Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-09-16
SrvERE sCHoOLMAsTERS.
o.utal Punishment Inflicted Upon Pupils
IN Massachusetts, Sixty Years Ago.

In M1ssagh uSfttS sixty Years Ago.
IN = Massachusetts, town. less than
..rtv wears ago, in public school the
annishment sometimes surpassed in
srerity any illustrations yet given in
.ba Notes and Queries, with one or two
's-csntions. We state as facts only what
.ro saw with our own eyes. As in the
Mavhew School, boys We're sometimes
-aonjred to toe crack. bend over and
-Idce the forefinger upon another crack.
PlnI then, with the body tense in every
nerve. the master would como slowly
aIonc. give a tremendous blow with his
"a,yiide. and with the short Jackets
,rorn then, it hart! He broke II ruler
cross the back of boys hand. More
ban once he drew back his clenched
ia and. striking from his shoulder
lnocked BOYS nearly MS large as himself
4ot IN the floor; and one of these BOYS,
now an old man. is still living. He
took up one boy by the heels, and,
SINGING him round i'll circle, brought
Lis head (this was by accidenO against
a box.stove in the middle of the floor,
and for time the boy was deprived of
an sense or motion, until u physician
came and revived him. With what was
called a crow or crow-stick of wood he
went ri one boy. vino had misread
some word in the New Testament. The
how darted down under one of the desks
and crawled from one to another, now
and then catching a blow until he got
near the door, when the master caught
him by the collar and heels and threw
him out into The street. and forbid any
hoy TO LET the sufferer have his overcoat
and cap. though it was winters day
On one occasion he whipped boy with
a cowhjde, at intervals through most of
q forenoon. in order to make him hold
ont at arms length a heavy book. The
girls in the school, many of them women
crown. used to weep and shrek, and
cover their heads with their aprons to
shut ont the holrid sights. This day
the boys sister. early in the whipping.
stood up and cried out. Hold it out,
John; hold it out, john" but later eX-
claimed, with her strong English ac-
cent. Don't you hold it out, John, if he
kills you.
The MASTER desk was a high one,
and stood on a platform. One dav he
called out boy, made him take off his
Jacket, fastened his arms round the legs
OF the desk, and STOOD and whipped
him with a coNhidc until the blood ran
down and one could place ones fingers
in the places in the leshy part of the
arm made by the instrument of torture
We saw the punishment, the blood, the
shirt cut in ribbons, and the gashes.
These tac.s-and we might add to them
We're not q part Of the history of slavery,
nor are they extracted from Uncle
TOMS Cabin, but they occurred in a
Massachusetts, free school. and they
went substantially without rebukc. The
master was sometimes prosecuted at the
law The father Of the writer, lead
ing lawyer at the bar, defended him.
and he was always acquitted. He paid
the doctors bills IN the last case, and
gave the boys mother load of wood,
for he was her only son and she was a
poor widow. The master was in many
respects an excellent teacher; he kept
the school for many years, and gave it
up at the last from i'll health, much to
the regret of the community. He was q
Christian by profession, Kept MP family
prayers, but there were some who
thought chiefly the boys-that he was
at times unduly severe in the infiction
Of punishment Boston Transcript