Latest / My Experiences as an Executioner / 11 - My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry

Transcript

11 - My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry · My Experiences as an Executioner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of My Experiences as an Executioner by James Berry.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Ashley Jane. Chapter ten on capital punishment. One of the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: questions which is most frequently put to me is whether
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I consider capital punishment is a right and proper thing.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: To this I can truly answer that I do. For
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: my own part, I attach much weight to the scripture
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: injunction whoso sheddeth man's blood by man, shall his blood
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: be shed. And I think that the abolition of capital
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: punishment would be in defiance of the divine command. Therefore,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I would not abolish capital punishment altogether, but as I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: shall explain later, I would greatly alter the conditions under
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: which it is imposed. Perhaps many of my readers will
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: say that the scriptural command should have no and others
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: will say it was a command given under the dispensation
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of law, while we live under the dispensation of grace. Therefore,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I would argue that, quite apart from any consideration of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: a religious nature, capital punishment is absolutely necessary for the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: checking of the greatest criminals in the discharge of my
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: duties as a policeman, both in the Nottingham, in the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Bradford and in the West Riding Police Force. I have
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: had many chances of studying the ways of life and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: thought of the criminal classes, and I have paid a
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: great deal of attention to the subject. As the result
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: of my experience, I can safely say that capital punishment
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and the cat are the only legal penalties that possess
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: any real terrors for the hardened criminal. For the man
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: who might be called a professional as distinguished from an
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: amateur ruffian, such a man and does what he can
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to keep out of prison because he dislikes restraint and
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: routine and sobriety. But this dislike is not strong enough
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to deter him from any crime which offers even a
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: chance of escaping scot free. And I do not think
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that the fear of imprisonment ever occurs to him when
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: he has once got criminal work actually in hand. Penal servitude,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: even for life, has no very acute, terrifying influence, partly
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: because no criminal ever believes that it will be a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: reality in his case, as he feels sure that he
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: will get a commutation of sentence, and partly because even
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: if he were sure that the imprisonment were actually for life,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: he knows that prison life is not such a dreadful
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: fate after all, when one gets used to it. But
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: when it comes to a question of a death sentence,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: it is quite another matter. Death is a horrible mystery,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and a death on the scaffold, a cold blooded, predetermined
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and ignominious death, is especially horrible to the criminal mind.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: As a rule, the most desperate criminals are those who
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: are most terrified by the thought of death at the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: hands of the executioner, possibly because the most desperate men
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: spring from the most superstitious class of the community and
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: have the greatest dread of that something after death which
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: they cannot define. The criminal classes do not neglect their newspapers,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: but keep themselves pretty well posted, either by reading or conversation,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: upon the subjects that are of most direct interest to them,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and follow all the details of the most important criminal trials.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: In this way, they always keep more or less before
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: them the thought of the nature of capital punishment. And
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I believe that it will be found that the number
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: of capital crimes in any given period is inversely proportionate
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: to the number of capital punishments in the immediately preceding.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Whenever there is a series of executions without reprieves, the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: number of murder decreases, and on the other hand, after
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a period in which several persons have been tried for
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: murder and acquitted or reprieved after sentence, the number of
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: crimes appear to increase. I do not think that this
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: rule can be demonstrated forcibly and convincingly by a reference
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: to the mere number of murders, convictions, reprieves, and executions
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: during the past few years, because there are many considerations
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: which bear upon the significance of an execution or reprieve.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: But I think that anyone who has given attention to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the subject will bear me out in my contention. Undoubtedly,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the fear of death is a great deterring power amongst
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: abandoned men, and the fear is most powerful when the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: death seems most certain and the hope of reprieve most remote.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: This consideration leads me to think that the deterrent value
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: of the death sentence would be greatly increased if it
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: could be made a asolutely irrevocable. Considering capital punishment as
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a moral power for frightening criminals still at large, I
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: think it would be much better if in all cases
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: where there is the slightest possible chance of reprieve the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: sentence was suspended for a time. I advocate that the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: sentence of death, once passed, should be a sentence which
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the doomed man, as well as his friends and sympathizers,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: who are all at liberty, should regard as quite irrevocable.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: At the same time, I do not advocate an increase
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in the number of executions, just that reverse as the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: best means to this end, I think we ought to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: have a considerable alteration in our criminal law as it
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: relates to murder cases. I think that the jewelry should
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: have more power over the sentence, and for this purpose
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I think that they ought to have the choice of
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: five classes of verdict, namely one not guilty, two not prove,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: three murder in the third degree, four murdering the second degree,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: five murder in the first degree. In the case of
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a verdict of not guilty, the prisoner would of course
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: be acquitted and would be a free man, as he
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: is with such a verdict at present. In the case
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: of the verdict of not proven, it should be within
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: it the power of the judge to remand the prisoner
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: pending the further investigation of any clues that might seem
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: likely to throw light upon the case, or to release him,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: either with or without bail or police supervision. A verdict
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of murdering third degree would be brought in in cases
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: where there was undoubted proof of the crime being committed
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: by the prisoner, but in which the circumstances were such
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: as to make it extremely unlikely that the prisoner would
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: ever again commit a violent crime. This would cover the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: cases of people who shoot their friends and then plead
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: that they did not think it was loaded, and would
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: be a much better verdict than the accidental death death,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: which is generally returned at present. When the jury find
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: this verdict of murdering the third degree, it should rest
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: with the judge to impose a term of imprisonment long
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: or short, according to the circumstances. Murder in the second
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: degree would embrace cases in which the murder was fully proved,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: but in which there was not premeditation or intent to murder.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Under this head would come a number of deaths resulting
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: from rows, brawls, and assaults without intent to kill. The
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: judge would have the power to pass a sentence of
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: death or of penal servitude for life. Murder in the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: first degree in which both intent and result had been
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: murder would be a verdict, leaving the judge no option
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: but to impose the death penalty. Another question which ought
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: to be considered in this connection is the question of appeals.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: At present, appeals are made to the Home Secretary. He
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: is really assisted by a number of other gentlemen who
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: examined most thoroughly into the original evidence and any additional
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: evidence that may have turned up. But this is a tribunal,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: not legally appointed, and the public notion is that in
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: cases of appeal, the reversal of the sentence lies in
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the hands of one man. I do not think that
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: even the most abandoned wretches would impute any unfairness to
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the English Home Secretary. But I know that in many
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: quarters there is an idea that the Home Secretary is
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: a very kind gentleman who will let him off if
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: he possibly can, and such an idea seems to be
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a very mischievous one. A court of appeal would appear
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: less personal and would be far less likely to be
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: suspected of leniency if it consisted of three judges, one
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of whom should be the judge who had originally tried
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the case. To such a bench of judges, I would
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: allow appeals to be made and would give them power
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to reopen cases, refer them back to the jewries, or
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: to modify sentences, but not to reverse the jrawer's verdict.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: This would mean that in the case of a verdict
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of murder in the first degree, the only way in
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: which the execution could be prevented would be by referring
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the case back to the jury, and this should only
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: be done on the production of new evidence pointing to
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a miscarriage of justice. In the extreme case of evidence
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: turning up at the last moment, the Home Secretary should
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: have power to grant a stay of execution for such
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a length of time as would allow the bench of
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: judges to reopen the case. The drawing up and presentation
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: of petitions by people who are in no way connected
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: with the case would to a great extent be done
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: away with under such a system as I have outlined.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: But in order to provide for cases where the system
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: might not have this effect, I would make it a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: punishable offense to attempt to influence the decision of the
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: judges or jurrymen by an appeal to any consideration other
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: than the evidence. This advice I give because in so many,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: nay in most cases, the appeals contained in petitions are
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: based upon considerations other than the justice of the case,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: if the condemned person is an interesting character, or if
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: there is any sort of excuse upon which an appeal
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: can be based. There are always a great number of
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: people who have no special knowledge of the case, and
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: who perhaps have not even read the newspaper reports, who
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: are ready to get up petitions, collect signatures, and stir
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: up a lot of sympathy for one who too often
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: deserves nothing but execration and contempt. Such agitations lead to
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: much misrepresentation of facts, and often to sweeping condemnations of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the judge and jury. They tend to infuse in the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: minds of young people, especially and incorrect notion that the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: administration of the law is uncertain and ineffectual, even if
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: it is not unjust and corrupt. The mere fact of
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the extent to which the consideration of loathsome crime and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: their punishment is brought under the notice of children by
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: this system of petitions is in my mind sufficient argument
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: for its complete suppression. One case, I might instance, in
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: which the master of two public schools led the whole
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of the children under their charge through an ante room
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: in which a petition was lying, and made them all
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: sign it in turn. This kind of thing occurs whenever
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a petition praying for a sentence of death to be
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: reversed or commuted is in the course of signature, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: surely such a thing should not be possible. In many cases,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the people who draw up these petitions are people who
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: object on principle to all capital punishment, but unfortunately the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: principle is entirely lost to site when dealing with individual cases.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: The fact of big petitions being represented in one case
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: while no effort is made in another case with similar
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: features naturally leads uneducated people to think that there is
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: uncertainty and injustice about the whole affair. There is still
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: one other respect in which I think our law with
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: reference to murder and the death penalty ought to be altered,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and that is with regard to the length of time
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: allowed to elapse between sentence and execution. In the interests
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of all concerned, I would reduce the time from three
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: clear weeks at present to one week only. No doubt
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: many readers will cry out against this as an unnecessary
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: cruelty to all the condemned. But I say that I
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: would do it in the interests of all, after full
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: consideration and an unusually full knowledge of the ideas of
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the condemned. Upon the subject, it is not a shorter
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: time that would be a cruelty. The present long time
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: is where the real cruelty comes. In so far as
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I know, the three weeks grace given to the condemned
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: man is intended as a time for repentance and for
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: attending to the affairs of the soul. Therefore, the question
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: of allowing a long or short time is to a
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: great extent a religious one, and dangerous for me to tackle.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: So I will confine my remarks as far as possible
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to matters of fact and mere common sense considerations. If
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the only purpose of the time allowed between sentence and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: execution is to admit of conversion and a preparation for heaven,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: it is fair to ask of anyone who wishes to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: continue the present system whether it serves a purpose. If not,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: there would seem to be no valid argument in favor
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: of its continuance. Personally, I am convinced by long experience
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: that the hope of regeneration during these three weeks in
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the case of murderer is absolutely vain. There are many
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: instances in which the criminal becomes penitent, as it is
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: sometimes termed, and these penitence may divided into two cases. Firstly,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: there is the class of those who have committed murder
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: without intent or premeditation, in a fit of frenzy, or
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: under peculiar sis circumstances, they have killed a human being.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: It may be a half starved mother who has killed
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the baby she could not feed, or a man who,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: in a whirlwind of temper, has killed the unfaithful and
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: miserable wife, whose conduct has made his life a hell
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: upon earth for years. It may be many other similar cases, which,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: under the scheme of five possible verdicts propounded above, would
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: be returned as murder in the second or third degree.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Under such a law, the extreme penalty would not be imposed.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: But while we are under our present law, and supposing
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: that these persons are condemned without chance of reprieve, we
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: may fairly ask whether the three weeks grace is an
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: advantage to them. Such criminals are truly repentant or rather remorseful.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: As a rule, the enormity of the crime bursts upon
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: them in the first calm moment after its commission. They
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: recoil in horror from the deed they have done, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: would gladly sacrifice anything, either even life itself, to undo
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: that deed. Again, there is true repenitence, which I take
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: it is the key to forgiveness. Even before their apprehension
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and condemnation. Everything that can be done on earth by
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: or four such poor souls can be done in a week,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and they would not ask for more. Their repentance is sincere.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Their horror of their crime is greater than their dread
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: of death, which they welcome as a means of expiation.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Is any good purpose served by keeping such people for
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: three weeks in agony? The second class of penitence consists
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: of a horrible section of humanity, the cowardly desperadoes. These
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: are usually men whose crimes have shown a refinement of
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: cruelty and callousness that is positively revolting. They are the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: hardened or professional criminals, whose hearts are devoid of pity
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: or remorse, and equally devoid of the least spark of courage.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: They are the miserable men whose lives have been spent
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: in defying and blaspheming God, but who, when they see
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: death before them, whine and howl and beg for the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: intercession of the Chaplain or any other godly person they
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: may meet with, not because they repent of their sins,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: but because they are frightened almost to death by the
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: thought of a fiery hell which has been painted before
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: their imaginations in glowing colors. To such men as these,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that the shortening of the waiting time would
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: be the greatest possible mercy, for the longer time only
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: gives them opportunity to work themselves into an almost demented state.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: At the end of three weeks, they are often so
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: broken down and hysterical as to be incapable of correctly
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: understanding anything, and their only remaining feeling is a wild,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: frantic dread of the scaffold. Besides the two classes of penitence,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: there only remains the class who are not penitent at all.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: They are mostly men who have been long equake with crime,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: who have made it the business of their lives. They
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: look upon the law and its office as much as
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: a businessman looks upon a clever and unscrupulous competitor, and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: upon a sentence of death as one of the business risks,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: life ends for them not at the scaffold, but in
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the dock when sentence is pronounced. From that time they
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: sink into a state of sullen indifference, or take up
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: any occupation that may offer merely to kill time. In
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: some cases they take the Bible reading in prayers because
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: they think it can't do any harm and may do
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a bit of good, and because they have nothing else
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: to do. No one can say that such men are penitent,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: since on release they would return to their vicious ways.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: They would not be likely to reach any better state
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: if they were allowed to live three months instead of
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: three weeks. For the only regret that they can be
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: brought to feel is personal and purely selfish. It is
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: founded on fear of hell, and it is not a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: contrician for having admitted the crime, but a regret that
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the crime carries with it a punishment in the next world.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Convicts of this class, when they have no hope of reprieve,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: do not thank us for the three weeks of life
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: that are given to them. If they could have their
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: own choice, they would prefer to walk straight from the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: doctor the scaffold and to get it over at once.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: In every case, if the matter is thoroughly inquired into
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: on lines of common sense instead of mere sentiment, I
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: think the conclusion will be that the three weeks allowed
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: are no advantage whatever to the convicts. In most cases
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: their position would be decidedly improved by reducing the time.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: There are other distinct advantages to be gained by reducing
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the interval. In the first place, it would greatly improve
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the moral effect of the death sentence. Retribution following directly
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: after conviction is a distinct object lesson, and the shorter
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the time between. The more obvious is the connection between
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the crime and the punishment. When even three weeks elapsed,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the connection is often lost. In the second place, the
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: alteration I advocate would greatly prevent the stirring up a
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: full sentiment in favor of convicts who happen to have
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: an interesting personality. It would put a stop to the
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: petition signing, which is often indulged in by people who
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: know nothing of the case, but who are worked upon
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: to express sympathy with the convict and want faith in
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the justice of our system of trial. If only a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: we collapse between sentence and execution, the facts of the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: trial and details of their evidence would remain fresher in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the public mind, and people will be less liable to
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: be led to mistrust the justice of the sentence. To
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: all the people who have charge of the convicts before execution,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: a shortening of the time would be a great blessing,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: for such a charge is often a sole harrowing experience.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: The chaplains, especially whose experiences are often most unpleasant, and
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: whose earnest efforts meet with such disappointing return, would I
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: think welcome the change. End of Chapter ten. Recording by
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Ashley Jane