Word: headsman
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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...Sunday dinner. In the evenings when worked up he was fond of relating how the Turks decapitated condemned prisoners. Standing in the middle of the room with his bright eyes flashing fire he would make with his hands each of the peculiar motions after the manner of a Turkish headsman. When he went out he carried a stout cane like a club, in the end of which was a long sharp spike. This served him as a defensive weapon, for the old man was very much afraid of robbers. On the street he always wore the same...
...eyes were fixed on me, but in not one did I meet a glance of sympathy; their look was as that of a bloodthirsty beast gloating over its victim. I shuddered slightly, and turned my head away. Yet I felt strangely calm and composed. I looked at the headsman with a sort of curiosity and interest; he had not his mask on yet, but his face was as impassive and immovable as though that had been covering it. I marked the axe also. As he saw my glance, he, too, looked down upon it, and patted it with some such...