The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-07-23
One Puritan Brute.
from The Boston Trans cy;pt.

From The Boston Trans cyipt.
In a Massachusetts, town, less than
sixty years ago, in a public school
the punishments sometimes sur
passed in severity any illustrations
yet given in Notes and Queries, with
one or two exceptions. We state as
facts only what we saw with our own
eyes. AS in the Mayhem School, boys
were sometimes required to toe crack,
| bend over and place the forefinger
| upon another crack, and then, with
| the body tense in every nerve, the
master would come slowly along give
81 tremendous blow with his cowhide,
and with the short jackets worn then,
| 1t hurt! He broke a ruler across the
back OF boys hand. More than
once he drew back his clenched fist
| and, striking from his shoulder,
| knocked boys nearly as large as him
sell Hat to the floor; and one OF these
boys,now an old man. is still living.
| took up one boy by the heels, and
| Singing him round in circle, brought
his head (this was by accident} against
a box stove in the middle of the floor,
and for a time the boy was deprived
oi all sense or motion, until physi-
| cian came and revived him With
what was called Il crow or crowstick
| OF wood, he went at one boy, who
had misread some word in the New
| Testament. The boy darted down
under one of the desks and crawed
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
| boy to let the sufferer have his over
coat or cap, though it was winters S
day. On one occasion he whipped a
boy with q cowhide. at intervals
through most OF forenoon, in order
| to make him hold out at arms length
II heavy book. The girlsin the school,
many OF them women grown, used to
weep and shrek, and cover their
heads with their aprons to shut out
the horrid 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 exclaimed,
with her strong English accent,
"Don't you hold it out, John, if he kills
you"
The masters desk was high one,
and stood on q platform One day
he called out a boy, made him take
OF his Jacket, fastened his arms
round the legs OF the desk, and stood
and whipped him with cowhide un-
til the blood ran down and one could
place ones fingers in the places in the
tieshy part OF the arm made by the
instrument of torture We saw the
punishment. the blood, the shirt cut
i'll ribbons. and the gashes. These
fa:ts-and we might add to them
were not II part OF the history OF
slavery, nor are they extracted from
'Cncle Toms Cabin" but they oc-
Cured in a Massachusetts, free school
and they went substantially without
rehuke. The master was sometimes
prosecuted at the la W. The father O..
the writer, a leading lawyer at the bar,
defended him, and ho was always &C.
quilted. He paid the doctors bills
in the last case, and gave the boys
| mother aload OF wood, for he was
her only son and she WAS a Door
widow. The master was in many re-
spects an excellent teacher; he kept
the school for many years. and gave
1t up at the last from i'll health, much
TO the regret of the community. He
was a christian by profession, kept
up family prayers, but there were
some who thought-chiehy the boys
that he was at times untluly severe
III the intliction OF punishment.