Litchfield enquirer., 1872-12-19
AnsaRlsla la Enollsll s0aools

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 LONDON. Nov. 16.-FOr hy no means the first time, the question of faaRing and d0gging at public schools comes before tho English public. Ianppose most read ing Americans know s0mefhing, in gem eral way, ahonx the fa9e einR oaak0u Tom Brown" told us part of the story, and . very bad and brutal thing we all thought 1t. But who knew the truth about flog- ging, or, now hearing, can quite believe what he hears? Yet it is certain that nei- ther formerly nor now has the whole truth been told. For some days the English papers bave been publishing columns of letters and comments, called out by pe- cularly savage case of fogging at Win chester, school which, in this particu- lar, has always had a bad eminence, and has seemed rather proud of it. The first of these appeared last week in The Daily Telegraph. What was related in that and subsequent letters is in itself so incredi- bie as we'll as barbarous that will not ask anybody to take my summary of the mar atives, but am going to quote the es- .sentlal parts of the letters themselves. Many of them are signed with the writer's name; all of them must have been authen- ticated before publication by giving the writer's name privately. Here is the first:
 About month ago, boy in the sem for division of 9th book, almost himself Q prefect, and really free from fagging. or, as it IS termed, sweating" was required by the senior commOner prsefect to un- der or an examination in the slang of the school. such examinations being custema> ry, though, of course, of no practical utility and mere boyish, childish idea.
 He considered himself by his position exempt from this, but, for greater certain ly, appealed to the head master. The head master decided against him. as he considered it not 8 case of being fagged, but matter of school discipline He know that nogg1ng would follow his de- elslon, but. instead of deciding the quest ton himseH-that is, whether the boy should be logged and made to undergo the examination 1t was Q matter of such importants O he called meeting of scnool prefects, and finally gave the judgement in their favor.
 The boy was ordered to be licked, The pr@fect gave him thirty blows, and broke nVe tough ground-ashes across his should CTS. Then there was a reaction. The head master blamed the severity of the punishment, but at the same time left the same power in the pr@fect's hands.
 As this is the Heading case" I give also further statement of it by MT, R. Mande, who writes to The Times of Wednesday as follows:
 A Pr@fect's funding" is the most dreadful punishment imaginable. and hurts far more than any masters hogging. The instrument is a ground ash stick from the seasoning it receives, tough as whalebone, and from three to four feet lone. Fifteen cuts from such q weapon will leave the the shoulders-it is given across the shoulder blades-so sore that that the strongest boy will not be able to bear the hand passed roughly over the injured parts for at least week after without finching. Now this boy whom I am writing to you about received 30 cuts. What state he must have been in I shud- der to think of, and should think that four ground-as must have been bro- ken across his shoulders. if not more.
 That was three days ago. Something like dozen columns of letters have since been published in The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Daily News, but no attempt whatever has been made to deny the substantial accuracy of MT. Mande's account. He himself wrote to the Head Master, and 1t appears that the Head Master privately disapproved the exces- s1ve severity of the punishment itself and the system which makes it possible. and which leaves the amount of punishment at the discretion of any young savage of IT who is among the seniors-or, as the phrase is, ''pr@fects" "-of the school. Of comments and extenuations, and even excuses and defenses of this act, there have been more than enough; old mem- bers of the school coming onward to tes- tlfy how often they in their time had been logged, and how well they deserved it, and even rather liked it; or have been, at any rate, much better for it ever since. Most melancholy of all is letter from the boy himself who had to endure the hogging. and who writes that he was able to play football two days after; alleging, also, his own conviction, and that of every one else ln the school, that there was no tyranny or brutality in the matter, and that he considers that the boy who logged him deserves respect; he and his motives. It is charitable to suppose, though the vic tim takes pains to deny it, that this letter was written under compulsion. If not, it IS simply the dearest proof to what level ot moral as we'll as physical degredation boy can be reduced by fogging.
 But this was an exceptional case, cry out the scores of old Wykehamists, as Winchester pupils love, In memory of William of Wyksham, founder of the school, to call themselves. It was proba- ply exceptional in it's severity, but in no other respect, whether in former times or at present. as there are scores of other letters to prove, from which I can select only few. In reply to ''An Old Wyke- hamist, who had interposed some de- fense. an Colder Wykehamist" writes:
 I now assert. fearless of contradiction, that the power of funding" is tor was when I left, about four and a half years ago, and have heard of no alteration for the better since) in reality only Limited by their own bad tempers or caprices." that the right of appealing to the Head Master may be set down as niI, as where is the use of appealing after a severe snrasnIng, as am convinced that few boys would dare to provoke the spite of the Pr@fects or the ieers of their school fellows in case of an adverse decision. by appealing to the Head Master beforehand. and as regards the reluctance and the rarity with which they were in my time. and have been since inflicted, need only tell the readers of these lines that only about three years ago a case occurred, nj which one of these tyrannical Prsefects regaled his appetite by ''tunding" be- tween 30 and 40 juniors at one time for some trivial ofense, and the idea of the rarity of them will be at once dispelled when affirm that I am within bounds when say that over 1f() sstundinOs'' &oI1 to my lot for trivial offenses during seven and half years that spent at that col. lege, although E must say that the maxi mum of cuts wks 16 and the minimum four. You will thus see that write feel ingly on the subject.
 This 'Old Wykehamist, 1" one of the es unwittingly some of the strongest testi. mony against the school, admitting that he had sometimes known IA cuts adminis- tered, and smaller number frequently. Another letter to The Daily Telegraph a0ve.