«Jerry Stokes»

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From the Strand magazine, (1891-mar)

Jerry Stokes

by Grant Allen (1848 - 1899)

JERRY STOKES was a member of Her Majesty's civil service. To put it more plainly,
he was the provincial hangman. Not a man in all Canada, he used to boast with
pardonable professional pride, had turned off as many famous murderers as he had.
He was a pillar of the constitution, was Jerry Stokes. He represented the
Executive. And he wasn't ashamed of his office, either. Quite on the contrary,
zeal for his vocation shone visible in his face. He called it a useful, a
respectable, and a necessary calling. If it were not for him and his utensils,
he loved to say to the gaping crowd that stood him treat in the saloons, no man's
life would be safe for a day in the province. He was a practical philanthropist
in his way, a public benefactor. It is not good that foul crime should stalk
unpunished through the land; and he, Jerry Stokes, was there to prevent it. He
was the chosen instrument for its salutary repression:

Executions performed with punctuality and despatch; for terms, apply to Jeremiah
Stokes, Port Hope, Ontario.

Not that philanthropy was the most salient characteristic in Jerry's outer man.
He was a short and thickset person, very burly and dogged looking; he had a
massive, square head, and a powerful jaw, and a coarse bull neck, and a pair of
stout arms, acquired in the lumber trade, but forcibly suggestive of a prize-fighter's
occupation. Except on the subject of the Executive, he was a taciturn soul; he
had nothing to say, and he said it briefly. Silence, stolidity, and a marked
capacity for the absorption of liquids without detriment to his center of
gravity, physical or mental, were the leading traits in Mr. Stokes' character.
Those who knew him well, however, affirmed that Jerry was "a straight man"; and
though the security was perhaps a trifle doubtful, "a straight man nevertheless
he was generally considered by all who had the misfortune to require his
services.

It was a principle with Jerry never to attend a trial for murder. This showed
his natural delicacy of feeling. Etiquette, I believe, forbids an undertaker to
make kind inquiries at the door of a dying person. It is feared the object of
his visits might be misunderstood; he might be considered to act from interested
motives. A similar and equally creditable scruple restrained Jerry Stokes from
putting in an appearance at a court of justice when a capital charge was under
investigation. People might think, he said, he was on the lookout for a job. Nay,
more; his presence might even interfere with the administration of justice; for
if the jury had happened to spot him in the body of the hall, it would naturally
prejudice them in the prisoner's favor. To prevent such a misfortune — which
would of course, incidentally, be bad for trade — Mr.