, 1872-12-14
LONDON.>
Brutality in the Aristocratic
Public Schools Of Eng
land,
The Dangers of Fire---A Pirat-
ical PubIsher---Walt
Whitman.

Whitman.
From Our O,cr Correspondent.
| LONDON, Nov Il, 1872
BRUTALITY N PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The great endowed public schools Of England
which still remain in the hands Of tho arietoc
racy, are behind the poorest Of the day-school
| 1none part Of their moral training. The oil
brutal spirit which led Dukes and Earls to pa.
men to main each other in their presence
tho spirit which caused Prime Minister!
to visit cock-fghts, and made bul
and boar-baiting the fayorite rura
sport, still rules at Eton, Harrow, Winchester
and one or two other educational foundations
Boys are still stripped and logged, and, what il
very much worse, arc, at some Of the schools
allowed, and even encouraged, to bully and beat
| each other A gross case has just come tt
| ight,-gross in itso1f, but by no means ezccp:
tlona1; and, while the better part OF society
cries shame against the authors. the schoo;
itself dofes public opinion, and is fu-
rions at the disapp1obat;on excited
At Winchester, as at some other schools,
the Projects, OF Monitors, have the power OF
thrashing boy, to IN extent limited only by
| their oWn bad temper, for the most tri7ing
offences against their rules or mistakes Of their
orders. 1t appears that there is at Winchester d
system Of slang, just as there is in tho thieves
! Kitchen Various objects have their slang
names, and every now md then the Monitors
" e1amine" the other boys in this rubbish. The
other day. one Of the bigger boys refused to be
anined, whereupon the Monitors held meeting,
| and decided that, by refusing to come, ho had
defed their authority, and must be thrashed, or,
| as it is called, "tunded." He appealed to tho
Head Master, who said be must submit, and he
! was funded" Now, q Projects "tunding" is
the most dreadful punishment imaginable, and
hurts far more than any masters fogging. The
instrument is 8 ground-ash stick-from the
seasoning it receives, tough as whalebone, and
from three to four feet long. Fifteen cuts from
such weapon will leave the shoulders-it is
given across the sloulder-b1adcs- sore
that the strongest boy will not be able
to bear the hand passed roughly over
the injured parts for at least week
after without ainching. Nov, this boy
received thirty cuts, five ground-ashes being
broken oFer his shoulders! a gentleman named
Maude, who YVES at the school i've years. wrote
to the Head Master on the subject. N1r. Maude
says: As his reply was private I cannot pub
lsh it. But this think 1 am liberty to state,
that he thought the punishment excessive, and
the Projects wrong in their decision. But what
Is done: Was the Prefect who gave such
him punished as they deserved? Not q bit OF it.
The Project WAS merely to apologize,-to say
he was sorry for an act which YVES au-
thorized by the rules OF tho school, which per-
cur again, unless this power is forever taken
from the hands Of boys, who are certain to
abuse it. I was at Winchester five years, and
remember Ecores OF these tundings,' though
none SO gross as this. I cannot call to mind
in excess Of the offence"
Forty juniors have been thrashed at Winches-
ter in one day by the master, and it is stated
that as many as hundred Ickings have been
Radical Whykshamist " asks Us to imagine the
@spanking" .A boy" be says, sswho has been cen
th1ashed moro or less since he Was TO- on attain
ing to the sl1th form, is promptly invested with
he: in nine cases out Of ten. be anything but
bully7 Ground down to the most degrading du-
ties since he was quite child, he finds, after
years Of seryituda, that he has almost unlimited
fail to take advantage of it. The whole syatem
is as obnoxious to society as it is unjust to the
boy" An inquirer" who announces himself
as Tory Of the deepest dye, describes his own
service under Monitor who. invented
pair Of thumbscrews and used his invention
freely on the fags. He had also weakness
for borrowing money from them, and reminding
him OF it led Indirectly to disagreeab1e conse-
quences. An Old WykehanIst" AYERS that he
has seen such wanton brutality aB would in after
Life consign the perpetrator to prison cell,
while many is the boy who leaves school blasted
in the eyes Of his fellows BY the utter inhuman-
lty OF his nature.
One correspondent says that one Of the Win
chester Projects Cor Monitors) owned to him
that the proceeding was mistake. Neverthe-
Less: Soon after this, my friend, the Prefect
retired to a fine old wood hard by, whence ne re-
turned with what took to be q bundle Of walk
ing-sticks. WAS mistaken. Instead Of walk
ing-sticks, they were what you call implements
Of torture, but, according to my friend, the Pre-
feet, 'only awfully jolly ground-a and with
these he returned to Winchester"
It cannot be too frequently said that the syg-
TEN brutalizes both those who inaict and those
upon whom it is inflicted. It inspires it's VIC
Tins, when their turn comes, With desire to
mako others smart for tho Injuries they received
when they we're unable to resist, and it teaches
those who administer punishment-at . time Of
acter formed-to take pleasure in innictiug pain.
and to become cruel and coward1y men.
THE DANGERS OF FIRE.
The great fire in Boston again leads to dis
don. Summarizing the opinions OF the best au-
thorties, may state that their observation aud
e2permantB show that. in Ill the great fires here.
the floors which proved themselves almost fire.
PROOF were Ihose constructed Of Light iron ioists
about two feet apart, flied in with plaster OF
Paris, or with ordinary brick or tile arches, With
the underaides plastered and the tops covered |
Nth cement or tile flooring these only failed !
BY the failure Of the unprotected iron supports |
beneath them. Generally it was evident that |
good plaster work, either in walls or ceilings in
yarlably, In great measure, WAS fre-proof; and
That stone and iron construction without such |
protection was not only useless, but much more
dangerous than good sound wood beams and |
posts, brickwork Of every description, and good |
wood hoors, well plugged and protected by plas-
erred ceilings. What is essentially desired ia. I
hat, in great store warehouses, tho space Of |
each section of the building should be divided |
~ good brick walls into as small divisions as |
possible, compatible with the absolute require !
.:ents Of the building, each shut off by double |
ron doors; that stono should be used in floors |
mo stalrcases nowhere except where solidly sup
ported at each end and protected by plaster
nat M IRON glrders should bo laid loose in the
Fans SO as to allow for expansion, aad that tnese
oge1her with all iron supports, should be en-
'ased aud protected with plaster.
P1RATE!-A PIRATE!
Every American author with fg-leaf of repu-
atlon at is prosecuted and heeced BY one London
publisher at least. He may escape the tender
nefcles Of - tho trade " as . body, but he must
j1--kt i. |