PUBLIC EXECUTIONS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2281, 17 November 1891, Page 2

PUBLIC EXECUTIONS.

The evil of public executions • is plainly shown by the disgraceful scenes which occurred in Paris this week (says a London paper of July 29). Two young murderers being daily expected to suffer the death-sentence, the Placode la Roquette has peen thronged every night by a disorderly gathering of vagabonds and curious people, waiting about from midnight to breakfast-time. Some sat in the gutter, many slept in doorways, while others played the “ guillotine game,” i.e. , pretending to execute one of their number, and then dancing hand-in-hand round the imaginary victim, singing coarse songs. The tumult - was so great that 250 people were arrested in one night. At last the police put up barriers round the guillotine, and . kept out the vagabonds, who, after all their waiting, saw very little when the execution actually took place on Monday. However, lovers of the windows overlooking the scene made a little fortune. One American paid £BO for a window. His countrymen, indeed, seem addicted to such gruesome spectacles, for the inhabitants of a Texan town recently arranged a grand excursion to see some murderers hanged in a neighbouring, city. They hired a brass band and prepared to lunch under the gallows, but the Governor prevented the excursion.