<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</SPAN><br/> <span class="smaller">Other Methods of Execution.</span></h2>
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<p class="afterdrop"><span class="fstwd"><span class="hidden">F</span>rom</span> time to time people raise an outcry against
the English mode of putting criminals to
death, and there are many Englishmen who
have a firm conviction that hanging is the very worst
and most unscientific form of capital punishment. The
prejudices of these people seem to be based on an utterly
wrong idea of how an English execution is conducted,
and I hope that the chapter dealing with my method
will form the basis for a truer judgment.</p>
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<ANTIMG src="images/i_050.png" width-obs="312" height-obs="377" alt="" />
<p class="caption">English Axe and Block, now in the Tower of London.</p>
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<p>Of methods of execution that have been suggested
as substitutes for hanging, there are some which hardly
deserve consideration, because there is no considerable<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</SPAN></span>
number of people who would approve of them. The
various methods of beheading are hardly likely to be
ever in favour with Englishmen generally, for they want
executions to be as free as possible from revolting
details. The old headsman’s axe and block which are
still to be seen in the Tower, are in themselves sufficient
argument against a revival of their use. Apart from
the fact that beheading under the best conditions is
revolting, we must further consider that from the very
nature of the office, the executioner who has to hack off
his victim’s head must be a brutal and degraded man,
and the chances are that he will not be so skilful or so
careful as he ought to be for the performance of such a
task. Even amongst races which are not so highly
civilised as the English, and where it is easier to obtain
headsmen of proportionately better standing, we occasionally
hear of more than one blow being required to
cause death, and such a state of things is very horrible.
In China decapitation has been reduced to almost a
science, and the Chinese executioners are probably the
most skilful headsmen in the world. I have in my
possession a Chinese executioner’s knife, with which
the heads of nine pirates were severed in nine successive
blows, and a terrible knife it is, and well fitted for the
purpose. Yet even with such a weapon, and with the
skill and experience which Chinese executioners attain
from frequent practice, the blow sometimes fails, as was
the case in one of the last batch of Chinese executions
reported in the English newspapers.</p>
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<ANTIMG src="images/i_051.png" width-obs="512" height-obs="130" alt="" />
<p class="caption">Executioner’s Sword, Canton.</p>
</div>
<p>Even the guillotine, which is often spoken of as the
only perfect and certain method, has been known to fail,
and we have cases in which the knife has been raised
and dropped a second time before causing death. In<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</SPAN></span>
any case, whether the guillotine, the axe, or the Chinese
knife is used, and whatever care may be taken to render
the death painless and instantaneous, there is a horrible
mutilation of the sufferer that must be revolting to all
sensitive people.</p>
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<ANTIMG src="images/i_052.png" width-obs="353" height-obs="368" alt="" />
<p class="caption">The Guillotine.</p>
</div>
<p>The Spanish and Spanish-American method of
execution, by means of the garotte, has been much
praised by some advocates of reform. The prisoner to
be garotted is placed in a chair, to the back of which
an iron collar is attached in such a manner that it can
be drawn partly through the chair-back by means of a
heavily weighted lever. When the lever and weight
are raised the head can be passed through the collar,
and by dropping the weight the collar is drawn tight
and causes strangulation. This method is certain, but I
do not consider it so good as the present English system
of hanging, because death by strangulation is much
slower and more painful than death by dislocation. In
one form of the garotting chair this fact has been
recognised, and an iron spike is placed immediately
behind the neck, so that when the pressure is applied
the spike enters between two of the vertebræ and severs<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</SPAN></span>
the spinal cord. This I consider worse than our own
system, because the iron spike must cause a certain
amount of bleeding, which the English method avoids.</p>
<div class="center">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_053.png" width-obs="349" height-obs="600" alt="" />
<p class="caption">The Garotte.</p>
</div>
<p>The American system of hanging, which has been
recently superseded by electrocution, was but a slight<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</SPAN></span>
modification of the ancient system of Jack Ketch, or the
time-honoured method of Judge Lynch. In these older
systems the convict stood upon the ground while the
rope was placed round his neck, and the other end
passed over the arm of the gallows, or the limb of a
tree. Then the executioner and his assistants hauled
on the other end of the rope, until the victim was swung
clear off the ground and was gradually strangled. In
the improved American method the place of the executioner
was taken by a heavy weight which was attached
to the rope and which rapidly ran up the convict to a
height of some feet. In some few very extreme cases
of heavy bodies with frail necks this may have caused
dislocation, but as a rule strangulation would be the
cause of death.</p>
<div class="center">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_054.png" width-obs="317" height-obs="342" alt="" />
<p class="caption">Old Methods.</p>
</div>
<p>When the use of electricity for executions began to
be talked of as a practical possibility, I naturally took
much interest in the subject. As the result of all the
enquiries I was enabled to make, I concluded that
although electrocution—as the Americans call it—is
theoretically perfect, it presents many practical difficulties.
The experience of the authorities in the case
of the wretched man, Kremmler, who was executed by
electricity in New York, fully proves that as yet we do<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</SPAN></span>
not know enough about the conditions under which
electricity will cause painless and sudden death. When
particulars of the method that was to be adopted for
executions in New York were first published, I was with
a small committee of gentlemen in Manchester who
were investigating the subject. They made all arrangements
for experiments to test the reliability of the
method. Two animals were obtained that had to be
killed in any case, namely, a calf and an old dog of a
large breed. In the case of the calf the connections
were made in the manner prescribed, and the current
was turned on. This was repeated twice, but the only
result was to cause the calf to drop on its knees and
bellow with fear and pain, and the butcher at once killed
it in the ordinary way with his poleaxe. When the
shock was applied to the dog he fell down and seemed
to be paralysed, but it was some time before life was
extinct. The latest reports of American executions say
that the deaths were instantaneous and painless, but the
value of such statements is lessened by the fact of
reporters being excluded. The total exclusion of the
press at any rate seemed like an admission of the
authorities that they had no confidence in the certainty
of the method they were using.</p>
<p>Altogether, after a careful consideration of all the
principal modes of execution, I am convinced that our
English method as at present in use is the best yet
known, because it is absolutely certain, instantaneous
and painless.</p>
<p>It may be interesting to close this chapter with a
list of the principal methods of execution in use in
foreign countries.</p>
<table summary="Means of execution" class="valt">
<tr><td class="tdl">Austria</td>
<td class="tdhp">Hanging, public.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Bavaria</td>
<td class="tdhp">Guillotine, private.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Belgium</td>
<td class="tdhp">Guillotine, public.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Brunswick</td>
<td class="tdhp">Axe, private.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">China</td>
<td class="tdhp">Sword or bow-string, public.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Denmark</td>
<td class="tdhp">Guillotine, public.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">France</td>
<td class="tdhp">Guillotine, nominally public; but really
so surrounded by cordons of gens
d’armes, &c., as to be virtually
private.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</SPAN></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Germany</td>
<td class="tdhp">Sword or hanging, private.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Hanover</td>
<td class="tdhp">Guillotine, private.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Italy</td>
<td class="tdhp">No capital punishment.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Netherlands</td>
<td class="tdhp">Hanging, public.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Portugal</td>
<td class="tdhp">Hanging, public.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Prussia</td>
<td class="tdhp">Sword, private.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Russia</td>
<td class="tdhp">Rifle shot, hanging or sword, public;
but capital punishment is practically
abolished except for political offences.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Spain</td>
<td class="tdhp">Garotte, public.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">Switzerland</td>
<td class="tdhp">Fifteen cantons, sword, public. Two
cantons, guillotine, public. Two
cantons, guillotine, private.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tdl">United States</td>
<td class="tdhp">New York State, electric shock, private.
Other states, hanging, private.</td></tr>
</table>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</SPAN></span></p>
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<ANTIMG src="images/i_057.png" width-obs="600" height-obs="420" alt="" />
<p class="caption">Wandsworth Gaol (after an execution).</p>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</SPAN></span></p>
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