The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-09-06
ROD AND WHIPPING POST.
Flagellation as q Means of Punish
ment in This Country.

He that spareth the rod hateth
his son, but he that loveth him
chastens him betimes," said Solo
mon. The pedagogue of the old
school was, therefore, man after
the heart Of the wise Israelite. The
"birch" held as important a place
in the cirriculum of some Of the
old-time schools as Latin or Greek
so much so that when our English
grandfathers used to call to memory
their schoolboy days they did not
say, "When / was at school," but,
"When | was under the rod" The
schoolboys of the present day have
not the slightest idea of the punish
ments undergone by their arc .stors.
Flagellation is now out of da.e, ex-
cept in one small corner of our
country, and the "birch" of to-day
is only a ghost of what it was a
century ago. Whipping has been
far more severe in English schools
than in American. The English
schoolboy, 100 years ago, either had
Greek pounded into him or life
pounded out of him. One oldfash-
ioned schoolmaster boasted that in
fifty years he had given 100000
canings and 124 proper Aoggings.
Another record shows that during
tifty-one years in large London
school there were administered
Gil 800 eanings, l21, 900 floggings,
2O9, 900 custodos, 1856. 900 tips with
a ruler, 10000 boxes on the ears
and 227 900 tasks learned by heart,
besides hundreds of thousands Of
ear pinches. During that time, in
the same school, 5000 boys were
made to kneel on sharp edge OF
wood, 700 to stand on peas and
5000 to wear the fools cap. These
severe punishments frequently had
a comical side, when the culprit,
being the superior in size, turned the
tables upon the worthy pedagogue,
giving him a practical taste OF his
own ideas of compulsory education.
Englishmen have very bad opin-
ion of Americans as hoggers. They
think us chronic whippers. In a
London publication not long since
appeared this statement:
Domestic hogging, or what is
called spanking prevails more or
less, all over America, SO far as the
younger branches ofthe family are
concerned. Sons and
daughters, we are told, have to en-
dure the rod until they are Of
marriageable age. * = 4 Grown
young ladies are frequently whipped
in some of the American schools,
and it has been reserved for Ameri
cans to make a trade of flogging,
they having invented a machine in
the days of slavery, going by horse
power, for whipping niggers."
The first whipping in school on
this side of the Atlantic was done
by the old masters of New Amster-
dam. Dutch youngsters used to
cut frequent hookies, and it was
customary for the PARENTS to turn
their children over to the ''schul-
mister" for discipline. Flogging in
colonial days was not common In
the schools, though with other En-
glish customs came that of using
the "birch." The first person pub
iicly whipped in America was a
Quakeress named Mary Clark, who
was given twenty stripes for preach
ing in Boston, in 1857. The next to
suffer in this manner were Christie
pher Holder and John Copeland,
both hogged on account of their re-
ligious belief by the Puritans in
Boston, and within the next year
twelve persons were publicly whip
ped because they were Quakers.
After the whipping of Copeland
many left Massachusetts and settled
on Long Island and in the Dutch
colonies, but they were treated there
in the same way. One Robert Hod-
sbone was accused of holding a
meeting at Hemstead. He was
brought over to New Amsterdam,
dragged through the town at the
tail of cart, and then taken before
the Town Council. He was whipped
inside of the fort and fined 600
guilders, and because he could not
paw the fine he was numerically
logged a second time. The follow
ing warrant was issued at Dover:
Mass, in 1862:
"To the constables of Dover, Sal
isbury, Hampton, Newburry, Lynn,
Boston, Roxbury and Deadham !:
Until the vagabond Quakers are
carried out of this jurisdiction you
are to give them sound whippings /;
you and every one of you are re-
quired in the Kings Majesty's name
to take these vagabond Quakers,
Anne Coleman, Mary Tompkins and
Alice Ambrose, and make them fast
to the carts tail and whip them
upon their naked backs. Convey
them from constable to constable
until they are out of this jurisdic-
ton, as you will answer at your