New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-10-20
rgF sc0T,D,s BRTDLE.
A Sight for Woman 20 see-A Relic of
UnmanIy Barbarisui.
lFrnm Az Louisrille Courier.J ournal. ]

| From the Louisville COuTierJournall
| To the museum department of the Public
| Library of Kentucky. there came yesterday
| an instrument of torture which reflects as
much disgrace on mankind as the rack, the
| wheel, or any of those terrible machines
which cruelty invented tor It's Flctlns; -
was Drank or scold's bride, of the kind
| used wears ago in England and Scotland Tor
| the punishment of females who were adj
| Judged to have made too free use OF the
tongue 1t was dug from the ground IN our
sister State of Tennessee, where, beneath
the walls Of an uninhabited building, it had
lain time out of mind. 1t bears the rust OF
wears, and no doubt came to this country
with the earliest settlers. Possibly some
lord of creation, who had a scolding wife in
the old world, brought with him to the new
his vixatrix and instrument of controlling
her.
It consists of an iron band to pass under
the chin and over the top part of the head,
with sharp, chiseI-shaped projection, ex-
tending two inches inwardly, to be inserted
into the mouth. 1t was held in its place by
another iron band extending round the
back part OF the head, and fastened with a
paddock When the instrument was first
put ON the scold her tongue had to recede
TO the back part OF her mouth, and there
remain quiet to be cut to pieces by the
sharp edge of the iron put there for that
purpose. To scold, or even talk in this hx
was impossible, and the woman thus bridled
had to keep silence.
When Blackstone wrote his Commentaries
it was the law of England that seolding
woman was nuisance, and she could be
indicted and punished by what was known
as the ducking-stool. This was kind OF
chair to which the scold was fastened, and
in which she was then plunged into the
water as often as it was thought her Ottenses
deserved.
Dr. PIatt, who wrote history of Stafford
shire, grew eloquent in his description OF
the Drank, and in giving it preference over
the duc1ing-stool. He said the dueking-
stool might give the woman cold and thus
iniure her health, and III addition thereto
she could use her tongue during the inter
walls between one ducking and another.
The Drank was open to none OF these Oh
iections, in the learned Doctors opinion,
but was Just the thing for the w6.,k to be
done,
In shape the Drank is not unlike the
bride or halter used for mules in this coun-
Try. The striking difference is in the Drank
being entirely of iron, while the bride of
the mule is OF leather except the bit. The
English or Scotch scold must have been a
terrible animal to have required q bride
entirely Of IRON when it is known here that
we can handle mules here with leather
halters.
We should like to have seen the English
man or Scotchman, or whoever he was,
that brought that instrument to our coun-
try. If he was married man, and this
machine was used for his wife, he must
have cut queer figure with his Hantippe
and her bride on board the vessel that bore
the precious pair to the New World. Il he
was an unmarried man, and brought over
the Drank with the expectation of its
necessity among American women, it is to
be hoped that he learned better @ef0re him
self and instrument went beneath the
ground
But there the instrument, the terrible
branb, is in the. MUSEUM of the Public Iii
brary, where all may see it who wish. The
strong minded women ought especially GO
to sec it, and thus arm themselves with
new argument against the trampled-dOwn
rights of women. Surely the man who in
vented such an instrument ought to have
been made to wear it the balance Of his
days, and it is strange to US, of this age and
country, how men could ever be demons
enough to torture women in this way, even
If those women had voIuble tongues. and
said thousand and one naughty things,
none Of which ought to have been said,