Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/224

188 I could not see the men because of the wall which surrounded the place, but I could plainly see the paddle as it was lifted high above the head of the operator and on its return trip to the after part of the anatomy of the poor fellow who was tied flat on his face on the frozen ground. This paddle was about six feet long, four inches wide, and as thick as your hand. I have since seen the paddle at close range. The man using it seemed to be in no sort of a hurry to complete his task, as he was very deliberate about every blow, giving it plenty of time to soak in well before it was disturbed by the next one. Imagine, if you can, what the sufferings of that poor man must have been, stripped of his clothes, bound, and stretched on the frozen ground, and given twenty or more blows as above described! The thing wrought upon my nerves till I could hardly eat breakfast. When we inquired what it was for, the answer was: "O, he was a bad fellow and needed a spanking." No one about us seemed to care or to be concerned in the least. It was nothing new to the natives.

I was told by a Korean gentleman that he had seen two men spanked till they died. It is no unusual thing for one to be unable to walk for many days after he has been officially spanked. And yet there are a few of the people in the United States, in the twentieth century, who are advocating a return to the whipping post of the Dark Ages. If spanking could reform a people, the Koreans would have been reformed long ago.