The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-17

for his services. Ii was a very common
thing in the colonies for culprit 10 be
ordered to build stocks at his own charge
and then occupy them. Slandering the
minister, drinking excessively of strong
waters" uncivil carriage, scolding. idle
ness, stubbornness. lying. sleep
ing in church, were all stocks
offeuses. The transient" as
that pest Of society now known as the
hobo" was called, was a victim for the
stocks wherever he turned up. So was the
quaker who found himself in Plymouth
or other New England towns where the
belief existed that only the people of those
communities knew the right way 10 wor-
ship the Lord. Women were not often set
in the stockss While the stocks were not
a painful method of punishment, they
were considered so degrading that the pill
lory and even the branding iron were
deemed aristocratic by comparison. TIE
stocks consisted of two heavy timbers,
the upper one of which could be raised.
and when lowered was fastened with a
lock. inches in the timbers held the legs
of the culprjt Sometimes similar holes
held his arms, and thus he sat in public,
powerless against the jeers and insults of
the populace
Ii was in the reign of Henry VIII that
the famous whipping act was passed, I'M
der which Migrants We're whipped at the
cart tail until they bled Under Elizabeth
the whipping post was substituted. OF
course the colonists brought both systems
TO America. In the orders sent from Eng
land for the restraint OF the first settle
ment in Salem whipping was ordered as
coercion for the FOOLS back" And whip
ping continues to this day-in Delaware.
ScourginSs were given generally on the
Sabbath or lecture days for such offenses
as swearing. stealing loaf of bread shout
ing on the Sabbath, repeated sleeping on
the Lords day. trifling with the affections
OF "iassies,' name calling and vagrancy
fhlhp Radcliffe was not only whipped, but
had his ears cut off and was fined $40 for
uttering malicious speeches against Gov
winthrop Boston alone had three whip
ping posts in f77l, one of them being on the
common. In the middle of the last century
men and boys were frequently scourged
about the town at the carts tail in New
YORK. Children were whipped numerically
by parents in those days They were whip
PED by cruel teachers and it was no won
der that scourging had no moral force for
them after they had grown up. Even Queen
Elizabeth did not escape such punishment
Tor 1t is recorded that her teacher, Roger
Ascham, was accustomed to pinch, nap
and bob the future ruler of England
Locked in the PiIIory.
The pillory was an upright board divid-
ed and hinged. A hole for the head. and
usually two for the arms were made in
the board, and in these the neck and
wrists were locked The list of offenses
Tor which Englishmen were pilloried is
too long for enumeration. Defoe stood in
the pillory, and so did many noble char
acter. OF course the piory came to
America. William Veasey of Braintree
was set in it for blowing on Thanksgiv-
ing day. In 164S John Geneere for per-
jury was pilloried an Maryland nailed by
both ears to the pillory three nails in
each ear the nails to be slit out and
twenty good lashes." man in New York
accused Of stealing a cabbage stood In
the pillory with cabbages on his head
The pilloried victim was on all occasions
target for stale eggs and nasty gar
bage. As late as 1880 man was pilloried
in England for perjury nor was this pun
ishment abolished there until 1887.
DuckinG for ScOIds.
scolding women were one of the great
est nuisances of by-gone days, Special
engines were devised for them, the chief
of which was the ducking stool. 1t was
considered the most ignoble of punish
ments. OF course others besides scolds
and termagantS were ducked. Brewers of
bad beer, bakers of bad bread, and paup-
ers were also dipped. 1t was Sam John
son who once said to a gentlewoman:
Madam, we have different modes of re-
straining evil-stocks for men, duck
ing stool for women, and a pound for
beasts"
The ducking stool was a chair suspend
ed from a beam which played i'm a pivot
on an upright, set on the shore or bank
of the water used for the immersion. The
victim was placed in the chair, which was
lowered into the water as often al the SEN
tence ordered. The tumbsel, or scold's
cart, was a chair on wheels which was
rolled backward into a pond and upset.
The ducking stool was another contriv
ance for scolds-simply a chair in which
they were bound and compelled to sit in
public ignominy. With an exception or
Two the ducking stool was not used by
the Puritans, but it was much in vogue
in the cavalier colonies of the Virginias
and Carolinas. Pennsylvania had its
duckng stools as late as 1924, though
they were not used so recently.
In 1911 a Miss Palmer, who seemed ito
be rather glib on the tongue" was pub
licly ducked in the Oconee river, Georgia.
The most noted sentence TO ducling was
in the case of Mrs. Anne Royal of Wash
ington. She had been stolen by the In
dams and kept by them fifteen years,
when she was married to Capt. Royal,
who taught her to read and write She
became the SQitTSSS OF lIle w dSnlilS ION
Paul Pry and the Huntress, in the COZ
unns Of which she scandalously abused
all public officials. She was feared and
Stunned. John Quincy Adams called her
an "itinerant virago." She was finally
arraigned as a common scold- and SEN
fenced TO be ducked in the Potomac river,
a fate she escaped by paying a large fine.
The Drank, or scolds bride, was
shocking implement of punishment for
scolds. which fortunately the colonists did
not bring to America with them. II was
a sort of iron cage, frequently of great
weight, fitting over the head, with spik-
ed plate of iron which entered the mouth
of the victim. Instead Of this bride
gag was used, generally a cleft stick,
which was fastened to the tongue of the
sulprit. who thus silenced was compelled
70 stand around in front of meeting houses
and places of public assemblage. Drunk
en- youths were also punished with the
clerk stick, and so were blasphemers.
But long after the gag and the cleft stick
were banshed from the courts the ''whis-
perng stick was used in the schools for
trivial offenses. 1t was a gag fastened