em when that
fatal post shall arrive, for, no doubt, _he_ also, although a criminal,
was fondly garnered in many a loving heart.

He had exhibited, during the trial, the utmost recklessness and
nonchalance, had drank many times in the course of the day, and when
the rope was placed about his neck, was evidently much intoxicated. All
at once, however, he seemed startled into a consciousness of the awful
reality of his position, and requested a few moments for prayer.

The execution was conducted by the jury, and was performed by throwing
the cord, one end of which was attached to the neck of the prisoner,
across the limb of a tree standing outside of the Rich Bar graveyard,
when all who felt disposed to engage in so revolting a task lifted the
poor wretch from the ground in the most awkward manner possible. The
whole affair, indeed, was a piece of cruel butchery, though _that_ was
not intentional, but arose from the ignorance of those who made the
preparations. In truth, life was only crushed out of him by hauling the
writhing body up and down, several times in succession, by the rope,
which was wound round a large bough of his green-leaved gallows. Almost
everybody was surprised at the severity of the sentence, and many, with
their hands on the cord, did not believe even _then_ that it would be
carried into effect, but thought that at the last moment the jury would
release the prisoner and substitute a milder punishment.

It is said that the crowd generally seemed to feel the solemnity of the
occasion, but many of the drunkards, who form a large part of the
community on these bars, laughed and shouted as if it were a spectacle
got up for their particular amusement. A disgusting specimen of
intoxicated humanity, struck with one of those luminous ideas peculiar
to his class, staggered up to the victim, who was praying at the
moment, and, crowding a dirty rag into his almost unconscious hand, in
a voice broken by a drunken hiccough, tearfully implored him to take
his "hankercher," and if he were _innocent_ (the man had not denied his
guilt since first accused), to drop it as soon as he was drawn up into
the air, but if _guilty_, not to let it fall on any account.

The body of the criminal was allowed to hang for some hours after the
execution. It had commenced storming in the earlier part of the
evening, and when those whose business it was to inter the remains
arrived at the spot, they found them enwrapped in a soft wh