The Washington bee., 1912-03-16
DUCKING A SCOLO.
A Custom Quite Popular at One
Time In This Country.
WOMEN ALWAYS THE VICTIMS.
In Colonial Days Duekina Stools Were
Common In Maryland, In Virginia
the Penalty Was Often Inflicted, and
Georgia Sinned as Late as 1919.

Nowadays II woman forms the
habits of talking too loud and too long
OF insists upon saying unpleasant
things in wrong places and at wrong
seasons there are several things which
may happen to her. If she is d person
Of some social standing her husband
may get a divorce. or if she belongs
IN one of the lower strata he may
keaye her without that little fOrmality
II she makes life too unbearable for
d, the neighbors she may possibly be ar
rested and fined. If she lives in Eng
land and interrupts the proceedings Of
parliament, calls names, Chases digni'
taries to cover whenever they show
themselves in public and knocks OF
'potcemen's helmets she is called a suf-
nagette and sometimes imprisoned.
But even the most "Obstinately OpprO
brious and virulent woman 70 quote
the stately Addison, may be confident
that she win escape the punishment
meted out 20 her sister Of old. What
ever happens, she won't be sentenced
70 the dUCking stool. In many ways
modern life is tame and lacking in
dramatic incident for a self asserHve
lady, and even the English sufTagettes
complain that they are not taken Sc
,E1Ously enough.
No such claim could have been made
ID the past. say between the fifteenth
and eighteenth centuries, when fan
more rigid views prevailed on the sub
ject Of feminine self repression. IL
those days magistrates were unani
nous in the conviction that "meekness
Is We chOjsest ointment for a woman,
and it was held crime to speak dis. |
cOrnfully" Of those in authority, civil
or ecclesiastical. A woman must moi 4
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 a sim. 1
pie yet spectacular manner.
She was bound securely to a stout !
chair firmly fixed to the end of Ions
beam, arranged to work up and down /
on the principle Of the seesaw, on /
the edge of a river or pond. On the |
bank at the other end a man worked |
the cOnUivance by means Of a strOna /
chain, and she was given a ducking. /
which lasted until justice was salts
ned or reform was promised, the pOpu /
lace Of course gathering in large mum
beTs 10 assist at the function.
In England the practice was so gen.
eTHl that each town had it's 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 a portion
Of Trafalgar square, Charing Cross
Many Of the old ducking stools are
still in existence as curiOsties In the
days of their activity they were kept
in the church porches. where they
doubtless pointed a moral as to the
naughty spirit which goeth before q
fall
The first cOlOnists brought the insti.
tuition to this country, although it nev-
er fourished in New England. In fact,
there are no authentic records of the
actual use of the ducking stool in
these colonies, although a number Of
women were sentenced 10 be so pun
1shed. They had, however. other meth
DDS of treatment for ladies of shrew.
ish disposition, one of these being
the wearing Of cleft stick upon the
tongue.
III the central and southern colonies
the custom was quite popular. Ia the
seventeenth century ducking stools
were in every county i'll Maryland, and
il 1IIJ one was placed at the cOndu-
ence OF the Ohio and MonongaheIa riv.
eTs. In Virginia the penalty was often
employed and in 1884 Thomas Hart.
y Of thas colony wrote, it Is said. to
Governor EudiCott of Massachusetts /
giving "a detailed account of "a duckine
administered TO "one Betsey. wife of
John Tucker. who 10y violence of her
tongue had made his home and We
neighborhOod uncomfortable" After
describing the machine he adds. '.Yef
rope was slackened by ye officer. and
ye woman was allowed to 20 down
under ye water for ye space of half a
minute. Betsey had stout stomach
and would not yield until she had al ,
lowed herself to be ducked five several 7
times" After she promised to sin No
more" Betsey was united and allowed :
% walk home in her wetJed clothes, :
& hopefully peuitent woman
The ducking stool prevailed longer 4
In America than in England. In the
c9d country it does not seem to have
been used later than 1909, but in GeOr-
g1a women were ducked for scolding
as late as 1919. It is interesting to '
note that in 1924 woman in Phila- I
delphia was sentenced to be ducked, L
but the decree was not carried out, as 4
II was deemed obsolete and contrary 6
10 the spirit of the times" \ writer Il
on colonial customs states that one of 6
the last indictments for ducking in -
this country was that Of Mrs. Anne
Royal iii Washington, a lobbyist. who
became So abusive To congressman
that she was indicted as "a common 0
scOld before Judge William CranCh q
and was sentenced by him to be duck q
ed in the Potomac She was, hOwev-
er, not subjected to the ducking indig- b
nifty. but was released with a fine. -;