The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-05-14
PUNISHMENT OF NAUGHTY sovs
The Rod to- BE Applied when Occasion
Warrants 1t in rIonxland.


The Rod to BE Applied when Occasion
Warrants Tt In rEngland.
The careful student Of our. police reports
must have noticed the increasing boldness,
not to say the increasing depravity OF
what is called the juvenile offender-both
male and female. When these interesting
cadets of the criminal brigade take to
burning down houses, promoting explo
sions of gas, breaking street lamps, steal
ing steam launches and committing "rob
berry under arms" on the queens highway
they become something more than a nni
sance. Even if they stop short of dropping
bricks on the roofs of railway carriages or
practicing with a revolver.of heavy caliber
in the back garden, they require to be sup
pressed with some severity.
At the same time there is no kind of
punishment which seems to be more care
fully graduated than that intended for the
young
A useful little bill which has been in
troduced by the home secretary is skill
fully devised, as well for the benefit of the
youthful offenders as for that of the So
ciety which they infest It should be pre-
missed that the expression youthful of
fender" in the bill means a boy or girl
under sixteen years of age. The measure,
so far as it affects boy offenders, is based
on the knowledge of the great law which
! a famous schoolmaster threw into the
aphorism that the conscience of a lad is
lodged in the cuticle of his skin
| Mr.. Matthews proposes to approach the
young offenders better feelings that way
In other words, he will allow magistrates
to inflict the penalty of whipping where
"any youthful male offender''-or, to use
the language of ordinary life, any very
naughty boy-"shall have committed any
offense punishable by the court" There
are due safeguards against excessive use OF
the rod, since the boy is not to have more
than a dozen strokes if he is under twelve,
or more than eighteen strokes if he is over
that age; and the governor of the prison.
or some other person having authority, is
to be present to see that the warden or
other minister of justice who wields the
birch does not ''lay it on' with superf1uous
| energy.
Also, the boys parent may be present if
he desires. No doubt he will usually de-
sire to assist at the ceremony Apart al
together from any parental emotions
which may agitate his breast, he will have
strong personal interest in the affair,
for the bill enacts that the court may fine
him any sum not exceeding one. pound
and may also order him to compensate the
person or persons injured by the Juvenile
offender" whether boy or girl, to the ex-
tent of five pounds, always provided the
court is satisfied that there has been s'nez
lect or default on the part of the parent
in relation to that offender.
This is beginning at the right end, both
with the child and the father. The latter
will have an additional inducement tolook
after his child himself, and his objection to
that kind of youthful exuberance which
eliminates in damaging other peoples
property and putting other peoples lives
and limbs in danger will be intensified
when he recollects that he may be asked to
contribute toward the expenses of the
frolic.
/ Boys viii boys, but they need not be
young rufians or savages. If they show
any tendency to develop that way, a dozen
strokes with q tough and wiry birch rod
applied with science, are likely to act as an
excellent corrective English public school
men who have been brought up in these
great seminaries from which the birch and
the cane are not yet bsnished know this
well enough.
They know. that hogging has very
impressive moral and physical effect on
any high spirited younGster. while leaving
him none the worse for it permanently.
and there can be no question that to give a
sound whipping to any lad not hopelessly
corrupted or depraved is very much better
than to infect him with the prison taint by
sending him to Jail, or to break his spirit by
keeping him for years in a reformstory.-
London Standard.