THE Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, NOV. 13, 1880. LAST SCENE OF ALL.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 89, 13 November 1880, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

SATURDAY, NOV. 13, 1880. LAST SCENE OF ALL.

" AYercU r.ic Lilii:;."-, acd a i>op of jnV; f-:lli:is lik< dew upon thoucht. proclucss tivst which make; perhaps juillicia ti.:ak."

Outraged justice has had her victim, and after a long respite i\'ed Kelly has paid ike penalty of his lawless ferocity. Hi« terrible fale, and the ignominious manner o£ his eliding, is a fitting pendant to the life lie led, and should act as a warning to those high-spirited but misguided youths who court the danger and spurious glory of a bushranger's life, without considering the penalties which tollow those who war against society. In the past century the highyiiymiin who was drawn u.pon a hurdle to Tyburn Tree, was an object of hero worship for the vulgar, and the supposed funeral cortege to the scaffold, partook of the nature of a triumphal procession of which the criminal was the centre of attraction, and according to the amount of bravado and noncha- \ lance which he exhibited was the object I of greater or lesser glorification from the mob. JS'o matter what had been the misdeeds oE the culprit, no matter how deeply his hands had been imbued iv blood, a firm step, a bold front, and a determination to v ' die game," was the sure passport to popular favor, and instead of the dread nujes!y of the law being asserted, and terror being struck info th.- hearts of tbe holders, the proceedings partook of the nature of a victory, and the deeds and death of Ihe victim were immortalised m song. Until within the last decade even enlightened England continued the barbarous farce, notwithstanding that Democratic America had years before abandoned the solemn mockery, and j conducted its executions m public. As is well known the colonies hare alsG adopted the same course, and the only intimation to the outside public that a once guilty spirit has gone before the ! dread tribunal above, is the hoisting of I'a black flag upon the battlements of the building. Human nature has a morbid craving for (he horrible, and vre are therefore not surprised that crowds jou.rn.ied from Melbourne to Pentridge —a distance of four miles — to gaze upon the cold dark walls .which held the luorLal remains of the condemned outlaw, and watch for the flag w ich told of his spirit's flight to eternity. Death at the hangman's han^s is a very difft'i-en.t thing vow to what it was m the past century, when the criminal was removed from the dock with his hours — not days — numbered and almost the swtat oE death upon his brow. The interval between time and eternity was m most cases ono continuous sceue of carousal, or the hero of the hour held a levee to which all his admirers cam" to j..aj r their homage and exhort him to "die game." All this is altered now, and Lite change is one calculated to have n v<?ry different effect upon the mind of the unfortunate culprit. "When he leaves the dock with the words of the sentencing Judge ringing m his ears— "May the Lord have mercy on your sou l "_h e is conducted not back to his own but to tho condemned cell, where the blacksmith rivers the irons upon him lii-viT to be rc%ycd until a few moments before his ] list death struggle, when the sheriff with his hideous assistant, the hangman, demands the body of llit? victim iroiii the hands of the gaoler. fom thW moment of his entry into the condemtiVd cell until his last sad exit he is never U-ft alone, as night and day an oilieuil of the gaoi is locked m with him to see tii^t lv- does not cheat the gallows by forestalling the punishment. There are no meretricious or sjpurious surroundings to mislead the criminal, and i : iom the moment he is led from the clock with the sentence of death npon his hejid, he is dead to tie outside world lo\- e^r. It is true he is permitted (o