Imported books were ordered to be burned in Boston as early as 1653, by command of the General Court; but we believe this is the first instance of burning an American book. ------------------------- Punishment for wearing long hair in New England. From an old Salem paper. PURITANICAL ZEAL. It is known that there was one of the statutes in our ancestors' code which imposed a penalty for the wearing of long hair. At the time Endicott was the magistrate of this town he caused the following order to be passed:-- "John Gatshell is fyened ten shillings for building upon the town's ground without leave; and in case he shall cutt of his loung hair of his head in to sevill frame (fewell flame?) in the meane time, shall have abated five shillings his fine, to be paid in to the Towne meeting within two months from this time, and have leave to go in his building in the meantime." Purchas says of long hair that-- "It is an ornament to the female sex, a token of subjection, an ensign of modesty; but modesty grows short in men as their hair grows long, and a neat perfumed, frizled, pouldered bush hangs but as a token,--_vini non vendibilis_, of much wine, little wit, of men weary of manhood, of civility, of christianity, which would faine turn (as the least doe imitate) American salvages, infidels, barbarians, or women at the least and best." Prynne, who wrote in 1632, considers men who nourish their hair like women, as an abomination to the Lord, and says-- "No wonder that the wearing of long haire should make men abominable unto God himselfe, since it was an abomination even among heathen men. Witnesse the examples of Heliogabalus, Sardanapalus, Nero, Sporus, Caius Caligula, and others." He refers to the opinions of the fathers and the decrees of the Old Councils to prove that-- "Long hair and love locks are bushes of vanity whereby the Devil leads and holds men captive." ------------------------- In a Boston paper, Aug. 11, 1789, we find the following ludicrous account of the unfaithfulness of an officer in the duty of whipping a culprit:-- On Thursday, 11 culprits received the discipline of the post in this town. The person obtained by the High Sheriff to inflict the punishment, from sympathetick feeling for his brother culprits, was very tender in dealing out his strokes, and not adding weight to them, although repeatedly ordered; the Sheriff, to his honour, took the whip from his hand, by an application of it to his shoulders drove him from the stage, and with the assistance of his Deputies inflicted the punishment of the law on all the culprits. The citizens who were assembled, complimented the Sheriff with three cheers for the manly, determined manner in which he executed his duty. -------------------------