5

THE EVENING NEWS

GOLD HILL. : : : FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 1877

LARKIN HANGED.

HE DIES WITH EXTRAORDIN-
ARY COURAGE.

Scenes at the Jail and at the Place
of Execution--The Last Night on
Earth--What the Condemned
Had to Say--The Crime for WHich
He Was Punished.

To-day Peter Larkin met his death onthe gallows in Virginia. The execution, the second that has taken place in Storey county, excited a great deal of interest, the efforts of the friends of the unfortunate man to secure a commutation of his sentence having attracted much public attention. At an early hour the crowds collected around the jail, on North C street, and on B street where the shed in which the hanging took place is situated. At the latter place at least two hundred men were congregated. The noble two hundred beguiled the time by snow-balling andthe shouts of laughter that went up would have led a stranger to think that a successful show was about to openits doors, rather than that a human being was to be strangled in cold blood. During the forenoon the office of the jail was filled with policement, Deputy Sheriffs and reporters. The condemned man devoted his few remaining hours to prayer. Father Manogue was with him in his cell, and Larkin fervently received his instructions. He declined to see either friends or reporters and gave his whole mind to preparing his soul for eternity.

LARKIN'S LAST NIGHT.

Late last night a NEWS reporter visited the unfortunate fellow, andhad a long conversation with him. Nobody who knew Larkin expected that he had the courage to meet death bravely. Duringthe 18 months in which he has been confined in the County Jail he has been almost childish in his lack of courage. He was constantly shedding tears and bemoaning his fate. During the past few days, however, he plucked up courage, and when he came out into the jail corridor last night to meet the reporter he was calm, and spoke without agitation of the dreadful death which he would be made to die on the morrow. He spoke with the confidence of the mercy of God, and evidently had full faith that when he left this world he would go to a better. In reference to the generalopinion that he had not the courage to meet his fate bravely, Larkin said to the reporter that people were mistaken in him. "Perhaps you don't believe it, sire," he said, striking his breast, "but there's as brave a heart here as beats in man. I'll die because I must, but I'll die as a man ought to die. Don't you think that I'll squeal. Them that think I do don't know me. God is my judge and he knows my heart. He is better than a thousand Boards of Pardons. He knows that I am innocent and he will forgive my sins."

During the evening quite a number of persons, several kind-hearted ladies among them, visited the condemned man. To all he declared his innocence andhis determination to die bravely.

THIS MORNING

Larkin passed a very quiet night. The prisoner, who occupied the cell with him, read aloud until midnight when he fell asleep. At 5 o'clock he awoke and asked his companion to read to him again from the religious books which the Sisters had furnished him. It being Friday, he rlefused to eat breakfast until he should see Father Manogue, and learn what would be proper for him to take. WHen the priest arrived he refreshed himself moderately, and refused to brace himself with liquor. He said that he wanted to die a sober man, and he kept his resolution. During the forenoon nobody but the priest was admitted to the cell. At a quarter to 12 o'clock a close carriage was driven up to the door of the jail, a squad of police opened a path through the crowd, and Larkin, accompanied by the priest, walked forth holding a crucifix in his hands, and shedding tears. The crowd by this time had greatly increased about the place of execution. Squads of the Emmet, National, Montgomery and Naitonal Guards had been previously ordered out, and they kept the crowd back on both B and A streets. Larkin alighted from the carriage and, holding the crucifix, walked with the priest to the shed in qhich the scaffold was erected. He limped painfully, probably from having so long had irons upon his ankles. He looked neither to the right nor left but limped through the snow to the building where he was to be killed.

ON THE SCAFFOLD.

Sheriff Kelly had the good judgment to issue no more passes than was necessary. About fifty persons, chiefly officialst of this and the surrounding counties, were present. The door, through which the snow drifted into the dismal place, wa left open. Larkin, holding the arm of Father Manogue, walked up the steps without any hesitation and sat down in a chair. WHen seated he removed his had and raised the crucifix to his lips repeatedly. On the scaffold were Sheriff Kelly, Deputy Sheriff Atkinson, Deputy SHeriff Kelly, Sheriff Swift of Ormsby, Sheriff Cook of Lyon, and Lee McGown. The latter gentleman considered it proper to smoke a cigar throughout the ghastly business. Deputy Sheriff Atkinson, at a signal from his superior walked forward, and after shaking hands with Larkin, began the reading of the death warrant. The document was a long one, and owing to the natural agitation of Mr. Atkinson, took a long time to read. Larkin, in the meantime, beckoned to Deputy Kelly and asked him to remove his boots--in accordance with the Western dislike of dying with those articles of apparel on. When the reading was finished, Larkin handed a paper to Mr. Atkinson to read. It expressed the thanks of the condemned to the various officers who had been kind to him, and to Father Manogue and the Sisters of Charity and also a number of private ladies who had visited him during his confinement. While not in so many words denying that he had murdered Corcoran, Larkin, by implication, declared his innocence. At the close of the warrant the words "May God have mercy on your soul" occurred. Larkin nodded his head and kissed the crucifix. All the preliminaries having been gone through with, the man arose and walking to Father Manogue knelt for a moment. Then rising he turned to the men in the shed, who had bared their heads, and said: "Well, gentlemen, I bed you all god-buy, hoping that we will all meet in a better world." A number of men below cried out, "Good-by, Pete," "Good-by, Larkin," "Stand it, old man." Deputy Sheriff Atkinson stepped forward and invited any friends of Larkin who were present to come up and shake him by the hand, as Larkin desired it. Some twenty men went up the gallows steps, and as he grasped them by the hand, Larkin called them by name and bade them farewell. The man never blanched, and actually smiled as he took the hands of his friends for the last time. WHen all who wished had given him a farewell grasp, Larkin took his place upon the trap, and, just a the rope was about to be put over his head, turned coolly to the Sheriff and his deputies and said: "Gentlemen, I hope you'll make a good job of it." Then the poor fellow reached over to Father Manogue and kissed him. He thus bade farewell to the clergyman, who had had the sense and feeling to perform all religious ceremonies before coming to the scaffold. Larkin, as the Sheriff placed the noose around his neck, cried out: "Good-by to you all, gentleman!" The work of strapping the man's arms and legs was going on meanwhile. It was done nervously, and consequently, slowly, but he never flinched. "Good-by," he called out as the Sheriff pulled the black cap over his head and a nod gave the signal to the officer whose hand was on the lever. In another instant Peter Larkin Corcoran, and at the end of the rope, with his boot. She did figure. For jump out of the window, but saw the flash from the window.

Some time before the trial Nellie Sayers w3ent, in a state of great excitement, to Robert Lindsay, who afterwards became District qattorney, and told him that she