Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1854-03-17
[From the n Y. Sunday Times.
ScOlGlS.

ScOlds.
In England there was formerly punishment for
scolds and shrews, which consisted of ducking them
in the water The apparatus used was called the
cucking- stool ducking- stool, and formed by
chair stool being placed at the end of long pole.
In this the offending female was placed, and then i'm
merged in some river or pond. This punishment is
mentioned in the London Evening Post of April, 1745,
in tie following businesslike paragraph
Last week, woman that keeps the Queens Head
Alehouse, at Kingston, in Surrey ordered by the
Court to be ducked for scoldlng, and accordingly
placed in the chair and ducked in the river Thames,
under Kingstone bridge in the presence of two three
thousand people" When done under bridge, the
chair was generally hung by pulley fastened TO a
beam, and the woman thus let down in the water
1t customary to get up these chairs with taste,
and 10 ornament the backs Of them with drawings of
devils laying hold of scolds, &C. Various records of
women adjuged 10 this punishment are to be found
among the proceedings of the courts of England The
church wardens' accounts at Kngsone upon Thames,
for the year 1872, contain bill for the expenses of
making one of these cucking stools, which is Curl
osy in lis way. The cost was 23s, I'D. sterling.-
This punishment appears to have been ofremo.e origin
and known under the of tumbrel, tribrich,
trebuchet, and thew 1t does not to have been
confined to England, but practised in Scotland at
very early day. What effect had upon "the strong
minded women" of those times, can hardly now
determine, but it appears probable that it quite
etectual.. The following lines. said to have been
e,
England, contain The only poetcal description of the
cuckng- stool punishment ever encountered,
though Gay refers to it in one of his pastorals:
''There stands, my friend, in yonder pool
An engine called ducking stool,
! By legal power commanded down
The Joy and terror of the town.
fjarrng females kindle strife,
Give language foul, or lug the Golf
If noisy DANES should once begin
To drive the house with horrid din,
Away" you cry; you'll grace the stool!
Wen teach you how your tongue to rule"
The fair offender fills the seat,
In sullen pomp profoundly great
Down in the deep the stool descends-
But here, at first, we miss ends;
She mounts again, and RACES
Than vixen did before.
So, throwing water on the fire
Always makes 1T burn up higher,
second turn into the lake;
And rather than your patience lose,
Thrice and again repeat the dose.
No Drawing wives, no furious wenches,
No fire so hot, but water quenches
Besides this, there another punishment for
scolds, known by the name of " Branks'' which con
sisted ola head piece, enclosing the head ofhe offender
and of sharp iron that entered the mouth and re-
strained by means of paddock, and was literally
bride on the tongue. The women condemned to
this punishment were compelled 10 promenade through
the town, wearing the instrument, attended by an
officer and it was not taken off until they exhibited
signs OF humiliation and amendment.
Culture Potato
A hiend, says the Country Gentleman, sends the
owing, as WnaC he DeIleVeS TO be the best
yet known Tor avoiding the potato disease
|. Be content with medium crop, say loo to SO
bushels 20 the acre. selecting land but moderately rich
and using no stimulating manure. The land should
be ightsh loan, easily permeable by water; and
1t would be we'll If had been treated with stimu
liant, nitrogenO1s manure the preceding year
/ 2. Let the land be brought into fine tth bv means
OF the plow and harrow, to depth of five six inches
as early as may be in the spring. Furrow both ways
al distance of three feet, letting the pow incline tc
the moul-board side, SO TO give broad shallow
lurroW, Of about three inches deep.
g. As manure for acre, take 50 bushels of char
coal dust, or If this not at hand, SO bushels of dry
well burned peat, or if neither of these are convent
emily to be had, 50 bushels Of turf piled up the sum
mer previous and roted down 10 Il fine powder with
II little lime; add 10 bushels of unleached ashes
D bushels OF oyster shell llme common saked lime
OF leaclied ashes, whichever be obtained with the
least trouble; bushels of plaster bushel of bone
dust and bushe of common salt mix the whole
thoroughly together, and throw il into the crossings
little less than pint in each, in that careless sort
of way, which will cause ii to spread itself over AT
least II square foot.
u 4. For seed, select sound potatoes, of medium size
OF little less and plant hill, and never more
than one, ifil be small without cutting Plant
as early can be done with safely to the crop from
spring rostS Should The Neather be wet after plant.
ing shallow covering would be the best. it should
be dry, deep covering would be more favorable 1t
would be perhaps the safest, such manure as
have prescribed to the seed nearly three inches
deep, which would bring the top of the hill just abou
even with the average level of the field.
s. For the first hoeing, the harrow, or cutivator
might be run through both ways and the plants should
he Weeded but not hilled or at most but very little
Let the whole surface Of the fed be lett very nearly
level
&. For the second hoeng, which should be very
after the first before the tops begin leave
simi ar course might be followed except that broad
but rather low hills should be formed
An acre, so planted would have 1910 hills, which
would give at only quart 10 the hill, ISL bushels
worth, at so cents the bushel SIS so at 40 cents
500 40; at 80 cents, $40 80; at 90 cents, $50 90
in which last case, it would hardly be paying crop
but would give profit, less more, in each Of th'
other cases
Willis and the Boy.
Dull witted the peop of this region certainly
are not, If one may judge by their children A little
way back among the hills, had ridden up TO
very secluded farm house and, while my friend
making some inquiry, opened conversation with
puny looking chap, of eight or ten years of age
who sat astride log. disemboweng a gray squirrel