We asked what was causing the excitement. One of
them replied: "Oh, nothing, only they are going to hang a man down
there in a few minutes."
This being the first opportunity I had ever had to see a man hung,
we stayed and saw it through. We rode up to the edge of the crowd,
which was about forty yards from the scaffold where the hanging
was to take place, and had been there but a few moments when we
saw the sheriff coming with the prisoner, having a very strong
guard of some two hundred men all well armed. As soon as the
prisoner stepped on to the platform some one handed him a chair to
sit down in.
The sheriff turned to the prisoner and said: "Mr. Gordon if you
have anything to say, now you have the opportunity. I will give
you all the time necessary to say what you wish."
The prisoner rose to his feet and brushed his hair back,
apparently cool, but the moment he commenced to talk I could see
the tears begin to trickle down his cheeks.
I thought it a most pitiful sight. He did not talk long, but
briefly thanked his friends for their kindness towards him during
his confinement, and said: "Gentlemen, I think you did very wrong
in holding out the idea to me that I would come clear, when you
knew very well that there was no show whatever for me," and took
his seat.
A gospel minister then stepped upon the platform and engaged in
prayer.
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