When a crowd assembled to witness a public event, they were out in a holiday mood. Hundreds of people came from long distances to view a hanging, concessionaires had money invested in trinkets and food to be sold at what they called jamborees. Public hanging were often imitated in plays, which were seen as despicable form of entertainment towards the victim and the accuses family. The scenes attending the hangings were for large gatherings from far and near, mostly bent on idle curiosity or for a grand jollification. " Hanging day" were during the eighteenth and up to half of the nineteenth century, the equivalent of national bank holidays, only more frequent. No single event brought more spectators in those years than a public hanging. People would drive from miles around and some individual would camp in the vicinity for several days before the event. The individuals who made a great profit during this period were the vendors, pick-pockets, promoters, peddlers and medicine men, all would descend upon the town before the fatal day. Bringing along toy-like gallows, with a miniature person to hang at the same moment as the real individual was being executed. Other noticeable sight-seers were religious groups such as the evangelists, the accused family and friends. In most the towns in the USA the mayor issued proclamations of warnings, making saloons and taverns closed for a short period of time before and during the hanging. But despite such precautions, brawls and arguments took place, which led to murders being committed and those individuals later being hanged. " In 1807 the crowd of forty thousands became so crazed and outraged at the execution of Holloway and Haggarthy" , it nearly left a hundred dead, dying or lying in the street when the show was over. Towards the end of the 19th century a growing public feeling was in favor of privatizing the hangings. " On February 16 1841, the first motion to abolish public hangings was introduced into parliament" , and it was greeted with laughter from the public.
