The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-02
VICTIMS OF TIE LASH. !.
THE BAe6ANIsM OF PERSISTENT
CRUELTY TO THE YOUNG.

Children Whose Lives Are Darkened by the
Assaults of III Natured and Ill Timed
Many Will Recognize.
With IS much distinctness as if it had &C.
CURED last night recall all occurrence OF
almost Aah a century ago. In humble
house, far in the country, just before dark. q
boy about seven years Of age tIptoed lear
fully up the steep, narrow stairway leading
to a small room directly under the slantlng
roof. The boy was barefooted, with rag
Sed hat, a coarse shirt, a pair Of trousers and
q single suspender There was low, narrow
bed into which, after hastily divestinS him
self of his trousers, he sprung, and. getting
under the single cover, pulled himself down
toward the foot, being entirely buried under
the blanket.
For little time shivers agitated the mass
in the bed. Then it became quiet: IFS out
lines rose and fell with a regularity that III
dicav d sleep
4 CRUEL AWAKENING.
A couple of hours passed when suddenly
the boy was aroused by the stripping from
him of the blanket. There was dim light
in the room in which his sleepy eyes caught
sight Of a woman, and the next moment
storm of blows from switch was raining On
his naked legs and body. The switch cut Like
knife, and each blow seemed to reach his
very marrow. Suddenly awakened from q!
sound and peaceful sleep, stung and lacerated
by the whip. his pain and fright were mex
pressibe He writhed, struggled, screamed,
pleaded, Don't! DON'T" till it appeared to-
him that he must die Every nerve was shiv-l
eriug with intense agony; his voice, hoarSe;
with screaming, was choked with sobs to the
point of suffocation. His face was flushed to
the redness of blood; his eyes protrudlnS,
CLASSY, and his face stained with foods Of
tears
After what was an eternity the blows
ceased the clothes were laid carefully over
the wrlthing, tortured mass, darkness filled
the room, the cries subsidized into moans and
these into spasmodic sobs which grew wider
apart and then were heard no more. Once
more the boy slept as before, save that now
and then long drawn breath or slight
shudder agitated the covering.
What was the cause Of this invasion in the
night of this tired and sleeping boya What
crime had he committed that warranted the
rude awakening and the frightful torture to
which be had been subjccteia
At the house Of a neighbor, during the af-
ternoon, he had undertaken to reach glass
tu,nbler standing on the shelf to get a drink
from the we'll 1t slipped from his hands and
was broken in the fall. It was for this that
he sseaked to his bed pursued by the phantom
Of the broken vessel, and against whose horrid
and threatening mien he had covered his head
with the blanket. Word drifted after him as
to his otfense, and late at night passing
neighbor brought to his home the danning
intelligence OF his crime Late as it was pun
ishment must be at once administered.
So far as il known, the beating of children
is the outgrowth of civilization and alleged
Christianity. The latter element secures its
authority from Jewish writer who centuries
ago announced "that lie that spareth his rod
hateth his son, but he that loveth him chas-
teneth him" This atrocity, originating when
barbarisin shrouded the nations, has become
grated on christianity and controls the ac-
ton Of nnumerable pyria2s of men. 1t is o
bastard combination Of natural brutality and
so called duty.
Inspired by the one element the mother
aagellates the tender bodies Of her children,
and actuated by the other the brute lashes
them, like Mr. Squeers, for the mere pleasure
Of inficting punishment. It is true that
within brief period public opinion has, in
great centers, driven the beating Of children
from the public schools, but in the country
places 1t still prevails in all its hideousuess.
Throughout these homes where the gloom OF
false Interpretation OF religion asserts it
self, the Internal injunction OF the Jewish
barbarian is reproduced in the swish Of the
strap and the screams of tortured children.
What can be more moving, laceratins, pa
thetic, outrageous than the spectacle pre-
sented to the public Of the barn scene IN
which, in cold and silence, three little boys
were found, one Of whose backs had been cut
to the TONE IL d uoZeu places oy Cne ra"htce
of stalwart drunken uncle? What more
horrible than the barry Pole beating with a
strap shod with buckle little boy till his
young life fed 70 escape the tortured What
more abominable and revolving than tbs
spectacles presented at the police courts
showing the white backs OF tender girls COW
cred with welts, scars, and blood, inflicted
by the hands Of drunken parentsf
The cases developed at intervals IN the
police courts are only suggestions, glnnpses
Of the evil There are innumerable families
in which blows and abuse are an unbroken
thing; in which they are as common as air.
There are everywhere to be seen children on
whose faces there is Il look as If one blow had
lust fallen. In tens Of thousands Of places
hurt children are shrieking from the lash
and their faces are wet with the tears wrung
from them by pain.
I speak on this matter as do for the reason
that I was during childhood the constant
victim Of the switch and the rawhide. My
parents were people Of profound piety, con-
scientious, iIreproachable, and yet imbruted
by the conviction that 10 spare the rod was
to spoil the child.
This class Of treatment never yet secnred
reform in either boy or girl 1t makes the
bad worse, and often vitiateS those who
otherwise would grow up bla,neless. The boy
who is constantly subjected to the lash be-
comes q coward, liar and hypocrite Hs
learns to lie TO escape punishment, and In
thus doing cultivates cowardice and deceit.
Emancipation IS one of the developments
of the later centuries For thousands OF
years insanity, unbelief, heresy, witches were
burned, hanged, eviscerated and imprisoned.
Thought has since been relieved Of its chains,
slavery and serfdom have been abolished,
feudatories no longer exist, and to vast e1-
tent the domain Of freedom has been en-
larged.
Largely exempt thus far from the bene-
fcent work Of emancipation are the children.
For scores of centuries human slavery held
sway, empowered by the authority OF
Hebrew writer; after the same fashion, the
children of the age are held subservient to
the lash through the teachings Of another OF
these lawgivers. 1t is time that these Laws
were repealed or defed as remnants OF bar
barous periods. s.-Poliuto in Chicago Herald
The Albany Journal says: "a business man
handed in his deposit at one Of the banks the
other day. One Of the checks caught the
teller's eye, and he expressed {. fear as to its
genuincness Tho merchant telesraphed TO