The Roanoke Daily Times

ROANOKE TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1896.

PAY TO SEE DEATH.
People Fond of Seeing the Guillotine's
Bloody Work.
"The 'widow' is about to leave us," is
the cry around La Roquette, Paris. Aye,
the "widow" will in future do her deadly
work in the St. Jacques district.
Long has she queened it at La Roquette,
and many a doughty knight has fallen a
victim to her kisses; but now her time
has come, and those Parisians to whom
she was a familiar sight will have to seek
her elsewhere. La Sante prison is to be
used for the reception of criminals con-
demned to penal servitude and death, and
outside of it the guillotine is to be
erected.
Now, it cannot be denied that most of
the residents near La Roquette are de-
lighted to hear that their unsavory neigh-
bor is about to leave them.
Somehow
her presence cast a gloom at times over
that quarter of Paris and, presumably,
at times, also affected the price of prop-
erty. There is not one so evil, however,
who has not some friends, and there are
some who are sincerely sorry that the
"widow" is about to take her departure.
These mournful ones are the shopkeep-
ers at La Roquette. Executions were a
bonanza to them, and they naturally
grieves at the loss of the goose that laid
the golden egg.
A man in Paris who is condemned to
death by the guillotine becomes, from that
moment, an object of curiosity. It is
not alone his death that whets this cur-
iosity, but also all the other stirring in-
cidents that are wont to occur at the
place of execution. On the day fixed for
his death the whole city is alert. The
news runs through Paris like a train of
powder. Then, from all sides come
groups of persons, loafers and brazen
women, who have probably come to see
an old comrade die; amateurs, who are
curious to see how a fellow-being will bear
himself when about to leave the world;
honest folks, who are anxious to learn
just how the "widow" does her irrepara-
ble work, and blase men of the world.
who go there as careless and as unconcern-
ed as though they were going to a first
night's performance at the opera house.
Of course many take all this trouble
for nothing. After waiting for several
hours they sometimes see no more than
the backs of the gendarmes or the horses
of the municipal guards. The police
are very strict, and do their utmost to
see that the execution shall only be wit-
nessed by certain privileged persons.
With certain rare exceptions, journalists
are the only persons who have a right to
come near the "widow" when she is about
to perform her duty. Other persons,
then, who are resolved to see a man die
have only one resource—they must hire
a window.
Such windows are for hire at the Rue
Servan, Rue Saint-Maur, Rue Merlin and
all the streets adjacent to the Place de
la Roquette, and the prices range from 20
to 200 francs, according to the importance of the person about to be executed
or the worldly means of the client. A
tavern-keeper on the Rue Merlin, whose
house is admirably adapted for the pur-
pose of witnessing executions from begin-
ning to end, makes
an
interesting
statement on this subject.
"The best executions," he says
naively, "were those of Pranzini, Prado,
Eyraud, Berland and Dore. And yet I
almost lost money on Berland and Dore.
thanks to the infernal railroad accident
that took place at Saint Mande. You see,
it happened this way: A lot of fellows
were drinking in my house, waiting for
the execution. I was already counting the
money I would make, when, lo, the news
came of the smash-up on the railroad, in
which several persons had been killed
and wounded. That must be a pretty
curious sight," said one of the crowd,
and with that fully half of them went off
and I saw them no more.
"Pranzini's execution was the best of
all. For fifteen days, or rather for fifteen
nights, persons kept thronging in here.
Eight days the cry went out that the ex-
ecution would take place on the follow-
ing morning at sunrise. And night
after night the crowd took supper here
and chatted about the doomed man. The
women were especially enthusiastic, and
they all said that Pranzini was a mighty
fine fellow. At last the day of execution
came, and, as I expected, all my win-
dows were occupied. "A handsome young
girl had hired two of them and had
picked them out eight days in advance.
She said that she was a friend of Pran-
zini and she came here every day with
her maid. She even took her meals here.
The curious thing about her case was
that after all her trouble she saw noth-
ing of the execution. At the moment
when Pranzini left the prison and ap-
proached the guillotine she was seated at
one of the windows, but finding that she
could not see as well as she desired, she
decided to change places with her maid,
who occupied the other window. She
miscalculated, however, for while she
was moving from one window to another,
the 'widow' did her work. Aye, Pran-
zini's head had dropped before she had
seated herself, and so she saw nothing of
the execution."
Many foreigners will miss the guillo-
tine. Englishmen are said to be remark-
ably fond of seeing the pitiless blade do
its work. A number of Belgians, too,
came by express train in order to witness
Vaillant's execution.
No date has yet been fixed for the re-
moval of the "widow." Some heads may
yet drop at La Roquette into the basket
of M. Deibler, the executioner, and, as a
result some money may fall into the
storekeepers' pockets. But that the
"widow" will soon be evicted from La
Roquette seems certain. The minister
of justice does not want her there any
longer. -New York Herald.