A Tardy Reprieve

nunrp xii 'lam ii viiuiik, I ;l. AVhile the noose was being adjusted McDonnelI trembled violently Beveral times and was as palé as a ghost, but he still kopt repeating liis prayers. Sharpe, on the contrary, was the picture of coolness, and manifested no more concern than if he was taking part in an ordinary every-day scène. All being in readiness.the Sheriff and assistant descended from tlie scaffold. The supports were withdrawn, and at 10:42 o'clock McDonnell and Sharpe were swinging in mid-air. Scarcely had the drop fallen when a most extraordinary scène took place. The bell at the prison door was rung.so violently as to cause the sound to reverberate throughout the building. The Sheriff was so annoyed that he sent a deputy outside with orders to arrest the person who committed the outrage. Scarcely had the deputy opened the door when Sharpe and McDonnell's brothers rushed in, one of them flourishing a dispatch, in the highest state of excitement. Hardly had they entered the corridor before they saw that the sentence of the law had been executed. Both rushed forward to the foot of the scaffold, when McDonnell's brother, an old, white-haired man, screamed at the top of his voice, "Oh, you murderers! Here you are all around them now. Pontius Pilate sentenced Jesus Christ and you have murdered my brother." The priests immediately rushed forward to quiet the men, but for a long time all their efforts were iinavailing. Being confronted by the Sheriff, they said the reprieve had been there before the rope was around their necks. "While the clergymen were trying to quiet the excited men the Sheriff obtained possession of the dispatch, and read that the men had been granted a reprieve by the Governor until Monday, Jan. 20. The brothers accused the Sheriff of desiring to hang them while anticipating a reprieve. The priests denied this statement, and said that the Sheriff had told them he was wüling to postpone the execution until 2 o'clock, if necessary, but they had told him to proceed when everything was prepared. The men were quieted, but not entirely satisfled. Another brother of McDonnelI, who knelt at the foot of the scaffold while the execution was in progress, also took part in the altercation, and for a time a most disgraceful scène ensued. Meanwhile Mrs. McDonnelI, who had been telegraphed for by the Sheriff, had reuched the jail too late to see her husband again in life, and, accompanied with her daughter and the friends of both men, was screaming at the top of her voice. The spectacle was one to -.i r vw j iii oi,viiatu nao une vu touch the heart of the most sordid, and the poor women received sympathy on all sidos. At length, after much difficulty, the policemen suceeeded in clearing the room of all except the officials and the friends of the dead men. The bodies, which had been forgotten by all exeept the physieians during the exciting iltercation, were cut down. Both men had died from strangulation. Though the statement of the priests partially acquits the Sheriff of undue haste in the execution, the fact has beer learned that Sheriff Kaudenbush telegraphed to Mrs. McDonnell last night to come to Mauch Chunk if she wanted to see her husband alive for the last time, and, well knowing that the train arrived at 10 :20 a. m., and that the poor woman could not have had time to reach the jail, which is a mile from the depot, he swwng her husband into eternity just as she reached the jail door panting for breath. This instance subjeets the Sheriff to much censure, and people of all nationalities are loud in their denunciations.