I would not take it; and I die in peace with all the
world, and forgive all my enemies. I desire you to take warning by
my fate. Sabbath-breaking was the first cause. I bid you farewell,
gentlemen, (here he mentioned various officers), and I bid you all
farewell. I die in peace with everybody.

The Sheriff, very nervous, gave a signal to the drop-man too soon, and a
serious accident very nearly occurred. The props were readjusted, all
but the main support removed, and that unhinged; the Sheriff waved his
handkerchief, and with the dead thump of the trap-lids against their
cushions, and the heavy jerking of the noose knot against the victim's
throat, the young murderer hung dangling in the air, not a limb
quivering, and only a convulsive movement of the shoulders, to indicate
the struggle which life maintained when giving up its place in the
body.

There was a rush forward. The doctors grasped his wrist. Some spectators
passed their hands across his knees to feel the tremulous sinews; one or
two felt a faintness, and a dozen made coarse jokes; and one or more
speculated as to the issue of his immortal part, or the degree of his
pain, or the probability of his cognizance. In seven minutes he was
beyond the reach of execution or executioner, and a hurdle being wheeled
from the stable, they cut down his body, while a few scrambled for the
rope, and it was wheeled on a run into the convict's corridor for his
old father to claim. The neck was not broken, nor the flesh discolored.
Some said that he died "game;" and all went away, leaving the old man
and a brother to sit by the remains and weep, that so great calamity had
darkened their home and blighted their lives. Few lamented him, for he
had youth, but none of its elements of sympathy; and those who would
make, even of his dying speech, a text and a lesson, are instancing a
lie more grievous than the murder which he did.

In England, I saw two men and a woman suffer death on the common
sidewalk; just as if we were to hang people in New York on the pavement
before the Tombs.

No man, anxious to see an execution in London, need be disappointed.
Once or twice a month the wolves are brought to the slaughter, and all
the people are invited to enjoy the spectacle. A woman, one Catharine
Wilson, was to be hanged for poisoning. She was middle aged, and had
been reputable. Her manner of making way with folks was to act as
sick-nurse, and mingling poison with