Street Car Discipline

1895

The street car companies, like other concerns employing large numbers of men, have a system of rewards and punishment corresponding to those of the schoolroom.

If a conductor keeps his record clear, he is moved forward in the list toward a job with better pay as fast as men ahead of him either resign or are discharged. If, however, after having been set forward 20 times, he comes to the barn a half minute behind the time fixed for taking out his car, he goes back to the foot of the list. If he is sick, he must send a man to sign him off, and if this man is a half minute late the consequences are equally severe. — Chicago Tribune.


Injured In the Accident

Sufferer — I suppose we shall sue the railway company for about $3,000 damages.
Lawyer — Three thousand dollars damages! Nonsense! Thirteen thousand at the very lowest, man!
Sufferer (surprised) — Why, I think I should be quite content if I got $3,000 damages.
Lawyer — Yes, probably you would, but I want at least $10,000 for myself. — Somerville Journal.


The Boy's Explanation

It was a Buffalo small boy who came home from one of our model schools and was asked by his father how he was coming on. "Well," said the candid child, "Jimmy — has got ahead of me in the class." "Dear, dear," said the father, "and how does that happen?" "Oh, you know his parents are very bright!" — Buffalo Commercial.


Brooklyn

Brooklyn was named by the Dutch from a small village near Amsterdam named Breucklen. The name is found in the city archives spelled Bereuckelen, Breucklen, Breucklyn, Broucklyn, Breuklyn, Brockland, Brucklynd and finally Brooklyn.

Perseverance

1901

With perseverance the very odds and ends of time may be worked up into results of the greatest value. An hour in every day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits would, if properly employed, enable any man of ordinary capacity very shortly to master a complete science. It would make an ignorant man a well informed man in ten years. We must not allow the time to pass without yielding fruits in the form of something learned worthy of being known, some good principle cultivated or some good habit strengthened.

On Hazing and Its Origin

1901

An Old West Point Graduate Goes Into the History of the Subject

Major Fetchet, a West Point man and soldier of the civil war, says that hazing first started at West Point as a social protection for cadets who had not the advantages of wealth or social standing and were apt to be snubbed by those who possessed these advantages.

It began in a mild way, as prior to the civil war we had few plutocratic or official families. As wealth and family influence increased, there was an increase in hazing and in its severity, the idea being to eliminate foolish pretensions and bring all the cadets to a common level. It has established a true democracy both at West Point and Annapolis, no one set of pupils being allowed to put on silly airs or to lord it over another. As an institution, hazing has been effective in crushing snobbery and in aiding discipline. It cannot be denied that many abuses have crept into a once salutary system, and that there has in late years been considerable brutality — but this brutality has never been indorsed by general sentiment at either the military or the naval academy — hazing at the latter never having reached the lengths it has at West Point.

According to Major Fetchet, the three classes of boys who have been most subject to hazing at West Point are those who think themselves modern Alexanders, and "feel their oats" too much; the "mammy boys" who have been too tenderly reared, and the student philosophers. The first class, the most numerous and the one that has suffered most has very soon had the conceit taken out of it, and the lads instead of imagining themselves commanders-in-chief have been content to be high privates in the rear rank if they can only be let alone. The "mammy boys" have usually braced up under this stern regimen and made men of themselves, while the student philosophers, on learning that Grant, Lee, Sherman and Sheridan when at West Point suffered like indignities with themselves, have submitted with good grace to the general custom, and if ordered by the upper classmen to go out and fight, have done so. As a rule this show of pluck has ended their troubles, and they have had no molestation.

But although hazing has had its palliations, its code has been narrow and boyish, and has resulted in far more harm than good. Now that it has been voluntarily abolished, some other form of inner class discipline will have to take its place. Maj. Fetchet has a very high idea of the chivalry and honesty of the West Point cadets, and says that 90 per cent of all West Point transactions occur "upon honor." This being the case, he is sure that in the future, "For every cowardly or disgraceful act, the cadet who cannot be fought, disciplined or hazed, will be requested to resign by his own class, and this will be effected by sending him to Coventry." — Minneapolis Tribune.

Miserable Homes – Let Home Be Home Indeed

1874

What a mistake some good people make when they maintain, within the home circle, the rigid rule and decorum which becomes irksome even during committee meeting; when parents and children assemble at the table in solemn silence, and finish the meal within the prescribed minutes; and the late arrival at the breakfast table is scowled at, reprimanded, and remarked upon by mother and father, aunt and uncle, until the more punctual juniors come to regard him as a black sheep.

Oh, horrid home, where the little boys are never seen without their school books, or the little girl without a towel to hem; where ma no more dares to buy a rattle for the baby without mentioning the expenditure to pa, than anybody dares to throw open the parlor shutters or tuck up the curtains, or even at the table to have more of this dish or less of that.

The small boy who hates fat is not accommodated, as Jack Sprat's wife was, by anybody. The tall girl, who naturally likes pudding, has her triangular wedge, and no more; while the eldest son, outgrowing his liking for the dish, is reproved for the leaving of a piece on his plate.

Order and good housekeeping are charming, but the good order of a person, and the regular supply of rations necessary in a workhouse, are not suitable for home. Home is no home unless as far as reason will allow, the taste and wishes of the youngest child are consulted; unless there is freedom of word and action, speech and love, and good will without measure.

When I was a child home was the place where the wicked ceased from troubling, and the weary were at rest. Everything was always forgiven there. There was no awful rod behind the door, no domestic dungeon under the roof. I do not think I grew up a worse woman because I was not whipped, or put to bed without my supper for dressing the bed-post in grandmother's best lace cap, or making paper dolls, against orders, in the front parlor — because life was not made a burden to me by forcing fat into my unwilling mouth, and sugar candy forbidden as though it was poison.

I could shed tears over the wretched homeless children of the house where discipline, as strict as that of the army, is maintained, though their fare is costly and the dress perfect, and their future prospects as to an inheritance final. They are more to be pitied than the children of any poor man, who clusters about their parents' knee without any fear of chiding; who are encouraged to tell their troubles, and kindly lead away from follies; and who will not, in later days, remember "pa" as the old gentleman who flogged them, and "ma" as the old lady who kept the keys, and boxed their ears for them, but think of them with that respect and reverence due by a child to its parents. — The Household.

'Spanking Machine' Reforms a Village

1920

Both Adults and Youngsters "Undergo Treatment" -- and They Don't Come Back!

BRIDGETON, N. J. -- "Schoolboys here don't know that the 'spanking machine' in the back room of the city hall is a barrel stave with a handle carved on it," says Mayor Arthur C. Whitaker.

"It has been very successful since I established it about six years ago. I should say that between fifty and eighty boys and several adults have successfully undergone treatment. And I have never noticed anybody who has tried it once hurrying back for more."

He explained that he had laid in the staves with the idea that many boys might be propelled by them along the path of rectitude who might otherwise go to the State reformatory and from there to a life of crime.

Is Satisfied With Results

"I am entirely satisfied with the results," he said recently. "I personally know of several boys who have been started on the road to useful careers largely through its use. As a preventive of truancy, petty stealing -- that might lead to more serious offenses -- I can recommend it highly.

"Teachers in school obtain order immediately when they ask bad boys if they want to go over to the back room of the city hall and meet the 'spanking machine.' Parents have come to us and asked us to use it on their children."

The mayor said he never worked the "machine" himself, but that either Romaine Kincaid, truant officer, or one of the "husky" policemen did it.

First "Spanker" Proud of Job

"Our first 'spanker' was old Captain Woodruff," the mayor said. "He was mighty proud of the job, too, until he retired from the police force.

"Of course, no boy -- no minor -- ever is spanked without the consent of parent or guardian. Sometimes permission is hard to get, but when it is made clear that the alternative will be worse for the culprit, the difficulty ends."

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 2.