Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-12-12
HIGH-TONED VIRGINIA.
Nancy Lynch Takes Another FlOggihg at
the Stout Brown Post, which
is Seven Feet High.
Ner York Herald Richmond LslLer.

New York Herald Richmond Letter.
The bell rang, the outer door of the
city jail was opened, and at II o'clock
m. in filed sixteen prisoners, the quota
of the Police Court on Monday morn
ing. Among these were three colored
women, two of whom ran nimbly to
the steps leading to the range of cells
in which female prisoners are confined.
The third remained below in the yard,
with her arms akimbO, wistfully eye
ing a stout brown post about seven
feet in hight and three feet in circum-
ference. This woman was Nancy
Lynch, an old offender, and the object
of her scrutiny was the whipping post.
Nancy is a thorough specimen of the
most degraded type of the female ne
gro thief and vagrant. She is black,
medium sized, with the fat nose, thick
lips, kinky hair and semi-savage ex-
preston peculiar TO a class of her race.
She is an old Jail bird and was SEN
fenced to receive twenty-five lashes to-
day for stealing iron from the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Railroad Company.
II was not her first acquaintance with
the terrible whipping post, which,
however, she seemed to regard with
deadly enmity.
All of the prisoners had been
searched and locked up, and an official
in the yard her called to an attend
ant, Throw me down that ticker =
Whereupon a cowhide about half an
inch in diameter at the but and taper
ing down to a point was tossed into
his hand. Nancy looked at this in
strument of torture and a ~perceptible
shudder passed through her frame.
The official then said, Take down
your clothes, Nancy, and hug the
wilder" The poor criminal turned
an imploring look, and said, Must l
take all off"
Yes, and hurry up. You know
what you have to do
Nancy proceeded slowly to unbut-
ton her dress in front, and in a mo-
ment she was stripped to the waist,
her upper clothing falling down over
her hips and exposing to the gaze Of
the few bystanders a glossy black skin
from the shoulders to the waist. Her
back vas strongly marked with previ.
GUS stripes, and in a moment more she
had embraced the widder,' as the
whipping post is Familiarity called by
criminals. On the opposite side of tn,
post were iron bracelets, which ar,
used to fasten refractory prisoner
when they are whipped, but Nance
needed none of these appliances, sh,
held the post firmly, and in less thar
thirty seconds the punishment wa
inflicted.
She gripped the post, her hea,
turned toward the official, and, as h
raised the cowhide, seemed to merry.
herself for the lashes. As fast as
! could count the twenty-five stripe
were laid on, not heavily, but eacI
making a horrible white mark on tn
Z black skin. During the infection q
, the first dozen the victim did no
l bulge a hairs breadth, but as the re
mainder descended in rapid success
2 sion, she writhed and twisted in grea
agony, and, hardened criminal as sh
: was, began to cry, the. tears fairl
: pouring down her cheeks. When tn
whipping was over some one in tn
, crowd remarked TO her, " / hope thi
! is the last whipping you will get her,
. Nancy" Her reply hope It's
hope dey will send me to the pen'ter
: tiary FIR life when | leaves dis place
! -was not very ~consoling. She Wa
: this morning indicted for burglar.
: also, and will certainly serve the Stat
for q term of years in the ponitentiaI
at the expiration Of her present sci
! tence Of thirty days in Jail.