Evening journal., 1915-03-16
SAID P|LLORY WAS
BETTER Than lash
Ex-Convict, Who Committed
Suicide, Thought Both
Should Be Kept in Use
SEND LETTERS
TO Mr.. HALL

ty months beginning March 10. Fred
Cottman, who hanged himself in the
Hotel Windsor, Philadelphia, on Sun
day and left queer instructions for
his burial and an opitome of his lite,
offered TO enter the. principal jails Of
Delaware as criminal, study the
psychology Of the other prisoners be-
fore and after receiving the lash and
then in a report make rocommenda-
tions for The treatment of prisoners,
which would tend to lessen crime
In addition TO this $1,000 as salary
he asked Representative Hervey r..
Hall, of Smyrna, who received the let
ter from him containing the above
offer to get him further appropria-
ton of $500 for expenses.
In the letter which was addressed
to Mr. Hall March 8, Cottman i'm de-
tail contrasts the psychological ef-
fects of the whipping post and the pill
lory upon the prisoners. saying he
thinks the pillory preferable. and that
States as a punishment for crime. He
also wrote Mr. Hall that he had sent
Governor Charles II. Miller his con-
fession. a copy of which was printed
in THE EVENING JOURNAL, and
this was confirmed by the Governor
yesterday In his letter TO Mr.. Hall
he used the name of Cassman.
PillOry More HumiIiating.
Cottmans reasons for addressing
Mr.. Hall was due to Mr.. Halls fight
for the whipping post. Cottman
wrote that he was reformed by the
pillory supplemented by the whipping
post He said that the pillory was
more humiliating than the whipping
post because man could hide his
face as he was being whipped. but
when he was in the pillory the specta-
tors could see his face and would
! probably remember or the prisoner
would thing he would be remem-
bered.
Cottman criticised the warden OF
the workhouse who put the pillory in
corner and so enabled the convicts
to hide their faces, declaring il was
failure.
nv AfiAiA AOlAOWns
Philadelphia. March s, 1915.
Representative Hall, SIayrna, Del.
Dear Sir: As you made such a gal
liant fight to save the whipping post
| take the liberty to address you. as
] am much interested in this question
The corporal punishment reformed
me. ! say the corporal punishment be-
cause the lash cemented the gooC
work. was actually reformed b,
standing in the pillory. Why? Be
cause the pillory was more humiliat
ing than the post man in the Dill
lory had TO face the spectators TO
one hour, without having the loas
chance TO hide his features. and dur
ing this long hour. the spectator
had a good chance to memorize tn
features of the convict to remembe
him In the future. This oxcellen
| quality of the pillOry docs not eXis
IN the whipping post. as the conyic
buried his face in tho post. while n
exposes his back. A convict is mucl
like an ostrich. you know that whel
danger is near. the bird buries il
head in the sand, believing that a
long as he cannot see, he lis not seen
II. at the time the pilinry was abol
ished the warden of the workhous
| predecessor 20 CrawfOrd), had show
any common sense. he WOULD hav
sacrificed the whipping post for th
pillory. On the contrary, when n
built the pillory at the workhouse. n
had it in a corner, the convicis fac
ing the wall and so low that the spec
tators of the first row only could Sc
/ the backs of the cOnvicts. Such "A nil
lory was failure and in this cas-,
II was better 10 abolish il. Consul
other conyicts who suffered both pil
= Tory and whipping post and they vii
agree with me that the pilory wa
more efficient
III The whipping post has many oA
cellent features but as they are nc
understood. they are so badly neglect
ed that the lash is not as efectiv
and docs not bring enough result
TO induce other States to re-establis
! a whipping post You saved the pos