Part 4

_Alice de V._ writes: ‘Surely if the letters upon chastising children are real, they cannot be written by _ladies_, but must come from those who are “born in the garret—in the kitchen bred,” “whose ‘usbands keep ‘orses, and ‘unt the ‘ounds three times hevery week.” No wonder we hear such things of the modern girl when there are such mammas in the world! Why do they not civilize themselves, correct their own evil dispositions and set a good example to their children, instead of chastising them for being small editions of their coarse-minded mammas? I am confident that whipping girls degrades them and takes away every feeling of self-respect and modesty. I think the letter from _A Schoolmistress_ conclusively proves this.’

_A Musicmaster_ writes: ‘I have read the correspondence relating to the personal chastisement of young ladies in your pages with great interest; and as your correspondent who signs himself _Rector_ seems to doubt its application, I just write a few lines from my own personal observation to convince him to the contrary. I am a teacher of music in five schools conducted by ladies, and in two of these the most strict discipline is kept up. When I am giving a music lesson the lady principal remains in the room, and the pupils keep coming one at a time to have their ciphering and writing books inspected; and if these are untidily kept or the pupil has not been diligent, she is ordered to hold out her hand, and receives several smart slaps on the palm with an instrument which I will proceed to describe. It consists of a leathern strap, narrowed at one end to fit the hand of the mistress, and divided at the other end into five tails. The consequence is that each strip of leather inflicts a separate blow upon the pupil’s hand; and the punishment, although sufficiently severe, leaves no bruise upon the hand, a great advantage over the cane. With this strap there is no danger of seriously damaging the hand, and the pain, though severe, soon passes off; and it has this advantage over the birch, that there is no exposure, and the age of the pupil is of no consequence. This, I think, is of great importance, as my experience has convinced me that it is not always the youngest pupils in a school who require correction.

I have frequently seen this punishment applied to the hands of pupils of sixteen years of age, and I am quite sure it is productive of the most beneficial effects. I am certain most of your readers will agree with me that the use of the birch is quite out of the question with young ladies of this age; and the most convincing proof of the utility of this kind of punishment lies in the fact that in both of these schools where corporal punishment is inflicted the lessons are invariably gone through better than in any of the other three where it is not used, and the behaviour of the pupils is much more ladylike. To my mind this mode of punishment is by far the best, and it is easily applied. The age of the pupil is not of much importance, and the palm of a young lady’s hand is sufficiently sensitive to allow of a tolerably severe punishment being inflicted; and my opinion is that punishment should be seldom inflicted, but when it is required it should be sharp and severe. It is very seldom indeed that I am compelled to report a pupil to the principal, but whenever I am compelled to do so punishment is promptly inflicted, and the girl is always more attentive at the next lesson. In conclusion, I must say that I cannot understand why this kind of punishment on the hand, to which boys are so freely subjected, should be considered inapplicable to young ladies.’

_Medical Student_ writes: ‘With regard to the whipping of girls, I think that as this is the age of the ladies, there is no reason why girls should not be whipped as well as boys. But let me remind some of your correspondents that the days when Milton was whipped at Oxford are long gone by, and if the girls require to be whipped at sixteen they will require it all their lives. I suppose that their husbands are the only persons on whom the duty will devolve after they have left the paternal mansion. Now, as husbands are punished for thrashing their wives, why should not schoolmistresses be punished for doing the same by young ladies of sixteen committed to their care?’

_Gratitude_ writes: ‘I own, as you see, one of the most honoured names in England, and call myself _Gratitude_ because I am anxious to show my gratitude for the fact that I owe my present position as a useful happy English lady to the firm discipline I experienced at the very turning-point of my life. I was brought up in a loving home and had every possible advantage; but amidst it all I became sullen, self-willed, disobedient and idle. I was the grief of my parents and a byword to my companions.

However, soon after I was fifteen I most fortunately was sent to Mrs. —’s school for young ladies, in Brighton, where I showed the same evil disposition which I had evinced elsewhere, but where, most fortunately and happily for me, it was checked and cured.

In school and out of it, during the first month, Mrs. — and the other teachers reproved me, set me tasks and kept me in. But I only grew worse; and one night after I had refused to do an imposition, Mrs. — came and sat in my room after I was in bed and talked to me most impressively. The next day, however, the effect of what she had said wore off, and I was as bad as ever.

But a change was at hand, for in the evening, when we had just gone to our bedrooms, Mrs. — again came to me, and said: ‘Miss W., you will to-night occupy the dressing-room adjoining my room. I will show you the way.” I was half inclined to disobey. However, I followed my governess through her bedroom and across a small sitting-room which opened out of it into a room comfortably furnished, in which was a small low bed, and telling me to undress and go to bed, Mrs. — left me, locking the door after her. I had been in bed about a quarter of an hour when Mrs. — came to me, holding in her hand a long birchrod. Placing the rod and the candlestick on the table, she told me that but one course was now open to her after my behaviour, and that she was going to flog me, and I was to get up. But though the twigs of the birch stood out in ominous shadow in front of the candlestick, and while I noted the thin, closely wrapped bundle of that rod and its fanlike top, I never attempted to obey. Three times she told me to get up, but I stirred not. Mrs. — returned to her own room, and came back with a small thin riding whip, and said: ‘Must I use this?” There was something about her which quite awed me—it was more her manner than her tall powerful figure—and as she swung that whip about in her hand I at once stepped out of bed and stood before her. “Give me your hands,” she said, but I put them behind me, when slash across my shoulders came six or seven smart strokes of her whip, and screaming I put out my hands, which she fastened together with a cord at the wrists. Then making me lie down across the foot of the bed face downwards, she very quietly and deliberately, putting her left hand round my waist, gave me a shower of smart slaps with her open right hand—a proceeding which so surprised and humiliated my proud self that I could hardly believe in my own identity, and as I screamed and struggled, she merely said: “This is for not doing _now_ as I told you, and it will not only punish you for _that_, but will increase the pain of the birching I am now going to give you.”

Mrs. — then, as I lay, spoke to me for a few minutes with great kindness and earnestness. She then rose, took the birch in her right hand, and stooping over me, pressed her left hand tightly on my shoulder so as to hold me as if I were in a vice; then raising the birch, I could hear it whizz in the air, and oh, how terrible it felt as it came down, and as its repeated strokes came swish, swish, swish, on me! yet I felt, spite of the terrible stinging pain, that I deserved it all—and it _was_ painful! I was a stout fair girl, and very sensitive to pain. I screamed, I protested, I implored, but it was of no avail; Mrs. — heeded not my cries, but held me down and birched on till she had finished a whipping which seemed to have lasted an age, but which quite changed my character. At last it _was_ over. I was permitted to rise, my hands were unbound, and, burning and smarting, I raised my tear-stained face to my true friend’s, on whose face no sign was visible of the slightest anger or passion. Calm and serene, she wished me good-night and left me conquered. Henceforward I was a different girl; and though a few weeks afterwards I relapsed, yet another night spent in Mrs. —’s dressing-room and another similar application by her of that wonder-working birch—I did exactly as she told me this time—sufficed finally to cure me. I became cheerful, obedient, unselfish. My parents and friends the next holidays could hardly believe that I was the same girl. I stayed three years at Brighton, leaving when I was nineteen with much regret. I am now twenty-four, and hope to be married at Easter to _the best man in the world_ who never _could_ have loved me had not sensible wholesome discipline changed my evil nature, as _the_ means under God of doing so. I am thankful to publish my experience, and so to express not only my gratitude, but confirm what others have so well said and told on this subject.’

_Emma_ writes: ‘A while ago I undertook to bring up two nieces of the ages of twelve and fourteen. I soon found them to be most stubborn tempers and impudent. Thus they have often caused me much trouble and annoyance. Though not an advocate of corporal punishment, I was much struck with the description by _A Schoolmistress_ of a most ceremonious method of inflicting punishment that I determined to follow exactly the same method and try it the same morning.

I prepared a woollen dress; not being able to procure a birch, I sent and had made a pair of very pliant leather taws. In the afternoon I found the eldest of my nieces in a gross fault, and on being found fault with she was very pert. I therefore took her to my bedroom and made her don the garment and follow me to the drawing-room, she never thinking for a moment of what was to follow. I then quietly told her of her bad conduct for some time past, and that I was determined to try what a whipping would do. On ordering her to lie across an ottoman, she distinctly refused. I told her if she did not at once comply I would ring for a servant to compel her. Still refusing, I rang for assistance. Hearing the servant coming upstairs, and seeing me determined, she lay down rather than be seen by the servant in this predicament, wherefore I went to the door and sent the servant back. I then fastened her across the ottoman and proceeded to administer a few strokes of the taws, which soon elicited cries for forgiveness and promises for future good conduct, but being determined to try the efficacy of this method, I continued until I had given her a severe flogging. I then allowed her to rise, and on her knees to thank me for the correction, then sent her off to bed for the day. Up to this time the perfect subjection and submission of this girl is such that I most heartily recommend all parents and guardians to try the same method in all cases of disobedience. I think that in all whippings of grown children a large amount of cool ceremony is most effectual.’

_An Old Boy_ writes: ‘Since the question of the efficacy of corporal punishment seems to give rise to a great variety of opinions, I venture to give mine.

When a boy I was educated at Christ’s Hospital, and I assure you the birch was not neglected there. Punishment was sometimes inflicted privately, but when the offence was serious due publicity was given it. The offender after supper was made to stand opposite the warden’s desk and hold the instrument of torture in his hand (it being customary for punishments to be doled out after that meal). When the boys had retired (with the exception of the ward to which the delinquent belonged, who were ordered to remain in their seats), two of the school porters were summoned, and the offender was told to prepare himself. He was then hoisted on the back of one of the porters, when the other with great deliberation proceeded to remove all unnecessary clothing by tucking the inner garment beneath the back of his coat, and after having measured his distance, commenced the punishment, always allowing a little time between each stroke so as to give them due effect. The offender, having received the allotted number, was let down, and after finishing his toilet was allowed to retire with his fellows, who generally condoled with him if he bore it well.

After once receiving a punishment of this kind it seldom required to be repeated. But it would be a good thing if schoolmasters, guardians and parents would study the characters of the children committed to their charge, as they would soon ascertain what punishment would be most effectual.

I am convinced that flogging does not suit every case, though it might be effectual in extreme ones; but I think it is a great mistake to suppose that that is the only punishment that ought to be inflicted, as in some cases a word is more effectual, especially with sensitive children. I am surprised that girls should require such correction, but I am acquainted with one or two to whom a good wholesome flogging would indeed be a great boon to themselves and their parents.’

_G. A. N._ writes: ‘A neighbour told me a few nights ago the mode she adopted for curing her daughter, aged sixteen, of the baneful habit of pilfering. She had discovered the girl in the very act of taking money from a drawer in the bedroom, and this being the third time the girl had been detected, she determined to give her a good whipping and, having bought a rod for the purpose, told the culprit to go to her bedroom and prepare by taking off her drawers. In a few minutes she went upstairs and, having fastened the girl across the bed, birched her severely. The fruit of the punishment was, that from that time the girl improved, and is now finally cured.’

_Miss C._ had several apprentices, on some of whom she inflicted the punishment of the rod. She was not very sorry when they gave her an opportunity of handling this instrument of pleasure and pain.

Among her apprentices was a slip of a girl addicted to thieving, and though she had whipped her often for it with severity, the girl did not amend in the least.

One day as she was going to whip her for stealing some ribbons, one of the workwomen who had been in Paris for many years told her, if she was to dip the rod in vinegar as she had seen it done in France, it would sting her the more._ Miss C._ followed her advice, dipped the end of a new rod in vinegar, and whipped the girl with it; and it smarted so sore that she never pilfered again.

_The True Story of Father Girard and Miss Cadière._

One day Girard informed his penitent that she was to be favoured by a remarkable vision, during which she would (by spiritual agency) be drawn up into the air, he alone, as her spiritual Father would be permitted to witness this manifestation; but Miss Cadière, at the appointed time, was not in a willing mood, in spite of the Holy man’s threats and entreaties. She resisted the spiritual influence, held fast to her chair, and would not permit herself to be drawn up. Finding his expostulations useless, the Father quitted the room in a rage, and sent Guiol to rebuke his pupil. Although Miss Cadière, when in a calmer mood the same evening, asked pardon and promised future obedience, Girard determined that her crime should be expiated by a heavy penance.

The next morning, accordingly, he visited her and, flourishing a discipline, said: ‘God demands in his justice that you, having refused to allow yourself to be invested with His gifts, should now, in punishment for your sins, undress yourself and be chastised. Truly have you deserved that the whole Earth should witness this infliction on you; but God has graciously permitted that only I and this wall (which cannot speak) should be witnesses of your shame. But beforehand, swear to me an oath of fidelity, for both you and I would be plunged into ruin if the secret was discovered.’

Girard had his desire, Miss Cadière humbly submitted to discipline, and the scene which followed we must leave the reader to imagine.

_The Knout applied to an Empress._

When the Empress Eudoxia was sentenced by her husband, Peter the Great, to undergo the punishment of the knout on a charge of infidelity, she no sooner saw the dreadful apparatus than, to avoid torture, she readily confessed every species of criminality they were inclined to lay to her charge. She owned every amorous intrigue with which she was accused, and of which, to all appearance, till that horrible moment, she never had the least idea. She was however condemned to undergo the discipline, which was administered by two ecclesiastics in full chapter.

_The King of Fiji and his Wives._

In a recent work on Fiji and the Fijians there is a graphic account of the marriage ceremony or contract as observed in this savage region. The misery of the woman begins directly after the ceremony. If she be young and pretty the old big-fisted wives turn their venom against her and do all they can, by mauling and ill-treatment, to render her as unsightly as themselves. If she be of the brawny sort, as well able to give as to take a thrashing, then she is hated, and all sorts of secret means are used to work her ruin. As may be easily imagined, these domestic brawls occasionally interfere with the peace of the lord of the establishment. What does the despotic husband do in such a case? Does he go out and reason with the rowdies? Does he use gentle persuasion? Does he! He has by him a stout stick kept for the purpose, and he lays about him till order is restored.

The staff used by the king for this purpose was inlaid with ivory, but did not on that account give less pain.

_Punishment of the Knout in Russia._

Olearius gives a description of the manner in which he saw the knout inflicted on eight men and one woman, only for selling brandy and tobacco without a licence. The executioner’s man, after stripping them to the waist, tied their feet and took one at a time on his back. The executioner stood at three paces distance with a large pizzle, to the end of which were fastened three raw-hide thongs. Blood flowed at every blow.

After their backs were thus terribly mangled, they were whipped through the city of Petersburg for about a mile and a half, and then dismissed.

_Wife Beating._

The wife of an old negro on the neighbouring estate of Anchovy had lately forsaken him for a younger lover. One night when she happened to be alone, the incensed husband entered her hut unexpectedly, abused her with all the rage of jealousy, and demanded the clothes to be restored which he had previously given her. On her refusal he drew a knife, and threatened to cut them off her back; nor could she persuade him to depart until she had received a severe beating. _Monk Lewis’s Journal._

_The Flagellating Monks and the Bear._

At Lent time, when religious fraternities are accustomed to inflict on themselves certain discipline, there was in a certain Italian city a confraternity of Penitents. A pastry-cook in the same city had a tame bear which ran about the streets, doing no harm to anyone. Wandering about one evening, it found its way into the chapel (the door of which was open), coiled itself up in a corner and went to sleep. When the penitents were all assembled, the door was locked, and after a short exhortation from the altar, they spread themselves about the chapel. The light was hidden behind a pillar; the most zealous commenced by inflicting punishment on themselves, an example that was soon followed. The noise woke up the bear who, in trying to make his way out, stumbled against the penitents who, with their breeches down, were inflicting castigations.

The bear felt with his paw to find what it was; from one behind he passed on quietly to another; and the penitents in their fear began to think it was the devil who had come there to disturb them in their devotions. Their suspicions became a certainty, when the bear passing by the pillar where the light was, they saw his shadow on the wall. It was who could get to the door first! And to this day nothing would convince these worthy disciplinarians that they had not received a visit from the arch fiend in person.

_A Conjugal Scene._

‘Let you go, my angel! What, just as I have recovered my lost treasure! No, let them come in and see how naughty children are punished when they rebel against lawful authority.’

So saying, he came tripping across the room and flung the door open, admitting into a somewhat odd scene. Fifine was tied across a heavy chair in the middle of the room, crying as if her heart would break, her clothes turned up with the utmost precision, while the ugliest old man I ever saw was administering a whipping, which had already been severe, judging from the state of her hips and her tear-stained swollen face.

‘Pardon, ladies,’ he said with an odious leer. ‘Shall not a man do what he likes with his own? This lady is my runaway wife, my chattel, my goods: and who shall forbid my chastising her when I find her?’

_Merry Order of St. Bridget._

_Fanciful Flogging._

She got hold of a book out of the library about the feminine customs of Rome, and she resolved to make me attend upon her toilet as the slaves of Roman ladies did. So she looked up a short tunic which was among the fancy dresses, and the next morning she made me go and strip, and come back to her with nothing on but this garment, which was just like a sack, with short sleeves only, of soft white merino trimmed with red satin. It did not come to my knees, and my legs and feet were bare except for a pair of red sandals.

‘Now take care what you are about, Perkins,’ she said. ‘I am going to deal with you exactly as the ladies in Rome dealt with their slaves.’

‘But I am not a slave, my lady,’ I said, pertinently enough, I dare say, for I felt angry. ‘There are no slaves here.’

‘You are mine as long as you are in this room,’ she replied. ‘When my toilet is sufficiently completed I shall punish you for that speech.’ She made me bathe her and dress her hair, and then before she put on her stays she said quite calmly: ‘Bring the rod.’ I brought it, and she made me kiss her and beg her pardon for what I had said; and then I knelt on the couch, and she whipped me till she was tired—and I, well, I did not get over it for a long time.

_Merry Order._

_Revelations of Boarding-School Practices._

At the age of seventeen I was sent to a boarding-school near Exeter. I was sent there owing to the influence of my aunt, who was always praising this establishment up to mamma, and strongly recommending it as a finishing academy for young ladies. My aunt was a maiden lady of forty, a fine, tall, buxom woman.