Daily Kennebec Journal

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The New York Tribune gives the following account of the hanging of the Russian sailor Mechella, in Jersey City, on the 9th. The details are horrible.

"Mechella was probably as hardened a man as was ever put to death, and his life in prison is a record of the vilest profanity, and of the most filthy insults offered to his keepers and visitors. Though not large he was extremely powerful and desperate, and seems to have desired nothing more than revenge for his confinement and conviction by adding a keeper or two to his list of victims. These gentlemen, so far from thinking him deficient in intellect, regarded him as wonderfully cute and shrewd, and are greatly relieved to have him out of the way, as he was an object of anxiety to them from the day of his commitment six months ago until the end. Upon first entering the jail he masked himself in religious pretensions, spending much of his time in prayer. The moment his counsel had been engaged, however, his whole demeanor altered. The Bible was thrown out of the window, and where his keepers had heard words of pious supplication and hope they now listened to the most frightful oaths. The day previous to that on which his first sentence was to be carried out—Dec. 5 last—he received the news of the reprieve by Gov. Parker with curses, bestowed impartially upon the bearer and the Governor, so that it was difficult to comprehend the man's nature at all. During the last week his violence increased to a dreadful extent, and only a very few were allowed to gaze upon the human animal, who chafed and worried and fought, handcuffed behind iron bars and bolts. Every court house car from the ferry brought a load of sight-seers, the streets were alive with people, and against fences and in windows adjacent they crowded forward, perfectly aware how useless was their effort, and how completely hidden was the tragedy of the scaffold. "The city in that vicinity bore a regular holiday appearance. Companies D and E of the 4th Regiment, N. J., guarded all the approaches to the jail with fixed bayonets, and those who obtained entrance into the jail-yard did so under the severest scrutiny. The jail yard, twenty minutes before the condemned man was to be led out, was a scene of boisterous laughter and heartless merriment not seen in the New York prisons. At such moments the average spectator is inclined to pause before even calling out the name of a person he recognizes, and there is an air of oppression ever present and unmistakable in its character. Acquaintances almost always meet at such places with an unusually hearty shake of the hand and cordial "How are ye," or surprised "You here?" although they may have been together the previous evening or that very morning; and this seeming or real cordiality is carried to the extent of delight without any apparent cause. On this occasion the representatives of the press were allowed the exclusive use of a tin roof over a single story, almost directly in front of the jail, where "they could see the fun better," as one of the officials kindly remarked. It was a few minutes after 10 o'clock when Sheriff Reinhardt, accompanied by under Sheriff Corwin and a number of deputies, ascended to the corridor where Mechella was confined. They called him. He walked to them, and the deputies surrounded him. They lifted his coat for him. He had been in his shirt sleeves, and he, docile as a child, extended his arms, and then allowed them to put it on his back. The Sheriff then drew forth the death warrant, and proceeded to read it to the prisoner. He turned to go away, but was recalled by a touch on the shoulder. "Keep your hands off me!" he exclaimed; "I don't mean to harm nobody." The Sheriff proceeded with the reading. Mechella, with his eyes part of the time on the floor and part of the time on the Sheriff, listened with the air of a man forced to hear what did not interest him. He, however, relieved the monotony of the proceeding by frequent puffs at his cigar. After the Sheriff had concluded the reading of the paper he asked: "Jacob Mechella, what have you further to say?" Mechella, without removing the cigar from his mouth replied: "What the — I got to say." The Sheriff directed the officer to proceed, and Mechella's arms were pinioned behind his back. The black cap was next placed upon his head and he was led out between long files of uniformed, armed men, toward the place of execution.

At 10:20 the mass outside peering at the jail walls saw a sudden commotion among those seated on the roof directly in front of the gallows, and they knew it was the signal of the coming tragedy. The criminal appeared to those in the yard marching solemnly between Under Sheriff Cronan and Constable Wass, and behind Sheriff Reinhardt; then came the Rev. Messrs. Rice and Hedstrom, who had been with him all the morning, then came the bodies of deputies. The peculiar sensations of all may be imagined when Mechella, with the fearful looking cap on the back of his head, was seen to retain the cigar in his mouth. While the iron loop of the rope hung against his ear, and the clergyman was praying earnestly, the sailor puffed away at his cigar, and when the prayer was concluded the Sheriff drew it from between his lips and threw it away. Then came the drawing down of the black cap, and as the Sheriff took his hand to shake it, he began to realize, apparently for the first time, that he was really to suffer death by hanging. The presence of the military force had led him to believe that he was to be shot, and now he looked up and muttered, "What! you going to hang me?" and when he was told the truth he repeated, "Don't hang me? My God! don't hang me!" While saying this he reached up his left hand as far as its pinioned condition would permit and began to raise the cap. He had stepped one side, was, in fact, treading about on the scaffold, and had lifted the horrible cap until one eye peered out, when the signal was given, and his plaintive "Don't hang me!" was cut short by the thud of the axe and the spring of the body into the air. This occurred at 10:25 A. M., and the features, during the next instant, underwent a frightful change, the eye rolling and the mouth expressing intense agony. For two or three minutes everybody was as silent as the grave, watching the swaying body. Suddenly, as a deputy stepped forward and checked the motion, a murmur of horror arose, for the knot of the rope uncoiled like lightning, and the end the next instant dangled in the air, while the body of the wretched sailor fell with a loud thud to the platform. All, even the Sheriffs, stood aghast for what seemed a minute; then with a great cry of "Fall back! fall back!" the soldiery came to the front and forced back the eager crowd; then the rope was adjusted about the neck as the body lay coiled up in a heap, and several men began to haul away, like sailors, at the struggling body, and here the acme of repulsiveness was reached. When the body had been carried up high enough the rope was tied, and the life was allowed this time to quietly pass from the body.

All was soon over after this. At 10:50 the body was lowered and placed in a neat coffin, on which was inscribed the name of the man with the date of his death. The crowd then slowly separated and went away, discussing the terrible "bungle," as the execution was described. The closing scene in the yard before the public left, was the cutting up of the rope surreptitiously for relics.