After once receiving a punishment of this kind it seldom required to be repeated. But it would be a good thing if schoolmasters, guardians and parents would study the characters of the children committed to their charge, as they would soon ascertain what punishment would be most effectual. I am convinced that flogging does not suit every case, though it might be effectual in extreme ones; but I think it is a great mistake to suppose that that is the only punishment that ought to be inflicted, as in some cases a word is more effectual, especially with sensitive children. I am surprised that girls should require such correction, but I am acquainted with one or two to whom a good wholesome flogging would indeed be a great boon to themselves and their parents.’ _G. A. N._ writes: ‘A neighbour told me a few nights ago the mode she adopted for curing her daughter, aged sixteen, of the baneful habit of pilfering. She had discovered the girl in the very act of taking money from a drawer in the bedroom, and this being the third time the girl had been detected, she determined to give her a good whipping and, having bought a rod for the purpose, told the culprit to go to her bedroom and prepare by taking off her drawers. In a few minutes she went upstairs and, having fastened the girl across the bed, birched her severely. The fruit of the punishment was, that from that time the girl improved, and is now finally cured.’ _Miss C._ had several apprentices, on some of whom she inflicted the punishment of the rod. She was not very sorry when they gave her an opportunity of handling this instrument of pleasure and pain. Among her apprentices was a slip of a girl addicted to thieving, and though she had whipped her often for it with severity, the girl did not amend in the least. One day as she was going to whip her for stealing some ribbons, one of the workwomen who had been in Paris for many years told her, if she was to dip the rod in vinegar as she had seen it done in France, it would sting her the more._ Miss C._ followed her advice, dipped the end of a new rod in vinegar, and whipped the girl with it; and it smarted so sore that she never pilfered again. _The True Story of Father Girard and Miss Cadière._