The day book. [volume], February 17, 1912, Image 13

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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AN EYE .WITNESS TELBS HOW, CHICAGO'S COUNTY
. ' JAIL HANGINGS' OF YESTERDAY EFFECTED HIM
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Ewald Shiblawski.
Frank Shiblawski.
Written for The Day Book by
Correspondent William G. Shep
herd. r- "How did my boy die?"
It wasn't' a mother or a father
asking the question. It was. a
deputy sheriff,' who stood on the
gallows looking . down at the
swinging form of an 18-year-old
boy about whose neck he had
fastened a rope five minutes be
fore. "Wasn't his neck broken?" in
sisted the deputy, talking to one
of the dozen doctors who were ex-aminingthe-
boy's body. When
the doctor answered-in .the af
firmative the deputy stepped back
from the trap-hole, satisfied.
What you see at a hanging is
one thing; it shows you what so
ciety 'is, doingto criminals. But
what you HEAR at hangings
shows you what society is doing
to itself when it takes the life of
a human being.
I'm going-to put down what -I
heard the talk of men at the
hanging of Philip Sommerling,
34 years; Thomas ScKultz, 18
Thomas Schultz.
Philip Sommerling.
years; Ewald Shiblawski, 24;
Ewald's -brother, Frank, 21, and
Thomas Jennings, negro, 35.
For two hours and 10 minutes'
there were gathered in the vastlT
high-ceilinged room 42 physi
cians, 35 guards and 20 newspa
permen. They were the represen
tatives of society, and, I want to
show, by the things I heard them
say, what hanging does td the,
men who are not hanged.
In his office, before we went
into the death chamber, T asked'
Deputy Sheriff Peters how many
men he had hung.
"Why, young fellow," he said,
"I hung men before you were,
born. I hung the Haymarket
rioters. And I've hung 40 men,"
he added, proudly.
"Have a smoke," someone said
to Peters.
"No, No smokes, eats, or drinks '
until this job is done. Then I'll
go out and take a stiff drink of
whisky. I always have a reaction
after a hanging. It always makes
me tired and sick."
"Doctor! Doctors!" exclaimed