The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-06-25

We should be informed that in our
mother country it is the custom to
dog young ladies as . mode of punish
ment for ordinary ofenses, but the
information was assuredly sickoning,
and wrung At least one venerable heart.
1 recall, that one gentleman wrote to q
London paper that his ! daughters,
eleven to fifteen years of age, we're al.
ways whipped by their gevsrness, and
BY bis consent and approval; this de.
hghtful instructor and friend of youth
stripping tho wretched girls naked,
binding them down upon an ottoman,
aud then aogging them to taste with a
leather strap, and this at . penod when
every parent, certainly every woman OF
physiclan, should be aware of the risks
thus incurred at an age when every
instinct of tho cultured mother should
revolt against such treatment of tender
girls. Aside from the general shock to
Yankee notions Of propriety and tho
rights Of the rising generation, it is
difficult to conceive how a father can
look his daughters in the face after sub.
mittlng them to such iudiguity-at an
age when every element of social life
in our land tends to the ennobllug and
disnifying Of our young ladies'; when
indeed they are old enough to be val
ued As companions by their parents; or,
how = governess at home or a teacher
At school oan expect to retain for mo-
ment the respect and love (without
which the teachers best influence is
LOST Of her pupils after inaioting this
degrading penalty; or, finally, how
English men can tamely see young la.
dies aoggsd on their barred shoulders,
or otherwise. for o8enses presumably
often venial, when these same ladies
may be within a year thereafter NOV.
ing in society or perchauce married
(for even the Oldest girls are thus ig-
neminiously aogged at the caprice of
their teaohers.) I soy all this is diff.
cult to conceive, unless perhaps the Ia
dy writing in Scri6ner for April ex-
plains the matter in part when she says
that girls in England are cultured
almost exclusively by hirelings; eat,
walk, study and sleep out of the pres.
ence of their parents, and see but little
Of them until they are ready to enter
society; or unless it is to be esteemed
one OF the crudities Of English manners
akin to prize.6ghtiug, and not incom.
patible with that delicate progress in
humanity which prosecuted the Opium
war 10 China, or blew the Sepoys from
the cannon's mouth, within the lifetime
Of girls now suffering this brutal pun.
ishment in that refined England whose
Queen boasts that the Bible is the ba.
sis of her nations lite, and which could
not refrain from lending its countenance
to the slave drivers lash by aiding the
slaveholders' rebellion.
Some recent discussion of this cheer.
tul theme in q British professional
journal, not accessible to your readers,
led me to indite these sentences, es.
pecially as the droll turn the opinions
partly took suggests the possible desue.
tude Of the practice. The discussion
VA opened With perfect sang Jroid by
. "Couutry Phys,cian," who writes
from Dublin asking this large and in
auential weekly, "How shall young
ladies be aogged ?" and forthwith
states that he has ':lately been appoint
ed physician to q good ladies' school
in large country town." and that the
lady principal had asked his counsel as
to the least injurious mode Of punish.
ment for the pupils. He thinks 'noth-
ing would be IS little likely to injure
as the birch," but acknowledges that
he "did not like to recommend that for
young ladie'." However, he says that
he partly recommended leather strap
for the hands as preferable to tho ruler
OF cane, and then n.ively asking, ":Is
there any risk in aogsiug girl on her
shoulders p admits that "a scar there
would possibly prevent her appearing
in evening dress for years." but, he
reiterates, "Is there any risk of it,"
The amiable principal tells him that .
riding-whip applied to the gloved hands
is quite harmless, but 10, poor fellow,
feels shy Of it, aud seeks higher au.
thority.
One correspondent, the following
week, wins our esteem by showing, .s
an "Outraged British M.trou," how he
(the g. P.) "should bs aogged.'
She says, "My husband, one Of your
oldest subscribers, suggests 'wrtioation,'
or stingiog With nsttles, as likely to
wake him up to the enormity Of the
question he puts to you. OF the many
things 90 mildly suggested by 'Couu-
try Physician'-as the birch, leather
strap, ruler, cane, and lastly the horse
whip-1 should like to sec the latter
well laid about his back" And the
writer oommends as admirable the del.
icacy Of feeling that leads the principal
to whip on the gloved hands, but ad.
visss the doctor, with mild sarcasm,
to "oarefully attend to the thickness
and texture Of the gloves" and sug-