Suddenly, on turning a corner, he was
confronted by a man, apparently his father.
The child stood trembling. The man, in a voice of cold,
concentrated anger, said:
"Didn't I tell you to come early. You go to the house and WAIT
THERE TILL I COME BACK AND FIX YOU."
The man walked on, to get the drink of beer or whiskey that
should add to his natural cruelty, and the poor child, without a
word, started for home to await the coming punishment.
No more cruel treatment was ever endured by any human being than
the punishment inflicted by that thoughtless man on the nervous,
helpless child placed in his power.
Later, of course, there followed the punishment; a huge, powerful
man striking repeatedly the delicate body of the child,
emphasizing the brutality of his blows with more brutal words,
and feeling when it was over that he had gloriously done his duty
as a typical American father.
Of course, the actual brutal beating was only a small part of the
child's ordeal.
The most horrible part was the waiting for the punishment. No
man in the death cell ever suffered more than thousands of
children suffer every day waiting for the brutality which is to
exemplify our savage notions concerning the education of
children.
If such a monstrous parody on a father should be met in some
lonely wood by a huge gorilla and treated as that father treats
his own son, he would complain bitterly of the gorilla's
ferocity.
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