188 THE AMEKICAN MONTHLY [August, 



Aug. 4, 1890, on the 5th inst. the committee of " reputable citizens" 

 provided by law met at the call of Warden Chas. F. Durston, at Au- 

 burn Prison. Your humble servant was constituted an official " rep- 

 utable citizen " for the first time in his life. Lately, through the press, 

 you may have heard something about their doings at Auburn. With- 

 out entering into the preliminary details of the execution I will pro- 

 ceed at once to give a short account of this first official taking of human 

 life by electricity. Since the former proposed execution, changes had 

 been made in the location of the apparatus to be used for this purpose. 

 When the calf was killed at Auburn, the entire plant of the execution 

 was in one room, with the exception of the dynamo, which was some 

 two or three hundred yards distant in a separate portion of the prison. 

 Communication with the engineer was by an electric bell. The chair 

 had been removed to another room, so that to witnesses of the execu- 

 tion there was nothing: whatever to indicate when the current was 

 working favorably. The lamp board, the switches, the ameter, the 

 volt-meter were in an adjacent room. The intent of this arrangement 

 was that it might be concealed from the world whom the individual 

 might be who turned on the fatal current. The chair was arranged in 

 the centre of one end of the room and securely fastened to the floor and 

 perfectly insulated from it. One wire passed to the spinal electrode 

 and the other was carried up to the ceiling and brought down to the 

 cerebral electrode. The attachment of the spinal electrode had been 

 modified somewhat by Mr. Durston, a spring having a play of some 

 two or three inches was arranged so that it would hold the electrode 

 in connection with the body of the culprit, so that it was impossible 

 to draw away from it. 



As the chair was arranged it was demonstrated that the electrodes 

 could be closely applied to the body, that upon the back, however, not 

 having been as thoroughly supplied with the saturating fluid as that 

 upon the head. 



The details of the culprit's actions in the trying ordeal to which he 

 was subjected T need not repeat ; but merely say that William Kemm- 

 ler went to his death in a manner which won the admiration and almost 

 love, even if a murderer, of all who beheld him, and demonstrated the 

 untruthfulness of the reports of certain newspapers, which had been cir- 

 culated about him. However, had he been a powerful, strong individual 

 and objected, there would have been no uncertainty about the carrying 

 out of the penalty. Once strapped in the chair the most powerful man 

 could not have interfered with the purpose of the law. 



In the audience, composed of some 24 or 25 gentlemen, there were 

 physicians accustomed to sights associated with death. There were 

 others who vs^ere incapable of witnessing even the culprit in his chair 

 without fainting ; also some interested in giving to the world as sensa- 

 tional an account of the occurrence as was possible. The newspapers 

 took the opportunity to make a bonanza out of the execution. 



The events occurring alter the warden had bid good-bye to the pris- 

 oner, and given the order to turn the fatal switch, took place. Accord- 

 ing to the testimony of those in control of the apparatus, the voltage 

 that w^as expected to be used was not obtained when the first shock was 

 given, and the impression still exists that William Kemmler did not 

 receive the full voltage of the dynamo. However, thanks to the method 



