Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1889 — THE TOILET OF DEATH. [ARTICLE]

THE TOILET OF DEATH.

Preparlus: French Criminals for the Fall of tlie Guillotine’s Knife. Toward 4 or 5 o’clock, when everything is ready outside,the warden of the prison, accompanied by several officials, goes to the condemned man’s cell, and shaking him by the shoulder announces tbat his demand for pardon has been rejected. As soon as the prisoner has dressed himself lie is, if lie so desires, left alone with the chaplain for a few moments; afterward he is led to tho toilet-room. First, his shirt collar is. cut away sufficiently to allow the guillotine knife to fall upon his bare neck; then he is fastened with a cord starting from the shoulders and connecting with another cord that binds the two wrists; a third cord goes from the wrist to the knees, where it is joined to another cord already passed around the legs. Thus strapped, says a Paris corre spondent, the culprit is obliged to march as straight as an I, with his head Jhrown back. When the preparations are ended the proeession starts for the guillotine, the prisoner being supported by two of the headsman’s aids and accompanied by the executioner, the chaplain, and the other officials. The huge prison doors are thrown open and the first thing the condemned man sees is the black trapeziform knife, which, contrary to the 1 general impression, is not concealed from his gaze. The distance from the door to the guillotine is scarcely twenty steps,, ami as soon as the criminal reaches the swinging board the chaplain quits him, the executioner seizes him and pushes

him on to the bascule. Pan! pan! a click and a thud; the fall of the knife, the heavy sound of the body falling into the bran box. The movements are almost simultaneous. The knife falls. The criminal disappears. As soon as the ceremony is over the body is placed in a wagon and conveyed to Ivey cemetery, where it is buried in the turnip field. When the parents reclaim the body it is interred in another portion of the cemetery; no name is ever put on the headstone, in order not to excite public curiosity. When the body is not reclaimed the prefect of police authorizes the faculty of medicine to take it. During the whole of this lugubrious ceremony the chief executioner never touches the victim. The toilet and all the operations that require contact with his person are performed by the aids. Mltctlcalatlnn. “John,” said a wife who was supposed to be on her death-bed, “in case of my death I think a man of your temperament and domestic nature, aside from the good of the children, ought to marry again.” “Do you thiuk so, my dear?” “I certainly do, after a reasonable length of time. ” “Well, now, do you know, mv dear, that relieves my mind of a great burden. The little widow Jenkins has acted very demure toward me ever since you were taken sick. She is not the woman that you are, of course, a strong-minded, Intelligent woman of character, but sho is plump. and pretty and lam sure she would make me a very desirable wjfe, ” The next day Mrs. John was able to sit up, the following day she went down stairs, and on the third day she was planning for a new dress.

lh« Rules of Ktlqmt "Will you send up a card?" said the girl to a Buffalo Bill cowboy who called to see some friend in New York. "Will I send up a card, did you say?" , he inquired, as be reached into his overcoat pocket. "Yes, air. ” "Is that the fashion here?" "Yea. sir; at least it’s customary.” “Well, of course, if it’a customary why t I'll hav# to reg late myself accordin. * Which style is considered the most genteel, hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades? Here's the whole deck, jest take yer choice. ”