The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-01
A CATO NTNE-TAILS.
1t is Successfully introduced Into
the New York City Home.
tbs an Electrical Appliance-The Most Incor-
rigibie EOys are Subdued by 1.-THE
Punishment il Effective.

Especial to THE HERALD Examiner Dispatch
New YORK, March 1.-Superintendent
c. NJ. Harrison, of the New York City
Home. at Verona, n. j., believes that "the
punishment should fit the crime" He
argues that if good deal of electricity is a
very good thing as a punishment for
murderer, little electricity furnishes an
excellent method of furnishing q minor Of
fender. The Newark City Home is sort
of house of refuge for the incorrigibIe boys
and girls of Newark, ard for nearly five
years Mr.. Harrison has been Furnishing
them for their youthful otfenses by admin
istering to them more or less severe electric
shocks. His current differs from the one
used at Sing Sing, Auburn and Donnemara,
in that it is produced Dy powerful gal
vanic battery, while that of which Kemm-
Ter, SmileT, Loppy and others have died Is
generated by q great dynamo.
DR.. Henry B. Whitehorne, of Verona, the
regular physician at the home, is the inven-
tor OF an electric method of punishment.
DR.. Whitehorne produced a particularly
powerful galvanic battery, and instead Of
attaching to the positive and negative poles
the usual brass handles affixed thereto two
appliances, one was an electrode so shaped
as to lit closely to the pack of the juve-
nile neck, the face of the cleo
trode being covered with thin sponge
The other pole was connected with
cat-o'-nine-tails, formed of six hair-Iike
wires about three inches long protruding
from an insulated handle. Dr. Whitehorne
tried the contrlvance on himself and was
convinced that it ought to scare the wits
out OF the worst youngster in Essex
county. That, by the way, is supposed to
be the danger OF the new form of govern
ment. A boy named Rafferty, one day
tried to stab companion during the play
hour at the home. He was well devel-
oped lad of fifteen, solidly built, and of
an exceedingly vicious disposition Mr..
Harrison and DR.. Whitehorne determined
to administer the electrical punishment
The boy was called into the superinte
ent's Office. He was surly and defiant, ex-
pect1ng to receive sentence to bread and
water ratons close confinement or some
thing of the sort. He was very ignorant,
aud probably had never heard of electric
ity beyond the fact that it was used in
sending Geographic messages. The boy
was made to take off his jacket, to roll up
his sleeves to the elbows. These proceed
ings were unusual, and Rafferty, was
frightened almost at their beginning
When he was asked to sit in chair by The
table the lad felt sure that his last hour
had come. DR.. Whitmore placed the cleo
trode, with the moistened sponge, firmly
to the back of the boys neck and turned
on slight current. The boy whimpered
little, but as he felt nothing more, braced
up bit. Mr.. Harrison then touched the
wire CATO nine-tails to one of the lads bare
ars which complete the current. Such a
yell as young Rafferty, gave would have
made Sioux envious. He Ieaped from the
chair, and breaking the current, stood
shivering in an agony of fear. He had
never felt anything like that before He
was forced back into the chair, however,
and the current was applied again. This
time Mr. Harrison passed sixty wires OF
the cat O. nine tails all over the boys arms
breast and face. Every wire carried part
of the current, making the most intense
pricking, burning sensation The lad
seemed unable to move as the current was
made heavier, and after few minutes he
was released limp, meek and exceedingly
weak boy. For several days he was half
ILL was unable to eat and seemed possessed
of no energy or vitality. He gradually re-
covered, however, and spread through the
home the most narrowing tales of the
awful torture to which he had been sub.
iected Rafferty, never had to be punished
again. Other boys, scores of them, have
been subjected to the electrical punishment
since then, but the same boy has never
been brought up for punishment twice.
Only q few of the older girls have been
punished in this way. uperintendept
Harrison told a reporter tonight that the
electrical punishment had done much to
preserve the discipline of the Institution.