Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-02-25

complacent unctuous faces, smiling yet reso-
lutte. And one, with his unoccupied hand,
laid hold Of the handle Of the basket, while
the other detained the pail. 'You will tell
Us where is your husband. said they.
%, dear ne, don't know Tm poor
lone woman, and here nay husband is l can't
consaive, Pm sure
You will tell US where is your husband
repeated the men; and one Of them, getting
upon his feet, stood before her at the door.
He's on the mountain some whares. I don't
know whar, and | don't keer, cried the wild
ow, excited. There was something in the
stolid, determined looks of the brothers she
did not like. He's bad man, Mr.. Stack
ridge is. I'm Ia secessionist myself You are
welcome to everything in the house-only
let me 20 now
GU will not 60, said the soldier at the
door, till you tell Us. We come for dat
On entering, they had placed their muskets
in the corner. The speaker took them, and
handed one to his comrade. And now the
widow observed that out of the muzzle of
each prOtruded the butt-end of small cow
hide. Each soldier held his gun at his side,
and laying hold of the said butt-end drew out
the long taper belly and dangling lash Of the
whip, like a black snake by the neck.
The widow screamed It's all mistake.
Let me CO. l amt Mis- Stackridger
Nothing SO natural as that the wife of the
notorious Unionist should deny her identity
at sight of the whips. The soldiers looked at
each other, muttered something in Ger
man, smiled, and replaced their muskets in
the corner.
You tell US where is your husband, or else
we whip you. Dat is our orders This they
said in low tones, with mild looks and with a
calmness which was frightful. The widow
saw that she had to do with men who obeyed
orders literally, and knew no mercy.
i hain't got no husband. I amt Mis-
Stackridge. Pm poor lone wilder, tina
jest come over here to borry a few things, and
that's all
We unterstan. You say shust now you are
Mrs. Stackridge. Now you say not. Dat
make no ditruns. We know. You tell US
where is your husband, or We string you up
This speech was pronounced by both the for
eigners, a sentence by each alternately. At
the conclusion one drew strong cord from
his pocket, while the other looked with salts
faction at certain hooks in the plasterng
overhead, designed originally for the support
of kitchen pole, but now destined for an
other use.
Don't you dast to tech met screamed the
false Mrs. Stackridge. Pm a secessionist
myself, that hates the Union-shriekers wus'n
you do, and I've got son that's a capting,
and poor lone wilder at that p
Dat we don't know. What we know is,
you tell what we say, or we whip you. OATS
Captain Shprowls orders
Captain Sprowl That's my son! my own
son! If he sent you, then it's all rightn
SO we tink. All right And the sol
diers, Selling her, tied her thumbs as Lysan-
der had taught them, passed the cords over
the hook as they had passed the clothes-line
over the cross-beam the night before and
drew the shrielling woman's hands above her
head, precisely as they had hauled up Toby's.
They then turned her skirts up over her head,
and fastened them. This also they had been
instructed to do by Lysander. 1t was, you
will say, shameful for this woman was free
and white. Had she been slave, with a
different complexion, although perhaps quite
as white, would it have been any the less
shameful? Answer We believers in the d-
vine rights of slave-mast RS!
Now you will tell 2 said the phlegmatic
Teutons measuring out their whips.
Go for my son Ny son is Capting
Sprowln gasped the stifed and terror-strick-
en- widow.
Dat trick Won't do. You shpeak, or we
shtrike.'
1t is true it is true am Mrs. Sprowl,
and my husband is dead and my son is Cap
ting Sprowl and a poor lone wilder, that if
you strike her a single blow he'll have you
took and hung
IF he is your son, den by your own sons
orders we whip you. He will not hang us for
dat. You viii not tell? Den we give you
ten LASH
Blow upon blow, shrek upon shrek, fol-
lowed. The soldiers counted the strokes
aloud, deliberately, conscientiously, as they
gave them, Yum, two, tree &C., up to ten
There they stopped. But the screams did not
stop. This punishment which it was sport to
infict upon a faithful old negro, which it
would have been such a good joke to have
bestowed upon the wife of a staunch Union
ist was no sport, no joke, but altogether a
tragic affair to thy mother, o, Lysander
Then she, who had so often wished that she
too owned slaves, that when she was angry
she might have them strung up and fogged,
knew by fearful experience what it was to be
strung up and fogged. Then she, who SYM
pathized with her son ii his desire to see ev,
cry man, woman and child, thatloved the old
Union, served in this fashion, felt in her own
writhing and bleeding flesh the stings of that
inhuman vengeance. Terrible blunder, for
which she had only herself to thank Rob
berry of her neighbours house-the dishonest
Borrowing not of these ill-gotten goods
only, but also of her neighbours name-had
brought her, by what we call fatality, to this
strait Fatality is but another name for Prov
idence.
The soldiers waited for lulI in the shrieks
then put once more the question:
You tell now? Where is your husband?
MOI Den you git ten lash more Always
ten lash till you tell
A storm Of incoherent denial, angry threats
sobs, and screams, was the response. One of
the soldiers drew her skirts over her head
again. and gave another pull at the cords
that hauled up her thumbs, while the other
stood off and measured out his whip Just
then the door opened, and Captain Sprowl
looked in.
How are you getting on, boys?' The
question was accompanied by an approving
smile, which seemed to say, i see you are
getting Oh very we'll
We whip her once We give her ten lash
She not tell
Very well. Give her ten more
The widow struggled and screamed Had
she recognized her sons voice? Muf1ed as
she was, he did not recognize hers. Nor was
1t surprising that, in the unusual posture in
which he found her, he did not know her from
Mrs. Stackridge. He stood in the door and
smiled while the soldier laid on.
Make it Dozen he quietly remarked
And smart ones to wind upr So it happen
ed that, thanks to her sons presence, the
sereechinS victim got two smart ones addi-
tional.
Now uncover her face Ease away on her
thumbs little. I'll question her mys-Good
Luciter exclaimed the captain, finding him
-o1F e, L.
Twenty-Five lashes and the torture of the