It would, of course, be impossible to prove the exact result of a public execution. Somewhere in a quiet rural community, growing out of sudden passion or some unexplained and temporary aberration, a man takes the life of his fellow man. To the shock incident to this fatal act is added a long public trial in the courts where every detail is distorted and magnified and passed from tongue to tongue until even the lisping babe is thoroughly familiar with every circumstance of the case with all its harrowing details iterated and reiterated again and again. There grows up in the public mind a bitter hatred against the unfortunate victim whose antecedents, life and motives they can in no way understand or judge. It is really believed that no one has the right to look upon this person with any feeling save that of hatred, and the least word of pity or sign of sympathy for the outcast is set down as sickly sentimentalism and the mark of mental and spiritual disease. Weeks and months, sometimes even years, elapse in the slow and unending process of the courts. The whole tragedy has been well nigh forgot, at least it no longer has any vital effect upon the community. Finally it is announced that on a certain day a public hanging will take place. Once more every detail of the tragedy is recalled to the public mind; once more each man conjures up a monster in the place of the hunted, weak, doomed victim whose act no one either fathoms or seeks to understand. A sightly spot is chosen perhaps upon the village green. For several days men are kept busy erecting a strange and ominous machine; the old men and women, the middle aged, the boys and girls, the little children, even the toddling babes, filled with curiosity watch the work and discuss every detail of the weird and fatal trap. At length the day arrives for the majesty of the law to vindicate itself. From every point of the compass comes a great throng of both sexes, all conditions and ages, each to witness the most startling event of their lives; children are there, babes in arms, and even the unborn. A rope is tied around a beam, a noose is formed of the other end, a trembling, helpless, frantic, friendless victim is led up the steps, placed on a trap, his hands and feet are bound, a black cap is pulled down to hide his face, the noose is securely fastened around his neck below his ears. The crowd watches breathless with suspense, the signal is given, the trap opens, the man falls through space, he is caught in mid-air by the rope tightening about his neck, and strangling him to death. His body heaves, his legs and arms move with violent convulsions, he swings a few minutes in mid-air before the crowd, a ghastly human pendulum moving back and forth, the mortal body of a man created in the image of God whom the state has led out and killed to show the glory and majesty of law!