Ragbag’s Spanking Exploit
Here’s a curiosity if ever there was one. A tall tale from a Scottish newspaper of 1881. It concerns Ragbag, a man who is innocently trying to ascend a flight of stairs while over-excited schoolboys intent on visiting a circus, were rushing down.
By the end of the story, he
had spanked 31 of them.
Make of this what you will…
As published in
the Paisley Daily Express
(Strathclyde, Scotland), 1 September 1881.
Picture credit: Generated by
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
Traditional School Discipline
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A curiosity indeed and one where the eldest son at home came off worst of all with a blistering that he presumably hadn't deserved.
ReplyDeleteI think it's satirical. Charles Dickens died 11 years before this was published. And a lot of what he wrote was written to be at least partly amusing. I think the author of this is trying at the same style. But not quite managing it. Dickens used a lot longer sentences. And a lot more detailed description.
ReplyDeleteProbably some guy at the newspaper has been asked to write a funny story. So it might even be based on some story he'd heard that was based on something that really happened. Turning the tables on the schoolteacher is something that happens in lots of stories.
I guess in 1881 it would've been seen as not unusual for a school to only have 37 students. And for a school to be in the same building as a business office unrelated to the school.
I did find it funny thinking of the poor kid at home who gets a massive bottom blistering just because his Dad has had a bad day at work.