publicity removed, or
the wantonness of the spectators curbed, perhaps would not be so bad a
restraining punishment after all. Some of the greatness and self-control
of the later years of Cardinal Wolsey's life may have come from those
hours of mortification and meditation spent in the stocks. And over the
stocks might be set "a paper" as of yore, bearing in capital letters the
old epitaph found in solemn warning of eternity on many an ancient
tombstone but literally applicable in this temporal matter.

"All Ye who see the State of Me
Think of the Glass that Runs for Thee."

IV

THE PILLORY

Hawthorne says in his immortal _Scarlet Letter_:

"This scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine which now, for
two or three generations past, has been merely historical or
traditionary among us, but was held in the old time to be as effectual
in the promotion of good citizenship as ever was the guillotine among
the terrorists of France. It was, in short, the platform of the pillory;
and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so
fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold
it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and
made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no
outrage, methinks--against our common nature--whatever be the
delinquencies of the individual--no outrage more flagrant than to
forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame."

[Illustration: The Pillory.]

This "essence of punishment"--the pillory or stretch-neck--can be traced
back to a remote period in England and on the Continent--certainly to
the twelfth century. In its history, tragedy and comedy are equally
blended; and martyrdom and obloquy are alike combined. Seen in a
prominent position in every village and town, its familiarity of
presence was its only retrieving characteristic; near church-yard and in
public square was it ever found; local authorities forfeited the right
to hold a market unless they had a pillory ready for use.

A description of a pillory is not necessary to one who has read any
illustrated history of the English Church, of the Quakers, Dissenters,
or of the English people; for the rude prints of political and religious
sufferers in the pillory have been often reproduced. Douce, in his
_Illustrations of Shakespeare_ gives six different forms of the pillory.
It was an upright board, hinged or divisible in twain, with