The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments | Page 8

to be wished. To whip, to flog, To whip, and not reform--aye,
there's the rub. For by severity what ills may come, When we've
dismissed and to our lodging gone, Must give us pain. There's the
respect That makes the patience of a teacher's life. For who would bear
the thousand plagues of a school,-- The girlish giggle, the tyro's

awkwardness, The pigmy pedant's vanity, the mischief, The sneer, the
laugh, the pouting insolence, With all the hum-drum clatter of a school,
When he himself might his quietus make With a bare hickory? Who
would willing bear To groan and sweat under a noisy life, But that the
dread of something after school (That hour of rumor, from whose
slanderous tongue Few Tutors e'er are free) puzzles the will, And
makes us rather bear these lesser ills, Than fly to those of greater
magnitude. Thus error does make cowards of us all; And thus the
native hue of resolution Is sicklied over with undue clemency, And
pedagogues of great pith and spirit, With this regard their firmness turn
away, And lose the name of government.
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We here record a curious affair which took place in the State of
Georgia in the year 1811. At the Superior Court at Milledgeville a Mrs.
Palmer, who, the account states, "seems to have been rather glib of the
tongue, was indicted, tried, convicted, and, in pursuance of the sentence
of the Court, was punished by being publicly ducked in the Oconee
River for--scolding." This, we are told, was the first instance of the
kind that had ever occurred in that State, and "numerous spectators
attended the execution of the sentence." A paper copying this account
says that the "crime is old, but the punishment is new," and that "in the
good old days of our Ancestors, when an unfortunate woman was
accused of Witchcraft she was tied neck and heels and thrown into a
pond of Water: if she drowned, it was agreed that she was no witch; if
she swam, she was immediately tied to a stake and burnt alive. But who
ever heard that our pious ancestors ducked women for scolding?" This
writer is much mistaken; for it is well known that in England (and
perhaps in this country in early times) the "ducking-stool" was resorted
to for punishing "scolds." This was before the days of "women's
rights," for there is no record of any man having been punished in this
way.
It is said that the ducking-stool was used in Virginia at one time.
Thomas Hartley writes from there to Governor Endicott of
Massachusetts in 1634, giving an account of the punishing a woman

"who by the violence of her tongue had made her house and
neighborhood uncomfortable." She was ducked five times before she
repented; "then cried piteously, 'Let me go! let me go! by God's help I'll
sin so no more.' They then drew back y^e Machine, untied y^e Ropes,
and let her walk home in her wetted Clothes a hopefully penitent
woman." In the "American Historical Record," vol. i., will be found a
very interesting account of this singular affair, with an engraving of the
"ducking-stool." Bishop Meade, in his "Old Churches," etc., says there
was a law in Virginia against scolds and slanderers, and gives an
instance of a woman ordered to be ducked three times from a vessel
lying in James River. There must have been very severe practices in
Virginia in the early days, according to Bishop Meade. We refer
persons especially interested in this subject to Hone's "Day Book and
Table Book," or Chambers's "Book of Days," both English publications,
for a full account of the ducking-stool and scold's bridle, formerly used
in England for the punishment of scolding women. It is not pleasant to
think that such a shameful practice was ever resorted to, but it appears
to be well authenticated. We cannot, however, read English history, or
any other history, without finding a vast number of disagreeable facts
which we are obliged to believe. Some things, too, have occurred in our
own country that we should like to forget.
All over the country we are nowadays troubled with "strikes." Such
"irregularities" must have been treated in a different spirit half a
century ago from what they are now. In these days the "strikers"
attempt to dictate terms, and in some cases succeed; although as a
general thing they get the worst of the struggle. The method of dealing
with such matters fifty years ago is briefly set forth in the "Salem
Observer," March 29, 1829. It says: "_Turn-out in New York._ There
has been a turn-out for higher wages among the laborers in the city of
New York. _Several of the ring-leaders have been arrested and ordered
to give heavy bonds for their