STRANGE PUNISHMENTS. How Criminals Were Treated in the Past.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 180, 27 November 1886, Page 4

STRANGE PUNISHMENTS. How Criminals Were Treated in the Past.

A Boston paper ' of 1819 , describes tho Russian execution 1 of sentence pronounced by the Russian - Courts against ari'attfcnor who had published some book on J the liberties of; the people. • A scaffold' 'waa erected in the public square'; the Czar and great magistrates attended. The leaves of ttie condemned book were then rolled.up in separate pieces and the prisoner forced to swallow them, or literally to eat his' own words. The attending physician* agreeing when he had enough J or one meal, heWs sent back to prison. Three unpbasant meals 1 nnished the last remnant of the book.' In Salem the wearing of long hair waa some time a criminal offence, but always an abomination for men. When Endicott waa magistrate there he caused this order to be passed: "John Gatshel is fyned ten shillings for building upon the town's ground without leave, and in case he shall cut of ms long hair of his heal in to sevili frame (tewell frame) in the mean time, shall have abated five shillings his fine, to be paid into the town meeting within two months from this time, and shall have leave to go into his building in the mean time." In Boston, 1686, for kissing a woman in the street, though but in a way of civil salute, whipping or a fine. Scold's they gagged and set them at their own doors for certain hours together for all comers and goers to gaze at. When an unfortunate woman was accused of witchcraft she was tied neck and heels and thrown into a pond of water ; if ehe drowned, it was agreed thatshe wag no witch \ if she swam, she was immediately tied to a stake and burned alive. An Elizftbethtown paper of 1786 gives the following : " The Dutch have a mode of execution which is well calculated to inspire terror, without putting the st\fferer to' extraordinary pain. The criminal is placed ori a scafiold, opposite to the gigantic figure •A a woman, .with arms extended, filled with spikes or long, sharpened nails, and a dagger pointed from her broaat. She is gradually moved towards him by machinery for the purposo till he gets within her embrace, when her arms encircle him and the dagger is pressed through his heard. This is vulgarly called among them kissing the yffrow, or woman, and excites more terror in the breasts of the populace than any other mode of punishment."