the year. Not far from the Bristol Channel there stands a handsome old church which has a singular legend connected with its erection. It is said that long ago an ancient hostelry stood where the church now atands, and that one night a funeral party who were con- veying the body of a lady for burial, in a family vault, she having died far from home., cemehero torest on their journey. On their dead lady's hand there was 'a ring of great value, which had been given her by her hue - band in the days when they were lovers, and which she desired might not be removed from her finger even after death. This fact was known to her husband's confidential ' servant, who had been intrusted with the whole of the funeral arrangements—his master not intending to meet the sad pro- cession till, it got to the place of interment The man's dishonest greed was excited by the thought of the diamonds in the ring ; he stole to tho chamber where the body had been deposited, and opened the coffin with some tools he brought with him, hoping at once to got possession of the coveted treasure but the ring could not be got off the cold stiff finger; so he used a knife to try to re move it. What was his terror when the blood began to flow from the supposed dead hand, and the lady sat up and gazed around hor. No reoord tolls what was tlih ultimate fateof the would -ho robber and unintentiona preserver, but legendary lore says the lady as a token of thanksgiving for her restor- ation to hor husband and children, built the churoh on the site of the old hostelry; Much croaking aboat Marriage. The average society journal devotes about one column per week to the discussion of the so-called marriage problem. In this the tendency toward celibacy is again and again repeated and every remedy which could possibly be thought of is invented at some time and place, In nine cases out of ten, while some responsibility is attributed to men, the : lame for the falling off in mar- riages is placed upon women. They are ac- cueed of being vain, extravagant, incompet- ent, and frivolous, and utterly without qualification for any sterner work than flirting or idling away whole days over sen- sational novels. The merits of the young man who minds his own business and doesn't get married are lauded to the skies ; those of a girl who does exactly the same thirg are never mentioned. Of course, the young men are not to blame for the falling off in the number of marriages. Who ever heard of a young man who was lacking in any, single or double respect ? As a rule, they never smoke, drink, or idle their time away, but aro busy day after day developing their mental qualities by industrious study, and saving their hard-earned wages for the purpose of gutting married at a later day. Girls frequent beer saloons, play pool, and organize expensive clubs, but the young man has no time for such frivolous enter- tainment. If he did ho would fall quite to tho level of his sister, and such a fate must ho escaped at all hazards. Tho marriage problem will doubtless solve itself In a little time, as most evils work out their own solution. At any rate, there is no reason to fear the depopulation of the country from the falling of in the number now, Nearly every institution that the world has ever sanctioned at some time or another has panned through somo species of trial, The desire for congenial feminine society In natural to every man, and will continue to he gratified in spite of high rents and extravagant marketn, And while it is being gratified, just a Little loss of the one- sided arguments against women would be aooeptable, On the• whole, women are as sensible as Feelings come and go like light troops following the victory of the present, but principles, like troops of the lino, are undle tubed and stand fast.