While most of us can agree that spanking children is an act of violence, people from the past had their own views about spanking and, apparently, everyone’s bottom was fair game.
Legally Spanking the Wife
Spanking the wife appears to have been a rather normal affair in the early 1900s. After all, there were numerous cases brought to court in which a husband asked for permission to spank a wife for some sort of misbehavior.
For example, in 1913, a husband went before a Brooklyn magistrate and asked if he could spank his wife if she interfered with his spanking of their child. The magistrate decided that spanking the wife was the way to handle the situation.
Again, in 1916, a New York judge rules that a husband could legally spank his wife if she refused to kiss him.
However, spanking did not always go as planned. In 1912 a Chicago man took a strap and spanked his sixteen-year-old wife with it. He was taken before the judge, declared that it was a free country and that he had a right to spank his wife, and was given 100 days in jail. [1] [2] [3]
Wives Spanking Naughty Husbands
Men weren’t the only ones doing the spanking. In fact, back in 1916 a New York City newspaper ran a series of letters from wives who regularly spanked their wayward husbands. In turn, the husbands wrote back, complaining of the trend:
“Last night I stayed out rather late at my club, and when I returned home I received the surprise of my married life when my wife handed me the first spanking I received since my boyhood days.
“This morning at breakfast I remonstrated with her and attempted to stick up for my rights, whereupon I was taken from my meal and given another introduction to my wife’s riding crop. A spanking at night is bad enough, but to start the day with one is simply indescribable.” [4]
When is a Daughter too Old to Spank?
When married couples weren’t busy spanking each other, they often turned to their children. I’m not talking about small children, but their adult children.
In 1913, a Cleveland judge decided it was okay for a father to spank his daughter, age twenty-five, with a shingle, of all things.
In Chicago, 1915, twenty-one-year-old Mary McDermott mouthed off to a policeman and was arrested. When she and her mother stood before the judge, he said, “I’ll forgive your daughter if you’ll take her home and spank her.”
Sure enough, after they had dinner that night, Mary’s mother took her upstairs to her bedroom, grabbed a hairbrush, pulled Mary over her knee and began spanking her. Mary yelled so loudly from the assault that neighbors called the police who refused to interfere because the matter was ordered by a judge. [5] [6]
His Dad Was 83
While we may all have our own opinions about spanking children, there does come a time when you have to let your children lead their own lives. Unfortunately, some parents never realize that letting go is a part of getting older.
In 1913, James Morris of Los Angeles, California had to appear before a judge. The fifty-three-year-old man had gotten into a scuffle with his eighty-three-year-old father when the old man had tried to give his son a spanking. When James resisted, his father had him arrested for assault, bu on facing the judge, dear old dad dropped the charges. To add insult to the humiliation, Police Judge Rose told James to go home and “be a good boy” at the close of the trial. [7]
A Spankingly Good Time
When the Magistrate Luke J. Connorton Pleasure Club, Long Island City, held its annual ball back in 1903, no one expected there to be a group spanking frenzy, but that is exactly what happened.
According to a published report, police chief “Big Bill” Devery arrived at the ball and gave a speech. He said that he agreed with everything the magistrate ever said, except he did not agree with giving girls spankings:
“I am opposed to spanking, spanking ladies especially – although to some it may be a pleasant pastime.”
No sooner had Devery left the podium than a sixteen-year-old girl approached him and said she deserved a spanking because her mother did not know that she was at the ball. Not wanting to disappoint, the police chief put the girl over his knee and did as she requested.
Needless to say, the whole event became contagious and the men began grabbing the young women at the ball and putting them over their knees. Even the band chimed in by playing lively Irish music for the rather lusty event. [8]
