Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1886 — He Preferred Death. [ARTICLE]

He Preferred Death.

•A funny anecdote connected with the Hon. Joe Blackburn’s first race fox Congress was told to me. Joe happened to be passing through Owenton, the county seat of Owen Comity, on the Occasion of the hanging of a noted criminal. As a hanging is rather an exceptional episode in the State of Kentucky, the honorable Joe concluded he would stop over a few hours and witness the event. The gallows was erected in the public square, so that no citizen, however humble, should lose the opportunity of witnessing the unusual spectacle. It was, in fact, a gala day such as the history of Owenton has‘seldom recorded. The sheriff, with true Kentucky hospitality, invited Blackburn, as one of the distinguished guests present, to occupy a seat on the gallows. Blackburn did so. After the preliminaries had been arranged the sheriff consulted liis watch and discovered it to be quite 12 o’clock, the hour fixed for the execution. Turning to the prisoner, lie said: “You have ten minutes yet to live. Is there anything you desire to say in the meantime?” The prisoner sullenly replied there was not. ’ t At this instant Blackburn sprang from his .seat, and, advancing to the edge of the scaffold, said; “If the gentleman will allow me his remaining ten minutes I will be glad to announce myself a candidate for your suffrages. If elected to Congress- " At this point the prisoner interjected: “Say, you! Is your name Joe Blackburn?” “Yes, sir,” responded Blackburn, politely. Turning to the sheriff, the prisoner said: “We won’t stand on a few nfinutes more or less when the alternative is presented of death on one hand or listen to one- of Joe Blackburn’s long-winded speeches ion the other. Flip the trap and let me go. ” The good-natured sheriff obligingly “flipped the trap,” and the next instant the desperado s wung into eternity, while Blackburn clambered down the gallows, exclaiming as he went, that jie had lost the greatest opportunity of his life.— Chicago News.