Page:Discipline in school and cloister (1902).djvu/51

 Mamma to try the effect of a smart whipping, and I think if administered to the eldest it will very likely be beneficial to the younger ones. I do not think the slipper of much use as an instrument of punishment, unless for quite young children.' A Schoolmistress takes the same view of the slipper as an instrument of virtue, and advocates 'uncovering the victim, and applying the punishment to a portion of the frame morally most sensitive.' These connoisseurs in justice are backed by Pater, who appears to be both father and mother to his hapless offspring. He says: 'Two years ago I lost my wife, having two daughters, aged twelve and fourteen years, and found them completely defying control. I consulted with their aunts on the mother's side, and with several medical men, upon the punishment of refractory girls and women in reformatories; all agreed that whipping in the usual manner was the best mode to adopt, and that, however severely the rod was applied, no personal injury would result, nor would the health suffer. I therefore adopted this punishment, but privately in my bedroom.'

To these awful aunts on the mother's side