there were diversions; when
the breeze might lift the locks from your friends or your lover's cheek
and give a glimpse of ghastly hole instead of an ear, or display a
burning letter on the forehead; when his shoulder under his lace collar
might be branded with a rogue's mark, or be banded beneath his velvet
doublet with the scars and welts of fierce lashes of the cat-o'-nine
tails.

Brand and brank have passed away, the stocks and pillory no longer grace
our village greens. We pride ourselves on our humanity, our justice.
Therefore it may be well to note that we have now in the United States
the most extreme code in the entire world in regard to capital
punishment--sixty-two crimes punishable by death. A bill is before the
Senate to strike sixteen offenses from our brutal list. Belgium,
Holland, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Gautemala, Venezuela and Costa Rica
have wholly abolished the death penalty. In cruel Russia the death
sentence has been since 1753 never pronounced save for treason, while
China has only eleven capital offenses. We have adhered to obsolete
English laws while England has done away with them and has now only four
capital crimes. It is certainly surprising and even mortifying to know
that in Maryland setting fire to a hay-rick is to this day punishable by
death.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

The unmatched parenthesis on page 121 is presented as in the original.

The following misprints have been corrected:
"ultra-sensativeness" corrected to "ultra-sensitiveness" (page 2)
"Rver" corrected to "River" (page 20)
"in in" corrected to "in" (page 48)
"Pinehon" corrected to "Pinchon" (page 65)
"similiar peformance" corrected to "similar performance" (page 82)
"freqent" corrected to "frequent" (page 122)
"the the" corrected to "the" (page 143)

Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
hyphenation have been retained from the original.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, by
Alice Morse Earle

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