登陆注册
15488000000105

第105章 CHAPTER XXII(4)

As Ed Morrell once rapped to me with his knuckles: "The worst possible use you can put a man to is to hang him." No, I have little respect for capital punishment. Not only is it a dirty game, degrading to the hangdogs who personally perpetrate it for a wage, but it is degrading to the commonwealth that tolerates it, votes for it, and pays the taxes for its maintenance. Capital punishment is so SILLY, so stupid, so horribly unscientific. "To be hanged by the neck until dead" is society's quaint phraseology . . .

Morning is come--my last morning. I slept like a babe throughout the night. I slept so peacefully that once the death-watch got a fright. He thought I had suffocated myself in my blankets. The poor man's alarm was pitiful. His bread and butter was at stake.

Had it truly been so, it would have meant a black mark against him, perhaps discharge and the outlook for an unemployed man is bitter just at present. They tell me that Europe began liquidating two years ago, and that now the United States has begun. That means either a business crisis or a quiet panic and that the armies of the unemployed will be large next winter, the bread-lines long. . . .

I have had my breakfast. It seemed a silly thing to do, but I ate it heartily. The Warden came with a quart of whiskey. I presented it to Murderers Row with my compliments. The Warden, poor man, is afraid, if I be not drunk, that I shall make a mess of the function and cast reflection on his management . . .

They have put on me the shirt without a collar. . .

It seems I am a very important man this day. Quite a lot of people are suddenly interested in me. . . .

The doctor has just gone. He has taken my pulse. I asked him to.

It is normal. . . .

I write these random thoughts, and, a sheet at a time, they start on their secret way out beyond the walls. . . .

I am the calmest man in the prison. I am like a child about to start on a journey. I am eager to be gone, curious for the new places I shall see. This fear of the lesser death is ridiculous to one who has gone into the dark so often and lived again. . . .

The Warden with a quart of champagne. I have dispatched it down Murderers Row. Queer, isn't it, that I am so considered this last day. It must be that these men who are to kill me are themselves afraid of death. To quote Jake Oppenheimer: I, who am about to die, must seem to them something God-awful. . . .

Ed Morrell has just sent word in to me. They tell me he has paced up and down all night outside the prison wall. Being an ex-convict, they have red-taped him out of seeing me to say good-bye. Savages?

I don't know. Possibly just children. I'll wager most of them will be afraid to be alone in the dark to-night after stretching my neck.

But Ed Morrell's message: "My hand is in yours, old pal. I know you'll swing off game." . . .

The reporters have just left. I'll see them next, and last time, from the scaffold, ere the hangman hides my face in the black cap.

They will be looking curiously sick. Queer young fellows. Some show that they have been drinking. Two or three look sick with foreknowledge of what they have to witness. It seems easier to be hanged than to look on. . . .

My last lines. It seems I am delaying the procession. My cell is quite crowded with officials and dignitaries. They are all nervous.

They want it over. Without a doubt, some of them have dinner engagements. I am really offending them by writing these few words.

The priest has again preferred his request to be with me to the end.

The poor man--why should I deny him that solace? I have consented, and he now appears quite cheerful. Such small things make some men happy! I could stop and laugh for a hearty five minutes, if they were not in such a hurry.

Here I close. I can only repeat myself. There is no death. Life is spirit, and spirit cannot die. Only the flesh dies and passes, ever a-crawl with the chemic ferment that informs it, ever plastic, ever crystallizing, only to melt into the flux and to crystallize into fresh and diverse forms that are ephemeral and that melt back into the flux. Spirit alone endures and continues to build upon itself through successive and endless incarnations as it works upward toward the light. What shall I be when I live again? Iwonder. I wonder. . . .

Footnotes:

{1} Since the execution of Professor Darrell Standing, at which time the manuscript of his memoirs came into our hands, we have written to Mr. Hosea Salsburty, Curator of the Philadelphia Museum, and, in reply, have received confirmation of the existence of the oar and the pamphlet.--THE EDITOR.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 渺星辰

    渺星辰

    渺小如浮沙,亦可成世界。鲲鹏一展翅,星辰皆碎裂。生,何谓也?死,谓何也?蜉蝣撼树不自量?一生筑梦谁堪笑?通者自通,愚者自娱。不触天,不畏天,不敬天。虽微如蜉蝣,渺如浮沙。可撼树,可裂天!只为生而畅怀,死而无憾。
  • 快穿攻略:高冷boos找上门

    快穿攻略:高冷boos找上门

    一场车祸,夏钰纤成了灵魂体,当她以为会整天与日月同汐独自伤神时,小熊猫系统?能让她复活?还能和母亲生活?可是总跟着她的帅哥是谁?“夏钰纤,你逃不掉的!”
  • 百变女郎(都会女郎系列)

    百变女郎(都会女郎系列)

    [花雨授权]她最大愿望是找份安稳工作,能拿年终奖金和退休金。她不但1年换了14个老板,还曾经2小时内换了3个工作。好不容易空姐工作撑了3个月,却被这日本沙猪破坏!更怪的是,她连续再丢两个工作,都是被这个男人害的……
  • 武途纵横

    武途纵横

    被挚交好友,至亲之人所判,许以含恨。幸天道眷顾,轮回之力让他成为世家少爷,当‘土豪’之子。这一世,他势必要斩尽妄逆之辈,踏遍天资之才,掠夺万物之灵,重登纵横之路。
  • 海豹突击队体能训练手册

    海豹突击队体能训练手册

    该书是一本综合训练手册,编者包括医学专家和生理学家,他们都有在海豹突击队或其他特种部队的工作经历,在体能训练和特种兵训练方面具有权威的专业知识。该书阐述了特种兵如何达到并保持强健的体能素质,本书的编写目的是将这些经验与技巧分享给读者。
  • 火澜

    火澜

    当一个现代杀手之王穿越到这个世界。是隐匿,还是崛起。一场血雨腥风的传奇被她改写。一条无上的强者之路被她踏破。修斗气,炼元丹,收兽宠,化神器,大闹皇宫,炸毁学院,打死院长,秒杀狗男女,震惊大陆。无止尽的契约能力,上古神兽,千年魔兽,纷纷前来抱大腿,惊傻世人。她说:在我眼里没有好坏之分,只有强弱之分,只要你能打败我,这世间所有都是你的,打不败我,就从这世间永远消失。她狂,她傲,她的目标只有一个,就是凌驾这世间一切之上。三国皇帝,魔界妖王,冥界之主,仙界至尊。到底谁才是陪着她走到最后的那个?他说:上天入地,我会陪着你,你活着,有我,你死,也一定有我。本文一对一,男强女强,强强联手,不喜勿入。
  • 狂主

    狂主

    浩瀚无际的苍穹,玄奥迷离的命运。下凡应劫的神将,谱写着一曲华丽的玄幻战歌。一腔热血挥洒天下,无上狂主叱咤乾坤!风云动乱,魔将临世,单薄肩膀扛起天地命运,奈何回头时,身旁红颜却已化为云烟。何处寻壮志天下?何时能傲视乾坤?何人能与我共舞风云,奏一曲宿命鸳鸯?随吾踏天行,风骚独领!......
  • 圣战辰光

    圣战辰光

    彩虹大陆上有七种肤色的人种,战辰光身为黄种人,他在不觉意间,使黄种人成为彩虹大陆最高贵的人种,带领战家成了彩虹大陆最顶尖的家族。他是彩虹大陆全人类公认唯一能配得上“圣”字的人,前无古人,后无来者,DIAO爆了,有木有?(新人新书,恳求各位读者大大加入书架,恳求推荐票。90度鞠躬感谢!)
  • 和外星人打游戏

    和外星人打游戏

    张小乐进入了一款游戏中,这款游戏中只有他一个地球人,其余的都是外星人。作为唯一的地球人,他当然要展现地球人的风采。他要做的最重要的三件事就是:虐他、虐她、虐他们。这游戏最大的好处就是可以让现实中的他获得能力。从此,在游戏中牛逼,在现实中装逼,成为了他的宗旨。
  • 悍后驾到:皇上请带娃!

    悍后驾到:皇上请带娃!

    本作品纯属虚构,请勿与现实相提并论!谢谢!