Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-08-20
THE WHIPPING POST.
Romans Used the Lash More Than
Any Other Nation.

AJ OA4OA GN0b4OAs
whipping In Queen Elizabeth's Time
FlasellatiOn In France and Holland-Use
OF the Rod In Russia and the Orient.
The first mention Of whipping as
punishment occurs in the fifth chapter
of Exodus, where we find that Pharaoh
whipped the officers of the Israentes
when they did not furnish the required
number of bricks which they were COM
PEELED to make every day.
In ancient times, says . writer in
American Notes and Queries, the Rom
ans carried whipping as punishment
farther than any other nation, and their
judges were surrounded with an array
Of divers kinds of whips we'll calculated
to alright the offender who might be
brought before them. The mildest form
of whip was fat leather strap called,
the JeruIG, and one of the most severe
was the fGgellum, which was made OF
plated OK hide and almost as hard as
iron.
From ancient times the use Of whip
ping can be traced through the Middle
Ages down to, comparatively speaking,
more modern times, when it is easier
to find record of the use of the rod.
In Queen Elizabeth's time the whip
ping-post was an established institution
in almost every village in England, the
municipal records Of the time informing
us that the usual fee to the executioner
for administering the punishment was
''four pence head" In addition to
whipping being thought an excellent
corrective for crime, the authorities of
certain town in Huntingdonshire must
have considered the use of the lash as
sort of universal specific as well, for the
corporation records of this town men
ton that they paid eight-pence ito
Thomas Hawkins for whipping two peo-
pie vt had the smallpox"
In France and Holland whipping does
not seem to have been so generally
practiced The last woman who was
publicly whipped in France by judicial
decree was Jeanne ST. RENT de Valois,
Comtesse de Ia Motto, for her share in
the abstraction of that diamond neck
lace which has given point to so many
stories
In connection with the history Of flag
ellation in France may be mentioned
the custom which prevailed there land
also in Italy, in olden times. of ladies
visiting their acquaintances while still
in bed on the morning of the FESTIVAL
of the Innocents," and whipping them
for any injuries, either real or fancied,
which the victims may have done to the
fair flagellants during the past year.
Among the Eastern nations the rod in
various forms played prominent part,
and from what we read China might be
said to be almost governed by it. Ja-
pan is singularly free from the practice
Of whipping, but make up for it by hav-
ing remarkably sanguinary criminal
code.
Russia is, however, par excellence a
home of the whip and the rod. the Rus
SLAMS having been governed from time
immemorial by the use of the lash.
Many of the Russian monarchs were
adopts in the use of the whip, and were
also particularly ingenious in making
things unpleasant for those around
them. Catherine II. was so particu-
larly fond of this variety of punishment
(Which she often administered in per-
SOM, that it amounted almost to a pas
sion with her. 1t is related that she car
ried this craze so far that one time the
ladies of the court had to come to the
Winter Palace with their dresses so ad-
justed that the Empress could whip at
once if she felt so inclined.
While the instruments of torture used
in Russia were of great variety, the
most formidable "punisher" was the
knout, an instrument of Tartar origin
and Of which descriptions differ. In its
ordinary form it appears to be q heavy
leather thong, about eight feet in length,
attached to handle two feet long, the
lash being concave, thus making two
sharp edges along its entire length, and
when it fell on the criminals back 1t
would cut him like q flexible double
edged sword. Running the gantlet"
was also employed, but principally in
the army. In this the offender had to
pass through q long line OF soldiers,
each of whom gave the offender stroke
with plant switch. Peter the Great
limited the number Of blows to be given
to $4,000, but unless 1t were intended to
kill the victims, they seldom gave more
than 1000 at a time. When the offender
was sentenced to greater number of
strokes than this, the punishment was
extended over several days for the rea-
son above stated.
Whipping, after dropping out Of sight
for time in England, was reintroduced
in England in 1867. in order to put a
check on crimes Of violence. The law
was so framed that the Judges might add
hogging at discretion to the imprison-
ment to which the offenders were also
sentenced. The first instance of this
punishment being used was at Leeds,
where two men received twenty-five
lashes each before entering their five
and ten years penal servitude for gar
oting. The whip used in this instance
was the cat-o'-nine-tails.
The whipping-post is also still used
in some parts of this country, notably at
New Castle, Del, where the cat is
still administered for minor offenses.
Judging from whipping that the writer
once witnessed, it appears to be very