GROSS CRUELTIES TO BLUE COAT BOYS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 232, 1 October 1877, Page 4

GROSS CRUELTIES TO BLUE COAT BOYS.

The following powerful letter, bearing upon the recent suicide of a Bluecoat Boy at Christ's Hospital, appears in the London Times of the 13th July. Its publication has created a profound sensation in England : — [To the Editor ] Slß,— l am au olb Bluecoat boy, and I have heard of the deatb by hanging of poor little William Arthur Gibbs, who destroyed himself rather tban submit to the hardships of the school. This most sad event calls, sir, for SOtßetbing more than a coroner's finquest and a verdict of " suicide while in a state of temporary insanity." It demands that a moet searching investigation ehould at once be made as to the manner in. which the richly-endowed school of Christ's Hospital is managed, and espeoially as regards the food and treatment, and the punishments which are inflicted. I can ouly say that the seven years which I spent in that school were years of tnisety and suffering, and, although I am now forty years of age, and have several sona of my own, nothing in this world would induce me to send one of them to the same school. As regards the education given, I believe that Christ's Hospital is second to no school in England; bat when 1 have said this I have said all that can be said in its praise. The food, though good of its kind, was, and still ie, insufficient in quantity; the treatment was such as to make every boy detest tbe school; and the punishments were simply brutal in their severity, and often were meted out with but scanty justice. It is upon this latter point that I will touch, as shoeing why poor little Gibbs took away his life. He knew what he would get if he was alive in the morning. He had, I understand, run away from school on a previous occasion; and, as is usual in such cases, had been flogged. He ran away again to avoid' the bullying of the monitor Copeland, but was brought back to tbe school, and was there shut up in a room by himself to await his punishment, and that punishment he know would he another flogging; to be followed by further bullying. I dare say that old Etonians who remember what a "birching" from Hawtrey was, will leugh at the idea of a boy hanging himself to avoid a flogging; but only old Bluecoat boys know wbat a Christ's Hospital flogging ia. Fortunately I was never flogged myself, but as long as I live I shall never forget a scene that I witnessed in the case of another boy that had been flogged. He was a small and delicate lad by.nanae Blount, and he slept in the bed next" to me. A big boy bad compelled Blount to go and bring him some lumps of sugar nut of the monitor's sugar-basin, The big boy ate the sugar himself, ond tho little boy . had n ooe of it. The facts of the case became known to the monitor, who reported it to the steward, who flogged Blount as a thief, but did not punish the big boy. That night poor little Blount could not sleep, and at last be begged me to help him. I accordingly took his shirt off, and found his back from the shoulders down to tbe waiet, one mass of lacerated flesh, the blood sticking to the shirt so as to cause agony in getting it off. I then with my Anger and thumb pulled out of his back at least a dozen pieces of birch-rod, which had penetrated deep into the flesh. That boy's back looked more like a piece of raw meat than anything else. I have since seen the back of a sailor after three dozen with a naval "cat," and I solemnly declare that the injury done to the sailor's back would not compare with that done to tbe Bluecoat boy. f^. Your readers would, perhaps, not be astonished at tbe results produced if they knew how flogging, is managed. Two men are required for the operation. One takes, hold of the boy, hoists bira on his back by the wrists, and keeps him suspended. The other strips off his coat, and, firmed with a large and heavy rod, gives 15 cuts On the boy's bare back, aod these witb might and main. Thia, however, was a mild flogging, for if the offence was at all great, the boy, after having 15 cuts on his back, received 15 more in another place with a fresh rod ; aud that, at least in my timp, used to be the punishment for running away. I hive seen a large powerful man, one of the beadles, who must have weighed at least 13 stono, split his own shirt sleeve right down with violence ho used in flogging v poor little lad of 13 years of age. Compare thia, Sir, with a modern garrotei's flogging at the Old Bailey, whare, as the newspapers tell U9, "the man's back was slightly, reddened but no blood drawn," and let our readers say what they think of a Christ's Hospital flogging. But, besides flogging, there was tho everyday punishment of caning for the most trivial offance, and this was, and is, carried out with most unnecessary violence. I havo two boys at Bt. Paul's School, and chey sometimes get caned, but the next day yon cannot see the slightest mark oa the. hand, aad I have not heard of more tban two cuts being given. At Christ's Hospital &ix Cuts witn a cane was an ordinary punishment, and in the case of moat of the masters and tho steward each cut raised a long blister which took weeks before it went away. I was once caned by a master who was eu adeptat theart ofi-juriQg boy's hands, and I saved myself the remainder of a caning by the following plan:—

After receiving tbe first cut on my right hand, and, while in the act of receiving the second, I purposely dug my = nail into the blood blister which the cane had made on my hand, co that when I held out my hand for the third cut it was all over blood, and the master let me off tbe rest, as he could scarcely go on after, as he thought, cutting my hand open. Lookiog back on the transaction, I see, of course, that ) I was wrong to make my own hand . bleed to save myself the rest of the punishment ; but my contention ia that such a thing should be impossible, and in would not be possible except in the case of too great violence being ueed.

My own opinion is, sir, that poor little Gibbs bas been "done to death" by the bullying and flogging and the fear of more to come, and I think your readers will agree with me that tba time haß arrived when a full investigation should be made of all the circumstances of this oase, ao as, if possible, to bring about a thorough change at Christ's Hospital, which shall render it impossible for another of its scholars to be driven to suicide. I would suggest tbat the Governors should appoiot a committee of investigation, consisting of a certain number of themselves, with the Head Master, and a few old Bluecoat boys, many of whom can be found occupying responsible positions ; and these oonld open the eyes of the Governors not a little as to the real life of a Bulecoat boy. I, for one, should be most happy to take my share io assisting to frame rules which wonld prevent any boy in future from desiring to run away or to commit suicide. Andrew A. W. Drew, 8.A., lucumbent of St AnthoHn'H, Nunhead, S.E.