The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-06-06
DUcKING A SCoLD
A Custom Quite Popular at One
Time In This Country.
WOMEN ALWAYS THE VICTIMS.


Nowadays II woman forms the
habits of talking TOO loud and too long
or insists upon saying unpleasant
things In wrong places and at wrong
seasons there are several things which
may happen to her. II she is a person
Of some social standing her husband
may get a divorce. or IL she belongs
in one Of the lower strata he may
leave her without that little formality.
II she makes life too unbearable for
the neighbors she may possibly be ar
rested and fined. II she lives in Eng
land and interrupts the proceedings OF
parliament, calls names, ehases digni-
taries to cover whenever they show
themselves in public and knocks on
policemen's helmets she is called suf-
fragette and sometimes imprisoned.
But even the most "obstinately oppro-
brious and virulent woman" to quote
the stately Addison, may be confident
that she will escape the punishment
melted out to her sister of old. What
ever happens, she won't be sentenced
to the ducking stool. In many ways
modern life is tame and lacking In
dramatic incident for a self assertive
lady, and even the English suffragettes
complain that they are not taken Sc
riously enough.
No such claim could have been made
In the past, say between the fifteenth
and eighteenth centuries, when far
more rigid views prevailed on the sub
ject of feminine self repression. In
those days magistrates were unani-
nous In the conviction that "meekness
Is We chojsest ointment for woman"
and II was held crime to speak dis
cornfully" OF those in authority. civil
or ecclesiastical. A woman must not
even indulge in too great freedom Of
speech in the privacy Of her own home
and neighborhood. Sometimes she did.
and then she was attended to in sim
pie yet spectacular manner.
she was bound securely to a stout
chair firmly fixed to the end Of a long
beam, arranged to work up and down
on the principle of the seesaw, on
the edge of river or pond. On the
bank at the other end man worked
the contrivance by means of a strong
chain. and she was given a ducking.
which lasted until justice was salts
fed or reform was promised. the popu-
lace of course gathering In large num-
bers to assist at the function.
In England the practice was so gen.
eral that each town had its ducking
pond conveniently located where petty
offenders of various kinds were disci-
plined The pond for the western part
Of London was what is now portion
Of Trafalgar square, Charing Cross.
Many Of the old ducking stools are
still In existence as curiesities. In the
days of their activity they were kept
In the church porches. where they
pointed moral as TO the
naughty spirit which goeth before
fall
The first colonists brought the insti-
tuition 10 this country. although 1t new
er fiourished in New England In fact,
actual use of the ducking stool in
these colonies. although number of
women were sentenced to be so pun
ished They had. however. other meth
DDS of treatment for Indies of shrew-
lsh disposition, one of these being
the wearing OF cleft stick upon the
tongue
In the central and southern colonies
The custom was quite popular. In the
century ducking stools
were in every county in Maryland. and
In ITS one was placed at the confu-
ance of the Ohio and Monongahela riv-
ers. In Virginia the penalty was often
and In 1884 Thomas Hart
y of that colony wrote. it is said, TO
Governor Endicott OF Massachusetts,. |
giving detailed account OF a ducking |
to ''one Betsey. wife of |
John Tucker. who by violence of her
.ongue had made his home and We |
uncomfortable" After
the machine he adds: I'VE |
'ope was slackened by We officer, and |
Te woman was allowed to go down |
inder ye water for ye space of half a
minute. Betsey had stout stomach
ind would not yield until she had al
owed herself to be ducked five several |
ines" After she promised to "sin no |
more" Betsey was united and allowed /
o walk home In her wetted clothes,
hopefully penitent woman"
The ducking stool prevailed longer
n America than In England In the
I'D country II does not seem to have
,een used later than 1909. but In Geor-
la women were ducked for scolding
S late as 1870 1t is interesting TO
ote that In 1924 woman in Phila-
elphia was sentenced to be ducked,
ut the decree was not carried out. as
! was deemed obsolete and contrary
0 the spirit of the times" A writer
n colonial customs states that one of
he last indictments for ducking In
his country was that of Mrs. Anne
loyal in Washington. lobbyist. who
became so abusive to congressman
hat she was indicted as a common
cold before Judge William Cranch
nd was sentenced by him to be duck
d In the Potomac. She was. howev-
r. not subjected TO the ducking indig.
ity but was released with a fine
'ellman.
when our hatred Is too bitter Il