The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-04-19
ON CORPORAL PUNISHMENT FOR PARENTS

ON CORPORAL PUNISHMENT FOR PARENTS
/ am very much of the opinion Of
the philosopher who, when asked
what would give boy the best start
in life, answered at once that boy
who wishes the best possible start in
life should secure suitable parents.
Unfortunately, however, this is one
of those things which, like perpetual
motion, is easy in theory and would
at once work out in practice if it were
not for universal friction or some such
difficulty.
/ have been thinking over this mat
ter for years, and have had num-
Der of theories of my own which have
gone to pieces under the test of prac-
tice. The only one I have at present
is that we need a modern improve
ment of the method of self-inficted
corporal punishment suggested, if I
remember right, by Sir Walter Scott,
as part of the daily practice of the
hermit of Engeddi, who wasted it on
himself because as far as appears he
had no children to benefit by it. If
we had modern device which could
be operated by electricity so that
series of revolving switches would in
fict corporal punishment on parents
who have recognized the immediate
necessity for it in their children, the
whole question of education might
soon be brought to a reasonable basis,
so that there would be no further ag-
itation in favor of locking up all the
children of the community after dark
as means of civilizing them.
My own theory of boys who have
had even a slight chance to become
civilized is that they are more civ
ilized at years old than l am at
over 60. If had even a very small
part of the docility, the quickness, the
willingness to learn from everything,
the openness of mind, the candor, the
readiness to oblige and the genuine
afability of at least eight in every ten
of the 6-year-old boys 1 know, 1
would be much more willing to take
my chances of heaven on it than on
anything and everything / know of
myself. A man who is as ready to
learn and as friendly with every one
who can teach him at As as he was at
is great genius without being able
to help it. But as it is very easy to
help it before reaching the age of as,
great geniuses are not found in every
block in St. Louis or elsewhere.
If there were any way of helping a
decent boy to keep his friendliness
with the whole world, the openness
of mind which makes him able to
suck i'll talent" like a sponge, he
ought to be helped to keep it, and it
seems to me that if there is one thing
that will help more toward it than
another it is a really practical whip
ping machine, which just before it
becomes necessary to infict corporal
punishment on children will inhict
automatically on each of their parents
the same number of strokes it is me-
cessary to give the child.
This proposition argues on its face
that believe in corporal punishment
as one of the necessities of existing
intellectual conditions. When was
teaching school at Red Oak cross
roads, whipped boy who deserved
it, and have whipped several who
deserved it since. But on a careful
and really scientific examination, 1
made the disagreeable discovery that
deserved the whipping from month
to ten years before the boy who got
it was obliged to have it for his own
good in each one of these cases. For
in each one of them he had merely
done something that I might have
easily kept him from doing if l had
known how in time. And 1 found
on making really extensive and
searching investigation of why I did
not know how, that it was because I
was doing something else with the
time in which I might have been
learning. This is where 1 first got
the idea of the need of an automatic
self-fagellator for parents, teachers,
superintendent and members of
school boards, as the thing we chiefly
need in the education of children. 1t
is all very we'll to say, as my neigh
Dor across the street said to me the
other day on the car, that when he
had to whip his boy, it hurt him
worse than it did the boy" Ihave
no doubt he thinks it did, but mere
ly sentimental pain will never take
the place of the intellectual impress
sion possible from a really scienti6-
cally automatic fagellator which will
do the rest as soon as conscientious
parent gets under it and presses the
button. The first twenty strokes
from a really efficient machine, if
laid on the proper part of the person
without the interposition of too much
clothing, would undoubtedly so quick
en- all the intellectual and spiritual
faculties that a really reasonable pa
rent, after having stood under the
machine and pressed the button,
would at once begin to recognize those
opportunities for self-improvement
and further education which are gen
orally supposed to be hopelessly lost
after the age of 20 or "a.
l have model of this machine al
ready worked out in my mind, and 1
could easily patent it, if 1 were sure
the moral sense of the country is al
ready high enough to insure demand
for it as an article of commerce. But
when asked one of my young friends
who confded to me with great reluc-
tance that he had recently been whip
ped, how it felt, he said: "It hurts
awful" And this is my own recol-
lection of the last whipping I got