Word: scaffolding
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...ones: pimping, consorting with prostitutes, violating customs laws. But the sentences meted out to the 27 prisoners ranged from five to 15 lashes, plus prison terms at hard labor. In preparation for the whippings, an 18-ft. raised platform had been erected. On it was a large A-shaped scaffold, with straps for the prisoner's wrists attached near the top and thick padding along the crossbar to absorb the impact of the whips on their bodies. As viPs looked on, two muscular men pranced about, slashing Malacca canes through the air to limber up their muscles. They were...
...show began. Since he was over 45, he was, by law, exempt from whipping. Instead, his face was painted black-considered a great humiliation in Islam-and then he was led off to prison. Dressed only in white shorts, knotted in front, the next convict was fastened to the scaffold. He was the first prisoner's son. Both men had been found guilty of running a brothel. A heavy, padded belt was wrapped around his waist to protect his kidneys. An assistant painted a 2-in.-wide red stripe across the prisoner's buttocks to define the target...
...verged on Paris' Place de la Revolution (now the Place de la Concorde) to see the spectacle. After the blade fell, an executioner displayed the severed head of the King to the crowd. Shouts of "Vive la nation!" rang out. Louis' tricornered hat was auctioned from the scaffold and Ms hair and hair ribbon were also sold by the executioner's aide. Some people took home hand kerchiefs and scraps of paper dipped in the King's blood as souvenirs. Many danced around the guillotine, singing the Marseillaise...
Like a giant slice of orange rind, the scaffolding pulled away from the cement that had been laid the previous day, and hurtled to the ground. Said Katie Robinson, a worker's wife: "When the scaffold began to fall from one end, 12 or 15 men were trying to find a way off, and they walked back one way and then they turned around, and I thought they were going to try to jump. But then it all came down and the safety net wrapped around the men. I could see them all bundled up inside, and they fell...
...soldiers were shooting pigeons in Denshway, the ballad goes, when a stray bullet caused a wheat silo to catch fire. Farmers gathered and a British soldier fired at them and ran away; they ran after him and in the ensuing scuffle the British soldier died. Many people were arrested. Scaffolds were erected before sentences were passed; a number of farmers were whipped, others hanged. Zahran was the hero of the battle against the British and was the first to be hanged. The ballad dwells on Zahran's courage and doggedness in the battle, how he walked with head held high...