Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1925-04-10
DELAWARE'S CAT
PUTS FEAR IN THE
MINDS OF BANDITS
This The Only State Where Crimi-
nails Are Tied And FlOgged.
Post Dates To 1752.

Delaware will maintain the WHIP
ming post. Those sleek banditti,
most of whom have never in their
lives done enough work to harden
their muscles or their skins, appear
to have a wholesome fear of the
lash. Delaware's cat" fits this
breed of criminals Although its
most populated section lies on a
main national thOrOughfare, by rail
or bv motor, and the spread of the
State is so small that the getaway
of the criminal beyond the state
Jurisdiction is easy, Delaware has
little of the desperate highway rob-
berry, safe-cracking or sim T
crimes which are plaguing other
States. Delaware is the only State
that ties such criminals to the post
and applies the lash to their backs,
and it is natural and reasonable to
connect the two facts as cause and
effect.
Maryland Whips Wife Beaters
Maryland authorizes the use of the
lash for the punishment in kind OF
the offense of wife beating, although
it is seldom used. Alabama permits
the "cat" as a means of disciplining
convict prisoners, as once was the
practice in many State prisons. But
most States now forbid corporal
punishment in their penal institu-
lions, and Delaware stands practi-
cally alone. Periodically it becomes
the target for attack from outside
on a large of "barbarity.' A few
years ago Congressman Evans, OF
Montana, made an effort to secure
Federal intervention to restrain the
little State only to be told by the
United States Attorney General that
the Federal Government was with
out power for such a purpose.
But Delaware stands pat. 1t does
not find it necessary to use the lash
often. The mere fact that it is
hanging on the wall ready for use
gives the law deterrent pOwer-and
that is what law in many states
seems to lack.
England Post Goes Back To
Conquest.
In England whipping goes back
to the time of William the Con-
QuerOr AS part of the statute law
of the land it survived the declara-
ton of the Bill of Rights against
cruel and unusual punishment, and
"birching,' the use of q rod instead
of a cat, has been common in the
punitive treatment of offenders, par
ticularly of youthful miscreants, |
who may have lacked a proper ap- /!
5llcation in the years of parental /
discipline. A few years ago, when !
it was decreed a proper punishment !
for such whelps and still later it has |
been extended for the punishment of |
and other particularly
vicious actors in the postwar
"wave" of crime. Sixteen hundred
whippings were reported in England
in recent year.
In the Dominion of Canada, a cat
O. nine-tails is a part of ordinary
prison equipment and its use is not
ordered by a Court as
a part of a sentence.
Set Up in 1852 in Delaware.
Delaware actually inherited its
whipping post, the penal institution
having set up in 1852 when James
Lieutenant Governor of
The Province of Pennsylvania and
of the counties
Of New Castle, Sussex and Kent,
now constituting the State of Della
ware, provided for the whipping of
hieVes in that jurisdiction.
Whipping was common in many
If the American colonies. In 1880, ]
when horse stealing was regarded
Is a more heniousd crime than mo- s
or grabbing is today, the Pennsyl- J
'ania Assembly provided in an act
# March 10th, referring to such |
heft, that every person so Offend
ng for the first offense shall stand I
n the pillOry for one hour and shall !
Re publicly whipped on his, or their.
ARE back with thirty-nine lashes C
veil laid on. =
Jenna. Abolished FlOgging in 1889. r
In 1889, by an act of April Sd, the
epeal of all the whipping laws in c
pennsylvania was ordered and the t.
enalty never has been restored, al a
nough in the eighties four grand S
lries in Philadelphia, stirred by an h
lcreasing number of wife-beating r
asses, urged the restoration of the
hip for that crime and recommend A,
d that the Legislature pass an act | =,
} that end.
There was an echo of that agita- -,
on at Washington twenty years ago d
hen Representative Robert Adams 81
Philadelphia urged the establish q
ent OF whipping as a penalty for ~ ~
in the District of Col IN
nbia. There was considerable de-
tie on the proposition, the broad at
lestion Of the whipping post in 10
~ humane system of penalogy be- eN
g brought up. Adams favored the Ell
sh for wife-beaters as punishment
ting the crime, and cited TheO- N.
re Roosevelt, in one of his mes er
ges to Congress, openly urging
rpOral punishment for brutal hus- ca
nds. He also cited several deci- rit
1ns to meet the plea that the whip at
ng-pOst was barred by the consti-
tiOnal prohibition of cruel and I'm re
ual punishment.
More recently, there has been To- tn
suggestions by a Justice of the 81;
ace in Chester and by a local 1at
lgistrate that for this particular an
ense, it would be proper and just
d effective as a deterrent, if the Do
urt could order a dose of their an
n medicine for such offenders. 81
trOngly Urged for Wife Beaters. PT
More significant than these Incl wi
ntal suggestions, which are fire. pa
emily echoed in the minds of most da
l-blooded men in the expressed ma
lief that a good licking" is the
ly thing fit for a man who would Wis
1T up any woman, particula rly da.
wife, are the increasinly Occa-
nal expressions of opinion by
lges or other experts in penoiogy g.,
" IHSl0 must ne law WHICH VIII efa