Now, if men must be hung, humanity would call for the work to be performed differently in these respects: That mortal long reading from the court doings should be dispensed with, that is, long for the place. It can be of no sort of use. A short formula, consisting of the last two or three sentences, uttered by the sheriff, would be all sufficient. Then, again, that black cap should be different. Binding the limbs consumed a few moments, and the reading, referred to, still more. But probably after the cap was on and the noose fitted over it, the criminal exhausted all the oxygen available to him in three or four breaths, and was forced to suffer the process of suffocation during that occupied time. How near death he was when the drop fell, I can not say, but he appeared to be suffering greatly before the binding was completed. That could all be remedied by having an orifice in the cap opposite the mouth for breathing. Further, that sad mistake about the rope should never be allowed to happen. He who permits himself to be appointed to such a duty, ought so to understand his business that such an accident shall be impossible. Some of the papers, especially in New York, roughly criticised our efforts to prepare Pike for his end, said it was an outrage on society to give a wretch like him so much attention; that, in it, we exhibited a sickly sentimentalism, appeared as though we would raise crime to a saintship, and more in the same line. A few words only on this must suffice. We supposed that the sentiment, "The criminal has a right to the benefit of the clergy," really meant something; that, though this man had been condemned to execution by his compeers for a most outrageous crime, he yet had a right to means for preparing himself to pass the ordeal of the scaffold with due composure, and for becoming reconciled to his God, if that could be. We did not dream that anybody short of heathendom would object to this. Supposing we were appointed to work for that end, we went to the task with a sincerity of purpose. If we were not appointed to do just the things we did, for what were we, pray? We simply followed the usual course pursued at the bedside when one is near death, had religious conversation, prayer, singing, parting with friends; though, in this case, we had no extreme feebleness caused by disease to meet, but rather crime, in one of its most revolting forms, to recognize in bringing gospel appliances, concerning which crime we endeavored to be duly faithful. Hence, all that feverish editorial brain-work over this pretended wrong, and that amount of printer's ink and paper thus used were simply wasted upon, what never occurred, or that which was only a usual, honest effort to do our duty with fidelity.