Corpun file 3977 at www.corpun.com

Athens Banner-Herald, Georgia, 31 July 1940

[original headline not available]

A hefty woman brought a new kind of punishment for violating city ordinances into Recorder Vincent Matthews' court this morning.

After the Judge had sentenced several boys to the stockade or to a whipping by their parents in the basement of the city hall, for rock throwing, the woman walked up to the judge and said:

"Judge, my husband is down in the jail for being drunk and I ain't got but five dollars.

"If you'll let me whip him with that leather strap instead of paying the five dollars fine, I'll be much obliged to you."

It sounded like a good plan to recorder Matthews, so he sent a policeman to the basement with the woman, who ordered her drinking husband to bend over a chair and proceeded to pour it on with 25 lashes.

"The funny thing about it," Judge Matthews declared later, "after she had whipped him good they walked off down the street together. I've never seen anything like it in my life."

The recorder is considering similar treatment for some of his steady customers, provided the wife is willing.