“GOOD OLD DAYS”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 16 (Supplement)

“GOOD OLD DAYS”

OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS THE “ROMANTIC” 16th CENTURY. (By Retrospect). One sometimes feels inclined to be wafted back to the “good old days” of yore. Pageantry, simplicity and restfulness offer alluring enticements to a harried individual striving to make both ends nieuc in these fretful modern times. The very words “sixteenth century” conjure up a veritable Argosy laden with romance. Contemporary documents, however, tend somewhat to dispel these fond illusions, and make one more contented with things as the- - are. One’s olfactory senses would most surely be often offended to begin with, but without going any further than Holinshed’s “Chronicles” we may, perhaps, arrive at some appreciation for the times as they were. “The greatest and most grievous punishment used in England for such as offend against the .State,” he informs us, “is drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon a hurdle or sled, where they aro hanged till they be half dead, and then taken down and quartered alive—” what then happens is somewhat nauseous to our squeamish modern sensibilities. A. little further on he continues: “But if he be convicted of wilful murder, done cither upon portended malice or in any notable robbery, ho is cither hanged alive in chains near the place where the fact was committed (or else upon compassion taken first strangle 1 with a rope), and so continucth till his bones consume to nothing.” Felony incurred the comparatively mild punishment of hanging outright, but then again felony was such a wide term. “Embezzling of goods committed by the master to the servant above the value of forty shillings. . . conjuring, sorcery, witchcraft, and digging up of crosses and diverse other needless to be remcmbcrcd, ,, uil come under this category. Boiling in Lead. He that poisoncth a man Is to be boiled to death in water or lead, although the party die not of the practice. Perjury is punished by the pillory, burning in the forehead with the letter “P,” the rewalting of .he trees growing upon the grounds of the offenders, and Joss of all his movables. The cutting off of cars was also inflicted for many trespasses. “Heretics, so wc arc told, “are burned quick.” Thieves arc hanged except in Halifax, where we are informed they were executed, with an implement resembling a guillotine. Every man present took hold of the rope which released the blade, and if the cattle stolen happened to be available the rope was attached to it, and it also was accorded the doubtful privilege i.i being permitted to assist in the execution. Everyone has possibly heard of tho ducking stool for scolds, and the burning of thumbs with hot irons, but perhaps not so many have heard now “such felons as stand mute and spea* not at their arraignment are pressed to death by huge weights laid upon a board that lieth over their breast, and a sharp stono under their backs.” Suicides, of course, were buried in a field with a stake thrust through theii body. Furthermore “such as having walls f.nd banks near unto the sea, and de suffer the same to decay (after con venient admonition) arc. . •.condemned and staked in the breach, where they remain for ever as parcel of th‘‘ foundation for the new wall.’’. . . “Henry the Eighth executing his laws very severely against . . . great thieves, petty thieves and rogues, did hang up three score and twelve thousand of them in his time.’ ’ Of course I do not suggest that any of my law abiding readers would hav<« needed to fear any of these punishments, but as the term felon seems to have been so elastic I will perhaps »»e forgiven for fostering some little trepidation on my own behalf. “For other punishments used in othur countries we have no knowledge or use. To use forment also, or question by pain and torture in these common cases with us is greatly abhorred. . . and this is one cause wherefore our condemned persons go so cheerfully to their deaths.” I am very glad to have this assurance, and am somewhat curious as t what actually constitutes “pain antorture.” After all, in spite of strike and disturbance, this prosaic old ag-i does not seem too bad, docs it?

NO PAINT OR POWDER LAW FOR SCHOOLGIRLS. PHAGUE, May 1. The increase in the use of powder and paint among Czecho-Slovakian schoolgirls has reached such a stage that they are now prohibited by law from using such cosmetics. The decree was made to-day by the Minister of Education, Dr. Milan Hodza, and includes the whole country.