Ben Hecht

“ The creature who had spat at the cross on the scaffold, whose perfect tusks had grinned out of the gloom above our heads an hour ago? Laughing in Hell, if death makes men wise. For Hell is a place of wise laughter. ”

“ Now comes this wine and this music and this disturbance as of a great undying shout sweeping the bristling shafts of stone, and the mists vanish for a moment. In the blindness which falls upon them is an undertow tugging at their feet. ”

“ But as I watched the endless faces filled with half-startled and half-placid confusion, and as I noted what the poets call the gayety of spring in the hearts of men, there came to me out of the swarm and roar of the day the mockery which it is the duty of philosophers to hear. ”

“ In the gloom our faces floated like little pale discs above the benches. The ends of cigars and cigarettes made tiny red spots in the darkness and above our heads little grey and violet parasols of smoke opened and vanished. They were eager and efficient ropes and they had personality. ”

“ Righteous men we were with stern, cold faces come to transact with proper dignity certain grave business in the interest of the little greedy half-dead who even here shuffled through the streets with the lie of spring in their heels. ”

“ He was a man with gaunt features and the face of an unbarbered Cesar, lined like the wing of a bat. He had a lean and muscular neck and he walked high-shouldered like an Egyptian. To the drooping lines of his mouth and chin clung a dark, curling covering of hair like the beard on the paintings of the adolescent Christ. He walked with his jaw thrust forward, lean and hollow jaws like the jaws of a starving monk. His eyes, round and black, nestled deep in his head, black and burning like the eyes of a voodoo priest.
We watched this man and moved about on our benches. ”

“ At length achieving a comparative equanimity under our gaze, he thrust his hands behind him and stood stiffly facing the ropes. There was nothing left to think of about him other than that he was fat. The other man was a jail-guard.
Then we noticed simultaneously a little box-like shack which stood against the plaster wall at the rear of the gallows platform, It was just large enough to accommodate a man. We remarked in stern, sophisticated whispers to each other that the man who sprung the trap under the feet of the men about to hang was hidden in this enclosure. ”

“ Here he was walking up the slim wooden stairs that led to the gallows platform and here he was standing under the looped rope that dangled at his ear and beside another man who continued to moan, "My Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me. Forgive us all." But we did not look at this one. The platform was now crowded with men, but we did not look at them. They came forward with long black straps and proceeded to bind the man who was moaning. Then a priest came forward and stood beside the man who was moaning and rested an ivory crucifix upon his lips and opened a book under his rolling eyes. ”

“ Things which are sometimes seen in a fever assume the grotesque dimensions of these ropes.
People do not think in these places. They sit with their mouths somewhat parted and smoke cigars and nod politely to each other as they talk. They stare about them as do children in a strange house, noting this and observing that. Indeed, it was not till an hour later that I became a philosopher and found it necessary to adjust adjectives.
There were two men on the scaffold platform. Ore was a stout man with snow colored hair. ”

“ The timber of the gallows reached from the stone floor to the dark, forgotten ceiling. Fifteen feet above the floor was a platform. On this platform the men who were to be hanged were to stand until a part of its floor which was on hinges swung back and dropped them. Then they would be left dangling from the ropes. These ropes hung now from a cross beam fifteen feet above the floor of the platform. They were two bright yellow manila ropes. Each ended in a noose the size of a man's head. We on the benches stared with uncomfortable eyes at these ropes. ”

“ For a man had spat upon a crucifix and there was that in us which made us lower our heads and tremble and move uneasily. Other men stepped forward on the gallows platform and hung long white robes upon the two under the ropes. ”