Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-05-12
Social Life Under Queen Anne.

Everybody seems agreed that the liz
erary and social history of Queen Anne's
reign is one of the few things which still
remain to be written; yet nobody under
takes the task. From a social point of
view there is, in fact, no period of his
tory which is at once so we'll known and
yet SO little known. From Addison and
Steele we have learned the follies, fol-
bles and fashions of that generation;
from Swift WI have learned a great deal
of the daily household life Of the time
and have gathered that in what we
should call the best society there was
found a coarseness of speech and man.
ners which appears incredible until we
remember that the picture is certainly q
gross ex%aggeration. What a frightful
picture might be drawn of our genera
ton, and without the least exaggera-
ion, of the things which go on daily in
our streets, the millions of men who
never open their mouths without an
oath, and never utter a single o u SUBJ
stantive without prefixing one and the
same ugly and meaningless adjective;
the shameless vice which hides not it's
head even at high noon; the Embark
ment, where men are nightly set upon,
robbed and thrown into the river-iust
as used to happen in the Fleet ditch; the
gambling clubs, the suburban races; the
roughs and thieves of this place and that
place; the courts in Marylebone, Soho,
Whitechapel, into which no decent per-
son may venture by day or night; the
musice halls and their sehseless, stupid
and mischievous songs; the drink
ing and the wife-kicking and the starva-
ton. Were all things written down q
picture might be produced, true in
everything but the proportion, which
would make the London of Victoria
compare not only with the London of
Anne, but with the Rome of Nero.
AS regards crime and punishments,
the sessions for trying criminals were
held eight times a year, and there were
sometimes twenty taken out to be
hanged at a time. Five or six were put
in a cart together. 1.-The executioner
stops the cart under one of the cross
beams of the gibbet and fastens to that
ill-favored beam one end of the rope,
while the the other is round the wretch's
neck. This done, he gives the horse a
lash with his whip; away goes the cart,
and there swings my gentleman kicking
in the air." This was elementary. The
writer goes on to say that it was left for
the friends of the criminal to put him
out of pain by pulling his legs and beat
ing his breast. Capt. Kidd, the pirate,
went to his death drunk; Tom Cox, q
highwayman, kicked chaplain and ex'
e%cutioner both out of the cart; one Anne
Greene, condemned for numbering hel
child, which was afterward found te
have been still-born, vas hanged with
the assistance. of her friends in the hu.
name manner above described; and or
being taken to the anatomist's, actually
recovered. Those who refused to plead
were still pressed to death. Highway
robbers and pirates were hanged il
chains. There were a good many high
waymen about the roads, and near Lon
don the footpads were troublesome. Gyp
sizes might be hanged as felons after tn,
age of fourteen. The pillory was, so tt
speak, in the height Of its popularity
and the ducking-stool was still consid
cred necessary for the maintenance O
sound discipline.-London Spectator.