St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-11-04
Whipping i'm the Old-Time
school.

n DbDllC CO y was a.
very different affair from what it is
nowadays. Upon my word, when |
think of the whipping that went on
day after day in the old Mayhem school
| am astOnished at it. Yet, with the
variety of corporal punishment SO free
ly bestowed, there was mingled sort
of CHASTITY sportive element, grim hu
NOR which did not always commend
itself to the perception of him who re-
ceived the fiagellation. A merry con
ceit, for instance, was that of Master
Clough.
That ingenious person would direct
a culprit to stand upon the platform
near the desk, and, without bending
the knees, touch the floor with his
fingers. Then smart flourish with
the rattan and sudden blow caused
the unhappy youth to OinvOluntarily re-
sumo an upright position with divert
ing rapidity. 1t was really very anus
ing Ito Master Clough). Sometimes
an offender would be asked by one of
the masters which instrument of tor
ture he would choose, the riding whip,
the ruler or the rattan. Whichever he
seemed to prefer was not the one used,
but one of the others would make him
smart. This little change would have
healthful moral influence upon the
scholar, teaching patience and resigna-
ton under disappointment. A pleas
ant illustration Ito the teacher) of the
irony of fate was shown in another
way. When the stock of rattans ran
| low land that was not seldOm) some
victim in disgrace would he dispatched
for fresh supply, knowing that on his
return he would feel the first stroke OF
the rod. With what ingenious refine
ment of torture the victim was thus
made to find the weapon that should
wound him !
There was another clever diversion
of our kind-hearted masters which, il
summer when the days were long, Oc-
casionally broke the mOnOtOny OF
school-boy life. Sometimes, of a sui
try July afternoon, a tired scholar
overcome by the heat would find tho
sound of voices in the room grow faint
er and fainter, his head would drooL
and finally sink upon his desk, and he
would quickly be in the pleasant land
of dreams, Then it was that the mas
ter, seizing his rattan and stealthily yet
jOyfully striding across the rows O
desks, would give the sleeping wretch
such a rousing whack as to astOnisl
and cOnfound as well as suddenly
awake him.
confess that these diversions of the
pedagogue were not without their at
traction for us who looked on and saw
the comical cOntOrtiOns of the boy
whose fortune it was at the moment t.
be under discipline. The fact that oul
turn might come next did not preven
us from finding what entertainment W.
might in what our master evidentl,
enioyed. None of us had yet read th'
maxims of the cynical La ROchefOu
cauld, but we realized that under Ger
tain circumstances there is something
in the misfOrtunes of our friends tina
) gives us a certain sort of satisfaction.
Those were indeed days when fog
ging was administered in no hOmeO
pathic doses, but with most heroic
fullness of practice. ! once made I
careful estimate of my own experience
. in that way, and came to the conclu
sion that | had averaged about whip
ping and half day during my con
nectiOn with the Mayhem school. q
, course we became somewhat Injured T.
, this rough treatment. 1t was consider
ed the proper thing to suffer with Spar
tan firmness, and he who, while lai'
across the masters knee, could calml.
make cOmical and derisiye faces iron
his ignominiOus position, for the enter
tainment of his associates, withOu
having his attention diverted to othe
parts of his body, was accounted
brave fellow. Then there was a super
stitious belief that by laying ones eye
lash in the hand that was about to b.
. ferruled, the accursed wood was sur
to be shattered by coming in cOntac
with the magic hair. But l never saw
one shattered.