South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-03-30

C@~NAA VI Wa INV N@AN~@A ~ ~
churchyard wall, for the clergy were
ever keen to punish.
There is, indeed, a lovely whip
ping post, together with a fine pill
lory, preserved within the tower of
Waltham Abbey church The first,
five feet nine inches in height, is
most deliberately carved, and is
dated 1893. 1 do not know that the
persons who were secured by the
ankles and wrists enjoyed standing
imprisoned by il any the more be-
cause it is so deliberately carved in
the Renaissance manner, but that
it is so lovingly decorated does at
least show you that the authorities
in Waltham cleaved to this disci-
pline and thoroughly loved it.
The pillory is almost exactly in
the likeness of that widely known
specimen which stands outside the
market house in the quaint little
hilltop township of Coleshill, War
wickshire. In this the offender was
made TO stand on a raised platform.
with lbs head thrust through a large
hole and his wrists through smaller
OAlGo VII GAlAAtA OOACAAAAA pAO-
vided accommodation for two delin-
Quents at one time, side by side, and
also used the lower part of the ma
chine as a whipping post.
The punishment Of the pillory
was, in isolated instances, known in
England as late as 1887, when it
was abolished by statute.
There can hardly ever have been
time when the stocks were I'M
known. Job is made TO speak o.
being put in the stocks, and we are
told that the Prophet jeremiah had
the same experience. That is the
worst of being a pessimist as well
as a prophet. These stocks were
in the high gate of Benjamin, which
was by the house of the Lord
! Jeremiah Xxx, p. That is to say,
| they were by the church, which
confirms my earlier remarks.
They were also familiar TO the An
glo-Saxons. AS for Shakespeare he
frequently mentions them, but if
my memory serves, we do not act
ually see in his plays anyone in the
stocks.
They seem to have been so useful
i'm old England that an act of Par
| lament was passed in 1905 provid-
| ing that a pair should be part of
the equipment of every town and
village; every place which did not
so furnish itself to be regarded
henceforward as merely a hamlet.
This horrible threat of degrade
ton recalls The Mikado," in which
the Emperor of japan, struck by
the fact that no executions have
taken place in Titipu for a year, de-
crees that unless somebody is be-
headed within one month the post
of lord high execuuoner shall be
abolished and the city reduced to the
! rank of a village"
The act Of 14O5, making stocks a
local obligation, perhaps explains
examples, although, Of course, none
dating back so far. There was even
an earlier ordinance, but apparent
| ~ unaccompanied 10y any penalty
for default. This was the statute
Of laborers 1850, which enjoined
that every town should provide it
self with stocks between the passing
of that act and the season Of Pene.
cost in the same year.
DOgberry's hatred of ''vagrom and
masterless men," who were TO be
"comprehended" and set in the
stocks, just for casually wandering
at large, is amply illustrated in many
old church Wardens' and Overseers'
accounts and records, in which you
may read how severely such were
entreated, often being whipped as
well, and then sen. on their way
by the MAGISTRATES, bearing what
they fonjly thought were letters Of
recommendation to the authorities
of the next place.
Recommendation Yes-of sorts.
Commended to those of the next
place TO be whipped again, and so
sent on. OF course, the vagrom men
of those days could not read; and it
must have seemed a singular thing
10 them that fresh stripes and in
dignities inevitably awaited them on
production of their introductions.
Thus, in the records of Gran
one George Bayley, who is described
as about so, with lame legs" was
whipped and sent on, and likewise
with Edward Bayley, a pale thin
visage and light hair, aged about
| TO-" and Mary Bayley, a pale thin
visage and brown hair. aged about
! u years" They were sent toward
/ Boxel, in Sussex, their last place of
! residence" And so also was Cath
| crime. widow Of John Evans, late
Of Exon, Devon, whipped and sent
on toward Exon, aforesaid"
/ find among my notes an even
| later instance. At Cleethorpes,
| Lincoln, August 5, 1909, a confec-
toner. refusing 10 pay a fine for
| Sunday trading. was threatened with
| the levying Of a distress. but pointed
out that under the ancient act the
only alternative to a fine was i'm
prisonment in the stocks for two
\ hours, which he was quite ready
/ TO undergo. He then left the court
without paying. the justices remain
/ ing in a dilemma because there are