The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-08-03

BITS or HISTORY.
. BY A. w. Macy.

Ridina the Stand.

In the north of England it was for
merly the custom to punish wife beat
ing, hen pecSing n other fralitiess
incident to married life, by a peculiar,
! process known as riding the stang"
1t was so called because the leader
vas borne or q stang" the north
Sountry word for a chair fastened on
two poles. In southern England the
process is called rough music The
offender was called upon by a COM
pany or men, women and children and
treated to a LOUD and boisterous sere-,
made, the instrument being cows
horns, fire shovels, tongs, frying pans.
pot lids used as cymbals, tin pals and
Dther implements n utensils capableE
of producing loud and discordant
noises. Along with the din the sere-
naders would keep up a constant boot
ing and yelling, and make many jeer-
Ing remarks to the culprit. If one an
plication was not suff cient, the per-
Torrance would be repeated; some
times in fragrant cases, every evening,
for a week. This form of punishment
Is known to have been melted out to.
wife heaters as late as 1862, and there
Is some ground for believing the GUS
tom still survives among the lower
glasses in some parts of England. In
this country newly Wedded couples are
sometimes treated to a serenade some
what resembling the above eremony..
put 1t is always good natured and does
not carry the idea of punishment. We
Fall it "~charivari," pronounced "shiv-
a-ree."
President Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet
When Andrew Jackson was president,
he a a small coterie of men about
MIN, mostly editors and office holders,
with whom he frequently consulted in.
private. They usually entered the
White House by a rear door, in order
to keep their visits secret and on this
account they were called Jackson's
Kitchen cabinet" Jackson was ac-
cused of allowing these men to do his
thinking for him. He often did things
with a suddenness that took the coun-
try by surprise, II it was said that in,
arriving at decisions he was influenced,
far more by his Kitchen cabinet" than,
by his regular cabinet members. The
names of his kitchen cabinet were;,
William B. Lewis, second auditor of the
treasury; isaac Hill. second comptrol-
Ter of the treasury; Amos Kendall,
fourth auditor of h treasury; Duff
Green, editor of the United States Tel
egraph. and Francis P. Blair, ST., ed
tor of the Globe. Not much IS known
Of Lewis. Hill was afterward United
States senator from New Hampshire.
Green was a prominent journalist and
Afterward turned against Jackson and
became his bitter enemy. Blair came
20 D0 u prominent man IN public at
fairs. Kendall was the ablest man Of
them all, and afterward became post
master general. He died in 1879.
The Battle of the Kegs.
AT one time during the war of tho
revolution some enterprising patriots,
Of ~Bordentown, N. j., ixed up a few
torpedoes in the shape of kegs, and
sent them floating down the river.
Vhey We're filled with gunpowder, and
SO arranged mechanically that rub,
bling against another object they
would explode. 1t was hoped that one,
of them might come in contact with
one of the British ships lying at
anchor at Philadelphia, and blow her
up. This nope was not realized, but
hey succeeded in soaring the British
in and around Philadelphia within AN
inch of their lives. Ole OF the kegs
rubbed against a block of floating ice
and exploded, creating wild consterna-
ton among the British. For "a hours
thereafter they fired at every object
seen moving on the bosom of the river.
This afforded great amusement to the
Americans, and Judge Francis Hopkin-
son, one OF the signers of the Declara-
ton of independence, wrote n ballad
about the affair." in which he poked
much fun at the British. The closing
stan read thus:
Such feats they did perform that day
Against those wicked kegs, sir,
That years to come, if they get home,
They'll make their boasts and brags,
Sir"