Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1883 — A Terrible Punishment. [ARTICLE]

A Terrible Punishment.

Ever since the man Jones was tarred and feathered in Beno hard muses of all sorts give the town the go-by, and tramps have for the most part avoided it as if there were small-pox in every corner. ' * “Most people," said a prominent Renoite, “don’t know what a terrible punishment tarring and >■ feathering really is. They suppose that it is nothing worse than a badge of infamy, rather uncomfortable, perhaps, but not painful unless the tar gets into the eyes. This is a great mistake. I helped to daub Jones. He was a vile beast, a disgrace to humanity, and he deserved what he got for endeavoring to rum an innocent young girl, and for grossly insulting respectable women on the streets. But I had no idea until I saw that fellow plastered what a tough deal the process is. We painted him all over pretty thick with a broom, and some enthusiastic vigilante poured a few gallons of tar on his head. Then the feathers, taken from a big pillow, were dusted on him, and he stood out white and fluffy In the starlight, like some huge and grotesque-looking bird. He had to put his clothes on over the whole mess, and then he was ridden on a rail for fifty yards or so, and we put him on board the west-bound train at midnight with instructions not to come back on pain of being hanged. “I saw him on the train. He was sitting with his head on his arms on the back of the seat in front of him. The tar was %o thick on his head that it covered the hair out of sight, and his poll shone in the light of the car lamps like a black rubber ball just dipped in the water. The poor fellow was groaning, and I couldn’t help feeling mean at having taken a hand in the job. Yon see the body is covered with shoyt hair, and when the tar hardens a little the slightest movement causes acute pain,' as if one’s beard were being pulled out with pincers, hair by hair. Then there is the stoppage of all perspiration, which would soon kill a man if he didn’t, make lively time in getting scrubbed. Beside, the Bmell of tar turns the stomach, and about half an hour after a man has been coated he must feel mighty sorry he wasn’t hanged. Then comes the scrubbing with oil. It took two Chinamen and a darky three days in Truckee to reduce Jones to a mild brown. The rubbing makes the skin tender, and the body must be as sore as a boil for weeks. No such punishment should be inflicted on a man except for some crime for which death would hardly be too severe a penalty. —Virginia City (Nev.) Chronicle. The Ithaca, N. Y., Ithacan observes: Our druggists report that St. Jacobs Oil goes off like hot cakes.