The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments | Page 3

he was very merry and impudent, and continued in the same
humor while his sentence was reading, holding up his head and looking
boldly at the Court, till the three years' confinement was mentioned;
when his countenance changed, his head dropped on his breast, and he
fetched a deep groan,--an instance of how much more dreadful the idea
of labor is to such villains than that of Corporal punishment."
At a session of the Court of Oyer and Terminer held at Norristown, Pa.,
for the county of Montgomery, Oct. 11, 1786, we are furnished with a
case in point. "A bill was presented against Philip Hoosnagle for
burglary, who was convicted by the traverse Jury on the clearest
testimony. He was, after a very pathetick and instructing admonition
from the bench, sentenced to five years' hard labour, under the new act
of Assembly. It was with some difficulty that this reprobate was
prevailed upon to make the election of labour instead of the halter, ... a
convincing proof," the report says, "that the punishments directed by
the new law are more terrifying to idle vagabonds than all the horrors

of an ignominious death."
Probably there are many more cases on record where criminals
preferred death to imprisonment. Burglary and forgery were once
punished by death. We have all noticed on the old Continental currency
these words: "Death to counterfeit this."
On the 17th June, 1791, Samuel Cook, in the eighty-fourth year of his
age, was executed at Johnstown, N.Y., for forgery. On the 6th
December, 1787, William Clarke was executed at Northampton for
burglary; the same day Charles Rose and Jonathan Bly were executed
at Lenox for robbery. On the 4th May, 1786, at Worcester, Johnson
Green, indicted for three burglaries committed in one night within the
space of about half a mile, was tried on one indictment, convicted, and
received sentence of death. The papers contain numerous similar cases.
It would be useless to enumerate them all; we give only a few in order
to show what the punishment formerly awarded to these crimes really
was. We do not, of course, know the circumstances attending all these
cases; but robbery and burglary are usually premeditated, and the
criminals are prepared to commit murder if it should be necessary for
their purpose, so that we can have no sympathy with the perpetrators.
Our sympathy ought, we think, to go to the victims.
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OLD NEW ENGLAND.
Early in the settlement of New England, as is pretty generally known,
some of the laws and punishments were singular enough. A few
extracts from Felt's "Annals of Salem" may not be out of place here, as
illustrating our subject:--
"In 1637, Dorothy Talby, for beating her husband, is ordered to be
bound and chained to a post."
"In 1638, the Assistants order two Salem men to _sit in the Stocks, on
Lecture day_, for travelling on the Sabbath."

"In 1644, Mary, wife of Thomas Oliver, was sentenced to be publickly
whipped for reproaching the Magistrates."
"In August, 1646, for slandering the Elders, she had a cleft stick put on
her tongue for half an hour." Felt says: "It is evident that her standing
out for what she considered 'woman's rights' brought her into frequent
and severe trouble. Mr. Winthrop says that she excelled Mrs.
Hutchinson in zeal and eloquence."
She finally, in 1650, left the colony, after having caused much trouble
to the Church and the authorities.
"In 1649, women were prosecuted in Salem for scolding," and probably
in many cases whipped or ducked.
"May 15, 1672, the General Court of Massachusetts orders that Scolds
and Railers shall be gagged or set in a ducking-stool and dipped over
head and ears three times."
This treatment we should suppose would be likely to make the victims
very pleasant, especially in cold weather.
"May 3, 1669, Thomas Maule is ordered to be whipped for saying that
Mr. Higginson preached lies, and that his instruction was 'the doctrine
of devils.'"
Josiah Southwick, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Buffum, and others, Quakers, for
making disturbances in the meeting-house, etc., were whipped at the
cart's tail through the town. Southwick, for returning after having been
banished, was whipped through the towns of Boston, Roxbury, and
Dedham. These are only a few of the cases of the punishments inflicted
upon the Quakers. Mr. Felt says in reference to the persecution of the
Quakers:
"Before any new denomination becomes consolidated, some of its
members are apt to show more zeal than discretion. No sect who are
regular and useful should have an ill name for the improprieties
committed by a few of them."

Our "pious forefathers," we must confess, were too apt to be a little
hard towards those who annoyed them with their tongue and pen upon
Church doctrine and discipline or the administration