Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-11-11
Whipping in the oId-Time School.

A public school fifty years ago was a
very different affair from what it is nova
days.
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 freely bestowed there was
mingled sort of CHASTITY sportive elc-
ment, a grim humor which did not al
ways commend itself to the perception
of him who received the hagellation.
A merry conceit, for instance, was that
of Master Clough.
That ingenious person would direct
culprit to stand upon the platform, near
the desk, and without bending the knees.
touch the floor with the fingers Then
u smart flourish Of the rattan and sud-
den blow would cause the unhappy youth
to nvountarily resume an upright posi-
ton with divcrting rapidity II was
really very amusing (to Master Clough }
Sometimes an offender would be asked
by one of the masters which instrument
of torture he would choose the riding
whip, the ruler, or the rattan which
ever he seemed to prefer was not the
one used but one of the others would
make him smart This little change
would havo u healthml moral influence
upon the scholar, teachng patience and
resignation under disappointment A
pleasant illustration (to the teacher) of
the irony of fate was shown in another
way. When the stock of ratlans ran
low (and that was not SELDOM some VIC
tim in disgrace would be dispatched for
II fresh sapply knowing that on his re-
turn he would feel the first stroke of the
rod With what ingenious refinement
of torture the r'e-tn was thus made to
find the weapol That Mould wound him.
There was anatha. clever diversion Of
our kind hearted masters which in sum
ner when the days we're long, occasion
ally broke the monotony Of schoolboy
life. Sometimes, Of sultry July after
noon, tired scholar, overcome by the
heat, would find the sound of voices in
the room grow fainter and fainter, his
head would droop and finally sink upon
his desk, and he would quickly be. in the
pleasant land of dreams. Then it was
that the master, Selling his rattan and
stealthily yet joyfully striding acrosa the
rows of desks, would give tho sleeping
wretch such rousing whack ms TO as
tonish and confound MS well ms suddenly
awake him.
confess that these diversions of the
pedcgogue were not without their attrac-
ton for Us who looked on and saw the
cOmical contOrtions of the boys whose
fortune it was at the moment 10 be under
discipline. The fact that our turn might
come next did not prevent as from find
ing what entertainment we might In
what our master evidently enjoyed -
None of us had yet read the maxims Of
the cynical La Rochefoucauld, but we
realized that under certain circumstances
there is something in the misfortunes Ut
our friends that gives us certain sort
of satisfaction
There were indeed days when logging
was administered in no homeopathic
doses, but with n most heroic fulness of
practice. once made careful esti-
mate of my own experience in that way,
aud came TO the conclusion that | had
averaged about whipping and n half
day during my connection with the May
hew School Of course we became some
what Injured to the treatment. IL was
considered the proper thing to suffer
with Spartan 6rmncss, and he who while
laid across the masters knee could calm
ly make comical and derisive faces from
his ignomnous position, for the enter
tainmcnt of his associates, without hay-
ing his attention diverted to other parts
of the body, was accounted brave fell
low Then there was superstitious
belief that by laying ones eyelash in
the hand that was about to be feruled,
the accursed wood was sure to be shat
tered on coming in contact with the hair.
But never saw one shattered .-Bostom
Transcript.