San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-11

Recommends the Whipping Post.
For the LIGHT:
Sentimentality and sham humani-
ty are bad enough in tenth rate nov
els and in the speeches and writings
of pseudo philanthropists, but they
are intolerable nuisances, when they
are made the wool and warp Of the
statute law of nation, as they then
prove real incentives to crime, by
turning loose shoals of criminals to
prey on society at their leisure. 1t Is
sentamentality and sham humanity
of the worse sort to let scape graces
and thieves go unpunlshed, just be-
cause they are of tender years-say
from fourteen to sixteen years of age.
Where is the justice of closing our
ewes to the toughness, shamelessness
and want of moral principle eXempli-
fed in the conduct of these youth
full offenders? That they know
the difference between right and
wrong, is undisputed. Out of
thousand boys that are thieves at
fourteen, not a dozen are ever re-
claimed to honesty; yet, Miss Betty
Sentimen tally the drIed-up old
made, and Col. Sham-humanity, go
about, insisting that thieves of four
teen must be turned loose to prey
on society and tempt other boys to
steal.
Then, these people howl most
dreadfully, il 1t be suggested, that
the whipping post and corporal pun
ishment should he revived for GER
tain classes of criminals. They cry
out, relic of barbarism "unhead of
cruelty" and never stop their clatter
till they have exhausted the voca-
butary of sham humanity, and eX-
pended all their breath, in Peck
sniffian cant and sham. There are
plenty of Peckniffs and Joseph Sur
faces IN every legislative assembly,
and very often Pecksniff or Joseph
Surface dons the judicial ermine and
cants from the bench.
A person convicted of petty LARCENY
Is sentenced to Imprisonment in the
county Jail, for a specified period,
where he is fed at the public charge,
but does he quit the Jail, reformed
in his morals and with stock OF
good principles? Not a bit of it. He
comes out of Jail, just as he entered
it-a sogue at heart and In practice,
ready to renew his foraging on the
public, and armed with more cunn-
ing to elude the law. 1t would be
better to inflict corporeal punishment
on such offenders, at the public
whipping post, and then turn them
loose. IF any thing could recall them
to honesty, the shame of public
whipping for theft, would do it.
Then, woman heaters and bruiseri
richly deserve public flogging-it IL
indeed the only punishment befittine
| their mean and brutal offense. 9TH,
man who lays his hand upon wo
man, save in the way of kindness, II
villain; whom 'twere gross flattery
| to call q coward, ;" and he deserves t,
be treated as q brute and punished al
a brute in q civilized nation. Th,
truth is, the whipping-post is almos
too mild punishment for wife beat
ers. They deserve to be disfranchiset
and to be declared ineligible for ev
cry public office. Such fellows ar
stains on the manhood Of the human
race.
The revival of the whipping pos
for the above mentioned oftenses
would speedily be followed by
marked decrease in the number o
petty thieves and wife heaters ant
also in the expense of running tn
judicial machinery at present so bur
densome to Taxpayers.
ToNEY.