The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-01-31
COMMON SCOLDS.
The Tuck & Stool ono u ed In
PennsylN,n.

Not only Is the common scold still with
in the puryiew of laws against routs and
riots and fayoring tranquility of the yici-
mage but IL Is held that the ducking stool
Is yet means of punishment should
some apprcciative Pennsylvania judge
have the nerve to decree renewal OF, its
use. Fine and imprisonment are the
modern refuge against the shrewish No
judge would care TO return 10 the old
ways, for the gossips might wonder over
his woman hatred and the public might
think he was getting personal.
1t Is likely that few people know that
the ducking stool was once employed in
Pittsburg. It IL held that women had
more grounds for scolding In pioneer days
than now, and hence the stool should
again be brought into rcquisition.
The English settlers brought TO the
United States the ducking stool az AN i'm
plement of punishment. ns they imported
the common law. At Plymouth, whence
tho pilgrims sailed, can be seen today tho
old duc!lipg stools. Even In 1S0S woman
WIS duCkcd there. The Puritans brought
over the common scold law, and IL was
adopted in New Jersey and Delaware. In
1889 the grand jury Of Jersey City indicted
Mrs. Mary Brady as common scold. 1t
was found 10 be there, as here. still an
indctable oflensc and that the ducking
stool was yet available Gs 10 means of pun
ishmcnt, not having boon specifically
abolished by the revised statutes
The stool was used in Virginia for
Bishop Meade, in his "Old Churches,
Ministers and Families In Virginia."
writes of ducking scolds frcm vessel in
the james river. from tho Old Dominion
the pinctico of thus treating scolds reached
Pittsburg. lt would be depressing TO re-
peat the history of the establishment Of
courts in this city by Virginia, which be-
gan Fob 81, 1915. on the second day Of
that court, the birthday Of George wash
ington, then but %, the sheriff was order
eel TO employ worhmcn 20 build ducking
stool nj tho confluence of the Ohio with
the MCnongahcla.
BY patient dcving ono can dig up much
curious information about the ducking
stool Allusions to IL rccur in English
chronicles all through the sixteenth, sew
entecntb anal eighteenth centuries. Scold-
ing women ia these oldcn times were
deemed offenders against the public peace
Blackstone In his Commentaries treats
of the common soold in his chapter on
Public Wrongs" After discussing Of.
fenses Of graycr degree bis prelude Is, "TO
descend next 20 olfonseS whose punish.
mont is sEC~t If death" These offcnses
are such, he says. "as annoy the whole
community In general, and not merely
somc particular portion, and therefore are
indictablo, not actlonablc, as 1t would be
unreasonable 60 multiply suits by giving
every man separate right of action TOR
what damniles him In common only with
The rest OF bis fellow subjects"
Then the groat jurst treats OF six classes
OF public uui-ancus and concludes: Last
u, u common scold, communis rixatrix
Qor our Law Latin confines it 10 the fem
inino gcnder), Is public nuisance to her
neighDorhood. She may bc indicted, and
81 cOnvictcd placed in "a certain engine oi
correction, called the trcbuckot, castiga-
tory or oucking STOOL which In the Saxon
language Is said TO signify the scold stoul,
though now u Is frequently corrupted into
ducking 6tCCi because the residue Of tho
judgment is :hat when she is 30 placed
therein she shall bo plunged in water for
her punishment.
Blackstone vos better iurist than city,
mologist. There was in even as early as
the fifteenth century the punishment of
sitting la the Cucking stool for using short
weights selling bad ale and soolding, but
IL was chair of disgrace placed i'm front
of tho offenders own home. In the lapso
OF time the cucking and the ducking stool
became synonymous.
In his "Tragcls In England I'm 100
Mission writes: Tho way of punishing
scolding women rs pleasant enough They
fastcn an armchair to the end ~ two
beams, IL or 10 feet long and parallel TO
ench other, 80 that thcsc two pieces OK
wood with their two ends embrace the
chair, which hangs Dctwcen them upon
sort ~ axle, by which means II plays iryC-
ly ana alvey. p mains ~ the nsgural lcr-
izontal position In wh.fh the chair shot
De that a TcrhOu may sit cpntenienty
81 IL, whether you raise IL ur let IL down
shcy sct NJ post OH the bank Of Pond