St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-06-04
The WHIPPING POST.
Cat-0-Nine-TaiIs Admins
tered to Eight Desper-
ate Criminals.
The Biting Leathern Thongs
o ten Drew Blood From
the Victims.
A Genial Sheriff, Who Weighs
$50 Pounds, Handled
the Lash.
The Prisoners Had Previ-
ously Stood for Hours
in the PilloPy.

In Delaware criminals are punished
for various offenSeS by being placed in
the pill0ry and lashed at the whipping
post The state of Maryland has a
wmpping-poSt for wife-beaterS only.
and since its establishment wife beating
has been uncommon, says the Balti-
more correspondent of the New York
World.
The writer witnessed recently the
whipping inflicted upon eight culprits
at the jail in Newcastle, Del. The con-
Struetion WHICH includes pillory and
whipping-pOSt is very simple. \ post,
about twelve inches square and sixteen
feet highs placed firmly in the ground.
On each of two OF the sides of this post
is an iron baud, fastened by means of a
staple. These bands are about five feet
from the ground, and the hands of the
culprlt are placed in them and fastened
tightly.
Ten feet above the ground around
this post is built platform five feet
square. Four feet above this platform
is board ten inches wide running
through the post and placed upright.
In this board are holes through which
placed. 1t is she general opinion that
when a person has once been punished
i'll the pillory and at The whipping post
the humiliation is so great that he loses
all respect for himself and every one
else and becomes 4 hardened criminal.
but the sheriff of New Castle county
says this is the case On>y with few Of
the worst.
There is no penitentiary in Delaware.
When prisoner is sentenced to con-
finement he goes to the Jail, where he
remains in idleness until his term
expires. The New Castle jail was
taxed to its utmost capacity at the time
of these floggingS, there being six or
seven prisoners in one cell.
A man from the West, who also wit
messed the punishment, said that many
people in his part of the country had
never heard of such an Institution i'll
the United States. and those who had
would like TO know more of it.
At 10 o'clock in the morning the gates
of the lail yard were thrown open, and
= crowd of about 2j9 men and boys,
white and black, came i'll to gaze upon
TWO negroes who stood in the pillory
from 10 TO IL O'Clock. One was SEN
fenced for horse stealing and the other
for murderous assault. The horse
lHl6ls Ill W
pillOry for an hour, received afterwards
fifteen lashes oil the bare back, and the
man who committed the murderOus as
sauIt instead of lasheS got five years in
jail. During the time they remained in
the pillOry they suffered intensely
from the cold. the thermometer regis
tering % deg below zero. Both men
wore gloves loaned them by the war
den, and one of them. who was very
thinly clad, had canvas blanket
thrown over his back for protection
from the cold.
When they were released they could
hardly strengthen themselves, their
limbs had become 50 stiff from cold.
The one who got five years in jail was
formerly a fisherman on the Delaware
river. and he remarked TO one Of the
spectators. whom he apparently knew.
that it would he a long time before lie
would fish again.
The next culprit placed in the pillor V