The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-05-13
THE WHIPPING POST.

The Washington Post in a recent issue
remarked that it's esteemed contemporary,
the governor OF New York" frequently
makes very useful and practical sug
gestlon. but that he never spoke more
wisely and more usefully than when, the
other day. he said he should like to see
the whipping post revived for the benefit
of wife beaters, the torturers of children
and other incorrlRtble criminals of the
more brutal kind"
Then, as recognizing the apparent bru-
talIty in the suggestion Itself, the WASH
ington paper proceeds to palliate its posi-
ton by assuming that the opposition to
this form of punishment is confined chiefly
to the criminal classes and the sentimental
CT anks Of society. II says on this point:
OF course we shall hear the familiar old
nrotests and remnnstrances In the event Of u
movement in the direction susgested by Gov
ernor Roosevelt. The criminal classes will
come FIRST and make the loudest noise. There
Is no more eloquent critic Of barbarsm'
than the savage ruffian who habitually prac-
tices barbarism upon others There Is no
more devoted champion of tenderness than
tho hoodlum whose own nerson is for the
moment under consideration. Naturally tho
lead the chorus. Then will follow the maud
lin cranks-of the class who take flowers
TO imprisoned murderers and weep over pro
feEsinnal burglars. these VIII set M their
usual lamentations dcclam against the bar
harity Of Hogging and vocforate with refer
enco 10 its brutallzinE tendency
This opposition IL no other. may he count
ed on with absolute certainty Nevertheless.
every thoughtfu person vino has the interests
Of society at heart and has brains enough to
distinguish between true and false philan.
vii ROOscVnlt
applaud his sentiments.
The fact that not In more than two o.
three States In the Union for many years
past has there been whipping post, ought
to be sufficient answer to the proposition
that every thoughtful person who has
the interests of society at heart and brains
enough to distinguish between true and
false philanthropy, will sustain Governor
Roosevelt and applaud his sentiments"
The whipping of petty criminals has In
latter days been universally regarded
among civilized peoples. not only as an
excessively severe but as peculiarly de-
grading and barbaious character OF pun
ishment. 1t went out with many other
forms OF torture that the savage ingenuity
OF our half civilized ancestors invented
and applied freely. II is supposed to be a
form of punishment that brutalizes those
who infiict IT almost as much as those who
suffer II.
It is rather remarkable. therefore. to
find our Eastern friends advocating re-
turn TO this possibly effective though un-
questionably savage method of dealing
with offenders. The "maudlin cranks'
who compose the majority of the people OF
tho forty odd States that have refused to
resort to the knout as an instrument OF re-
form. will, indeed. be shocked at the
recommendations OF New York's governor
and their Endorsement by the Washington
Post.
We shall not fall into the error. however,
that the Eastern people sometimes fall
Tito. In discussing detached evidences of
Southern ferooity. and stigmatize New
York and Washington as instances of a
RELAPSE from civilization and humane Inn
pulses because these representatives OF
their manhood and social development In
dcrse the whipping post for petty criminals
We shall rather regard the sentiments ex-
pressed as the outcroppings of the original
sayagery of the race when suddenly
brought face to face with some peculiarly
revolving crime.
And We md again that in such cases and
under such circumstances human nature is
pretty much the same and about equally
cruel In both the North and the South