The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1877-08-18


Mr.. George W. Smalley,s last letter
from London to the New York zriDswc
is out Of the ordinary line, but none the
less Interesting 's1f gives the particu-
lars Of the suicide Of the twelve-year-
old boy, William Gibbes, for some time
an inmate of Christ's Hospital, sort
of charity Institution OF London. From
what is reported of the place it must be
another. Dotheboyb Hall and poor
Gihbes another I" Smike. . Such cruelty
as was practiced at this sacrilegiously
named hospital has certainly not been
eclipsed by any thing Charles Dickens
wrote The little lad who made away
with himself was undoubtedly driven to
commit the act by brutal treatment. He
was in good health, and is described as
of an open and kindly disposition, but
such was the atrocious usage to which
he was subjected that he ran away from
the school twice. For the first escape
he was severely fogged for the second
fight he,was to undergo the same kind
of penalty, when he disappointed his
prosecutors by hanging himself. This
sad event has called into print some
"reminiscences of Christ's Hospital
which sayor more of some barbaric age
than of the nineteenth century in
Christian England. Rev. A. w. Day,
writing to the London Times, lets the
public know what afiogging means at
Christ's Hospital. He says:
s.Two, men are required for the opera
ton. One takes hold of the boy, hoists
him on his back by the wrists and keeps
him suspended. The other strips off his
coat, and, armed with heavy rod, gives
Is cuts ON the boys bare back, and this
with might and main. This, however,
was mild hogging, for if the offense
was at all great the boy, after having 10
cuts on the back, received Is more in
place with o fresh rod; and that,
at least in my time, used to be the pun
ishment{for running away. l have seen
a large and powerful man, one of the
beadles, who must have weighed at least
Ii stone, split his own shirt-sleeve right
down with the violence he used in fog
cling poor little lad of Is years of age.
fortunately was never logged myself,
but as long as I live I shall not forget q
scene that 1 witnessed in the case Of an
other boy who had been fiogged.
He was q small and delicate lad,
by name Blount, and he slept in
bed next to me. A big boy had
Blount to bring him some
Jumps of sugar out of the monitors su-
gar-basin. The big boy ate the sugar
himself, and the small boy had none of
it, The facts of the case became known
TO the monitor, who reported it to the
who fiogged Blount as a thief,
and did not punish the big boy. That
night poor little Blount could not sleep,
and at last begged me to help him. L
accordingly took his shirt off, and found
his back, from the shoulder down to the
waist, one mass of lacerated flesh, the
blood sticking to the shirt so as to
cause agony in getting it off. 1 then,
with my finger and thumb, pulled out
Of his back at least a dozen pieces of
birch rod, which had penetrated deep
INTO the flesh. That boys back looked
more like piece of raw meat than any
Hing have seen the back of a sailor
litter three dozen with naval scat,' and
| solemnly declare that the injury done
% the sailors back would not compare
o, that done to the Bluecoat boy"