POEM THAT SAVED A MAN’S NECK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3359, 27 October 1911, Page 3

POEM THAT SAVED A MAN’S NECK.

GOVERNOR OF OREGON COUNTERAIANDS EXECUTION AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR.

So moved was Governor West, of Oregon, by a poem in a newspaper entitled “They’ve Hung Bill Jones” that,

almost at the last moment, he reprieved a convict named Webb. The latter was to have been hanged for lulling a man whose body was found concealed in a trunk. Governor West (says a “Standard” correspondent) had refused the request of friends and the tearful pleadings of Webb’s daughter, a girl of eighteen years, but he could not withstand the verse written by a poetaster named Stockton, a member of the “Constitution” staff. A few hours before the execution Governor West informed the chief warder of the state prison that Webb’s sentence had been commuted to one of imprisonment of life, and he stated the reason why the reprieve was granted. . The warder decided to continue the melodramatic action to the end, and five minutes before noon all the convicts marched _ into the main diningroom of the prison. Webb was ordered to stand at the head of a long central table, and the warder then read the governor’s _ instructions. The prisoners broke into cheers for Webb and Governor West, and when order had been restored the warder handed Webb a box. “Open it,” he commanded, and Webb did’ so. Inside was the rope with which he was to have been hanged cut into small pieces. Webb’s daughter was in the room, and Webb handed her the box, and as the prisoners filed past she gave each a piece of the rope as a souvenir. After five minutes she fainted, but the Rev. Philip Bauer, the prison chaplain, tookher place at the gruesome “favor box,” and continued the distribution. Mrs Webb watched the scene from | the balcony of the dining-room. She declares she loves her husband as much as ever, though at the trial another I woman was convicted at the trial of being Webb’s accomplice, and is now serving a sentence of fifteen years for the trunk murder. Webb, who occasionally writes poetry, says he, too, intends (o describe his reprieve in verse. The “Express” quotes two verses of the poem which reached the Governor’s heart: — They’ve hung Bill Jones to the sycamore tree, An’ his wife an’ his mother is aweepin’; An’ bis children come from the house to see, In the cold wind awaitin’ and acreepin’. They’ve hung Bill Jones for a crime of his, An’ his wife and his mother is adyin,, And his children’s took where the orplmnts is, An’ the cold wind acreepin’ and asighin’.