SUBSTITUTES.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4856, 2 August 1884, Page 1

SUBSTITUTES.

It is not always thaUchfj] children are benefitted by a rule fdfbidding corporeal punishment. Where this rule exists ingenious school teachers have frequently invented punishments "which are decidedly , worse than the old-fashioned flogging. There are means of defence against the rod which deprive ifc of half, its terrors. The boy who armour-plates himself with shingle's or copies of a large atlas ig frefluently the victim of misplaced confi.

4 ~:\ denceV^ihasmucii| ;as the )':. teacher; often idetectSfthe concealed armour by the sound ;of the *rhip|in whichi case the armour is rembyed^and the laßt state of that boy is i worse; iban the first, i When, howeTer, a .boy protect*, himself With; either " the :Sfholar.s Best Friend" or "Smith's Patent Inflatbr" heis reasonably safe. The former •as everyone knows, is a thin, flexible plate \ of jcorky; and the latter is a rubber bag, whe^eKit willVilo the 2; »nd capable of being rapidly inflated in an emergency by a tube leading inside of the .boy's jacket. Tiie'' Patent Inflate**' has ■■\;^en;.::-prpupuriced-:::by\;.9ur^.m6Bt:--:.eminen.t to be simply perfect, and it is fpssible/that the'knowledge of this -fact as hastened the abolition of flogging in -certain schools. From '■■• which have been devised by teachers I to puhish boy a, and yet deI barred by law from flogging them; there -S^is no -means; of escape. Therei , was a f^Montreal schoolmistress(not long ago who i;s applied^inustard piasters instead of, the ?||rpd/!to;?iin;raiy.i pupils. Wo" armour' •■ 'can:Pftie fielpless from the ||»fflKistard and though' its 'Atii-. i^ljijecliate^ efiects Harei not w as painful as the they ' are more lasting, '^|kiid|j:frequently: .;'-'cpmpeV\'the '.'. .victim^, to: P||*(|blwnn for sererat; days from all pursui ts s;S|ipfjii(sedehtary nature. Equally helpless, '|,#if^ne; sinall-bby ;agfiinst "the" teacher; Who: K^gfqmife^ him with castor oil.: If she. is f;%4sssil j enough/to• pry open the smali-bby's graviUtioh make 3 the ::fde^ej^pf tbe oil into\the lower regions of pthe smallibby. a certainty. So great is the pßuje^ilehorrpi of castor oil that all parents fij; mow tliat not even the threat of a serere f flogging; can induce a small-boy to swallow ■ vthe nauseous dose, and that bribery is the |i; lonlyvmeahs; of orercomihg this horror. |f Inde«^i there are smal)-boys who have enormous wealth, in - marbles, .- '^^ites;Jand[otherjuvenile estate by< simu'•,y^l*tirig symptoms requiring to be treated; pastor: oil, and then holding their mouths firmly closed until high prices are ; obtitibed/v It follows that castor oil as a \ punishment in schools is far" more to be /; dreaded than flogging, and should it be generally adopted, small-boys will erevji t / where petition for the restoration of the rod. The latest punishment devised by a Maine of anointing the hair v^with ti^r?is much less to be dreaded than castpr|blL:Ji|l>jf course, where parents per» ceire that the heads of their offspring have beefl tarred r and require the immediate V remoTal pf the tar, an amount of washing |s required which cannot but fill the soul V^pf *he small;boy with Jbathing; but in .';oa»es where the tar can be kept from the sight ef parents it does no harm, and, on ■I thei cpntSlry^ exempts the small-boy for , the! time feeing from the use ef the comb, i dbes not compare with castor oil or mustard plasters as a means of enforcing order, and it is hardly probable that its use v: will ever become generaL^New * York •/•■■Time.s;-'-',^^:'-V :/ v . ■-•'■•••.•.'• .-■•■■■■ •■■