systematic duplicity, which, with the frequent allusion to the "rod in pickle," fairly turned the house and schoolroom into places of almost justifiable rebellion. I cannot help believing, that confidence manifested to the young by parents and teachers would have prevented a multitude of criminal delinquencies cognizable by the courts.

The public modes of punishment established by law were four; viz., executions by hanging, whipping of men at the cart-tail, whipping of women in the jail-yard, and the elevation of counterfeiters and the like to a movable pillory platform, which turned on its base at the bidding of the officer, so as to front north, south, east, and west, in succession, remaining at each point a quarter of an hour. During this exhibition of the majesty of the law, the neck of the culprit was bent to a most uncomfortable curve, presenting a facial mark for those salutations of stale eggs, which seemed to have been preserved for the occasion. Once, I remember, the sentence included branding. The place selected for the infliction of this punishment was in front of the State House. This building included a

Court House, a hall for military drill, also for itinerant preaching when Whitefield and Murray " contended for the faith," according to their own peculiar views; where the sage "Town Council" met once a month; and, finally, where the town meetings were held, generally under the leadership of Messrs. Thomas Pitman, who lived in Broad Street, and of Daniel Dunham, who lived in Thames, I believe on the corner of Bridge Street. They were two noted politicians of the Republican type. They held the reins in town affairs for many years; did about all the town talking; and, in fact, kept things so straight, that none of opposite political opinions felt it worth while to question their decisions.

Besides the use of the pillory, the minor transgression of theft was dealt with by whipping the culprit after a pattern peculiar to Rhode Island; viz., fastening his hands to the tail of a cart, and drawing him along on his feet by horse-power, to prescribed distances, in Thames and Spring Streets; then and there administering the legal number of stripes on the bare back. The more private method for the correction of

female delinquents was of a milder character, dispensed in the jail-yard, in presence of many witnesses of the same sex, or was commuted to imprisonment in the common jail, or to confinement in coops at the almshouse, and where inebriates met with well-deserved punishment. Inebriety upon the homeopathic scale, such as simple reeling or an occasional sprawl, as the spirit moved, were held to be venial offences. As for a temperance lecture, nothing of the kind was ever deemed necessary or proper: the very suggestion would have been thought to evince greater insanity than that which it proposed to remove. Roger Williams's crowning idea was liberty in its most comprehensive sense. Having felt the sting of persecution in Massachusetts, he looked more leniently than he would otherwise have done upon a habit which has done more to demoralize humanity than any other that can be named.

CHAPTER XIV.

INSANITY.

I

NE of the mightiest and holiest distinctions of the present age is the universal expression and manifestation of sympathy in behalf of public institutions for the relief and cure of the insane. The wonderful contrast between a former agethe age to which these pages refer and this hallowed time of benevolent enterprises can hardly be measured. perfectly well recollect instances of men and women being inclosed in strait-jackets, chained to staples in the centre of the rooms, in the midst of filth, and subjected to an atmosphere fearfully offensive. In one case, that of a highly respectable and intelligent woman, I became deeply interested. The house where she was confined was just in the rear of my mother's residence. She was the daughter of a minister, whose peculiar doctrinal views, especially those

relating to what was then termed "the unpardonable sin," so influenced a naturally excitable temperament as to induce insanity of the worst type. Her father, feeling wholly unable to control her madness, confided her to the care of kind but very ignorant people, who could merely furnish food for the body; and even that was so poorly served as to be revolting to one whose appreciation of what was neatly prepared and palatable was as keen as ever. No medication was deemed necessary; and hence no earnest efforts were made to remove or to lessen the offensive features of her prison-house. When she slept, it was generally found that her resting-place was the bare floor. A miserable bed there was, but too uninviting even for her wearied frame. From being handsome, she became, in a year or two, the most haggard, attenuated, and wild-looking creature my eyes ever beheld. Her clothes often remained unchanged for weeks. Being well acquainted with the family who had charge of her, I often saw her, almost always in a standing position. Lad as I was, the scene is as vivid in my old age as it was in my youth. The effect of this lady's