The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 69 pages of information about The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5.

The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 69 pages of information about The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5.
of injury whatever is prevented.
By means of steps the gang of prisoners ascend at one end, and when the requisite number range themselves upon the wheel, it commences its revolutions.  The effort, then, to every individual is simply that of ascending an endless flight of steps, their combined weight acting upon every successive stepping board precisely as a stream of water upon the float boards of a water wheel.
During this operation each prisoner gradually advances from the end at which he mounted towards the opposite end of the wheel, from whence the last man taking his turn descends for rest, another prisoner immediately mounting as before to fill up the number required, without stopping the machine.  The interval of rest may then be portioned to each man by regulating the number of those required to work the wheel with the whole number of the gang; thus if twenty-four are obliged to be upon the wheel, it will give to each man intervals of rest amounting to twelve minutes in every hour of labor.  Again, by varying the number of men upon the wheel, or the work inside the mill, so as to increase or diminish its velocity, the degree of hard labor or exercise for the prisoners may also be regulated.  At Brixton, the diameter of the wheel being five feet, and revolving twice in a minute, the space stepped over by each man is 2193 feet.

    From the Salem Register.

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TRAVELLING ON SUNDAY.  At the session of the U. States Circuit Court at New-Haven (Conn.) last week came on the trial of Foster vs.  Huntington.  This was a prosecution instituted by Dr. Foster, of New-York, against Deacon Eliphalet Huntington, a Constable of Lebanon (Conn.), for arresting plaintiff’s wife on Sunday, the 10th of July, 1831, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and detained her at an inn until sun-down, and then released her on condition of appearing the next morning to answer for violating the Sabbath.  Mrs. Foster was travelling from New York City to her father’s in Lebanon for her health, and had arrived at East Haddam on the morning of Sunday, and took the regular conveyance connected with the steamboat, and had arrived near the meeting-house in Lebanon at the time she was stopped, and was in sight of her father’s (Dr. Sweet) house, when arrested.
The action was for false imprisonment, and it was contended by the plaintiffs,—­1st, That Mrs. Foster was travelling from necessity and charity, and so within the exception of the statute. 2d, That the defendant could not justify himself as Constable unless he carried the person apprehended under the Sabbath law before a Justice. 3d, That as Constable he had no power to detain, and that he did not disclose his authority as Constable to arrest.  And 4th, that the Sabbath law and its provisions are unconstitutional.
Judge Thompson charged the jury that
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The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.