Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1892 — QUEER PUNISHMENTS. [ARTICLE]

QUEER PUNISHMENTS.

Adulteration by Merchants Was Severely Punished In Queen Mary’s Reign. An examination of the different entries contained in the Machyn diary sheds a strong light on crime and criminal punishment during the reign of Mary, who served the English people from 1553 to 1558. First he mentions a young fellow who was tied to a post “hard by the Standard in Chep” with a collar of iron about his neck and soundly whipped every two hours “tor five days together by two stout men” for the crime of pretending to see visions. Further on we read: “Checken, a parson of St. Nicholas, Cold Harbor, was this day driven about the streets of London in a cart, the parson himself dressed In a yellow gown;” all of this because he had sold his wife to the butcher. Was it only a coincidence that a butcher was one of the parties to this transaction or was it the intention of “the goodly man” to have his better half served up in roasts and troumedeps? As it is now nearly 350 years since “the parson” committed that uncanny crime, it is doubtful if we ever find out she “went to the skillet” cr not. According to other items in Mr c iyn one can readily see that purveyors of provisions were the same kind of mortals then as they are to-day. They were inclined to palm off their base goods as sound, to use their arts to take in the customer, only the punishment inflicted when the fraud was discovered was somewhat more personal and severe than it is now. Machyn says that a butcher of that time who had exposed diseased meat for sale “was forced to ride about the streets of London, his faeje toward the horse’s tail, with half la lamb before and another half behind and beef and veal borne before him on a long pole.” Men who sold spoiled fish were put in the pillory with decayed fish strung about their necks. The entry of March 3, 1557, says: “Seen Thomas, the shoemaker, soundly thrashed at Cheapside to-day for making a high-priced boot of a cheap quality of leather. ”