ned 40s for drunckenes, and to stand att the meeting-house
doar next Lecture day with a Clefte Stick vpon his Tong and a paper vpon
his hatt subscribed for gross premeditated lyinge."

The others, Thomas Tucke and Mica Ivor, were not so drunk nor such
wanton liars and their punishment was somewhat mitigated. The sentence
runs thus:

"They are also found guilty of Lyeing & Drunckenes though not to that
degree as the twoe former yett are fined 40s & their own promis taken
for itt. Alsoe two stand on the Lecture day with the twoe former but noe
clefte sticke on their Tong only a paper on his head subscribed for
lying."

So it will be seen that men suffered this painful and mortifying
punishment as well as women. And I may say, in passing, that slander and
mischief-making seemed to be even more rife among men than among women
in colonial times. This entry may be found in the _Records of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony_:

"6 September, Boston, 1636. Robert Shorthouse for swearinge by the bloud
of God was sentenced to have his tongue put into a cleft stick, and soe
stand for halfe an houre & Elizabeth wife of Thomas Applegate was
censured to stand with her tongue in a cleft stick for half an houre for
swearinge, railinge and revilinge."

Robert Bartlett in the same court in 1638 was "psented" for cursing, and
swearing, and had his tongue thrust in a cleft stick. Samuel Hawkes for
cursing, lying and stealing received the same sentence. In 1671 Sarah
Morgan struck her husband. He evidently ran whining to the constables,
and Wife Sarah received a just punishment. She was ordered to "stand
with a gagg in her mouth" at Kittery, Maine, at a public town-meeting,
and "the cause of her offense written and put on her forehead." Thus
gagged and placarded she must have proved a striking figure; jeered at,
doubtless, as an odious example of wifely insubordination, by all the
good citizens who came to shape the "Town's Mind" at the Town's
Meeting.

As years passed on the independent spirit of the times became averse to
gagging, though whipping and imprisonment still were for some years
dealt out for reviling and railing. America was in some ways earlier in
humane elements of consideration for criminals than England, and while
women were still wearing the brank in English villages American women no
longer feared either gag or cleft stick for unruly tongues.

Long after the punishment of which I write had been banished from
American co